Everyone should read this.

The World of Special Olympics

The following is a guest post in the form of an open letter from Special Olympics athlete and global messenger John Franklin Stephens to Ann Coulter after this tweet during last night’s Presidential debate.

Dear Ann Coulter,

Come on Ms. Coulter, you aren’t dumb and you aren’t shallow.  So why are you continually using a word like the R-word as an insult?

I’m a 30 year old man with Down syndrome who has struggled with the public’s perception that an intellectual disability means that I am dumb and shallow.  I am not either of those things, but I do process information more slowly than the rest of you.  In fact it has taken me all day to figure out how to respond to your use of the R-word last night.

I thought first of asking whether you meant to describe the President as someone who was bullied as a child…

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On Bullying

This post is dedicated to Doodlemum and her daughter, Millie. 

Dianne, over at Schmidleysscribbling gave me the Sunshine Award (thank you, Dianne).

I mention it because of the reason she gave for nominating me:

She [me, Tilly] is the kid I loved in school because I was a “goody-two shoes” and she was the kid always into mischief and making me laugh.

I apologise, Dianne but, like John Lennon, I’m going to have to return my award, though I like that you think I have always been this way.

Because…I was not that girl in school.  

I was an even goodier-two shoes than you.  I was never into mischief; I never deliberately put a foot wrong, challenged a teacher, disobeyed a rule, got into an argument.  I was a terrified mouse, bullied by some, protected by kind others – big, tough girls who were nice to me.  

I was more fortunate than Amanda Todd, 15, who was found dead last week, possibly by suicide, after posting a You Tube video describing her torment.  

Haters are now leaving horrible messages  on her memorial page.  I just don’t understand the need for such malice.

A belated ‘thank you’ to the girls who looked after me.  You made the hell that was my school life a little easier to bear.  And my choice of husband easy – he was you with a beard: big (shouldered), tough and always there for me, protecting and looking out for me.

Thinking about this made me wonder, readers: how many of you are still the people you were at school?  

If you were a bully, I forgive you.

I’m Being Stupid; Join Me

Image via Wikipedia

Several comments on the last post have left the impression that you are not keen on maths blogs.  You are missing the point: I am not trying to educate you.  I am following the centuries-old Code of the Stupid and making fun of what I don’t understand.

Don’t feel intimidated: be a bully, like me.  Mock the intelligent and feel better about yourself.  After all, what use is maths to we wordsmiths, except as a useful dispute with our friends over the pond, who call it math?

Idiots of the blogosphere, unite!  We have nothing to lose but our credibility!

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