I was refraining from the conversations the other day on labeling peoples conditions. My second to the youngest daughter has mild cerebral palsy, she is severely dyslexic and has severe asthma. Her cerebral palsy is only apparent when you are observing her fine motor skills - very apparent in school, the learning disabilities are well apparent in school. The labeling that was PC at the time when she was going through school was "Special". She was not "Special" enough to be with the "Special" kids, she was not "Normal" enough to be with the "Normal" kids. She was always placed with the "Remedial" kids but got special consideration for testing and tutoring because of her dyslexia.
It was a brutal time for her, kids are mean, girls are mean, remedial kids are mean. It was very painful to go through that with her, even with that I can in no way imagine what it is like in every situation. She would get tortured into stress and panic attacks which would trigger severe asthma attacks. I would get calls from the school almost weekly where she had yet again been escalated into a panic attack and been transported to the emergency room for nebulizer treatments and I would pick her up on the way home from work. We spent many a night trying to de-escalate another panic attack when she started thinking about going back to school the next day.
People suck, plain and simple. I am glad that not all people do though.
Fast forward a few years and she is doing really well these days and lives a blessed life compared to what it was when she was growing up.
I do not get the labeling our society/culture forces on people. We are all human regardless of our level of mobility or our limitations and everyone deserves respect and consideration as humans before all else. I do not use labels, I do not refrain from recognizing any one persons condition I just tend to not comment on or classify it. I got over getting angry when people use those galvanic words or classifications. Most times they are unaware of their true impact and the times that they are aware and use the words anyway those special individuals are not worth my time and effort in getting angry. No manner of :normalization: of these derogatory terms make them ok or acceptable in my opinion.
All the isms are too recent in our past to maintain any level of nonchalance when using these words. If you have not been right there with any of this or been directly effected by such you have no way to gauge is actual impact.
Just my two cents.
