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Ann Coulter tweet calls President Obama retarded for a second time. He's gonna be OK. But for most folks, while sticks and stones won't break your bones, words can really hurt you.

Words are all we have, to paraphrase the Bee Gees. Words express ideas. Words change lives, for better or for worse. Words like "I Have a Dream or Tear down this wall or more recently Malala Yousufzai's "I have the right of education" are revolutionary. Words that are slurs are marginalizing, hurtful, destructive.Choosing our words wisely isn't about being politically correct. It's about being better human beings.

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Madora Kibbe has been a contributing writer forThe Christian Science Monitor for over 35 years and writes a blog for Psychology Today called "Thinking Makes It So." She and her husband Jon moved back to Manhattan after raising their family in the suburbs. She has also written a blog about the so called Empty Nest Syndrome. She continues to write and blog in both a serious and humorous vein about all things mundane, sublime, and spiritual. She is a full time Christian Science practitioner.

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If the late Sen. Joseph Welch were here today I think hed say, not to Joe McCarthy, but to Ann Coulter, have you no sense of decency?

For any of you who haven't heard, Ms. Coulter has referred to our president not once but twice, on Twitter as a "retard. President Obama has been called names before, so Im not worried about him. He can take it. Hes a forgiving man. That being said, it's reprehensible to treat a US president with anything but respect even if you disagree with him.

Especially if you disagree with him.

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Hey, Ann Coulter: Really? Again?

CALEDONIA Right-wing pundit Ann Coulter has a vision of what the country will look like if President Barack Obama stays in the White House, and its pretty grisly.

Americans will end up waiting in long, DMV-like lines for heart surgery. The economy will get worse and worse, and eventually the United States will be indistinguishable from a pathetic Western European country.

But Coulter doesnt really expect Obama to bere-elected.

The author shared that opinion, as well as a host of other political and social views, with more than 200 of her fans Sunday evening during a book signing at South Hills Country Club, 3047 Highway 41, in the Franksville area of Caledonia.

Coulter was there to promote her new book, Mugged: Racial Demagoguery from the Seventies to Obama, which calls out the left for what she sees as its racist exploitation of minorities. But with the election less than 48 hours away, Coulter was also there to rally support for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, as part of Americans For Prosperitys Obamas Failing Agenda Bus Tour.

If you want entertainment, watch MSNBC this Tuesday night, Coulter quipped. That is going to be like watching the O.J. (Simpson) slow-speed chase and just waiting for a suicide.

The AFP event also featured brief speeches from the groups state director for Wisconsin, Luke Hilgemann; Shona Holmes, a Canadian who talked about her tribulations dealing the Canadian national health care system; and conservative radio talk show host Vicki McKenna; but Coulter was clearly the star of the event.

Attendees, seated close together in folding chairs, roared as she approached the podium, and snorted with laughter and applause as she delivered one rapid-fire jokeafter another.

Americans were told we had to make up for the Democratic policies of slavery and Jim Crow by electing a half-black Hawaiian, Coulter said at one point. We would have been better off with Don Ho.

As the star-struck supporters left the event, shuffling off to warm up their cars, or lining up to have their books signed, Hilgemann gave one last appeal for them to get involved before the election: (Get involved) so that 48 days and 48 years from now you can look at your children and grandchildren and say you did everything possible to take this country back.

Excerpt from:

Coulter rallies conservatives at book signing : More than 200 turn out to hear pundit

Coulter (ABC News)

During Monday's presidential debate, conservative pundit and paid provocateur Ann Coulter said she supported Mitt Romney's strategy to not attack President Barack Obama. Or, as Coulter put it on Twitter, "I highly approve of Romney's decision to be kind and gentle to the retard."

On Tuesday, John Franklin Stephens, a Special Olympics athlete, published an open letter to Coulter, asking her why she continually uses the "R-word."

"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," Stephens wrote. "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."

More from Stephens' letter:

I thought first of asking whether you meant to describe the President as someone who was bullied as a child by people like you, but rose above it to find a way to succeed in life as many of my fellow Special Olympians have.

Then I wondered if you meant to describe him as someone who has to struggle to be thoughtful about everything he says, as everyone else races from one snarkey [sic] sound bite to the next.

Finally, I wondered if you meant to degrade him as someone who is likely to receive bad health care, live in low grade housing with very little income and still manages to see life as a wonderful gift.

Because, Ms. Coulter, that is who we areand much, much more.

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.

Originally posted here:

Special Olympian writes open letter to Ann Coulter over offensive tweet

Ann Coulter is one of a class of political commentators whose primary, if not sole, purpose is to inflame emotion, not inspire thoughtful discussion. She adheres to a tired, time-honored formula: throw a verbal bomb, laugh at the fallout, accuse her detractors of being stupid/unable to take a joke. Repeat ad infinitum.

But every so often, someone like Coulter draws the attention of someone who has the intellectual and/or moral high ground, and the result is the rhetorical equivalent of a nature video where the predator zeroes in on and eviscerates its prey.

Coulter's latest I'm-so-outrageous comment came in the wake of the final presidential debate on Monday night:

Straight class there, Ann. Anyway, the tweet (and its followup a few hours later, "If [Obama's] the smartest guy in the room, it must be one retarded room") drew the notice of John Franklin Stephens, a Special Olympics athlete. A 30-year-old with Down Syndrome, Stephens has spoken out frequently on the use of "retarded" as a slur, and wrote an open letter to Coulter on a Special Olympics blog. A sample of Stephens' letter:

I thought first of asking whether you meant to describe the President as someone who was bullied as a child by people like you, but rose above it to find a way to succeed in life as many of my fellow Special Olympians have.

Then I wondered if you meant to describe him as someone who has to struggle to be thoughtful about everything he says, as everyone else races from one snarkey sound bite to the next.

Finally, I wondered if you meant to degrade him as someone who is likely to receive bad health care, live in low grade housing with very little income and still manages to see life as a wonderful gift.

Because, Ms. Coulter, that is who we are and much, much more.

Stephens adds, "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." (Sadly, she can and she will.) He closes his letter with a high-road move, signing off as "A friend you haven't met yet."

The full letter is well worth reading, if only as a break from the unceasing negativity of the campaign season. Well done, Mr. Stephens. Nice job of taking the kind of positive, open-arms approach that's unthinkable to so many in public life these days.

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Special Olympics athlete takes Ann Coulter to task over Obama slur

Posted: Oct 24, 2012 8:30 PM by Emanuella Grinberg - CNN News Updated: Oct 24, 2012 8:18 PM

(CNN) -- Parents of children with special needs are demanding an apology from conservative political pundit Ann Coulter for tweeting after Tuesday's foreign policy debate that she approved of "Romney's decision to be kind and gentle to the retard."

It appeared to be a response to critiques of Mitt Romney's debate performance, but it wasn't the first time Coulter used the "the r-word" during this election season. And, it's not the first time blogger Ellen Seidman has called her out on it.

"At this point, I'm thinking the woman must surely be aware that the word is offensive, and she chooses not to care. That's pretty vile and heartless," said Seidman, the mother of a special needs child who shares her world on the blog "Love that Max."

"You want to slam the president, go ahead. But you can't think of any other word to use? Come on. The word "retard" demeans Max and millions more with intellectual disabilities," Seidman tweeted at Coulter. Still, the comment was favorited 1,215 times and earned 2,993 retweets as of this writing, presumably by a number of people who didn't find it offensive. But sentiments from those who chose to respond to Coulter on Twitter ranged from disappointment to outrage.

"You disgust me. That man is the president of this country. (& I'm sure all of the disabled children in America appreciate you.)," actor Sophia Bush tweeted.

"Politics aside, this tweet from @anncoulter was offensive & disgusting. ANY use of the "R" word is unacceptable," @amurphy217 said.

The Special Olympics also condemned her use of the word, saying that it was "sad to see @AnnCoulter continue her use of hateful language by using the #Rword in her discourse."

In an open letter directed at Coulter posted Tuesday on the Special Olympics blog, John Franklin Stephens, a 30-year-old Special Olympian with Down syndrome, described what the word meant to him: "I thought first of asking whether you meant to describe the President as someone who was bullied as a child by people like you, but rose above it to find a way to succeed in life as many of my fellow Special Olympians have.

"Then I wondered if you meant to describe him as someone who has to struggle to be thoughtful about everything he says, as everyone else races from one snarkey sound bite to the next. ... 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."

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Ann Coulter's backward use of the 'r-word'