Advocacy » Dont Lick The Ferrets

Ellen DeGeneres Walks Into A Bar

Feb 162012

Stop me if you’ve heard this one.

One Million Moms is a group of Christian moms who are affiliated with the American Family Association. They target specific issues such as television networks, sponsors, organizations, music, movies, etc. and tell you how you can take action and fight against the things they find simply atrocious in our society.

In the past, they claim their mission has caused advertisers to pull their ads from such shows as Pretty Little Liars, Glee, Two and a Half Men, The Cougar, Brothers and Sisters, Desperate Housewives and a few others.

In short? They are trying to rid the world of anything and everything that could somehow poison their children to the evils of sex, homosexuality, sex, divorce, sex and anything else not sanctioned by the bible.

(Personally, I think they all just need to get laid, but that’s just my opinion.)

The latest issue to get their proverbial, higher-than-thou undies in a bunch was JC Penney’s move to bring Ellen DeGeneres on as their official spokeswoman. This was just unacceptable as far as One Million Moms is concerned. I mean. Ellen? Ellen is *GASP* gay! How can SHE be their spokeswoman! Oh the horror!! Not a *GASP* lesbian!

Well, they simply cannot stand by and allow this to happen. Therefore, they immediately got to action and sent this letter to JC Penney.

DeGeneres is not a true representation of the type of families that shop at their store. The majority of JC Penney shoppers will be offended and choose to no longer shop there. The small percentage of customers they are attempting to satisfy will not offset their loss in sales.

JC Penney has made a poor decision and must correct their mistake fast to retain loyal customers and not turn away potential new, conservative shoppers with the company’s new vision.

By jumping on the pro-gay bandwagon, JC Penney is attempting to gain a new target market and in the process will lose customers with traditional values that have been faithful to them over all these years.

They went on to essentially threaten JC Penney and told them if they didn’t fire Ellen and remain “neutral in the culture war” they would burn in hell and die a slow and painful death. (I took the liberty of paraphrasing a bit here.)

Thankfully, their little plan of attack backfired pretty severely. Instead of being commended for defending family values, walking in the way of the Lord and protecting American children everywhere; they were seen for what they are. Bigots. Cowards. Closed minded twits. Discriminators. Ellen haters. That’s right, I said it. These women hate Ellen.

Now, hating Ellen is like drowning a basket full of cute little puppies. It’s like repeatedly running over a sack full of helpless kittens. It’s akin to kicking sweet innocent babies. She’s frickin’ ELLEN! She is America’s favorite lesbian! And notice I didn’t say “GAY America’s favorite lesbian.” People LOVE Ellen! They’ve done market research to prove it! Young people love her, old people love her, gay people love her, straight people love her…hell, I’m sure even America’s PETS love her! She’s just…..Ellen!

But they want her fired. Not because she can’t do the job. Not because she’s a drug addict. Not because she’s a hot mess of a prostitute. Not because she abuses puppies and children. Just because she’s gay. They want to fire her for being gay.

Really? Delusional, party for one million?

I mean, did they think JC Penney wasn’t AWARE Ellen was gay when they proposed a partnership with her? Do they think they took this decision lightly? Do they think they’d make a move that would cause them to LOOSE revenue? Apparently they need an education as much as they need a good lay.

I mean, until this entire debacle, had you ever heard of One Million Moms? What? No? Ok. Now, before this entire debacle, had you ever heard of Ellen? What? You have?? Point made.

JC Penney has responded to the suggestion Ellen be fired, with this statement:

“We stand squarely behind Ellen as our spokesperson, and that’s a great thing. Because she shares the same values that we do in our company. Our company was founded 110 years ago on The Golden Rule, which is about treating people fair and square, just like you would like to be treated yourself.”

Take that One Million (anti-gay, discriminatory, small minded) Moms! Did they really think JC Penney would just bow down to their ridiculous demands and fire Ellen? Why stop with Ellen? Hell, let’s fire ALL the gays who work for JC Penney! Better yet, let’s round them all up and send them to concentration camps and exterminate their existence from our precious children’s world!

Here’s the thing. SOME Christian communities go on and on about their wholesome and proper virtues. They build themselves up on God’s principles and what is “right” and “just” in their eyes. They preach love, understanding and community. They proclaim “God hates gays!” and yet, Ellen seems to be doing better than your average dyke! I mean, if God is so hateful of her, where’s her punishment? Where’s her downfall? Where’s God’s scorn??

Apparently, He isn’t working quickly enough for One Million Moms and they’ve taken it upon themselves to bring her down.

Well, try again, One Million Moms! This is one very big battle you have not only failed to win, but have shown yourselves for who you really are! Instead of taking time out of His day to slay gays everywhere, God may need to spend some time watching over any children of YOURS who may end up being gay. God knows they’ll need all the love and support they can get from the LGBT community when they’re chugging down pills and playing with razor blades because, after all, mom said God hates gays.

But Ellen doesn’t need me to stand up for her, she does that just fine on her own!

Oh, and Ellen? Your producers have still not contacted me about The T21 Traveling Afghan Project. What’s up with that??

**Note: For those of you interested, my awesome friend Laine (and I) belong to a group of One Million LBQT Moms and you can join too! This group was created as a direct response to One Million Mom’s ridiculousness in regard to Ellen. The group is all inclusive (we even have male members!) and is spreading like wildfire. Ellen is aware of the group, as is JC Penney. If you would like to be included, send a request to any member for access! (Including myself or Laine!)

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Yarn Buying

Advocacy, Down Syndrome, MeMa's World, T21 Traveling Afghan, Uncategorized No Responses »

Feb 122012

MeMa loves to help me pick out yarn for the T21 Traveling Afghan Project.

As I have mentioned before, she still doesn’t have an afghan of her own. Every time she picks out her own colors and I finish it, she immediately tries to shove it in a box and insists I mail it to one of her friends! Maybe one day!

Here she is helping me pick out yarn for a young lady named Tarenne! Her mom has been an amazing blogger friend of mine for many years! She is an amazing woman and she’s raising some amazing girls! (You can check out her blog at All 4 My Gals!)

I can’t wait to see how this orange, purple and green one turns out!

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January Accountability

Advocacy, Being Me, College Mom!, Down Syndrome, Life, T21 Traveling Afghan 4 Responses »

Feb 042012

Now that January has come to a close, I figured I would keep myself honest in terms of the goals I’ve set for this year!

My first goal was to complete and mail one afghan per week for the T21 Traveling Afghan Project. Well, I am ecstatic to report that I was able to mail out not four, but EIGHT afghans during the month of January! Yes, you read that right, I mailed out EIGHT afghans to absolutely adorable little kids sporting an extra chromosome!

While all eight afghans were mailed out in January, I didn’t make all eight of them from “scratch”! A few of them were in various states of being complete and I simply had to finish them up. But finish them I did (click on the image to enlarge it)!

I also got the T21 Travling Afghan Project completely updated in terms of where the afghan has been, where it’s going, which kids have their own afghans AND I organized all the addresses for its next stop…Germany!

If you want to keep up with the afghan on its travels, feel free to join our Facebook Group! (You do not have to be friends with me to be a member of the group, FYI!) There are some exciting things going on in Germany with the afghan and I can’t wait to see what unfolds!

As for my other goal, I did actually get something made for someone in my family, as well. Granted, it was another afghan, but you can never have too many of those now, can you?

This afghan was originally going to be offered up as available to a kiddo with Down syndrome, but somebody just so happened to fall in love with it! I’ve crafted many afghans over my nursingling while she sleeps or nurses, but this is the first one she’s taken such an interest in.

She loves putting her fingers through the holes, rubbing her fingers over the fuzziness and all out enjoys this one. Therefore, I figured we would just hang onto it as our own. It turned out absolutely gorgeous and I have to say I’m not too upset it isn’t going anywhere!

As you can see, someone else is a bit glad as well (again, click to enlarge)!

As soon as it was finished, I put it down for Cheeks to enjoy. She walked over to me, picked up my crochet hook and got right to “work” on the afghan! I have a feeling she’s going to be creating right alongside me as soon as she’s old enough to learn!

Personally, I’ve changed some of my eating habits and have dropped a bit of weight. My ultimate goal, for now, is fifty pounds. That’s a good twenty-five pounds less than I was when I got pregnant and would be a healthy (but not too thin) weight for me. I’m finding that implementing baby steps has been more successful than any dieting plan I’ve ever tried (and I’ve tried quite a few!)

I think I owe quite a bit of success to my phone, as stupid as that sounds! I have an awesome app that allows me to easily input what I’ve eaten and helps me keep within my goals for the day. I always do better at eating healthily when I journal what I eat, but I always lose my journal or various scraps of paper I use to write my foods on. Since my phone is always within easy reach, it’s been ridiculously simple to keep things in order.

As a family, we’re in the midst of planning a big trip this summer and beginning to put things into place in regards to adding to our family. We want Cheeks to have a sibling close in age and, let’s be honest, I’m not getting any younger now, am I? I’m also beginning to think about preparing to return to school this fall, but I have some time before I have to get serious about that.

Big changes, people, big changes!

So far? 2012 is rockin’ and rollin’ right along! How are your resolutions coming?!

Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other.
-Abraham Lincoln

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Educating About The Word Retard

Advocacy, Down Syndrome 6 Responses »

Jan 262012

MommyOf2 left a comment on this post that I wanted to address. Typically, I respond to comments in the comments section, but I think this question deserves its own post! For every parent who steps up and asks a question, there are countless more who sit back and wonder about the same thing.

MommyOf2 said:

I have a question for you, one that I am addressing in my home and want to do it the correct way. I have a 10 year old daugther who has said, several times over the past month “Retard”.. I don’t like the word no more then I like the “Nigger” or “Stupid” and many others. When I was younger in the 80′s Stupid and Retard where often spoken as what I would call a “Smart Allic Remark”.. now that I am older.. I just don’t like it.. I hear many parents who have children with DS and I know that at one point throughout there lives they have spoke the word Retard and I understand that now they are living with a child that has a disability they advocate even harder..so with that being said, I would hate for a parent to say something to my child for saying this word or bashing me for whatever reason.. Because I would not be nice in my response as to just because they have seen the light doesn’t give them right to call someone else out.. because I am sure throughout there days of saying this word no one called them out.. What I am trying to get at is how can I approach this subject with my daughter but also make her realize that because there are children that are different doesn’t mean they are retarded. Help.

I am far from an expert on anything, but I am quite good at coming up with some suggestions for how to go about handling just about anything. Now, every child is different (whether they are considered “typical” or not). What will work or affect one, won’t even register with another. Hopefully, ONE of these suggestions will help you!

My understanding is you are looking for a way to help your daughter understand there are people with different abilities and this doesn’t mean they should be referred to as “retarded”. You’re looking for a way to educate her about the word “retard” so YOU are the one handling the situation and not someone who overhears her using the word.

Having a teenager in the house, I completely get where you’re coming from! However, unlike the situation with my son, you don’t have a sibling to point to and say, “Do you realize how much that word HURTS your brother or sister?”

I would handle it the same way I would handle any other undesirable word.

Your first step is a basic conversation about differences. Explain that some people have more challenges in life than others and we can’t always see what those challenges may be. Tell her about Down syndrome. Tell her about Cerebral Palsy. Tell her about diabetes. Tell her about Autism.

Use Google’s Image feature to pull up photos of people who have different diagnoses. Type in children with “Down syndrome” and children with “cerebral palsy” and children with diabetes and children with Autism. Type in children with glasses or children with freckles.

Discuss with her how those children are LIKE her and how they’re DIFFERENT than her.

Explain to her that some people need to use a wheelchair to get around. This is something you CAN see. Some people need extra help learning to do things. This is something you CAN’T see. You can never tell by looking at someone what their difference may be. Ask her what she thinks makes her different from everyone else.

Then, tell her certain people used to be called “retards”, but that word hurts peoples’ feelings and makes them feel uncomfortable. Obviously, you’re daughter is going to want to know WHY it’s a hurtful word. So, you educate her, but let her do the footwork! Here are some ideas for a child her age.

1.) Do a “web” report.

I’m sure your daughter is very familiar with book reports and computers. Sit her down and direct her to “The R-Word: Spread the Word to End the Word” website. Ask her to watch some of the videos presented there, read what other people have to say on the subject and ask her to consider taking the pledge to not use the word “retard”.

Ask her to give you a report, either written or orally, about what she learned on the site. Answer any questions she has (or help her find them) and have an open conversation with her about it.

2.) Find a substitution.

Have your daughter look up the word “retard” in the dictionary. Discuss with her what it means and why it may hurt someone’s feelings. Then, have her come up with a list of words she could use instead of using the word “retard.” Who knows, maybe one of the words she comes up with will become her school’s new word of choice (just make sure it’s not one that could offend in some other way!)

3.) Consider how words affect others.

When my son was young, he hated to be called a “dork”. To me, it was a harmless little word, but it really hurt his feelings. I didn’t find the word offensive and it never bothered ME to be referred to as a “dork”, but I stopped using the word because of how HE felt about it.

Ask your daughter if she can come up with similar words that may not hurt HER feelings, but may hurt someone else. (Freckle face, four-eyes, carrot top, etc.)

Your goal is to get her to understand that just because a word may not be hurtful to one person, doesn’t mean it isn’t hurtful to someone else. The word “retard” is one of those words. It may not hurt HER feelings, but it could very easily hurt someone else’s.

3.) Make it all about her!

Ask your daughter to recall a time when her feelings were hurt because of something someone said to her or about her. Ask her what they said, how it made her feel and what that person could have said to her instead.

Ask her to recall a time when she may have said something that hurt someone’s feelings. Ask her how it felt to know she had hurt someone (whether intentional or not) because of the word she chose to use.

4.) Team up together!

I have to admit, I have used the word “retard” in the past. As a child, the word “re-re” was often used in our family. One day, my son said the word “retard” and gave me that, “Uh oh!” look and apologized. I commended him for apologizing and explained that there was once a time when I used the word as well. He was more than a little surprised and we talked about how it was used in his school, by his friends, etc.

I know he feels hesitant to speak out when he hears other kids use the word (peer pressure!) but I told him he can take a stand without calling the other kids out. Simply use other words. By not using the word “retard” he’s setting an example by not saying a word (literally.)

Whether you use the word or not, tell your daughter you will pledge to not use the word if she does.

5.) Be creative.

Have your daughter come up with a story about someone who used the word “retard” and hurt someone’s feelings. Have her include what could be done to make the hurt person feel better and explain why the person who used the word shouldn’t do so.

Depending on what type of thing your daughter is into, have her write a story (complete with illustrations), write a play (and recruit some friends to have her act it out) or write a song/poem.

I hope something here sounds like something that would benefit your daughter!

It may also be helpful to check out free content for websites. I’d love to hear some suggestions from other parents in regards to this topic! Please feel free to leave your idea in the comments!

Disability is a matter of perception. If you can do just one thing well, you’re needed by someone.
-Martina Navratilova

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Noah’s Dad, Rick Smith, Whatever

Advocacy, Blogging, Down Syndrome 44 Responses »

Jan 232012

Ok, so I touched on some issues among the Down syndrome community in my previous post. There is quite a bit of chatter regarding this particular blog, the means the blogger has used to call attention to it and the degrading way he steps on the rest of us to try to put himself “on top.”

This blogger has reached out and asked people to promote his blog in numerous ways. Yet, he has failed to return the favor, even when blatantly asked to do so. (For the record, I have had no contact with the blogger and have asked nothing of him. This isn’t about me, personally, as a blogger.) His wife is a pediatrician. He was asked to spotlight breastfeeding babies with Down syndrome since it is rarely discussed and he’s in an awesome position to do so. He has failed to make good on this request, even though the individual asking him was happy to do what he asked of her.

He is self-serving and he is using his son to propel himself (and his blog) into the limelight in order to make a quick dollar and gain notoriety.

But Rick Smith isn’t new to the blogging world. Far from it. Someone recently brought this blog, Rick Smith, to my attention. If you look back, he’s been blogging since December of 2008. For over three years, he’s blogged. And now, he’s using the birth of his son (and his blog, Noah’s Dad) to promote himself. He failed at being a “big name blogger” as a man and as a speaker, so now he’s chasing notoriety as the father to a child with Down syndrome to boost himself!

He’s taken more than one concept from more than one blogger, re-worked it and posted it as his own. Not only did he not give credit where credit was due, but when the blogger who originally posted a link in the comments section to her original post, Rick removed the comment with the link!

It’s ironic that he states there were NO positive blogs or sources of information available on the Internet when he began his journey with Down syndrome, yet he was more than proficient in finding a number of great blogs and resources to spam with his own self-serving blog. As a matter of fact, he spammed BabyCenter so hardcore he was banned from the Down syndrome board on the site!

He cleans up any negative or questioning comments left on his blog or Facebook page. Can we say censorship?

Here’s the bare bones of the situation. This blogger has stepped on others to get where he is right now. He has spammed numerous blogs, websites and resources in an attempt to gain as much in-coming traffic as he possibly can. Yet, he fails to provide any information (much less links) to the numerous positive resources which have been pointed out to him. He is all about his own goals. His own blog. His own agenda.

I am going to sit back and watch, over time, as his traffic dies out. His proverbial shout becomes a whisper and people see him for what he is. A self-promoting individual who cares less about Down syndrome advocacy and the Down syndrome community than he does about Rick. Rick. Rick. Rick.

Gag.

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