According to Merriam- Weber dictionary the R word is defined as:

Retarded: adjective

sometimes offensive

:slow or limited in intellectual or emotional development or academic process

So, I read that definition and completely realize that the "sometimes offensive" should not be in the definition of retarded.

Retarded should have never become a slang word. I personally can not find an appropriate time to use this extremely common adjective. This is a word to define a baby/child/adult whom has a birth "defect", not your friend who didn't catch your last joke.

To know someone who is mentally slow, it pulls a string in your heart that you did not know you had.

To me, retarded means so much more than someone who is developmentally limited and/or slow. Retarded in my eyes defines someone with a HUGE heart, a one in a million personality, and someone who makes me laugh until I cry continuously. So why would you say that the definition of retarded is sometimes offensive? Strictly because the Merriam- Weber dictionary and many others are talking about the medical condition that someone is born with, not the person who was born this way.

So under the definition of Retarded there should be characteristics listed.

Including but not limited to; understanding, loving, caring, determined, hard working

Actor with down syndrome, Eddie Barbanell states, "..It's like God taking something away from them in one area, and making them extraordinary in other areas." He also continues by reminding everyone to break down walls, and every obstacle they can, because he did it is possible.

When John Franklin Stephens was interviewed for the Sunday Review A word gone wrong his response is as follows,

“So, what’s wrong with ‘retard’?,” he asked. “I can only tell you what it means to me and people like me when we hear it. It means that the rest of you are excluding us from your group. We are something that is not like you and something that none of you would ever want to be. We are something outside the ‘in’ group. We are someone that is not your kind.”

Next time when you want to make your friend the butt of the joke by calling them the R word, just remember these two men and the many of others who lives and feelings are effected daily by the use of this now slang adjective.