This post is brought to you by the letter R!
Words.
"What's most exasperating about the flap surrounding White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel's recently publicized use of the "R-word"?
The fact that he made the remark six months ago but it somehow only surfaced last week, (perhaps in the wake of growing disenchantment with the president)? Or that Sarah Palin, via Facebook, is calling for Emanuel's resignation and at the same time defending Rush Limbaugh's repeated use of the word? Or Emanuel's round of perfunctory apologies, notably to Special Olympics Chief Executive Timothy Shriver, who, with other advocates of the mentally disabled, issued a press release saying Emanuel has promised the Obama administration will "look for ways to partner with us, including examining pending legislation in Congress to remove the R-word from federal law"?
The "R-word" in question is not "recession" or "reform" (as in healthcare) or even "recall" (as in Toyota) but "retarded."
...It's not clear when the counter started keeping track, but as of Wednesday, it says The Times had used the "R-word" 16 times. I can promise you, though, that we didn't use it the way Emanuel did. That's because his exact words combined "retarded" with an expletive that, while quotidian for the famously foul-mouthed Emanuel, is barred from this family newspaper. I trust you know what I'm talking about.
Tellingly, it's something like that kind of trust -- the covenant that helps us understand each other despite unclear speech and misused words -- that appears to be missing from this tempest in a teapot. And because this misunderstanding pretty clearly falls into the willful category, I think it's fair to call it a high violation of that trust. Moreover, the surrounding opportunism is far uglier than anything Emanuel said.
Anyone even slightly capable of understanding meaning versus mere words (and despite her acts to the contrary, that includes Palin) can see that the chief of staff harbors no animosity toward the developmentally disabled...Sure, he should have known better, but compared to Limbaugh -- who (on the radio) referred to a Shriver meeting at the White House as a "retard summit" -- Emanuel doesn't need to be first in line for sensitivity training.
...by all appearances, Emanuel hasn't joined Shriver's cause as much as he's been bullied into performing community service for it. And that, I dare say, is a [insert your word of choice here] waste of time. Not only because there are better people for the job (those with expertise in the rights of the developmentally disabled) but because Emanuel surely has other "R-words" to deal with."
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