Rude words, political correctness, midgets and douchebags

One thing that always drives me insane is when you tell someone that a certain word is hurtful or offensive, and they tell you that you're just being "sensitive", that they're just having "fun" and that they don't believe in being "politically correct" and you should just "have a sense of humor" about it. Funny - I'd like most of those guys to try walking through Inglewood or Compton calling everybody "nigger" and ask THEM to just have a sense of humor about it.


It's odd - I was raised to believe that people with good moral values were supposed to respect others and treat them kindly. Remember the Golden Rule? Treat others as you would have them treat you? No, neither does anybody else.


I was reading an NPR review for the novel "Big Girl, Small" today, about a 16 year old girl with dwarfism, coming of age at a Performing Arts high school, dealing with being a little person in a world that loves to mock differences. The excerpt that NPR published featured a quote that I thought was very apropos:


"Maybe someday they'll think disproportionate dwarfis a rude expression and they'll come up with a nicer way to put it. I think most people know now that Hottentot is considered a rude word. Maybe not, though. Most people are stupid as hell when it comes to things like which words are rude. And a lot of people, even once they find out which words hurt people, still like to use them. They think it's smarmy and "PC" to have to say things kindly, or that it's too much pressure not to be able to punish freaks with words like freak."

Caitlin's first, long awaited haircut!

Somehow Caitlin managed to get to be three and a half before we finally felt it necessary to get her hair cut.I'm sure it's at least partly just an attempt to deny that she's growing up, but it's even more a result of the fact that she looked so darned cute with her hair hanging down to her butt. Sucked for daddy trying to get her ready in the mornings tho, since I'm not really adequately trained to handle pretty little girl pigtails :-)

Anyway, we decided that we should finally get it cut before the holidays, and since both parents were off work and could be there it was the perfect time. Caitlin was really all for this plan until she actually got in the chair to have her hair cut, but when we explained that it would make it easier for other people to see her earrings she was back on board.

The place, Cool Cuts for Kids in Bakersfield, was a load of fun fire both kids, with loads of movies and video games for them to play. Caitlin even tried playing a snowboarding game while she was waiting, and was almost doing better than her mommy at it :-)

One of the nice things about waiting so long for her first cut, tho, was that there was plenty of hair to save from it for the baby book!

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In Memory of Erin Thomas

A wonderful person died this morning, and I am still in shock. Erin Thomas was a dwarf with Achondroplasia, the same diagnosis as Caitlin. I met her three years ago on Facebook via mutual friends and we've become good friends over the years, bantering about football and politics, both of which we disagreed on, and trading notes/insights on raising kids with dwarfism where we had much more in common. Her husband has SEDc, a more rare diagnosis, and both her children were dwarfs as well. Her son, Joseph, had lost his battle with medical complications in 2007 which had led Erin and her husband to start the Joseph Thomas Foundation which supported other medically fragile kids and their families. Erin's daughter Emma, a feisty little girl who had inherited both her parents' diagnoses, had just gotten her trach removed that she'd lived with her whole life because she no longer needed it, and had gotten to actually go swimming for the first time ever this summer. Today is her birthday, in fact.

Erin had also just come into her own as a parent advocate with a presentation she made at the regional conference for District 12 of the Little People of America last April in Valencia, CA. Her presentation had gone so well that there was talk of her getting involved with the national organization, providing support to parents who needed advice. She and her husband had also just opened their hearts and home to three new kids who didn't have families of their own, including a 17 year old average height boy who had immediately become the ultimate big brother to Emma.

I don't know any actual details at this point, but what I do know that John went to wake up Erin this morning, and discovered that she had died in her sleep overnight. To the best of my knowledge, and that of many of her friends (several of whom had just spoken with her yesterday) nobody suspected that anything was wrong, and certainly nobody thought something like this was a possibility.

I am still in shock and mourning, as are the many people that she touched in her life. Her humor, her lively personality, and her insight will be sorely missed.

Good night, sweet Erin/And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest. And give Joseph a hug for all of us when you get there.

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