Disclosure: I’m registered independent/undecided with the state of Colorado.  I tend towards conservative voting, but this political post is intended to be one where I call out bad politics as bad politics.

I want to challenge my dyed in the wool Republican friends and my dyed in the wool Democrat friends to please explain to me why it is OK for either party to try to justify the use of the word ‘retard’ or ‘retarded’ (with or without the f-bomb) to describe the other party or parties members?  I sometimes slip the word retarded into my sentences and once its out I think, “shoot, that’s not a good word to use.”  I have a personal story that ties in with the potential of possibly having ended up mentally retarded because of meningitis at 13 months old.  God spared me that consequence, but I don’t take it lightly.  Life is a blessing – handicapped or otherwise – and so I’m going to own my own foolishness – I don’t say it often and will attempt to not use it ever again [out of proper context].

Why is it OK for humans to talk of one another that way?  Because we have freedom of speech.  Yeah, that’s it.  They do have the freedom to say all sorts of things.  But it doesn’t make the politicians look like competent representatives of the people.  Are you a hired or appointed official?  You represent the people: don’t use the words of offense to describe others without serious contemplation.  If you don’t you’re just a loud mouthed individual without self control.  Are you leaking national secrets?  Maybe not, but if you lack self control over your mouth in public I’m far more afraid of your private mistakes.  Are you a nationally syndicated talk-show host?  I know you get ratings, but if you refuse to censor yourself to the point of describing a wide swath of your co-citizens, you’re probably not doing a good job communicating real content.

I have friends and acquaintances all over the globe, and some of them look at the US’s citizens’ flippent, sarcastic, affluent, offensive, and selfish attitudes and think, “this is why they are fading out of prominence.”  How can we expect to prod this generation and other generations onto acts of courage, bravery, selflessness, leadership and humanitarianism if what we’re saying, doing and promoting is selfish or insulting?  Why should governments we are at odds with accept our offers of peace if we look like double-standard oriented fools?  This isn’t a nation that was just founded on liberty and freedom of speech, but also an attempt to provide a safe place for citizens to live their lives without oppression.  We had a system in place with public servants.  Servants?  Yes, servants.  Folks who served the people rather than insulting the people.  I don’t want to go back to the good old days – we can only move forward from this sad state of affairs.  However, I do want to challenge anyone reading this: what makes it worth aligning with these two major parties if they have major representatives acting as though their words can’t and don’t have an effect if they’re not on the campaign trail?

Answers I won’t accept:

Because.

Everything evil that has happened to the country has come from party X.

Come on, its not that big a deal.

Internationalism-sminternationalism.