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Thursday, December 15, 2005 |
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Blog Making fun of Death....
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Ok I have held off on this post so far,but am going to go ahead and post it.Recently there has been an uproar in the Angelman community over a blog created by a 20 yr old college student, that poked fun at the death of an Angelman child. It was distasteful and hard to read.Below is the article written in a St. Louis newspaper.
By Bill McClellanST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH12/11/2005Bill McClellan[More columns][Bill's Biography]Matthew was born with Angelman syndrome. He was mentally retarded. He was prone to seizures. As is typical of children with the genetic disorder, his movements were jerky and marionette-like. When he was 12 years old, he got up in the middle of the night and went into the living room. He opened a footrest on a reclining chair and put his head in. His jerky movements apparently caused the footrest to clamp down on his neck. Efforts to extricate himself only made matters worse. He suffocated.Are you having fun yet?Me neither. But let me continue.Matthew's sister wrote an account of her brother's death for a Web site created for the siblings of children with Angelman syndrome. The Web site was set up so these siblings could talk with other kids who are confronting the same problems. It is not easy to live with a disabled sibling. And so Matthew's sister posted her note. She said her brother was still an important part of her life. A student from Washington University came upon the Web site. She linked the site to her personal blog and she wrote:
"Welcome, gentle readers, to a special installment, designed to raise awareness of Angelman's syndrome - the world's most hilarious form of mental retardation." She put in a warning: "Stop here if you can't stand retard jokes."She defined the fate of children born with the syndrome: "In essence, they become the ultimate spaz." Maybe her grammar wasn't so good, and I'm patching up some of her spelling, but you get the spirit of the thing. She quoted Matthew's sister's entry, and wrote: "It really breaks my heart to hear of little Matthew's accidental, self-inflicted, and cartoonish death. I'm very sorry . . . but not so sorry that the thought of a retard strangling himself with a Lay-Z-Boy doesn't make me break into hysterical laughter. But seriously folks, our society needs to get to know Angelman syndrome. We need to grow closer as a community and love our 'tards."Perhaps because she had linked the Web site to her blog, parents of children with Angelman syndrome read her postings. Many were furious. They posted angry notes on her blog. Some threatened to complain to Washington University. The student mocked and taunted the parents."Believe it or not, gentle readers, my blog was on my college application. For my writing scholarships, at least. Apparently some members of academia find my (expletive deleted) amusing. Who'da thunk it." She taunted another parent, a mother, and said that she bet the mother, when pregnant, had dreamed of a child with whom she could talk about books, a child who would someday go to college, who would someday get married.The rhetoric got more heated. The student's mother contributed a posting. "People - puh-leeze! You visit a blog to read the personal ramblings of a college student who may or may not express a politically correct viewoint on a subject in which you have an emotional investment and you feel you can dictate both the tone and the content of said essays. You may not. Oh wait! I get it! You have to assault my daughter with your gramatically challenged rants because you will never be able to direct your frustration where it really belongs: your 'little angel.' Let's take a survey: Despite growing pressure in this country to never say or write anything which has the teeth to offend so much as a blade of grass, how many readers think Death by Barcalounger is hilarious? I do, so blame me for my daughter's ability to twist tragedy into sarcastic irony."
That posting explained a lot.Because the student has boasted about her scholarships at Washington University, many parents complained to the university. Those complaints landed on the desk of James E. McLeod, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. I visited him Friday.He said he had heard from many parents. I could use many words to describe their messages, he said. Most were angry. Most were hurt. Some were outraged. Some understood the difficulty of responding to personal views on a personal blog, he said. He wrote a letter of apology to the parents on behalf of the university for the "insensitivity of our student."McLeod said he could not discuss any conversations he might have had with the student - and I have decided not to use her name because she calls herself, on her blog, "an attention whore," and would clearly relish more notoriety - but he did say that it would be fair to say that free speech is the guiding principle in this case."To punish a person for their words would be a serious breach in our understanding of this principle," he said. "The principle is awfully precious."It is a principle that only comes to the fore when the speech is unpopular. Still, it would be much easier to defend free speech if the speech involved some unpopular political viewpoint. But making fun of severely retarded children? Making light of a such a child's death?"It's painful," McLeod said.
Anyway just thought some of you might want to read this. Most of you who know us,have heard my husband and I speak of this incident. I just thought you might want to read what all the fuss was about.
I must say that it is really sad that there are people that think like this, in our society. We can only hope that one day when she grows up,she will understand that she has taken things to far and understand why all of us parents and friends are so quick to stand up an defend our kiddos, when we feel they are being violated. Sorry to upset anyone with this post. |
posted by angelwings
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2:37 AM
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