We Still Have a Long Way to Go

This past week I have been struggling with something I heard. I have debated blogging about it because I did not want to give recognition to such intentional cruelty and yet, how can we fix what we do not know about.

Every week I write a Down syndrome awareness post. I read several blogs of families with a child with Down syndrome. I am active in our local Down syndrome Guild and smaller parent support groups. Twenty or 30 years ago if you had a child with Down syndrome the doctor would tell you to put the child in an institution and forget you ever had it. I have met people whose parents did just that with their sibling. My best friend’s aunt and uncle had to fight to keep their son, get him an education and help so he could be a contributing part of the community. Today my Peanut has benefited from all these parents that said, “No” and fought for their child. I have seen acceptance all around and have been so far happy with the schooling my daughter has received.

And yet ignorance still exists. People are still cruel and unkind. Last week I went to our local Guild to pay for a conference I wanted to attend. I was speaking with the Guild’s director and she told me how someone had taken the Dreams video put out by the National Down Syndrome Society and violated it. I love this video. I have seen it several times and yet I cry every time I watch it. It gives me hope for my daughter. Someone took this video, slowed it down and put it on youtube with the title “R*** have Dreams Too” Why would someone think this is funny? Why would someone feel the need to hurt others? With all the work we have done for our children, some idiot has attempted to crush all our dreams for a stupid laugh. Youtube has been contacted and told to remove this clip.

We continue to struggle for our children. Kari at Chanelle and Tristan recently wrote about something a friend’s mom had said to her. Rylie’s mom recently had a doctor make a stupid comment about Rylie being Down. (I guess the doctor didn’t get the people first memo.) Even I had a distant family member tell me after our daughter was born she was sorry our child wasn’t normal. I laughed it off because I understood her generation saw things differently. At least in these situations the comments were made out of ignorance. They weren’t made to intentionally harm anyone. I relish the opportunity to educate these type of people about Down syndrome. Most people are open to being corrected about their misunderstandings.

What I don’t understand is the intentional cruelty of some people. The person that made the youtube entry was older and should know better. It breaks my heart that someone would be so uncaring to another human being. It terrifies me to think about what my child will face in the future.

I know that my readers are not the type of people to ever consider doing something like this. However, I am asking for your help. Please, talk to your children. Help them to understand about children and people with special needs. These people do not need to be feared. These people can teach us so much about life and happiness. These people have dreams too and NO ONE should take them away or try to crush them.