I wouldn’t have even bothered with this subject had my jaw not dropped two feet as I heard a guest on FOX NEWS grunting about the families of the mentally disabled being upset over the movie Tropic Thunder. The R word is used 17 times in the flick, while the N word is spoken only once. What made me stop in my tracks was that the speaker (sorry, I was flipping channels and didn’t catch who it was) brought up General Wesley Clark. Remember, a few weeks ago the General said that just being shot down doesn’t automatically qualify a person to be Commander-in-Chief.
Where was the outrage? Well, my guess is that these folks had better things to do than worry about what one politician said about another. My guess is that these two situations don’t really have a hell of a lot in common in the first place. My guess is that the only people who were outraged were McCain supporters who had to realise that General Clark was right.
Take the Russian invasion of Georgia, McCain’s perfect “three o’clock phone-call” moment. John McCain is going off half-cocked in full sabre-rattle mode, even though we don’t have troops to send over there thanks to the Surge, even though we need Russia’s help to cope with Iran’s nuclear program, and even though we have no moral authority since we invaded the sovereign nation of Iraq five years ago, with John McCain’s blessing.
I think what the guy on FOX NEWS was trying to get at was that we have free speech, and if you don’t want to see a movie where the mentally-challenged, or to be more exact, the actors who play the mentally-challenged, are satirized pretty harshly, don’t see it. Bringing Wesley Clark’s comments might not have been the smartest thing to do. Then again, Robert Downey Jr. in black-face was probably not a great idea either…


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August 14, 2008 at 7:07 am
missionmom
I guess another reason that people are upset about the film is that the studio, DreamWorks called in multiple consultants to help them over the issue of Robert Downey Jr.’s blackface. They didn’t hire any consultants from the special needs community to see whether the movie was offensive to people with special needs. The poster’s slogan was “once upon a time…there was a retard.” Imagine if they put the n word in instead? Or any offensive term. People with cognitive disabilities aren’t starting off on the same playing field as you and I. They are bullied and generally treated very poorly in life. People act like they don’t exist. Their crime? They were just born that way. I have a daughter with special needs. She’s about the most lovely kid you would ever meet and you wouldn’t know by looking at her that she is different. I think a lot of us parents are speaking out to protect our kids, a pretty normal and natural reaction when our children are being attacked. That’s how I see it as a mom. I don’t think any of us what to take away your right to see it, just hoping that there is still some decency out there and people will listen to both sides of the argument.
August 14, 2008 at 9:22 am
Kurt
I couldn’t agree more.
I didn’t know about the consultants brought in over Downey’s black-face, but they certainly should have gone through a similar protocol with the special needs community.
I wish you and your daughter the very best.
August 14, 2008 at 11:29 pm
Cats r Flyfishn
OT
Kurt – did you make a new blog? I thought you had a blog happening back in July.