Rahm Emanuel Apologizes for Using Insulting Language

posted on Feb 04 by Stacy in the Advocacy, Disability News, Opinion and Discussion category

Rahm Emanuel, the White House Chief of Staff, met today with advocates for the disabled and promised to sign a pledge to stop the use of the word “retarded”. He also said that legislation would be considered to strip the word from federal health, education and labor laws.

Emanuel apologized to Special Olympics CEO Tim Shriver in a thirty minute meeting with Mr. Shriver and other advocates, which included leaders of groups such as The American Association of People with Disabilities and The Arc.

In a joint statement released after the meeting, the groups and Emanuel agreed to “join more than 54,000 people in pledging to end the R-word at www.r-word.org.”

Peter Berns, CEO of The Arc, said after the session, Emanuel “started the meeting outright acknowledging that he had made a mistake, and acknowledging that he had hurt people through his actions. He was very straightforward about that, and he appeared to be very sincere.”

Have you signed the petition? If not, join thousands of others at: www.r-word.org

Sources:

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/03/emanuel-meets-with-disability-groups

http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474978029505&grpId=3659174697241980 (talks about the history of the issue, and how Mr. Shriver did not accept Emanuel’s apology at first)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/03/special-olympics-official_n_448178.html

http://www.r-word.org