Special Olympics: "The President isn't one of ours."

Statement regarding derogatory portrayal of Special Olympics athletes in flier








October 2004

From the office of Timothy P. Shriver

Chairman and CEO, Special Olympics



We at Special Olympics are astounded and appalled by a flier being distributed in Tennessee showing the head of President Bush superimposed on the body of a Special Olympics athlete, with the statement, "Even if you win, you're still retarded."

We see this communication as an egregious, gratuitous insult to our almost 1.4 million athletes in over 150 countries around the world and a stunning affront to the 170 million people in the world who have intellectual disabilities.

We cringe at the thought that any one of these capable and courageous athletes would ever have to endure the agony, embarrassment, pain and suffering that this flier would certainly cause.

We hope that the person or persons responsible for this outrageous poster would come forward, identify themselves, and explain to the people of Tennessee and everywhere else why they would choose to denigrate the spirit, courage, and accomplishments of the Special Olympics athletes.

Sadly, this type of ignorance and bigotry is not uncommon. Comedians in the United States regularly mock people with intellectual disabilities; a common playground taunt even today is "retard"; people with intellectual disabilities remain the last to be respected or included in our schools, health care institutions, and society at large.

Our commitment in this political season and in every other is to reverse this ignorance and bigotry and to replace them with the stunning realization that many people with intellectual disabilities are, in fact, among the most gifted within our communities. Their valuable skills for promoting acceptance and understanding are most desperately needed in the political process and in the world today.

There is no reasonable and legitimate defense of this hateful material. We would expect those responsible to make an abject public apology and a sincere, determined effort to clear the public domain of this offensive material.



SilverSurfer9090: Basically, what they're saying is, Don't call special olympians "George W. Bush". It's just not fair to the olympians.