the "n' word

 

I know what you are thinking.

The “n” word is a word that you can no longer say in public because it could get you fired or harshly criticized.

However, this article is not about THAT “n’ word.

It’s about THIS one:

Neurodivergent - and it’s a word that none of us were familiar with until this past week.

We watched nearly all of the DNC convention this past week, and were amazed at how uplifting it was. In addition to the numerous entertainers, we also heard some of the best political speeches that we have heard for a long time.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_Democratic_National_Convention

 In contrast, the RNC convention was the polar opposite. It was so bad, in fact, that I could not watch it after Tuesday night, since I nearly threw my shoe at the TV after listening to Kari Lake.

The “entertainers” were Kid Rock and Hulk Hogan, who tore off his shirt.

Kamala Harris has been a successful prosecutor, a competent senator, and a highly credible vice president. Tim Walz took a 0 and 27 football team to a state championship. In addition to that, he served 24 years in the National Guard, and also served many years as a public education teacher.

The top of the ticket on the other side is a convicted felon and con man who never grew up (hence, all the name calling) and an inexperienced young politician who claims to have had sex with a couch.

Lost in the shuffle was a moment that utterly defines what the Democratic party is, a party that is committed to building up, and not tearing down. It’s a party that proudly wears “compassionate” on its sleeve, and one brief moment provided visual proof of that.

Tim and Gwen Walz struggled with fertility issues.

 

https://www.cnn.com/2024/08/20/politics/gwen-walz-fertility-struggles/index.html

Minnesota first lady Gwen Walz clarified in a statement to CNN that she did not use in vitro fertilization to conceive, sharing new details about her and Gov. Tim Walz’s fertility struggles as the governor has highlighted their experience with infertility on the campaign trail.

In her statement, Gwen Walz said they used a different fertility treatment, intrauterine insemination.

In campaign speeches since joining the Democratic ticket as Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate, Walz has often characterized the issue of access to IVF treatment as “personal” to him and his family while sharing the story of his and his wife’s journey to conceiving their two children.

“This one’s personal for me about IVF and reproductive care,” Walz told supporters at a rally in Glendale, Arizona, earlier this month. “When we wanted to have children, we went through years of fertility treatment.”

And in an MSNBC interview in July, he continued attacking Republican vice-presidential nominee JD Vance for his opposition to a bill that would have guaranteed access to IVF nationwide, while appearing to link the treatment to the birth of his two children.

“Thank God for IVF, my wife and I have two beautiful children,” he said.

In a statement to CNN, Gwen Walz said that they tried intrauterine insemination, a process she described as “an incredibly personal and difficult experience.”

“Like so many who have experienced these challenges, we kept it largely to ourselves at the time – not even sharing the details with our wonderful and close family. The only person who knew in detail what we were going through was our next-door neighbor,” she said in the statement.

“She was a nurse and helped me with the shots I needed as part of the IUI process. I’d rush home from school and she would give me the shots to ensure we stayed on track,” she continued.

 Their first child was a daughter, who they named Hope. Their second child was a boy, who they named Gus. Although their daughter was normal in every respect, their son, who they named Gus, was not.

 https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/23/opinion/tim-walz-son-gus.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=c-cb

 

Gus Walz has, according to his parents, a nonverbal learning disorder, A.D.H.D. and an anxiety disorder, all of which they regard not as a setback but as his “secret power,” that makes him “brilliant” and “hyperaware.”

The sight at the Democratic convention on Wednesday night of Tim Walz’s 17-year-old son leaping to his feet, with streaming eyes, a hand to his chest with a cry of “That’s my dad” was heart piercing.

There’s something of a trend at the moment for certain businesses to say they encourage the hiring of people who are neurodivergent. Sadly, it can be just virtue signaling. Employers like to think that a person who is neurodivergent is some secretly brilliant introvert who writes code in his apartment all day, not the more likely candidate: an awkward kid with a gentle smile who takes time to get the hang of things and talks too much about the same subjects.

 

The most painful thing for a parent is to pick up on the scorn of strangers that her child often doesn’t notice; the whispered insults or titter at the next table. Remember Donald Trump Jr.’s sneer at the 2023 Conservative Political Action Conference? Referring to Senator John Fetterman’s struggles to recover after his stroke, Mr. Trump said that Pennsylvania had “managed to elect a vegetable.”

“I’d love for John Fetterman to have, like, good gainful employment,” he continued. “Maybe he could be, like, a bag guy at a grocery store.”

Is it possible to go any lower than that?

Trump, of course, has a long history of mocking just about everyone, as exemplified ty the childless nicknames that he has used.

The low point, of course, was in 2016, when he mocked the New York Times reporter,

Trump has denied that he meant to mock the reporter, Serge Kovaleski, who has arthrogryposis, a congenital condition affecting the joints.

His initial offense, in Trump's eyes, was denying the candidate's description of Kovaleski's reporting on unsubstantiated allegations that Muslims in New Jersey celebrated on 9/11.

As recently as July 29, Trump insisted, “I didn’t know what he looked like. I didn’t know he was disabled."

He has maintained that his physical affect in imitation of Kovaleski was because "He was groveling, grovel, grovel, grovel. That was the end of it. All of a sudden, I get reports that I was imitating a reporter who was handicapped. I would never do that."

The Washington Post’s factchecker responded, “Much of what Trump says is Four-Pinocchios false.”

Among other falsehoods described by the Post, including the fact that the "groveling" charge makes no sense in context, and Kovaleski, who now works for the New York Times, has said, "Donald and I were on a first-name basis for years."

The poll was conducted before Trump sparked furor with a comment about "Second Amendment people" that was interpreted by many as a veiled suggestion of violence against Clinton.

Still, given the lasting stigma around people with disabilities and the easiness with which pop culture has mocked them over the years, the outraged reaction from the public is striking.

"People are starting to see people with disabilities for their abilities,” said Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi, president of the advocacy group RespectAbility, citing Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps, who has Attention Deficit Disorder, and Nyle DiMarco, winner of America’s Next Top Model and Dancing with the Stars, who is deaf.

“But one thing they don’t want to see about people with disabilities is for us to be bullied,” she added.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/trump-s-worst-offense-mocking-disabled-reporter-poll-finds-n627736

But how could Don Jr. be any different from his father? The elder Donald Trump has never missed the chance to denigrate people with disabilities, and already the MAGA crowd is mocking Gus Walz’s emotional embrace with his dad. “Talk about weird …” the conservative media ghoul Ann Coulter posted (and later deleted).

If the Harris-Walz ticket wins, will parents of people who struggle with being different at last find a powerful advocate in the White House? This voiceless community is in desperate need of a new, mighty champion.

 

Coach Walz, you who have been such an inspiring role model to kids all your life, and were caring enough to offer your own credibility to the role of faculty adviser of a new high school gay-straight alliance, please make this your cause.