Soeren Palumbo speech

[Guest guest]

I thought IPADD would like to hear what Soeren Polumbo is doing these days.

Christensen

UPS for DownS Soeren Palumbo speech

Soeren Palumbo wrote this as a senior honors student at Fremd High School in

Wheeling, Illinois and delivered it during Writer's Week to a gymnasium full

of his high school peers and faculty and received a standing ovation. Soeren

is big brother to Olivia, who has a developmental disability. We need more

Soerens in the world! Soeren never felt that there would be interest in his

piece beyond the doors of the school. He was wrong.

I want to tell you a quick story before I start. I was walking through

hallways, not minding my own business, listening to the conversations around

me. As I passed the front door on my way to my English classroom, I heard

the dialogue between two friends nearby. For reasons of privacy, I would

rather not give away theirrace or gender.

So the one girl leans to the other, pointing to the back of a young man

washing the glass panes of the front door, and says, " Oh my gaw! I think it

is so cute that our school brings in the black kids from around the district

to wash our windows! " The other girl looked up, widened her slanted Asian

eyes and called to the window washer, easily loud enough for him to hear,

" Hey, Negro! You missed a spot! " The young man did not turn around. The

first girl smiled a bland smile that all white girls - hell, all white

people - have and walked on. A group of Mexicans stood by and laughed that

high pitch laugh that all of them have.

So now it's your turn. What do you think the black window washer did? What

would you do in that situation? Do you think he turned and calmly explained

the fallacies of racism and showed the girls the error of their way? That's

the one thing that makes racism, or any discrimination, less powerful in my

mind. No matterhow biased or bigoted a comment or action may be, the guy can

turn around and explain why racism is wrong and, if worst comes to worst,

punch em in the face.

Discrimination against those who can defend themselves, obviously, cannot

survive. What would be far worse is if we discriminated against those who

cannot defend themselves. What then, could be worse than racism?

Look around you and thank God that we don't live in a world that

discriminates and despises those who cannot defend themselves. Thank God

that every one of us in this room, in this school hates racism and sexism

and by that logic discrimination in general. Thank God that every one in

this institution is dedicated to the ideal of mutual respect and love for

our fellow human beings. Then pinch yourself for living in a dream. Then

pinch the hypocrites sitting next to you. Then pinch the hypocrite that is

you.

Pinch yourself once for each time you have looked at one of your fellow

human beings with a mental handicap and laughed. Pinch yourself for each and

every time you denounced discrimination only to turn and hate those around

you without the ability to defend themselves, the only ones around you

without the ability to defend themselves. Pinch yourself for each time you

have called someone else a " retard " .

If you have been wondering about my opening story, I'll tell you that it

didn't happen, not as I described it. Can you guess what I changed? No, it

wasn't the focused hate on one person, and no it wasn't the slanted Asian

eyes or cookie cutter features white people have or that shrill Hispanic

hyena laugh (yeah, it hurts when people make assumptions about your person

and use them against you doesn't it?).

The girl didn't say " hey Negro. " There was no black person.

It was a mentally handicapped boy washing the windows. It was " Hey retard. "

I removed the word retard. I removed the word that destroys the dignity of

our most innocent. I removed the single most hateful word in the entire

English language.

I don't understand why we use the word; I don't think I ever will.

In such an era of political correctness, why is it that retard is still ok?

Why do we allow it? Why don't we stop using the word? Maybe students can't

handle stopping- I hope that offends you students, it was meant to - but I

don't think the adults, here can either.

Students, look at your teacher, look at every member of this faculty. I am

willing to bet that every one of them would throw a fit if they heard the

word faggot or nigger - hell the word Negro - used in their classroom. But

how many of them would raise a finger against the word retard? How many of

them have? Teachers, feel free to raise your hand or call attention to

yourself through some other means if you have. That's what I thought.

Clearly, this obviously isn't a problem contained within our age group.

So why am I doing this? Why do I risk being misunderstood and resented by

this school's student body and staff? Because I know how much you can learn

from people, all people, even - no, not even, especially - the mentally

handicapped.

I know this because every morning I wake up and I come downstairs and I sit

across from my sister, quietly eating her cheerio's. And as I sit down she

sets her spoon down on the table and she looks at me, her strawberry blonde

hair hanging over her freckled face almost completely hides the question

mark shaped scar above her ear from her brain surgery two Christmases ago.

She looks at me and she smiles. She has a beautiful smile; it lights up her

face. Her two front teeth are faintly stained from the years of intense

epilepsy medication but I don't notice that anymore. I lean over to her and

say, " Good morning, Olivia. " She stares at me for a moment and says quickly,

" Good morning, Soeren, " and goes back to her cheerio's.

I sit there for a minute, thinking about what to say. " What are you going to

do at school today, Olivia? " She looks up again. " Gonna see Mista Bee! " she

replies loudly, hugging herself slightly and looking up. Mr. B. is her gym

teacher and perhaps her favorite man outside of our family on the entire

planet and Olivia is thoroughly convinced that she will be having gym class

every day of the week. I like to view it as wishful thinking.

She finishes her cheerio's and grabs her favorite blue backpack and waits

for her bus driver, Miss Debbie, who, like clockwork, arrives at our house

at exactly 7'o'clock each morning. She gives me a quick hug goodbye and runs

excitedly to the bus, ecstatic for another day of school.

And I watch the bus disappear around the turn and I can't help but remember

the jokes. The short bus. The retard rocket. No matter what she does, no

matter how much she loves those around her, she will always be the butt of

some immature kid's joke. She will always be the butt of some mature kid's

joke. She will always be the butt of some " adult's " joke.

By no fault of her own, she will spend her entire life being stared at and

judged. Despite the fact that she will never hate, never judge, never make

fun of, never hurt, she will never be accepted. That's why I'm doing this.

I'm doing this because I don't think you understand how much you hurt others

when you hate. And maybe you don't realize that you hate. But that's what

is; your pre-emptive dismissal of them, your dehumanization of them, your

mockery of them, it's nothing but another form of hate.

It's more hateful than racism, more hateful than sexism, more hateful than

anything. I'm doing this so that each and every one of you, student or

teacher, thinks before the next time you use the word " retard " , before the

next time you shrug off someone else's use of the word " retard " . Think of

the people you hurt, both the mentally handicapped and those who love them.

If you have to, think of my sister. Think about how she can find more

happiness in the blowing of a bubble and watching it float away than most of

will in our entire lives. Think about how she will always love everyone

unconditionally. Think about how she will never hate. Then think about which

one of you is " retarded " .

Maybe this has become more of an issue today because society is changing,

slowly, to be sure, but changing nonetheless. The mentally handicapped

aren't being locked in their family's basement anymore.

The mentally handicapped aren't rotting like criminals in institutions. Our

fellow human beings are walking among us, attending school with us, entering

the work force with us, asking for nothing but acceptance, giving nothing

but love. As we become more accepting and less hateful, more and more

handicapped individuals will finally be able to participate in the society

that has shunned them for so long. You will see more of them working in

places you go, at Dominicks, at Jewel, at Wal-Mart. Someday, I hope more

than anything, one of these people that you see will be my sister.

I want to leave you with one last thought. I didn't ask to have a mentally

handicapped sister. She didn't choose to be mentally handicapped. But I

wouldn't trade it for anything. I have learned infinitely more from her

simple words and love than I have from any classroom of " higher education " .

I only hope that, one-day, each of you will open your hearts enough to

experience true unconditional love, because that is all any of them want to

give. I hope that, someday, someone will love you as much as Olivia loves

me. I hope that, someday, you will love somebody as much as I love her. I

love you, Olivia.

Soeren Palumbo