Charlie's Angles

Last year, freshman Rep. Jan Angel (R-Port Orchard) introduced a ”respectful language” bill that when passed required the state to replace the harsh “mentally retarded” label with the less insulting “intellectual disability” designation. She is following up this year with an effort to broaden its scope, and recently issued a statement encouraging the U.S. Congress to enact a similar change.
There was a bit of grumbling at the time, even from some Angel supporters, that choosing such a lightweight topic as the subject of her first bill wasn’t a great move. First impressions, after all, are important.
But right now Angel looks pretty smart, because she latched on to an issue a year before it became national news.
Last month, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel apologized for the use of the R-word (incidentally in concert with the F-word) to describe a political opponent, and he then apologized to the head of the Special Olympics and promised to never do it again.
Sarah Palin jumped in, turning it into a personal battle because of her own mentally challenged child. The battle goes on, and could have an impact on this year’s elections.
If Angel’s bill was law it would not have forbidden Emanuel’s tirade. After all, the bill stipulates that an offensive term be removed from statutory language to cause a long term attitude change. Forbidding highly-placed political operatives to throw nasty names at people they don’t like is pretty much unenforceable.
Appropriate language is a moving target, having to do with which terms are deemed offensive at that particular time. Today, just uttering certain words in the workplace will get you fired, regardless of intent. This isn’t always fair, since Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) was roundly criticized and could even lose his seat for using a word—Negro—that was acceptable in his youth.
Angel’s bill won’t change anything right away. It will take years to remove the word “retarded” from the law books, and it can never disappear from those already published. It will be around forever, as a potent insult.
And even if the bill gets people to stop saying ”retarded,” those who are likely to hurl insults will find some other word that hurts as much. It’s not really the words themselves that cause pain, but what the speaker means when the word is said.
Or more specifically, Words don’t hurt people. People hurt people.