OT: Another Gordon Gee Facepalm Moment

Sorry MGoCommunity, I just have to vent a little bit about the selective outrage many of us display on this board and in our nonsensical politically correct lives. This has been on my mind quite a bit lately as I peruse the Blog and I've kept my feelings to myself for the most part, but it seems to apply to this discussion so I thought I'd share (and I don't think it is worthy of its own thread).

If a university president makes a reference to Polish intelligence we get a larger than average discussion villainizing the guilty party. If a recruit calls the fans/recruits of his soon to be rival 'fags" we have a pretty sizeable discussion about it. Judging from the discussion the other day, it is fairly acceptable to slander "Evangelical Christians" or "Christians" in general because their ideology does not mesh with ours... and because some hate mongers claim membership to those groups. If there were ever a slur about any other group I can only imagine the outrage on this board... and rightfully so; however, the use of the word retarded is used almost daily on this board and rarely if ever is there an objection raised. 

Since the topic of WWII was brought up, and many of you seem very knowledgable on the topic, you have to know that individuals with intellectual disabilities were the first to test out the Nazi Gas Chambers...in fact the Nazi's perfected their techniques on this population and others that were too burdensome to feed and house because they couldn't work up to the standards that were expected. Even today in the USA, 90% of the Down syndrome babies end up aborted for many of the same justifications the Nazis used... too much of a burden on parents, think of the cost to raise these kids. Anther we use today is... they will never be able to live a satisfying life so we are doing them a favor. Yet it is perfectly acceptable to remain silent on this issue, even amongst members of this community who pride themselves on being the most tolerant and accepting of any university or community (speaking of AA).

In my own community, Sarasota county, when a triple scan test comes up positive many families are sent to a specific specialist in Sarasota (He may have retired as its been 8 years and he was no spring chicken). He does the 3D ultra sound to take measurements and look at the ratios, look for heart issues, neck size, etc. When that is all done the doctor gives you a probability that your child has Down syndrome (ours was 1 in 250). He then goes on to recommend amniocentesis (at the time my wife was pregnant the risk of terminating a pregnancy from this procedure was 1 in 250). This doctor literally recommended this procedure so that we could make a better decision on whether to keep the "fetus" or terminate the pregnancy.  This is repeated, I am sure, all over the world on a daily basis. In some countries there isn't even a choice in the matter. Yet, silent acceptance. However, if someone steps on your lawn, and offends your cause, behold the outrage.

For those of you who are curious, my wife and I opted against amnio, abortion was not an option, and risking termination just to know 20 weeks earlier didn't seem like an option. We were not really worried as 1 in 250 seems to be odds that were definitely in our favor. Low and behold, my daughter was born with DS, though I suspected (knew in my heart) that she had it the moment she come from the birth canal, the doctors at the local hospital would not make a diagnosis. She was transported to All Children's in St. Pete where 2 geneticists in a team of 3 predicted she did not have DS after physical inspection. After the karyotype was done she was diagnosed with trisomy-21 (DS). I can assure any of you who are facing a similar decision or who will in the future, kids with Down syndrome are no different than any others. They will make you laugh, they will make you cry, you will celebrate milestones (some may take a little longer), they will accomplsh things that you never thought that they'd be able to (my daughter has been able to read since 1st grade and has a ridiculous number of site words in her vocabulary). The love, compassion, and loyalty that she displays to everyone around her (though she has her onery moments too) I have not witnessed from any other child that I have known. She brings joy to our family and especially to me as a father. I typically try to educate people in my private life (usually high school students as I am a teacher and coach) when they say something, or someone is retarded. I don't typically get offended. I have friends (usually the ones from New Jersey) who just can't seem to help themselves. I think the point is that there are plenty of real reasons that we can find to be/get offended than scrutinizing a person's choice of words. It seems that people can treat others horribly (attacking an individual as opposed to a group) and its ok as long as they use language that is PC (especially if we seem to be talking about groups that are not under the PC umbrella of protection) or their political/religious/social/etc. views don't allign with ours. If we found ways to love one another and built each other up instead of looking for ways to tear each other down, we'd be living in a much better world. 

End Incoherent Rant. Thanks to those of you who didn't TL/DR.