The Reason Behind The R Word Pledge

By Thomas Cook


Spread the word to end the word is national campaign in the United States of America, aimed at encouraging its citizens to shun the use of the r wood, retard. Advocates who activist for the end of the R word want people to restrain from using it as much as possible. This should be avoided in all speeches, both everyday speeches, and colloquial ones. The R word pledge has been widely advocated for, since it is considered hurtful, demeaning and dehumanizing, to members of the society who have intellectual disabilities.

The campaign is manned by enthusiasts who confidently believe that using defamatory names like retards have adverse ramifications, and all people should refrain from using such names, as much as possible. Instead, they advocate for more polite, sensible, unbiased and respectful terms, during making of speeches or other conversations. Their argumentation is largely based on the fact that no one decides on their fate, and so no one wished to be born having intellectual complications. The affected persons, therefore, have no reason whatsoever to be demeaned by the rest of the sane persons.

The campaign program began its journey in 31st March 2009, when the Summit on Special Olympic World Youth Activation was being held. Its key agenda is to reduce if not totally shun the using of the term retards, in all conversations, whether they are official or generally casual. The activists of the move strongly hold that people bearing cognitive intellect inefficiencies are nonetheless equal rights with intellectually straight fellows, and have constitutional freedom to enjoy themselves, as well as mentor themselves and get equally exposed to other citizens.

For all these reasons, there is no validated and documented reason that allows people to refer to other citizens using unfortunate, malicious and dehumanizing terms. The names end up paralyzing their self-esteems completely, and this makes them have little faith in themselves, and their potentials. They question their own selves, and needless to say, no one would like to be compelled to such levels of psychological discomforts.

The people advocating for the mission summarized it as the R word, to generally refer to other terms and phrases that are crafted to have the end meanings that are unacceptable to the society, and do not uphold ethics. One of the most notorious ones is nigger.

The campaign was formed by all walks of life, intellectually-speaking, youth with or without intellectual capabilities. With reference to the Special Olympics, the campaign was motivated and driven by united passions, aimed at promoting positive contributions that the intellectually impaired make to their societies and also other communities across the globe. It was also aimed at promoting positive attitude to all members of the community regardless of their intellectualities. All this, ultimately, focuses on making the world an even more accepting place to all.

The campaign celebrates its annual national awareness day every 31st March, since when it was founded the same day in 2009. Ever since, the youth behind the campaign have been exceedingly assertive on their struggle. This can be further supported by the fact that they even compelled the White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel to publicly make an apology for using the word retards, in January 2010. He apologized to the Special Olympics Chief Executive. This shows how they are optimistic, social status notwithstanding.

This sent an overwhelming message on how the campaign was impartially aggressive, even against the untouchables. Conclusively, the campaigns have had intense impact on people. Their whims have been rendered relevant, and are considered to be progressive-oriented.




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