Hopefully Tod is better educated on this subject and why it’s such a hot-button issue for people in the LP community. This is just one subject in particular that pushes my buttons, for numerous reasons.

This whole experience has truly opened my eyes — especially to all the labels that we put on things and people. It’s like … sometimes I’d like to freeze Liz’s life at three or four years old, when she’s blissfully happy just being a kid.

But she keeps growing. And learning about the world. And soon … well, I wish soon could wait a little longer. You know?

Tod- Thanks for your opinion, but let’s not forget, this blog IS a dwarfism blog. Outside of a few ranting that have nothing to do with dwarfism, it’s main purpose is to educate. I’ll consider you educated now. It’s what you do with it is up to you!

It’s a cheap joke. It almost always draws a chuckle from people who don’t have any idea what it’s like to deal with in their own body or in their children’s. And, sadly, I’m afraid it’s not going to change.

There are simply too many average height people in the world who don’t understand for this to change all that much. I know because I used to be one of these people. I look back on what I was like before my child was born with achondroplasia and flat out, I was a complete jerk.

I used the “M” word. I shot for the cheap laughs. It almost always worked. I hate myself for it every day.

Imagine what it was like when an insensitive nurse, three days after my child was born, tried to explain it to my wife and I this way: “Your daughter has a bone condition. She’ll only be about four feet tall. We’re talking dwarfism here. We’re talking midget. You understand?”

Yeah, I understood. I understood that was my kid she was saying all that stuff about. It was my kid who was the “M word” now. Believe me … not funny.

As my wife (Lisa) can attest, that nurse met the full wrath of my tongue that evening — and it all came straight from a shattered heart that was weeping for my baby.

Why was it shattered? Because I knew the world was filled with people like Cheryl Burke and Jimmy Kimmel and millions of others who don’t even consider little people as human beings.

What did my baby girl ever do to anybody to be born with labels like dwarf or the “M” word?

Because a fluke in the development of chromosomes happened, she (and we) should just sit around quietly and take all the hurtful barbs that come our way, just because some low-level celebutante wants to be funny?

Hell no.

It’s not funny to make fun of people who are born into this world with conditions that make them different than the so-called “norm.”

It’ll never be funny to those who know the sting those cheap jokes inflict on many people each time they’re uttered.

Hey Tod, if you have any children, imagine one of them being born with achondroplasia (I’ll spell it so you don’t have to). Then go back and watch that video of your girl Cheryl Burke. Imagine if that was your kid she was talking about.

Imagine if it was you.

How would you feel? Would you still be her biggest fan?

No, you’d be her “littlest” fan.

And she’d probably let you know it, too.

For me, personally, I don’t care about Cheryl Burke one way or the other, or her show – what I care about is convincing people to stop using derogatory terms to refer to other human beings. The fact that Tod seems to think the word “idiot” is more offensive than the word “midget” in this context shows that we’ve got a long way to go – and I’m not even that hard core about it! I made friends with Danny from shortdwarf.com at the conference – he, like Verne, enjoys poking fun at himself and his condition – and I say more power to him. However, I’m leaving that to him, the same way I leave use of the n-word, and whether it should be banished from the language, to people actually directly affected by it. If my daughter, who has achondroplasia (dwarfism, for the reality show fans who may not know big words), chooses to call herself a midget, that will be her choice. On the other hand, the rest of us do not have the right to use it, including intoxicated celebrities, generous or not.

Okay, that’s my 25 cents. I’ll stop here – it’s not worth it to argue with ardent fans

nigger. (n.d.). Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Retrieved July 01, 2008, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/nigger

nig·ger
–noun
1. Slang: Extremely Disparaging and Offensive.
a. a black person.
b. a member of any dark-skinned people.
2. Slang: Extremely Disparaging and Offensive. a person of any race or origin regarded as contemptible, inferior, ignorant, etc.
3. a victim of prejudice similar to that suffered by blacks; a person who is economically, politically, or socially disenfranchised.
[Origin: 1640–50; < F nègre < Sp negro black]

You’ll notice the (fairly obvious) origin from latin, where Negro meant black. Not much mention of how it refers to slaves.

Just to inform you, for so many months now,cheryl have been the target of so many negative publicities by a lot of the medias today.For some reason there is just some fascination on her by the medias in trying to dig up some dirt to make her look bad to the public,,,,,that is probably what happens when your one of the best for a long time in one of the successful,longest running reality show we have today,i can understand you guys not knowing about her but for some avid viewers of the show, she is probably if not the biggest,is one of the biggest star on the show today.She is one of the person that loves by many and at the same time hate by a lot of people..And the medias are taking advantage of this.Every move and every recent comment she makes are being twisted by many and most of the time are being taken out of context.I somehow feel for the girl just because some people are trying to deliberately ruin and bring her down.This past months, she was under a lot of tremendous stress, some anonimous person did spread a rumor about her and created a rather harsh scandal about her.it was obviously not true as no substantial proof have been presented,,,,then her dancing partner got a severe injury while they were doing the show dancing live on tv infront of millions of people,it was certainly a scary moment for her.And all other troubles that the medias are trying to throw at her,you have no idea.Im just glad shes tough enough to deal with any of it and didnt cause any breakdown on her part.And this is the reason i fully understand what shes been going through and even i know that she was drunk when this happened, her lack of judgement on this is probably just a result of emotional stress she is dealing with.

Ive followed her career closely enough to know that this girl is so much better than this.And its sad to see her being judged by a lot of people this way,so harshly. Im glad that you brought it up already and conveyed your thoughts and feelings about this to the network,i am with you on this,the fact that some of you got offended by her comment then it is just proper for the network to warn and remind her and make sure shes aware of it..,but i hope you can reserve your judgement of her.Cheryl has been using her talent,fame,and money out of this show to help so many people and kids out there.And i felt that again,you have all the rights to express how you feel about it and for a lot of us to respect it.But i hope that your not hating her for this alone.Your blog can cause some hatred for her and i dont want it to come to the point that she wount be doing the show anymore because of something like this.Not only she would be a big lost for the show but so as for a lot of people who looks up to her and those many people that are being helped by her and her family.This girl have done so many great things for others and i hope this is enough reasons for some of you to know and find in your heart to understand,forget ,forgive and move on.