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Sunshyne4u
Member
06-17-2003
| Friday, February 22, 2008 - 5:13 pm
dont get me wrong. I'm not saying that Adam did the right thing or was using the word correctly. He was making a slur IMHO. If he had said "retarded children" or "retarded people" I would have had a little forgiveness for him. But WHAT he said before and After the comment, made it perfectly clear he was speaking with distain IMHO
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Kalekona
Member
06-12-2005
| Friday, February 22, 2008 - 6:08 pm
The reason the deaf have problems with the word impaired is because they do not feel they are broken. And impaired implies something is wrong with them. Deafness is a culture not just a condition. They are fine with who and how they are but have spent years being told they are defective.
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Kimsue
Member
07-08-2005
| Friday, February 22, 2008 - 6:48 pm
OK...I have a question for those of you with deaf family members and friends. (I have absolutely NO experience with deaf individuals so pardon me please if I say something wrong.) Not long ago I was watching a Crime Drama type show and the premise of the story was that "The Deaf Community" were protesting doctors that perform Cochlear Implant Surgery. QUESTION: Is this a real issue or a giant leap for television drama? On the show the characters were only interested in meeting and marrying other deaf individuals and called their babies "perfect" when they were deaf and if they had hearing babies they (the babies) were some how impaired.
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Sunshyne4u
Member
06-17-2003
| Friday, February 22, 2008 - 7:13 pm
but some forms of deafness and other birth defects make a person impaired, different from the Normal. a deviation from the Norm IS called abnormal. here is no fasttalking that will work to try and change the english language. And impaired implies something is wrong with them. I understand that same stance occurs in the Small persons? dwarf? midget? community. they believe that their normally occurring birth defect is not a defect because.....it is normally occurring. Lots of semantics involved and frankly, it is a difficult politically correct ridden situation. if a person was born with a skin defect which involved repeated infections/ boils and scarring to the point that people stared at you, Would that person CHOOSE to pass on that same genetic defect onto their children? just because they dont want to be called impaired? BUT this is not the same as calling someone a "re___" like adam did.}
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Pixieduster
Member
09-27-2004
| Friday, February 22, 2008 - 7:28 pm
My adult daughter is mildly mentally retarded. She also has schizoaffective disorder - thus a dual diagnosis. She is a "consumer" of our county's MRDD services which stands for Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities. I was repulsed when I heard Adam talk about "retards" - I have never heard anyone who works with these children and adults refer to them in this way. Yes, she's a special needs person with a dual diagnosis of mental retardation and mental illness; and as much as I dislike the term "mental retardation" there is no hate or discrimination intended in the term. It's a diagnosis. But anytime I've ever heard the word retard used, it's used with tone and an intention of demeaning someone. I was appalled that CBS aired it, but as has already been stated, they probably loved the salaciousness of it and couldn't wait to get it on air. Very sad.
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Costacat
Member
07-15-2000
| Friday, February 22, 2008 - 7:47 pm
Smooches, Kale! And if you pay attention to those who are deaf who receive cochlear implants, and how the deaf community feels about them, you realize that the deaf community feels VERY strongly about that. I think there are many who find it offensive that those who cannot hear feel the need to hear. Hukd, I can understand not being able to keep up with changes in words. But, according to Adam's own statement, he works with these kids every day AND he's a PR person. Wouldn't a person such as that be a bit more au currant on what is and is not acceptable? I don't spend my life trying to be politically correct, but I do try to live as a kind person. And any word that CAN BE PERCEIEVED AS NEGATIVE OR DEROGATORY should not be used lightly. Period. I think it's a bit offensive to continue to defend Adam's words. The "real" autism foundation noted that the word was offensive, and truly, shouldn't they be the ones to have the final say? (Slightly OT, but my blind BF hated being called disabled. He was blind, his classification was a total. And all that meant was he could not see with his eyes. He had one heck of an imagination however!)
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Amykat
Member
07-24-2005
| Friday, February 22, 2008 - 8:10 pm
Thank you Kalekona! I guess for me the word impaired is different...but I think that's why it goes back to intent. I sure would never want to make someone feel that somehow they were broken! I agree with Sunshyne4u, I think Adam's intent was not good. I was thinking about that show myself Kimsue. I wondered if that was a real situation or not. I think it was a "Law and Order" episode and they are always touting "ripped from the headlines"!
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Jimmer
Moderator
08-30-2000
| Friday, February 22, 2008 - 8:50 pm
I don't think anyone here is defending Adam's words.
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Thorn
Member
08-21-2006
| Friday, February 22, 2008 - 9:48 pm
I spent 10 years teaching a profoundly autistic girl to ski. It was an incredibly challenging and rewarding situation. I won't describe it any further to protect the privacy of her and her family. During that time, I spent a lot of time researching autism and autism support organizations looking for help in working with her. Some of the things I learned is that autism is increasing, not just because the diagnosis is clearer. There are two leading autism organizations in this country with diametrically opposed philosphies. My sister in law works for one of them. She says some start-up organization anywhere is not going to be welcome in the debate at this time. She has never heard of this organization (though they may be on the other side of the argument). What I know for sure from teaching many autistic children and adults to ski, is that just like any other situation, they are all just individuals, and have to be treated individually. When I teach skiing to people who are not autistic or Down's Syndrome, or whatever, the same rule applies.
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Bbnine
Member
02-16-2008
| Wednesday, February 27, 2008 - 9:36 am
TMZ Party Favors: "Big Brother" Retard-Guy Gets Fired ... The "Big Brother" contestant who referred to autistic children as "retards," even though he works with them at his job, has gotten axed from that job, reports the New York Post
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Jimmer
Moderator
08-30-2000
| Wednesday, February 27, 2008 - 12:17 pm
Please post a link when referencing articles. Thanks.
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Bbnine
Member
02-16-2008
| Wednesday, February 27, 2008 - 4:45 pm
www.TMZ.com
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Costacat
Member
07-15-2000
| Wednesday, February 27, 2008 - 5:07 pm
Bbnine, where, exactly, did you see that story? Cause it's not where you linked to. And anyways, isn't that old news? It was posted here (upthread, look for 2/19 post by Cheekychops and Danzdol). More importantly, look for the post by Danzdol on 2/21 where the following was posted from an email sent by the foundation: quote:At the time when Big Brother started, Adam Jasinski was no longer employed by UNIAF since we had to downsize the foundation because of the lack of financial support in early January 2008. Adam wanted to volunteer and mentioned that if he is going to Big Brother he would like to get attention in order to get funds for the foundation. Unfortunately I was not aware what he was planning to say on the show. Obviously he cannot represent or even work for the United Autism Foundation after his Big Brother time. The foundation suffered tremendous because of his remarks - Adam caused more damage to the foundation than doing anything positive.
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Bbnine
Member
02-16-2008
| Wednesday, February 27, 2008 - 6:58 pm
It came out on TMX this morning and the NY post has an article posted on Jokers. I didn't know it was old news. I saw it today on TMZ. also this is the NY post: NY Post 'BIG BROTHER' STAR FIRED FOR '*****' COMMENT Post staff writer YOUR FIRED: Adam Jasinski calls autistic children "*****," on "Big Brother". February 27, 2008 -- THE "Big Brother" contestant who stirred up a controversy when he called autistic children "*****," has been fired from his job. But Adam Jasinski, who worked for the United Autism Foundation, doesn't know he's been canned. He is sequestered in the "Big Brother" house in LA, cut off from contact with the outside world, in keeping with the show's rules. The foundation announced his firing on its Web site yesterday. At least one advertiser pulled out of the show following the public outcry over the crude remark and several autism groups even called for CBS to cancel the reality series because producers chose to air the remark in an edited version of the program. Jasinski was heard on the program saying that he could call children with autism whatever he liked because he worked with them. "Mr. Jasinski will no longer work for or represent the United Autism Foundation since he caused tremendous damage to UNIAF," the announcement read.
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Costacat
Member
07-15-2000
| Wednesday, February 27, 2008 - 7:12 pm
The advertisier was Lowe's (again, news that is a week old). The UNIAF web site doesn't say when he was fired, only that he will not represent the organization (as we already knew). You may want to read back thru this thread... there's a lot of information, including why the site originally looked like a "fan" site.
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Webchiq
Member
07-11-2005
| Wednesday, February 27, 2008 - 7:40 pm
BbNine, thank you for posting the information. I didn't read upthread and your post caught me up.
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Kitt
Member
09-06-2000
| Wednesday, February 27, 2008 - 7:52 pm
I'm reposting this post by Cheekychops (hope she/he doesn't mind) because it's got lost way upthread. It all makes more sense after reading this. ~~~ Cheekychops Member 08-12-2005 Tuesday, February 19, 2008 - 9:27 am -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I found some information that is interesting regarding Adam and the charity, UNIAF. "OK, I have some info that may clear things up. I received emails from 4 of the United Autism Foundation’s Board of Advisors. They inform me that #1 Adam no longer works for UNIAF and that he didn’t for quite some time prior to his entering the Big Broether house. So, he lied to CBS about his job, etc. #2 He was not a Public Relations manager. He was a sales person working in their call center making cold calls to solicit donations-a glorified telemarketer. He did, however “help out” with some of the foundation’s events. But he never worked WITH autistic kids-Thank God!" and another post that reads, "This foundation (who I have confirmed is registered with the state of Florida as an official non-profit complete with 501(3)(c) tax exemption) has jumped in with both feet to take on a huge project of building a dental facility for special needs individuals. This project, unfortunately, has taken most of their paid employees and volunteers time so they turned the website (their official site is http://www.unitedautismfoundation.org) over to their in-house IT guy who is friends with Adam. This IT guy thought it would be a good fundraiser for the foundation to sell things with Adam’s picture on them. I guess he assumed Adam would be more popular than he has turned out to be. So he used the foundation’s web server (without the permission of the foundation) to set up a BB9/Adam site. I’ve been told that they are in the process of taking this site down. " You can see this information and the posts here: www.autismvox.com/kids-with-autism-are-not-retards/
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Costacat
Member
07-15-2000
| Wednesday, February 27, 2008 - 8:09 pm
Your best bet is to go do some research yourself. The site that was the UNIAF web site was also Adam's "fan" site. The stuff that was up for auction that he'd "used" were taken down. Then the unitedautismfoundation.org site was separate. Now, that site resolves to unitedautismfoundation.COM and is exactly the same as uniaf.org. Upshot is I wouldn't trust that foundation as far as I could throw it. They closed their offices in January.
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Cheekychops
Member
08-12-2005
| Thursday, February 28, 2008 - 5:39 am
Thanks for reposting that Kitt. <---- girl lol
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