Names Hurt

Taken From Facebook 

"Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me." I'm sure everyone has heard of this quote or has been told of it by their parents. I personally have, and believe it to be a lie. Names hurt more than anything possible, and can lead people to do harmful things to themselves and others. Constantly getting called dumb, a moron, retarded, and other hurtful names can be very devastating. This hurts the person who you are calling the name. It is inappropriate to use a degrading term of someones disability as an insult, and calling people these names is not right and can be seriously detrimental. It is not their choice to be this, god made them that way for a special reason. Any negative label or insult has the potential to permanently hurt a child's feelings.  Children who are frequently insulted by their siblings or even their own parents often remember the experience with pain even in adulthood. This effect is much much more powerful in childhood when a youngster's sense of self is not yet fully formed.  At this point, being called names can leave the child truly believing that he or she is damaged, worthless, useless, bad and defective, as well as unlovable. Once a child entertains such notions about him/herself, the child tends to act in ways that are consistent with that poor self-image.  This picture that I found on Facebook caught my eye right away and made me write about it. This is so terrible for anyone especially being a young one. The next time your about to say, "you are a retard" to someone who actually does not have a disability, stop yourself and think about how you would feel if you actually had a sibling or child who was handicapped and they were called that or how that would make a disabled person feel if they heard it.