Posted on 05/09/2007 10:12:04 AM PDT by Graybeard58
Old-fashioned terms such as imbecile, lunatic and idiot were purged Tuesday from the Ohio law books, a harbinger of national momentum to once again revisit the words that most sensitively describe mental illness.
In the last century, idiotic and feeble-minded were accepted labels. Later, "mental deficiency" was deemed to be more respectful. More recently, "mental retardation" replaced that as less derisive. Today, the phrase is increasingly seen as unacceptable. It is a sentiment felt around the nation.
In March, hundreds of disabled adults, their advocates and caretakers in Alabama rallied at the Statehouse in Montgomery to urge legislators to remove the word retarded from state code.
In April, Connecticut's House of Representatives voted unanimously to scrap the name of the state Department of Mental Retardation, and replace it with the Department of Developmental Services. The state Senate has yet to act on the bill.
Amid the concern, the former American Association of Mental Retardation -- which changed its own name in January -- is making preparations to revise the definition of mental retardation for the 11th time since 1908.
"The self advocacy community really hates the word retarded, and they've been very vocal about that," said Doreen Crozer, executive director of what is now known as the American Association of Intellectual and Development Disabilities.
The Ohio bill, which Strickland was scheduled to sign later Tuesday, was prompted by a chance encounter with the old lingo by Ohio Advocates for Mental Health while they were doing legal research. The resulting legislation cleared both the House and Senate unanimously.
Removing the terms from the Ohio Revised Code won't completely resolve the problem, however. Both "idiots" and "insane persons" are banned from voting in the Ohio Constitution, first written in 1802, and changing that document would require a constitutional amendment.
Our local University’s “Office of Programs for Handicapper Students” had decided that “Handicapper” was not PC anymore, so they changed their name to “The Resource Center for Persons with Disabilities.”
When I was in college, the term was Handicapable.
Now if they could only purge them from the Ohio legislature.
“The terms imbecile, idiot, mental retardation, insanity and so on are good examples as these were initially introduced as neutral terminology intended to describe specific conditions.”
Exactly.
These once neutral terms ceased to neutral once the general public started using them as insults.
Most of them are used FAR more as insults now than to describe an actual medical condition, to the point where you can’t describe the condition without appearing to be insulting.
Sexually Motivationally Challenged = F’n lazy
So, Ohio will no longer have any imbeciles, lunatics, or idiots.
Shudder! What will they do for a future crop of lawmakers?
Homosexuality used to be listed as a Mental Health disorder.
. . . were once very specific words to describe specific conditions.
A moron was simply mentally slow, but trainable and could occasional perform useful tasks. Somebody like Diane Feinstein.
An imbecile was mentally slow, not generally trainable, but not a danger to themself with minimal supervision. Somebody like Barbara Boxer or Mark Dayton.
A lunatic was someone who needed constant supervision because they were psycho when set off. Somebody like Al Gore.
An idiot, well to put it delicately, was dumber than a box of rocks and normally locked in a padded cell. Somebody like Partica Bin Murray.
btt
A couple fries short of a Happy Meal.
Indeed. These words, rich in history and descriptive power, are finely attuned to the nuances of difference among liberals, 'rats, and other leftwing enthusiasts of great passion and miniscule intellect. They should be protected terms,as should the ever useful "nitwit," which perfectly describes your neighbor, and other people who watch American Idol.
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