I am sure most people have heard the buzz about President Obama and his Tonight Show interview with Jay Leno.  If you haven’t, you can see the interview on YouTube.  Obama made a brief derogatorycomment about the Special Olympics and received much negative media attention because of it.  The year I was Miss Rodeo Montana I took part in the Montana Special Olympic games.  It was a moving event to see the perserverance those contestants put into every aspect of the events.  I recently received this letter from the president of Montana’s Special Olympics. 

Dear Friends of Special Olympics:

This past February, we held our 2009 Special Olympics World Winter Games in Boise/Sun Valley/McCall, Idaho uniting nearly 2,000 athletes from nearly 100 countries. As part of these historic Games, we gathered 130 young people with and without intellectual disabilities for a week-long activation summit and thousands more at a Youth Rally. The motivation of young people to make change in the world for people with intellectual disabilities is inspiring.

On February 9, during the week of activities, Dick Morris used the word “retarded” in a demeaning way on the O’Reilly Factor. The students of the Youth Activation Summit acted swiftly and reached out to FOX and Bill O’Reilly to educate and engage them on this blunder. On February 12, Bill O’Reilly gave an on-air apology.

Recently I received an e-mail showing an expired 1985 Montana license plate that says “Retard” on it and apparently is (or was) for sale on eBay.

March 20, President Obama made regrettable remarks on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno to which Special Olympics Inc Chairman/CEO Tim Shriver responded (see attached).

Words hurt.  Words matter.  It IS time to put an end to discriminating, hurtful language. 

Young people have found their power and are leading an effort for Special Olympics called “Spread the Word to End the Word.” Students across the country are planning local events for 3.31.09 to end the use of the R-word and to garner more pledges of support. The goal is 100,000 on-line pledges by the end of the March at www.r-word.org.

I invite you to join us as we “Spread the Word to End the Word” this month. Help the youth spread the word by mobilizing your athletes, volunteers, coaches, staff, families and local youth to support their efforts. Graphics, tools and resources can be found at http://www.specialolympics.org/stw_resources.aspx  

Let’s make Montana (and every other state) a voice of acceptance, inclusion, unity and community.  Be a fan and “Spread the Word to End the Word”.   Please cut and past this campaign message and route to all in your email database, through your Facebook, MySpace and Twitter connections.  And, then, ask your contacts to pass this message forward until everyone across this planet hears our message.