MORE HARM THAN LAUGHS

Don't buy into Hollywood's endorsement of this harmful portrayal of PEOPLE with developmental disabilities!! This was written by a fellow Systems Change Advocate: Hello, my name is Daniel Garcia, and I am a Systems Change Advocate from Community Rehabilitation Services in East L.A. On Monday, August 11th 2008, I rallied against the movie, " Tropic Thunder" at the Premier in Westwood. It was a great success. I made a sign that said, "I would rather watch Forest Gump fifty times than to see "Tropic Thunder" once. Since I was the first person to arrive there, these two cops were staring at me like "we can take care of him, he just one person making trouble." Reinforcement came from the Special Olympics and Arc. It was a great time for anybody to network and support the people in the developmental disability community. Even, Kecia Weller, the President of the Los Angeles County Commission on Disability was there. I was very glad to see people with Developmental Disabilities in action and to be part of their awesome rally. The movie fans were against being against the movie. Some of them were hitting below the belt when they said they would like to use the word "retard" to describe the people with developmental disabilities that were there. Some people were holding signs against the rally because they were there for the actors. It made me wonder what if it was the "n"-word, instead of the "R"-word, would people still come and see it? Probably not, because those who do watch the movie would be labeled racist. This is how low movie fans can they go? I bet you anything that fans like those could go much lower against people with disabilities. The general public's acceptance of the "R-word" worries me a lot because, just like the African American community are worried about the reappearance of the noose in the south, we are also worried about going back to dark ages of pre civil right movements. These negative words and symbols that represent inequality is a regression to all that we fought against for so long. I would rather move forward to the day that these words and symbols of inequality get buried so deep into the earth that heat of the magna consumes them. People with developmental disabilities are being hurt by the R-word all over the country as well as all over the world because movies made in Hollywood are also shown overseas. Here are two excerpt of the movie where Actors Ben Stiller and Robert Downey Jr. used the r-word in such a distasteful way that no wonder why the community is very concern and alarm. Ben Stiller's character: "There were times when I was doing Jack when I actually felt retarded. Like really retarded." Robert Downey Jr.'s character: "Oh yeah. Damn." Stiller: "In a weird way, I had to sort of just free myself up to believe that it was okay to be stupid or dumb." Downey: "To be a moron." Stiller: "Yeah." At another point, about acting like a person with intellectual disabilities, they say: Stiller: "It's what we do, right?" Downey: "Everybody knows you never do a full retard." Stiller: "What do you mean?" Downey: "Check it out. Dustin Hoffman, 'Rain Man,' look retarded, act retarded, not retarded. Count toothpicks to your cards. Autistic, sure. Not retarded. You know Tom Hanks, 'Forrest Gump.' Slow, yes. Retarded, maybe. Braces on his legs. But he charmed the pants off Nixon and won a ping-pong competition. That ain't retarded. You went full retard, man. Never go full retard." These two examples made people with developmental disabilities to feel like they need to take action because like "Snell" who has autism, has been repetitively called the R-word and was quoted in the Chicago Tribune by saying, "I hear the word retarded, it's basically like putting people down," Snell said. "I've felt that way when I was called retarded. I just wasn't motivated ... It hurts my feelings very deeply." Brita Segerhammer from California post a comment at the online site the "r-word.org" say that she felt hurt when she was in junior high school and kids called her by the "R-word" and other words. She had one person who stood up for her. History tells us that people who don't know history are allowing it to repeat itself. And those who know history must stand and deliver. For example, according to the book, "Beyond Ramp" by Marta Russell, she discovered that before The Holocaust ever started the elimination of the Jews, the Nazi Germans decided that the high costs of taking care of people with disabilities was what contributed to the country's poor economy, therefore, people with disabilities needed to be eliminated. There were two mathematical problems that were given to high school students from 1935-1936 to convince the public that people with disabilities were the cause of their economic failure. (problems 94 & 95) Problem 94 In one region of the German Reich, there are 4,400 mentally ill in state institution, 4,500 receiving state support, 1,600 in local hospitals 200 in homes for the epileptic, and 1,500 in welfare homes. The state pays a minimum of 10 million RM/dollars per year for these institutions. I. What is the average cost to the state per inhabitant per year? II. Using the result calculated from I, how much does it cost the state if A. 868 patients stay longer than 10 years? B. 216 patients stay longer than 20 years? C. 112 patients stay longer than 25 years? Problem 95 The Construction of an insane Asylum requires 6 million RM. How many housing units @ 15,000 RM/dollars could be built for the amount spent on insane asylums? (using your answer from problem 94) I would like to add here that in California, in our own state, we have a similar crisis. The public needs the attention to put on the people who participated in the "R-word" rally. Make no mistake, legislators are playing with the R-word on the hope that people with developmental disabilities don't care about the state budget. As bad as the movie, Tropic Thunder negatively portrays people with developmental disabilities; the thing that will have more of painful effect is the lack of the respect from our legislators. Organizations like The Special Olympics, ARC, Regional Centers, independent living centers, Eastern Seals, the L.A. County Commission on Disability and professionals in the field of the disabilities must come together and empower their community to advocate strongly for a responsible budget that allow people with disabilities to live in their own home by not cutting in home supported living and cost of living arrangement. These programs, shamefully but rightfully might benefit the wealthy people in California as well, but they are the essential factors that a lot of people with disabilities need to get on day by day basis.