“Words hurt and words matter.”
President Obama recently joked on The Tonight Show, referring to his bowling as so awkward it resembled something out of the Special Olympics. The slight was a serious mis-step from a usually pitch-perfect president promoting tolerance and inclusion. But I’m not writing to tongue-lash the president. Instead, I want to applaud the Special Olympics for their handling of the incident.
Within hours, the Special Olympics chairman Tim Shriver had written a beautiful press release about the incident. He called this a “teachable moment,” and had a clear and simple call to action: Pledge to stop using “the r-word.”
The web site for this effort points out that language equals attitude: the way we talk about groups of people both reflects our deeply-held attitudes and stereotypes and shapes the attitudes of the next generation.
You and your family members can sign the pledge to “support the elimination of the derogatory use of the r-word from everyday speech and promote the acceptance and inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities.” You can get involved with the Special Olympics in so many ways, from donating to coaching to just showing up to support the athletes. Click here to find opportunities.
Beyond the fact that the Special Olympics is a charity, what does this have to do with philanthropy? Everything. The urge to be philanthropic springs from empathy, the ability to put ourselves in another person’s situation and imagine how they feel. The teachable moment represented by President Obama’s gaffe is the idea that, as Tim Shriver said, “words hurt and words matter.”
All of us in our lives have been called hurtful names, from the cruel use of “retard” or “fatso” to seemingly innocuous family nicknames that really hurt our feelings even if we put up a brave face (“Baby,” “Crash,” or “Runt”). Teaching our kids about the impact of their words is an important way to set them on the path to lifelong empathy, and therefore philanthropy.
