To the editor:
I am writing regarding the front-page photo on the March 26 edition of the 100 Mile House Free Press.
The sign held by the protestor in the photo contains the word “ecotard,” which is a term drawn from the Urban Dictionary website. I wonder if the people who made the sign, or your readers, are aware of how offensive the root of this expression is to people who live with a developmental disability?
The association is that a person who is an “ecotard” is “retarded.” Definitions, on the Urban Dictionary website, used alongside the word retarded include stupid, moron, loser, dumb, fool and a host of other increasingly negative and vulgar terms.
The use of the term “retarded” is considered vicious, discriminatory and demeaning in the disability community. Few people would dare to use racial or ethnic slurs on a sign such as this – yet attacking people with developmental disabilities is somehow still acceptable. It is one of the last bastions of acceptable prejudice.
In our community, there are over 100 individuals who live with a developmental disability. They go to school, they marry, they raise children, they work in local businesses, they shop here, they pay rent here and they play here. They are your neighbours, your service clerks, your employees, your community volunteers and your customers.
They do not deserve to be called stupid, fools or morons, and I suspect people would not do it to them directly.
But they have been attacked by using that word to call into question the intelligence of people on the opposite side of an issue. In the spirited field of political debate, feel free to criticize your opponents, but please don’t do it by perpetuating ignorant stereotypes.
For people who want a fuller explanation of how this word, and all its associated derivatives, came to be so loathed, I encourage your readers to read The R Word by David Hingsburger.
Timothy Guthrie
Executive director
Cedar Crest Society for Community Living
