please help me send a message that this is not ok!!

[Guest guest]

Hi all---

Here is the letter that I sent through the " capwiz " site regarding

the recent derogatory remarks made by reporters. If you go to the

capwiz link below, click on " media " and put in your zip, it will

come up with many choices of who to send it to. You can only pick

5, but if we all do it, it should be enough. Feel free to cut and

paste my letter and put your own name in, if you'd like.

Laurie

Laurie Kowalski

1324 Haverston Rd.

Lyndhurst, OH 44124-1445

April 17, 2007

[recipient address was inserted here]

Dear [recipient name was inserted here],

To whom it may concern,

In light of the recent events surrounding the comments made by Don

Imus

and the events following, I must bring up an issue that has

concerned

me

for a very long time. The issue is the media using the word

" retarded " ,

" short bus " , " retards " , etc., etc.

Just last week, a reporter named Joy Benedict from

Newschannel 5

in

Cleveland, OH made a derogatory remark about feeling " special " , " not

the

'short bus' kind of special, but really special " . E-mails were sent

to

Joy and her senior editor with minimal response. She made a lame

attempt

at an apology the next day. Just today a comment was made on the

Opie

and

show on radio station 92.3 FM regarding the Special Olympics

and

watching " the retards " . These incidents are extremely offensive to

me

as

a mom of two special needs children.

My children are wonderful, loving and beautiful people who do

NOT

deserve this kind of discrimination. It is CRUEL and horrific and

just

as

bad as what Don Imus got FIRED from his job for saying!! In fact,

making

terrible remarks about persons who cannot defend themselves is even

more

reprehesible!

Someone needs to stand up for persons with disabilities and

say

ENOUGH! This is wrong and these persons should be punished just as

much

as someone like Don Imus was punished for his degrading comments.

We have a strong community here in Cleveland of advocates of

persons with special needs and we will have our voice heard. Send a

message that your organization will not tolerate this kind of

behavior.

Sincerely,

Laurie Kowalski

440-473-9716

Note: forwarded message attached.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

-----------

Attachment: Forwarded Message

downsyndromeneohio

From: " Laurie Kowalski " <jlkowalski2@...>

Date: Tue, 17 Apr 2007 13:40:08 -0400 (EDT)

Subject: [DownsyndromeNEOhio] This is an interesting website

I just took action on this issue and thought you might find it

interesting too.

Click on this URL to take action now

http://capwiz. com/a-champ/

If your email program does not recognize the URL as a link,

copy the entire URL and paste it into your Web browser.

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