After the last and final presidential debate, conservative columnist and lawyer Ann Coulter took to Twitter and called President Barrack Obama a "retard." Her comments sparked a rage on Twitter. While many people agreed that it was not her opinion, but her choice of words, no one could have expressed this disapproval more appropriately than John Franklin Stephens.
Stephens is a 30 year-old special Olympian who suffers from Down's syndrome. In a letter released to the media, Stephens says the use of the word "retard" was insensitive. An excerpt of the letter is as follows:
"After I saw your tweet, I realized you just wanted to belittle the President by linking him to people like me. You assumed that people would understand and accept that being linked to someone like me is an insult and you assumed you could get away with it and still appear on TV," as reported by The Special Olympics website.
Stephens goes on to say, "Well, Ms. Coulter, you, and society, need to learn that being compared to people like me should be considered a badge of honor. No one overcomes more than we do and still loves life so much. Come join us someday at Special Olympics. See if you can walk away with your heart unchanged."
Whether the very visceral letter has made an impact on Coulter is uncertain, however it certainly grabbed the attention of 10,000 people on Facebook and 6,000 on Twitter.
You can read the entire letter here.
Coulter's tweet in question read as follows: "I highly approve of Romney's decision to be kind and gentle to the retard," on @AnnCoulter.
