Obama's Special Olympics joke offends mental health advocate

When Sandy Naiman visited Centennial College last year for an interview session with senior journalism students, she was adamant about her feelings on the use of the word stigma. The word ‘stigma’ torments her.

In her recent Coming Out Crazy blog entry on Healthzone.ca, Naiman described President Obama’s Special Olympics joke on NBC’s The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on Mar 19, as troublesome. She draws comparison, Obama’s quip with ‘stigma’, a word used by many to describe society's attitude towards mental illness. Naiman is not a fan of the word. She finds the word deeply abhorrent. “You know I find it foul and confusing. Hurtful,” said Naiman, about the word stigma “It's not always easy. So that joke really disturbed me.” I have a psychiatric diagnosis. In my world, people see what they believe instead of believing what they see. Many people are blinded by their beliefs, Naiman writes on her blog. Obama, a first sitting US President to hit late night talk show circuit was appearing as guest on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in Chicago, where the show had been on the road as a goodwill gesture to thousands of workers, who have lost jobs in auto industry as a result of the economic downturn. Talking with Jay Leno, the president said he had been practicing bowling at the White House bowling alley and rolled a 129. “It was like the Special Olympics or something,” Mr. Obama said. Obama was quick to apologize in what the White House described as ‘slip of the tongue.’ According to New York Times, President Obama called the chairman of the Special Olympics, Tim Shriver, from Air Force One on his way back to Washington. “He apologized in a way I think was very moving,” Mr. Shriver said on ABC’s Good Morning America. “Words hurt, words do matter,” added Mr. Shriver, son of the Special Olympics’ founder, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, a sister of late President John F. Kennedy. Naiman who is a fan of Sunday New York Times columnist, Maureen Dowd, blogged on the Special Olympic episode after reading Dowd column, in which the writer wrote a piece about Barack Obama and the political crisis of his presidency right now. “Let this teachable moment be a wake-up call for all of us,” Naiman said. “Be more respectful with the language we use when talking about people with disabilities.”