That Word Again

Without going into any detail, my father does a lot of work with people and organizations in the United States. The other day, while looking through a list of clients, he found an organization from northern New York called the Association for Retarded Citizens. Since I've written about words like retarded in the past, he told me about it.

I did a Google search for myself to see if it was real and, sure enough, it is, though, depending on the location, replace Citizens with Children. Granted, they say they've gone through a lot of name changes in their history and use the acronym ARC to avoid the used of the word retarded.

It's good that they've distanced themselves from the old name, but why can it still be found by simple Internet searches? If they really want to get rid of "retarded", then why not eliminate it all together? Change the name to something completely different. Like how an organization like Easter Seals completely abandoned being The Society for Crippled Children.

Our society goes on an on about the "R word" and all it's variations, and how we should stop using it. Well, here's a pretty good place to start, in my opinion. Rather than complaining about it's usage in media and popular culture, maybe we should first get national, and even international organizations like this one to completely stamp out any hint of "retarded" and other outdated and potentially offensive terms from usage.

Once this happen, then maybe other groups and people will follow their lead, and we can be rid of some of these words for good.

Cheers