Special Olympics athlete and John Franklin Stephens wrote an open letter to author Ann Coulter on The World of Special Olympics blog, criticizing her for using the word “retard” in a post about President Barack Obama.
During the final Presidential debate this week, Coulter tweeted: “I highly approve of Romney’s decision to be kind and gentle to the retard.” In his response, Stephens (pictured) called himself “friend you haven’t made yet” and asked Coulter “why are you continually using a word like the R-word as an insult?” You can read the full letter at this link, but here’s an excerpt:
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. I have to wonder if you considered other hateful words but recoiled from the backlash. 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.
In May, Coulter landed a book deal with Penguin’s Sentinel imprint. They published Mugged: Racial Demagoguery From the Seventies to Obama earlier this month.