It’s catching fire on social media, but just in case any TWO readers aren’t already aware, Ann Coulter committed another linguistic atrocity after the presidential debate on Monday night, using a derogatory term to describe President Obama:
That Ann Coulter just loves cruelly poking fun at non-privileged minority groups, doesn’t she? I’ll say again what I’ve said before: she’s an odious human being.
But now that your blood pressure is through the roof, take a moment to read this beautiful response to Coulter’s hurtful words. It was written by John Franklin Stephens, an athlete and global messenger for Special Olympics Virginia. I’ve included an excerpt below. Warning: have tissues ready.
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. . .
After I saw your tweet, I realized you just wanted to belittle the President by linking him to people like me. You assumed that people would understand and accept that being linked to someone like me is an insult and you assumed you could get away with it and still appear on TV.
I have to wonder if you considered other hateful words but recoiled from the backlash.
Well, Ms. Coulter, you, and society, need to learn that being compared to people like me should be considered a badge of honor.
No one overcomes more than we do and still loves life so much.
Powerful, isn’t it? The full text of Stephens’ open letter to Coulter can be found here. This is how you stand up to a bully.
One final note: I know that many TWO readers will disagree with my decision to write about Coulter today. Many of you commented on my last post (and I presume this one will follow the pattern) that Coulter is so obviously desperate for attention that if we ignore her, she’ll just go away. While I completely agree that Ann Coulter is a shameless and pathetic attention-seeker who will say absolutely anything for a headline and who will ultimately be relegated to the dustbin of history where she belongs, I have to concur with fellow blogger John Aravosis, who wrote last week that we dismiss Coulter at our peril.
Coulter is a joke, so why do we write about her? Because she and Rush Limbaugh are the biggest things the Republicans have going as far as intellectual leaders. In all their coarseness, rudeness, and bigotry, they represent the leadership of the modern GOP. They’re not a bug, they’re a feature. And it’s important that Americans be reminded, every day, of who the Republican party really is, and what it’s become. Limbaugh and Coulter are outcasts on the left, and they get big bucks to speak on the right. We don’t do ourselves any favors by ignoring them.
My sentiments exactly.
