Another thing about Philly's 'fired over Facebook' kerfuffle

There are at least three "shouldn't haves" in this story: Two have been getting all sorts of media attention, but it's the third that rankles me personally.

Obvious stuff first:

The Philadelphia Eagles should not have fired game-day stadium employee Dan Leone for his online outburst over the team letting star player Brian Dawkins sign with the Denver Broncos. Tongue-lashing would have sufficed; tongue-biting would have been better.

That said, Leone shouldn't have been so intemperate in a public forum, Facebook, which even a casual user should know by now is visible to anyone, including the provider of your part-time job. Yes, Leone enjoys the same free-speech rights as any leather-lunged fan or pundit ... and with those rights come consequences.

My real beef here is with Dan Leone's choice of words; one in particular. He wrote on his Facebook page: "Dan is [expletive] devastated about Dawkins signing with Denver. Dam Eagles R Retarted!"

I can live with the expletives and the misspellings; what cheeses me off is the casual use of "retarded" as a synonym for "dumb." Mental retardation is no more related to "dumb" than "dumb" is related to blindness, so to associate the two in this way -- as so many do so often -- is both insensitive and nonsensical.

Now, I don't consider myself particularly sensitive or politically correct, especially when it comes to matters of language (love Cursebird). However this one has been gnawing at me for years now, in no small measure because my wife and I are parents of a 7-year-old boy who has autism. Max is not mentally retarded and most assuredly not dumb, but he's at the age where it's inevitable that he's going to hear taunts from children. He shouldn't have to hear them from adults.

And by no means is my pique directed at Dan Leone, though it would seem this resident of the City of Brotherly Love has had the relevant life experience to know better. From the Philadelphia Inquirer coverage about his firing: "Leone grew up in the shadow of Veterans Stadium in a red-brick rowhouse near 10th and Oregon. As a kid, he'd walk over to see his beloved Birds play. The trip was never easy. Leone has a neurological disorder called transverse myelitis. Because it causes muscle fatigue and limits the range of motion in his limbs, Leone was sometimes forced to use crutches as a child."

Let's wrap this up before I stumble off the soapbox: I've encountered no shortage of otherwise intelligent, decent people incorporating the lazy use of "retarded" -- and all of its variations -- into their vocabularies. (Even Fake Steve Jobs, who was hilarious, made me cringe with his frequent use of frigtard.) I'm sure few if any meant any offense, at least none outside that directed at the person being so described.

Nonetheless, to all of you folks using "retarded" in this way I have a suggestion: Do yourself a favor and cut it the heck out. You are offending people you don't mean to offend ... and there are much more colorful ways of calling someone an incompetent.

Try using "dumbass" instead of sounding like one.

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