What?

Last night President Obama appeared on the Jay Leno show. Kris and I watched a few minutes of it and were even commenting that although we are not big fans of his, he did seem real and personable. Well than we turned it off and apparantly towards the end of the interview he made a self depreciating remark about his bowling skills at the expense of the Special Olympics. Here's the exchange:
LENO: Now, are they going to put a basketball -- I imagine the bowling alley has been just burned and closed down.
THE PRESIDENT: No, no. I have been practicing my bowling-- (laughter.)
LENO: Really? Really?
THE PRESIDENT: I bowled a 129. (Laughter and applause.)
LENO: No, that's very good. Yes. That's very good, Mr. President.
THE PRESIDENT: It's like -- it was like Special Olympics, or something. (Laughter.)
LENO: No, that's very good.
THE PRESIDENT: No, listen, I'm making progress on the bowling, yes.

I found these comments on Macey's mom's blog and I hope she doesn't mind me sharing them. She said just what I was thinking....

"I must say I am quite disappointed... In so many aspects of this simple exchange. I am confused as to why the President of the Free World, who has claimed discrimination himself, feels that it is OK to target the Special Olympics and by proxy those involved, as a joke. Would he think differently if one of his 2 daughters happened to have a disability of some sort (which they could acquire at any time)? While this would just seem a simple joke and no big deal to a lot of the population, including individuals in my own life, words like these really do hurt SO many people.How is the teenager proud of their hard earned Special Olympics accomplishments going to feel when they see the President they respect to lead the country degrade them? I can tell you how a mama of a precious baby girl feels to hear of this... hurt once again and worried about Macy's future interactions with others.The comments at the end of the article make things even worse and all I can do is hope and pray that the majority of the people we have daily contact do not think the way so many others do, those who express rage by this so-called imposed "political correctness" getting in the way of their free speech. While I am extremely grateful for the freedom of speech we enjoy I wish we all (including you Mr. President) would be a little more careful in the words we choose.To his credit, Mr. Obama did apologize to Tim Shriver, President of the Special Olympics. He realized the error of his ways (or his PR people did). I wonder if he was sincerely sorry for his words, or just sorry he said them on national television.One of the best responses I have read comes from a lovely young lady named Sarah please read it here.I also love the thoughts of the mother of Emma Sage."

I felt a little better that he made an apology so quickly, at least that was something. I guess we all make mistakes but I just would have thought that in his position and his platform of "equality" that he would have known better.

Words do hurt and we can all do better at being careful not to make jokes at other peoples expense!

When Tom Shriver, the president of the special Olympics was interviewed about it on the Good Morning show this morning one of his comments was this""This kind of language needs to be a teachable moment for our country, I think," Shriver said. I would help every parent that's at home this morning watching this show could turn to their children and say, 'this is a chance for us to recognize that when we talk about Special Olympics, when we talk about people with special needs, let's make sure we talk about it in an affirming way."