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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