The most memorable line in the movie “Forrest Gump” is the
line listed above. Audiences loved the movie, and it took in a total of $677.9 million,
a nice return on an investment of $55 million. The movie also won 6 Oscars,
including Best Picture.
A similar movie, “Rain Man” was released in 1988. It cost $25
million to produce, and had a box office of $345.8 million. It won 4 Oscars,
including Best Picture.
Today, both Forrest Gump and Raymond Babbitt would be
considered to be “special needs” children. When I was in high school, they both
would be considered “retarded”, a term that has gradually faded from polite society,
in part due to the founding of the Special Olympics by Eunice Kennedy Shriver in
1968.
Even
though the Special Olympics helped to create a more favorable image for persons
with disabilities, it wasn’t until the passage of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) in 1989 that
formal programs for persons with disabilities were established, and a few years
later, the “inclusion” of disabled students within
“normal” classrooms started to become more common.
In
an effort to stop the use of the term “retarded”, the Special Olympics of 2013
developed a simple phrase called “spread the word - end the word”. In order to
facilitate the message, the organization also started a website to allow people
to share their stories about working with disabled children:
All
of us see people with disabilities on a fairly regular basis, and my wife and I
(due to our work in local school districts) have had frequent exposure to students with
“disabilities”. As a result of that exposure, we consider ourselves to be
blessed, due to the fact that we work with truly unique individuals, and (in
our limited capacities) make a difference in their lives.
My most recent exposure to a special needs class was just
yesterday. Again, the vast majority of the kids in the room really were not
much different than “normal” kids, but there were 2 or 3 kids who will never be
able to make meaningful contributions to society. The more callous members of
our society might say to simply get rid of them, but our society as a whole
would be horrified at the prospect of simply murdering a child just because we
would be forced to support them for the rest of their lives.
As a society, the United States is a very generous country,
which is why it would be unthinkable for us to kill children in order to save
money. We are still ranked the 5th most generous country in the world,
but we have become less generous since the election of Donald Trump.
There WAS a time in history when “retards” WERE killed by a
modern society.
In 1939, Nazi Germany started the T4 program in order to kill incurably ill,
physically or mentally disabled, emotionally distraught, and elderly people. Adolf
Hitler initiated the program in 1939, and, while it was
officially discontinued in 1941 (due to public outrage) , killings continued
covertly until the military defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945.
https://www.britannica.com/event/T4-Program
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/hitler-suspends-euthanasia-program
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/hitler-suspends-euthanasia-program
It’s extremely unlikely that the United States would ever
start a program similar to Germany’s T4, but the fact remains that we HAVE become far
less humane since January of 2017.
If you review “the 14 signs of fascism” you’ll quickly realize
that we actually are now living in a fascist society.
The current occupant of the White House exhibits all 14 of the
characteristics of a fascist leader. In addition, if you can spare 7 minutes,
it would be worthwhile to watch the pro-Nazi rally that was held in New York City
in the early months of 1939:
If you have even more time to spare, I would recommend watching
the 2017 movie titled “ A Night at the Garden”, which is a documentary about
the pro-Nazi rally. Whether you watch the short version or the long version,
you’ll realize that they are EXACTLY like today’s Trump rallies. When a BBC
reporter was attacked at a Trump rally in El Paso earlier this year, this is
what Jim Acosta had to say:
Since it has been a while since any of us have seen “Forrest
Gump”, you’ll enjoy watching the clip below, which includes 25 famous quotes
from the movie.
In closing, I’ll borrow one of them and say” that’s all I got
to say about that.”
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