R-Word | Spread the word to end the word.. Robbie is My Reason for Running for Respect

You Abuse The Word: PTHS Spread the Word to End the Word

I run for, stand for, speak for and act for kindness and humanity.  If you KNEW of what you spoke, you would learn to respect humanity.  The person you judge harshly for something they could not control, or something you simply do not understand.  Let us do away with the notion of shameful unkind language.. Let us show our love to one another in all times, for all the people we are.  Perhaps if we judged less, and loved more, we discover something far richer-- RESPECT.   

  I pledge #Respect thru my words & actions. I pledge and support the elimination of the derogatory use of the r-word from everyday speech and promote the acceptance and inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities.  Will you? Pledge now to create communities of inclusion for people  http://r-word.org http://r-word.org  

This is an important topic,  Robbie is my Reason for making a commitment on 02/10/2015 to run the Run For Respect, Virtual 5K for Respect, more on that story later.  I have not run a 5K since 2009, however when contacted yesterday and asked to support it, I agreed immediately because it is a cause I have believed in since before there WAS a cause.

The Run for Respect is one powerful virtual way you can do something very tangible to end the "R-word", "retarded" by "running" for "respect.   Laura Baumgartner is an excellent teacher at Pontiac Township High School who developed curriculum, a program, and this event that helps teach her students about the goodness in the world, with the importance of respectful discourse.

http://runforrespect.weebly.com/  

Annual Run for Respect Virtual 5K Run 

The Annual Run For Respect VIRTUAL 5K RUN is being held in Pontiac, Illinois on April 11. Pontiac Township High School "Peers In Action" and Life Skills classes partner with  the Special Olympics Project UNIFY to SPREAD THE WORD TO END THE WORD, to replace the hurtful r-word (retard/retarded) with the new r-word RESPECT.  They welcome and encourage supporters worldwide to join by RUNNING (or WALKING) in our VIRTUAL RUN anytime between now and May 1. The cost to join this run is $20.00 and you will receive a bib and an awesome engraved medal, you simply sign up individually, or pull together a team in your location, where-ever you are, and send pictures of the day of your event and run. 

Its just starting and people world wide are enthusiastically committed to running a 5K between now and May 1, from as far away as Germany, several Illinois schools are participating, and all across the United States - including runners or teams are supporting this important run for respect in San Diego, and the Bay Area in California, Florida, Kentucky, South Carolina, Tennessee, 

Do you think about the power of your words? End the R-Word is a campaign about spreading the word, to end the word "RETARDED" from our vocabulary, and replace it with "RESPECT" 

ACTIONS YOU CAN TAKE TODAY

1. R-word| Spread the Word- Take the pledge  
2. How to portray people with Disabilities positively in Film   
3. How to treat others with disabilities 
4. Learn bullying prevention steps to encourage respectful behavior
5. Sign up for the "Run for Respect" 
1. Share with others, add in the comments on this blog to let me know if you will join the run and where you are running from too!!  
2. If you are in the Bay area and want to join a run team for this event between now and May 1, contact me Dawn C Khan  

Robbie is my Reason for Running for Respect

OH there are other reasons I am running for respect.  It is time to release all the history all the pain of the past, and honor the person we are today.  I have not run since 2009, but this is a cause that can not be ignored.  I run because I am proud of teachers Laura, Beth, Travis, Becky, and many others, who teach the importance of respect in our community.  I run  for Haley, Dawn, for Robbie, for the good and dedicated parents, family and caregivers, and well for anyone who suffered the unkindness of a community who does not understand someone who is different.

Perhaps I understand more, having been handicapped in high school myself.
Perhaps I understand for having family members surviving critical illness.
Perhaps I understand because I know what it is to have people turn away in fear or unkindness.
Perhaps I understand because I was raised with parents who taught me the values of helping one another and standing up for someone when its right, even if its not popular.

You see, I was 15 years old and probably the fist to be kicked off the school bus in my school.  I was taking the long bus ride home from high school, every day after school, all the grade school kids were picked up, and waiting on the bus when we were picked up at the high school for the long long drive through Livingston County to drop all of us off at our rural country homes.  My home, was the very very last stop on the route, and it felt like it would take forever to get home every night. 

I was kicked off the bus the day before I met Robbie.  It was perhaps the longest day on the bus ever.  The driver turned around, before driving us home, stood and announced to all of us, "Children, we will have a new student on the bus tomorrow, his and name is Robbie, and he is a little retarded boy, and I want you all to try to be nice to him".   

I heard a few kids snicker and giggle and make all kinds of horrible statements  and a sorrowful empathy filled me.. This empathy hurts, and on this night it would get me in trouble.   I didnt know him yet, but I knew that this type of announcement was NOT going to help,  At the end of the route, I tried to explain to the driver why that type of language was not helpful, and shouldnt be used.  I was basically told I was a kid and didnt know what I was talking about, whereupon, I escalated my language and told the driver that they are now responsible for Robbie's disadvantaged beginning.  "I don't like your tone, they told me, and informed me that I need to arrange alternative transportation with my parents, as I was being expelled from the bus."  

I was always taught by my parents to stand up for other people, and when I told them of the situation, we took a trip in town,  immediately to talk to the head of the bus department, and they got my 'expulsion' reversed.  The driver was given a talk to about the matter, and my "punishment" upon boarding the bus the next day was being greeted by the driver who said "Well if you feel so strongly about it "YOU" can sit with Robbie for the school year!" and that is how I became bus mate's with Robbie, a small very quiet thin boy with dark brown hair.  He was very shy, did not talk much, about anything but super heroes, but he was a good kid, and he had never deserved to be singled out. I was proud to know Robbie, and proud to stand up for him.  

I am proud of Pontiac Township High School Teacher, Laura Baumgartner, for her support of this cause.  She asked me to run yesterday, and immediately, after a rough few years, growing out of shape, and in no running condition whatsoever, I realized to tell the story, to commit to run for respect, was the right thing to do.  Robbie I dont know where you are, but I hope you are well.  

People deserve to be treated respectfully. We don't have choices in what we face or how we are, but we do have a choice in how we treat one another.  Let us be the kindness we want to be in the world.

Respect, its time to run for respect.  Respect for humanity, for fairness, for equality-- whether disabled or otherwise, regardless of our color, gender, religion, size, weight, economic advantage..

Let us return to a culture of caring and sharing to make this word a better place.. The change is possible in this lifetime.

Dawn C Khan  :   linkedin  | twitter   |