I feel like just about everyone out there has a person. You know, someone who’s just special. Someone you’d defend and protect come hell or high water, with no thought for yourself, no thought of the personal consequences.
This is my brother Matt.
And for me and my sisters, he is our person.
And what if there was a word, a really derogatory, unkind word that had been used, sometimes innocently, sometimes not and always negatively for a very long time by a whole lot of people that degraded that person, that implied that they and others like them were stupid– almost less than human.
A word that implied that being like them was an insult. A short-coming. A flaw.
You’d probably want people to stop using that word. To lay it to rest with all the other derogatory, hateful, racist words we’ve come to despise as a society.
You’d probably spread the word.
I’m amazed every year, how much progress we’ve made towards laying this word to rest, every year I hear it less and less. Especially from the younger generation,which is why every year it’s so important to keep asking people to spread the word to stop using the r-word.
“When you know better, you do better.”
-Maya Angelou
Please share this message with those around you and pledge to stop using the r-word.
Thank you.
To read more of my thoughts on the r-word, you can see my past posts:
