<table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0" ><tr><td valign="top" style="font: inherit;"><DIV>People use the term "retarded" in a derogatory manner. I think that is wrong, and what this bill is about. However, "mental retardation" is a medical term which means something specific to people in the medical field. If you change that, it will alter their level of needed care.</DIV>
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<DIV>Using the term "people with intellectual disabilities" doesn't tell me what I need to know to help that person. It doesn't communicate anything meaningful from medical staff to medical staff. Severe, moderate, or mild mental retardation tell me a great deal. I can use that term universally with a doctor in New Zeland, or a staff member in my own facility, and communicate a great deal of information about the kind of care they need instantly. </DIV>
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<DIV>This would be like eliminating grades K-5 and just using the term primary school not to offend K-5 graders. It would be confusing and frustrating to people in the education field. You would not where to put what teachers where and what kind of books or help the students needed, how to budget, or what lesson plans were needed. </DIV>
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<DIV>Trying to switch medical terms that are used universally for identifying the needs of persons in Idaho Statues could hurt the people they are trying to help by confusing federal and state agencies as to where resources, funding, and which kinds of medical staff need to go where. </DIV>
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<DIV>I think of instead of coming up with new words every ten years that mean the same thing to not offend people, we should not use words in a derogatory, improper, or negative manner. If we want to make up new words, lets make up words to label the people that make fun of people. </DIV>
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<DIV>And BTW, I don't think they should use African American to define people that happen to have black skin, because not all people with black skin are African Americans, as I had Jamaican point out me, who was neither African, nor an American. </DIV>
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<DIV>Your Friend,</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Donovan Arnold</DIV>
<DIV> <BR><BR>--- On <B>Tue, 2/9/10, Tom Hansen <I><thansen@moscow.com></I></B> wrote:<BR></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE style="BORDER-LEFT: rgb(16,16,255) 2px solid; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px"><BR>From: Tom Hansen <thansen@moscow.com><BR>Subject: [Vision2020] Outdated Language Targeted<BR>To: "Moscow Vision 2020" <vision2020@moscow.com><BR>Date: Tuesday, February 9, 2010, 5:27 PM<BR><BR>
<DIV class=plainMail>Courtesy of today's (February 9, 2010) Spokesman-Review.<BR><BR>----------------------------------------------------------<BR><BR>Outdated language targeted<BR>Bill would cut ‘idiot,’ ‘retarded’ from laws<BR>Betsy Z. Russell, The Spokesman-Review<BR><BR>BOISE – After Idaho hosted the Special Olympics World Winter Games last<BR>year, state Sen. Les Bock, D-Boise, said he was startled when reading<BR>through Idaho statutes to see outmoded terminology like “mentally<BR>retarded,” “mentally deficient” and even “lunatic” and “idiot.”<BR><BR>Hosting athletes from around the world with mental disabilities, Bock<BR>said, “I think … made all of us a little more sensitive with respect to<BR>some of the language we use.”<BR><BR>So the Boise attorney began working with state officials to search through<BR>state laws and found lots of that kind of wording. A half-dozen meetings<BR>followed with state Health and
Welfare officials, the Idaho Council on<BR>Developmental Disabilities, the courts, the state Department of Insurance<BR>and more.<BR><BR>In the end, Bock came up with an 84-page bill to update the wording in<BR>several sections of Idaho state law, from the probate code (which referred<BR>to “a decedent, an infant, lunatic or insolvent”) to the death penalty<BR>(which included a section headed, “Imposition of death penalty upon<BR>mentally retarded person prohibited”).<BR><BR>As the bill took shape, a section about “Contracts of Idiots” became<BR>“Contracts of Persons Without Understanding.” A clause about vocational<BR>education programs that said “handicapped students” was switched to<BR>“students with disabilities.”<BR><BR>When Bock presented the bill Monday to the Idaho Senate Judiciary and<BR>Rules Committee, state Sen. Shirley <SPAN>McKague</SPAN>, R-Meridian, asked if it would<BR>penalize people who use the outdated terms.
Bock said no. “That’s not in<BR>the bill,” he said.. “It’s not about requiring people to speak in a certain<BR>way. It’s about the language in the statute.”<BR><BR>Bock said the Special Olympics, which drew international attention to<BR>Idaho and brought hundreds of Idahoans out as volunteers to help with the<BR>games, opened his eyes about language referring to people with<BR>disabilities.<BR><BR>“We <SPAN>shouldn</SPAN>’t be labeling them in a way that’s disrespectful,” he said.<BR><BR>State Sen. Mike Jorgenson, R-Hayden Lake, noted that the long bill also,<BR>in one instance, changes the term “Afro-American” to “African-American.”<BR>Bock said that was simply a matter of updating a term that’s no longer in<BR>use.<BR><BR>The bill also, in several instances, changes the word “handicapped” to<BR>“impaired,” and removes the term “the mentally retarded” in favor of<BR>“people with intellectual disabilities.”
In all cases, Bock said, “the<BR>goal was absolutely no change in the substance of the law.”<BR><BR>The Senate committee voted unanimously to introduce the bill. To become<BR>law, it still needs to survive full committee hearings and votes in both<BR>houses, plus receive the governor’s signature.<BR><BR>----------------------------------------------------------<BR><BR>Seeya round town, Moscow.<BR><BR>Tom Hansen<BR>Moscow, Idaho<BR><BR>"The Pessimist complains about the wind, the Optimist expects it to change<BR>and the Realist adjusts his sails."<BR><BR>- Unknown<BR><BR><BR>=======================================================<BR>List services made available by First Step Internet, <BR>serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994. <BR> <A href="http://www.fsr.net/" target=_blank>http://www.fsr.net</A>
<BR> mailto:<A href="http://us.mc447.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=Vision2020@moscow.com" ymailto="mailto:Vision2020@moscow.com">Vision2020@moscow.com</A><BR>=======================================================<BR></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></td></tr></table><br>