Project 2

For Project 2 I have chosen the word "retarded" as my text. I believe the use of this word is derogatory and unethical. In my research so far, I have learned a lot about the changing meaning in the use and terminology of this word and why it is no longer acceptable in society. I have learned why the word is so controversial and why individuals, and more importantly our government, have gone to such great lengths to remove this word from society. By reading documents on this text, I have discovered a lot of the culture of individuals and family of individuals who suffer some kind of intellectual disability or cognitive impairment. By doing so, it has become overwhelmingly easy to understand why this culture or community of people would take such offense to such a word. Much evidence is available to back up these individuals', as well as my own, values and beliefs behind the word. The first piece of evidence that I will focus strongly on throughout my research paper is the popular and recent addition to our government's federal laws; Rosa's Law. Rosa's Law changed all references in federal law from "mental retardation" to "intellectual disabilities". The effort and time put into signing and enforcing this law is evidence enough that this word is unethical. In this case, one thing that someone can say is being valued is a person's right to freedom of speech. Quite frankly, I do believe it is important for every individual to own that right but in this case, as well as in the cases of many other slur or derogatory words, I just don't think it is acceptable to use. If individuals who did argue for their right to free speech understood the harm or hardships that this word caused, I believe they would understand that keeping their morals and ethics in place is more important than practicing their right to free speech. What are not being valued by individuals who carelessly and purposely use this word are the feelings of those who do have an intellectual disability. Our society's morals are not being valued and families in our community are not being valued. As a nation, we need to value the feelings and rights of others.