Schmidty, I think your doing a dammed good job, and should be helped and thanked in every way possible. I wish there was more parents like you, but unfortunately there isn’t. You see, I work in a semi-institution for the tards that are completely fucked mentally and physically, and are dumped and forgotten in the system by their even more fucked parents.

Capabilities or not, most of them, bar the absolute vegetables, know elements of right and wrong, and CHOOSE to ignore it. They are spoiled, selfish, vile, violent and horrible people, as well as disabled. Yes that’s right, there is a distinction between behaviour and disability… Unfortunately society tends to just lump it all under the banner of disabilities, without differentiating nor consequences.
Not to mention having automatic rights that we have to earn or don’t have. Think of the old saying ‘customer is always right’, well it’s actually the ‘retard’.

So the end result is that these things know that they can get away with piss-poor behaviours, and escalating those said behaviours to the extreme will result in them getting their own way.

Yes there are good ones, but there are downright horrible ones. I’m the one dealing with the horrible ones, yet fighting a loosing battle, as people in power who NEVER even worked with these people INSIST on instituting insane policies and procedure that are completely anti-commonsense. I’ve worked with multiply convicted rapists, murderers, arsonists, pedophiles, sexual deviants, cannibals etc yet they have more rights and freedoms than we do. Tell me that’s not insane?

I think this post as pretty funny but [keep reading moron, no I promise, no boring morals involved in this] that you might not have had a grasp for the full implications of your writing on this one.

No, you are not going to offend the drooling clown who can not manage to conquer personal hygiene. That person will probably be too busy, as you said, violating the personal space of complete strangers with the simple happiness of a simple mind. Hell, he probably won’t even know the difference. Have fun with his guardians though.

The place where you may do damage and realize it is with individuals with milder forms of mental retardation. Examples include individuals with severe Asperger’s Syndrome and other forms of disorders within the family of Autism.

These individuals share many of the same mannerisms of their fully-retarded counterparts but are, in academic cognitive terms, closer to “normal.” Basically? They can read that stuff.

So what? That doesn’t apply to them right? You’re only talking about fully-retarded persons. The problem is that these kids share many physical mannerisms (twitching, nervous movement, poor reaction to loud sound and unwanted touch) of fully-retarded persons. They also frequently have the sort of social grace which rivals showing up to your neighbor’s burning home while you happen to be carrying sticks and marshmallows. It’s not a training problem, although careful lessons can mediate the effects. They simply, on a very neurological level, live in a black and white literal world without subtlety or shades of meaning.

Long story short? The “real world” isn’t so kind to these people. Some people don’t even realize that that quiet twitching kid in the back of the room who rocks and hums to himself can understand the insults, let alone, in the case of my brother, that he has been reading college textbooks since middle school. (You’d be shocked what these kids have time for instead of a social life). Strangers often treat them like they are completely gibbering vegetables at best, and more often than not take the opportunity to belittle and humiliate them. “Tard Rants” hurt them because they desperately want to amount to a little bit more than “just a tard” but they are pretty unable to escape the label, deserving or not.

School can be hell on them. Most of them are uncoordinated and unathletic in addition to their other problems (remember: these are primarily neurological disorders.) This makes them excellent punching bags in the eyes of their peers, both verbally and physically. I learned to fight dragging my little brother out of more scrapes than I can name. (This was good in a sense because he didn’t get hurt anymore, but on the other hand having his sister finish his fights for him did nothing to help his social situation).

So what do kids like this do? They go where people can’t see them and their odd mannerisms for their social interactions. They go where they can review what they say many times before saying it, giving them time to consider the implications, before accidentally setting up very awkward situations. They go to the internet.

Yeah. These kids go to the internet to find kinder social interactions. I think that somewhat accurately sums up the situation in and of itself as the internet is frankly one of the rudest, coldest, insensitive, and frankly idiotic forces I have ever encountered… and I love every minute of it! That said? People who turn to the internet for comfort generally have to be in a pretty rough spot to want to do it. In the case of these kids it isn’t really their fault and they haven’t a lot of choice in improving their situation except to wait out middle and high school before finding a more accepting real life social group.

So? If you would consider what I said when tossing around the “retard” label that would be chill. You’re still perfectly welcome to do it, it is just an unfortunate thing when people hurt each other’s feelings without even knowing. If you’ve got some pound of flesh you want out of “people like my brother” I guess it is sad to say but I have no right or ability to stop you. I just want you to see what you might be doing, in the case that you are doing it accidentally.

Also: for those of you who don’t feel I described Asperger’s well or that I might have gotten a fact or two wrong on it? Bite me. I’m not a doctor. I’m just his sister. I’m not able to speak for all kids with mental disabilities. Hell, I’m not even able to speak on the behalf of my brother. I’m just telling you what I have watched.

I guess I didnt read this one before, cant say I like it.

I generally reserve the word ‘retard’ for the functionally illiterate children I see in college. You know, people with enough cash and opportunity to learn something and do something of consequence and dont? Yeah.

So I had an aunt, with cerebral palsy. She was in a wheelchair for her entire life. I remember the horror I felt when I realized that only her body was crippled, her mind was the same as anyone else in the family. Not brqagging (and not including myself, either), but we have a bunch of really bright white people on the white side of my family. She used to drool and laugh and the like, she used to complain as well, but her complaints always seems direct and straight to the point. I remember the day she knocked me over with a paintbrush.

My grandfather was brilliant, wealthy and an inventor. My aunt had one of the first touch screen arrangements i am aware of, and had a stephen hawkings type vocoder hooked up. She could type, but only at around 10 characters a min, and only by activating the touch pad by holding paintbrushes. So there I was, serving my country in 1983. On the island of Grenada, now that was a war! Remind me to tell you about it sometime. So Cathy had typed a solid page, telling me how proud she was and that she was praying for me and my safe return. I asked gramps about it later, when I returned, he told me she worked on the letter for the better part of 3 days, getting it just the way she wanted it.

Everyone has irrational fears and dislikes, and if you arent willing to overlook differences of opinion etc, you will never be able to lay claim to a single friend, ever. I do think that for me, this one essay is a low point in my estimation of the writing. But not really a fair weather reader, I take it all regardless and keep what I want. Its hard for me to hear VA harshing on a population of people that cant help it and cant help themselves, but hey, I dont have to live looking that person in the mirror.

and a lot of “normal” people
are mean and nasty…

I’m a gemini cut me some slack

I’ve met many ‘tards’
who have brought me more
joy than many of my “normal”
friends…

most of the mentally or cognitively disabled folks
I’ve met have an outlook on life that I could only
wish for… I’ve had a hard time enjoying the simple
things in life due to my own condition. I long for a future in
which I can be a productive happy citizen that enjoys the fruits
of labor and the simple things in life.

I’ve been jaded for years… and am trying my hardest to pull
out of it…

I have great respect for people with disabilities
who can maintain a positive outlook on life in
the 21st century… cuz it ain’t easy for me…

They are the true geniuses

so-called normal people…
everyday amercian folk
may be the real “retards”

just a thought I entertain from time to time…

LONG LIVE RETARDS

or if you prefer long live the cognitively and mentally disabled or challenged as long as they’re not hurting anyone…

as one of my “retard” friends once said:
It takes all kinds.

hell, we’ve had lunatics drivin’ the buss
for ohhhhh about forever now…

@!*^cool it^*!@

But I don’t think the point was made as fairly or well as in her other posts. I love the viciousness in the ‘mommy-blogger’ posts, because those women blithely profiteer at the expense of their children and deserve a good kick up the arse for it. But the parents of disabled children aren’t necessarily as in control of the outcomes and I think this barb attacks people who aren’t necessarily in control of what’s going on.

As the parent of my own special ‘tard’ I can say that one of my goals is to instill respect and good behaviour. To have any hope of achieving this, I have to be “on” all the time. I really do have it a lot harder than parents of normal kids. Really, I do. Every tiny action and interaction has to be watched, I can never just relax and let ‘kids be kids’. Sometimes it’s so overwhelming that I do just pick my battles and let some behaviour slide. There are benefits though, he is doing really well at integrating, but it is hard work. Parents carry the burden of behavioural therapies and rarely get enough support or respite - and most do the best they can.

Anyway, I think this post is out of order because it picks on people who can’t necessarily help what’s going on. Lucky for me and V though, my boy’s got autism and is unlikely to get in her space.

There is another thing that annoys me about this post. I have no problem with V’s friend telling the mother that she’s not okay with the kid going through her stuff - that’s the adult thing to do. But she doesn’t do that: she passively whines about it without directly addressing the mother, until V overreacts on her behalf. Really, that’s not something to brag about.