[DSALF] Mr. Stiller, My Kindergartner Thinks You Need a Time Out

[Guest guest]

Mr. Stiller, My Kindergartner Thinks You Need A Time Out

 

 

On Wednesday, August 13, I gave my 5-year old daughter Emma a choice.  She

could stay at home with her father and little sisters and watch “Scooby Doo”

or come with me to a protest of the movie we like to call “Tropic Blunder.” 

 

“Tropic Thunder” is a blockbuster, star-studded movie-in-a-movie starring

and written by actor Ben Stiller.  Other Hollywood actors in the movie

include Downey, Jr., Jack Black, Tom Cruise, and

McConaughey.  

In the movie, Ben Stiller plays Tugg Speedman, an actor who formerly made a

bid for an by starring in a movie about “Simple Jack,”  a man with an

intellectual disability.   The byline of this movie is “Once upon a time,

there was a retard.”   In another scene, Stiller & Downey talk about why he

didn’t win the .   They casually drop the “R” bomb repeatedly and

conclude with Downey saying, “You Never Go Full Retard.”   

Disability groups across the nation, including Special Olympics, ARC, the

National Down Syndrome Congress, and the National Down Syndrome Society,

called for a national boycott and urged Down Syndrome Affiliates across the

nation to stage protests.  

After I explained to Emma that the movie uses a mean word to describe people

who are different like Hannah, her eyes welled up with tears.   “Why would

anybody say something mean about Hannah?   That’s not nice. Why did they do

that?”  

In typical 5-year-old fashion, she continued to pepper me with questions

throughout the day.  “If we say a bad word in school, we get in trouble. 

Why doesn’t this mean man get in trouble? Is anybody going to see the

movie?   Why? Why don’t we just ask the movie theater not to play it? Will

people use the bad word?   Will they make Hannah cry?”  

It didn’t take Emma long to make her decision.   She wanted to go with me

and stand up for her little sister.   She picked out the wording on her

signs and helped make them.  She held them proudly and waved them at every

passing car.  

As we were leaving, she said, “Mommy.  If I ever see that man, I’m going to

put him in a time out.”

 

Mr. Stiller, I can't understand why you have so much trouble with issues of

respect for others.   When you stop hiding behind your excuses of “satire”

and “entertainment value,” maybe my 5-year old could explain it to you. 

She’s not asking for much – she just doesn’t want people to hurt her little

sister. 

 

All you need to know you could learn from my kindergartner.

 

 

 

Sincerely,

Lori Tullos Barta

President, Down Syndrome Association of Central Texas

www.dsact.com

323-0808