Food for thought

this is super duper old...but i found it on my computer and i think it is a pretty sweet find.
take the time to read it because it is pretty great in my opinion

"Retard" --Speech made by a Fremd High School Senior
>This is an essay by Soeren Palumbo who is a senior
>honors student and big brother to Olivia. Last week at Fremd High
>School in Wheeling during Writer's Week he gave the following speech
>that he wrote to a gymnasium full of his high school peers and
>faculty and received a standing ovation. We need more Soeren's in the
>world!
>Soeren never felt that there would be interest in his piece beyond the
>doors
>of the school. I think he
>was wrong.
___________________________________________________________________________
>
>Speech
>I want to tell you a quick story before I start. I was
>walking through hallways, not minding my own business, listening to
>the conversations around me. As I passed the front door on my way to
>my English classroom, I heard the dialogue between two friends
>nearby. For reasons of privacy, I would rather not give away their
>race or gender. So the one girl leans to the other, pointing to the
>back of a young man washing the glass panes of the front door, and
>says, "Oh my gawd! I think it is so cute that our school brings in
>the black kids from around the district to wash our windows!" The
>other girl looked up, widened her slanted Asian eyes and called to
>the window washer, easily loud enough for him to hear, "Hey, Negro!
>You missed a spot!" The young man did not turn around. The first
>girl smiled a bland smile that all white girls - hell, all white
>people - have and walked on. A group of Mexicans stood by and
>laughed that high pitch laugh that all of them have.
>So now it's your turn. What do you think the black window
>washer did? What would you do in that situation? Do you think he
>turned and calmly explained the fallacies of racism and showed the
>girls the error of their way? That's the one thing that makes
>racism, or any discrimination, less powerful in my mind. No matter
>how biased or bigoted a comment or action may be, the guy can turn
>around and explain why racism is wrong and, if worst comes to worst,
>punch em in the face. Discrimination against those who can defend
>themselves, obviously, cannot survive. What would be far worse is if
>we discriminated against those who cannot defend themselves.
>What then, could be worse than racism? Look around you and
>thank God that we don't live in a world that discriminates and
>despises those who cannot defend themselves. Thank God that every
>one of us in this room, in this school hates racism and sexism and by
>that logic discrimination in general. Thank God that every one in
>this institution is dedicated to the ideal of mutual respect and love
>for our fellow human beings. Then pinch yourself for living in a
>dream. Then pinch the hypocrites sitting next to you. Then pinch
>the hypocrite that is you. Pinch yourself once for each time you
>have looked at one of your fellow human beings with a mental handicap
>and laughed. Pinch yourself for each and every time you denounced
>discrimination only to turn and hate those around you without the
>ability to defend themselves, the only ones around you without the
>ability to defend themselves. Pinch yourself for each time you have
>called someone else a "retard".
>If you have been wondering about my opening story, I'll tell
>you that it didn't happen, not as I described it. Can you guess what
>I changed? No, it wasn't the focused hate on one person, and no it
>wasn't the slanted Asian eyes or cookie cutter features white people
>have or that shrill Hispanic hyena laugh (yeah, it hurts when people
>make assumptions about your person and use them against you doesn't
>it?). The girl didn't say "hey Negro." There was no black person.
>It was a mentally handicapped boy washing the windows. It was "Hey
>retard." I removed the word retard. I removed the word that
>destroys the dignity of our most innocent. I removed the single most
>hateful word in the entire English language.
>I don't understand why we use the word; I don't think I ever will.
>In such an era of political correctness, why is it that retard is
>still ok? Why do we allow it? Why don't we stop using the word?
>Maybe students can't handle stopping- I hope that offends you
>students, it was meant to - but I don't think the adults, here can
>either. Students, look at your teacher, look at every member of this
>faculty. I am willing to bet that every one of them would throw a
>fit if they heard the word faggot or nigger - hell the word Negro -
>used in their classroom. But how many of them would raise a finger
>against the word retard? How many of them have? Teachers, feel free
>to raise your hand or call attention to yourself through some other
>means if you have. That's what I thought. Clearly, this obviously
>isn't a problem contained within our age group.
>So why am I doing this? Why do I risk being misunderstood
>and resented by this school's student body and staff? Because I know
>how much you can learn from people, all people, even - no, not even,
>especially - the mentally handicapped. I know this because every
>morning I wake up and I come downstairs and I sit across from my
>sister, quietly eating her cheerio's. And as I sit down she sets her
>spoon down on the table and she looks at me, her strawberry blonde
>hair hanging over her freckled face almost completely hides the
>question mark shaped scar above her ear from her brain surgery two
>Christmases ago. She looks at me and she smiles. She has a
>beautiful smile; it lights up her face. Her two front teeth are
>faintly stained from the years of intense epilepsy medication but I
>don't notice that anymore. I lean over to her and say, "Good
>morning, Olivia." She stares at me for a moment and says
>quickly, "Good morning, Soeren," and goes back to her cheerio's. I
>sit there for a minute, thinking about what to say. "What are you
>going to do at school today, Olivia?" She looks up again. "Gonna
>see Mista Bee!" she replies loudly, hugging herself slightly and
>looking up. Mr. B. is her gym teacher and perhaps her favorite man
>outside of our family on the entire planet and Olivia is thoroughly
>convinced that she will be having gym class every day of the week. I
>like to view it as wishful thinking. She finishes her cheerio's and
>grabs her favorite blue backpack and waits for her bus driver, Miss
>Debbie, who, like clockwork, arrives at our house at exactly
>7'o'clock each morning. She gives me a quick hug goodbye and runs
>excitedly to the bus, ecstatic for another day of school.
>And I watch the bus disappear around the turn and I can't help but
>remember the jokes. The short bus. The retard rocket. No matter
>what she does, no matter how much she loves those around her, she
>will always be the butt of some immature kid's joke. She will always
>be the butt of some mature kid's joke. She will always be the butt
>of some "adult"'s joke. By no fault of her own, she will spend her
>entire life being stared at and judged. Despite the fact that she
>will never hate, never judge, never make fun of, never hurt, she will
>never be accepted. That's why I'm doing this. I'm doing this
>because I don't think you understand how much you hurt others when
>you hate. And maybe you don't realize that you hate. But that's
>what is; your pre-emptive dismissal of them, your dehumanization of
>them, your mockery of them, it's nothing but another form of hate.
>It's more hateful than racism, more hateful than sexism, more hateful
>than anything. I'm doing this so that each and every one of you,
>student or teacher, thinks before the next time you use the
>word "retard", before the next time you shrug off someone else's use
>of the word "retard". Think of the people you hurt, both the
>mentally handicapped and those who love them. If you have to, think
>of my sister. Think about how she can find more happiness in the
>blowing of a bubble and watching it float away than most of will in
>our entire lives. Think about how she will always love everyone
>unconditionally. Think about how she will never hate. Then think
>about which one of you is "retarded".
>Maybe this has become more of an issue today because society is
>changing, slowly, to be sure, but changing nonetheless. The mentally
>handicapped aren't being locked in their family's basement anymore.
>The mentally handicapped aren't rotting like criminals in
>institutions. Our fellow human beings are walking among us,
>attending school with us, entering the work force with us, asking for
>nothing but acceptance, giving nothing but love. As we become more
>accepting and less hateful, more and more handicapped individuals
>will finally be able to participate in the society that has shunned
>them for so long. You will see more of them working in places you
>go, at Dominicks, at Jewel, at Wal-Mart. Someday, I hope more than
>anything, one of these people that you see will be my sister.
>I want to leave you with one last thought. I didn't ask to have a
>mentally handicapped sister. She didn't choose to be mentally
>handicapped. But I wouldn't trade it for anything. I have learned
>infinitely more from her simple words and love than I have from any
>classroom of "higher education". I only hope that, one-day, each of
>you will open your hearts enough to experience true unconditional
>love, because that is all any of them want to give. I hope that,
>someday, someone will love you as much as Olivia loves me. I hope
>that, someday, you will love somebody as much as I love her. I love
>you, Olivia.
>
>speech by Soeren Palumbo



i dunno i will probably be flamed for this..... but i just tought i would share it...