Spread the word to end the word

Courtesy : NY Times Editorial

People can be thoughtless and cruel, or well-meaning, and never know the damage their words can do. The campaign is about inclusion. History is full of stories of people from outside who fought their way in. To those with intellectual disabilities, it sometimes seems the battle is just at the beginning, when little victories — like an end to insults — are hugely important.

“Retarded” and “retard” today are variations on a slur. Young people especially like it: as a weapon of derision, it does the job. It’s sharp, with an assaultive potency that words like “moron” and “idiot” lost sometime in the days of black-and-white TV.

The first two limbs of Yoga - Yama (one's ethical standards and sense of integrity) and Niyama (self-discipline) - which are foundational in nature, prescribe how one should conduct oneself for a meaningful and purposeful life (the path to the enlightenment is much farther). People die, but words remain forever - very true. To me, one of my biggest regret is passing comments/remarks disparaging in nature once in a while unable to apply self control - the above lines from the editorial are eye-opening in nature. Before reading this editorial, I was explaining to my daughter the same exact content yesterday, when she used this R-word against her brother.

Be the change you want to see in others - yes, I will control my tongue.