A Sea Change on the "R" Word?

 

The following excerpted article from the Washington Post comes to us from The Inclusion Daily Express.

Tim Shriver deserves a special Valentine from everyone in the disability rights community.

 

S.K.

 

Emanuel Says He Will Join Effort To Stop Use Of ‘Retarded’
(Washington Post)
February 4, 2010
WASHINGTON, DC– [Excerpt] White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel apologized again Wednesday for using the word “retarded” during a private meeting last summer, telling advocates for the disabled that he will join their campaign to help end the use of the word.

The controversy over Emanuel’s remark continued to dog the sometimes foul-mouthed senior Obama adviser despite his having privately apologized to Special Olympics Chief Executive Tim Shriver shortly after the comment was made public last week.

In a statement after an afternoon meeting at the White House, Shriver and five other disability rights advocates said Emanuel had “sincerely apologized” for the earlier comment during a strategy meeting, which was reported in the Wall Street Journal.

“We are happy that he will join more than 54,000 other Americans in pledging to end the use of the R-word at http://www.r-word.org, and that he committed that the administration would continue to look for ways to partner with us, including examining pending legislation in Congress to remove the R-word from federal law,” they said in the statement.

Entire article:
Emanuel says he will join effort to stop use of ‘retarded’
http://www.InclusionDaily.com/news/2010/red/0204a.htm
Related:
Rahm Emanuel “Retarded” Comment Puts Offensiveness in Spotlight (ABC News)
http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=9738134
Obama chief of staff’s ‘retarded’ insult brings fallout, Palin criticism (Yahoo! News)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/20100202/pl_ynews/ynews_pl1101/print
Palin vs. Limbaugh Over ‘Retard’ Comment? (US News and World Report)
http://www.InclusionDaily.com/news/2010/red/0204b.htm
Spread the Word to End the Word
http://www.r-word.org