[dubc80]

I feel like I am on good authority to comment on this as I have an awesome 4-year old daughter who has Down Syndrome.

I'm definitely more aware of the use of the word now, than before.

- Did I used to say the word? Yes

- Do I use the word now? No

- Do I look down on people who say the word? Not really but it does perk up my ears and make me cringe a bit. I'd say most people are not using the word as a way to explicitly put down people with disabilities but use it as an alternative to the word "dumb", or "stupid"... which are also not kind words.

Much to my surprise, Ive called people out on it on 2 different occasions. Both instances were in semi-professional settings where I knew the offender and was comfortable bringing it up.

In both cases I was like "Hey man, you probably dont know this, but I have a daughter with special needs and that word is kind of offensive to me. Can we maybe choose a different word next time?"

Both people felt extremely bad and apologized. I'd even go as far to say that they did not even realize the impact the word could have on others and would think twice about using it in the future.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that it doesn't totally trigger our family and I'm not going to be a Karen and start a fight about it, but we try to educate people to hopefully change their behaviors when we get the opportunity.

Yes, that includes random people on hockey message boards!