Ana+B’s+Final+AmEx+2013+Speech

**Slow down and speak up: By Ana Bello**
I’ve been told often by peers, teachers, judges at speech tournaments, and my parents that I speak too quickly. Something that I will try to refrain from doing during this speech (no promises) because I believe it will convey my point more clearly. I don’t speak quickly because I am nervous or uncomfortable although at times I have found myself doing it when I’m feeling insecure or uncertain about what I’m saying. But I naturally speak quickly because I don’t put too much thought into what I’m saying. Which can be just as much of a positive as it is a negative. One of my biggest goals is to slow down and work on editing myself. A valuable lesson most of us could practice more frequently.

Saying whatever is on your mind doesn’t make you a fearless opinionated person. I believe it shows a lack of maturity and discrepancy towards your audience. The words you use affect the people around and even the people they know. I’ve offended several of my closest friends by carelessly saying whatever came to mind. I didn’t think about their personal experiences with what I was criticizing or the people they loved that it applied towards. Now of course if I analyzed everything I said before I said it and emitted the potentially offensive things I would hardly have anything to say, which perhaps isn’t such a bad thing. But simply giving my words a second thought has the potential to make someone feel better or make someone else reconsider what they are saying then that means a lot more than me having fewer things to say.

The freedom of speech has enabled us to say something with purpose. Joining journalism this year has allowed me to exercise this right and appreciate it even more. I have however learned that simply because I have the right to say something doesn’t exempt me from being held responsible for the backlash of my words. I want others to know that they are responsible as well. No, I’m not saying that you are personally responsible for what offends me but if you want to be considered a decent human being then I think it’s time for us to keep in mind what is politically correct to say. It makes me happy that slurs are being used less frequently and expressions like “that’s so gay” is no longer accepted by most. I’m pleased that the n-word is now referred to as the n-word and the actual word is only used appropriately by Mr.Geib in a historical context.

But there still is a lot of progress to make in order for society and particularly our generation to jump on board with being politically correct. As much advocacy and attempts spread the word to end the word makes the usage of the word retard it still far too frequently used for my liking. I don’t care if this comes across as being a word Nazi but I would love if the word was not even allowed to be used. People have asked me before why does it matter it is just a word. And that is just the problem. We treat words as just a few syllables stringed together unaware of their implications. The second problem with the usage of words such as gay or retard is that they have become of the equivalent of a foolish action of which people would consider stupid. I doubt many teenagers consider who this word is suppose to be directed towards, I understand societies acceptance and allowance for these slips. They still however need to be corrected and people need to be reminded of the people they are discriminating against.

Until as of recently it was no longer considered politically correct to call someone with a physical or mental disability a retard. But for all my brothers life that was what he was referred to. My brother was born with cerebral palsy, and for those that may be unfamiliar with the disability it impairs your cognitive and motor skills. For the rest of his life my brother would experience seizures, be confined to a wheelchair, and be under constant care and supervision. There is no cure, there is no getting better. As a family we learned how to make his life the best that it could be. He is still the happiest person I know. I always saw my brother and his classmates as my friend also. I did not notice the apparent disabilities that society points out. This is why I still can’t understand how people could simply just stop and stare at people with disabilities as if they shouldn’t even be out in public. And it is not just curious children who stare it is adults. There is very little exposure to the handicap public and when we see them fulfilling some type of employment or at the store, we automatically see them as not one of us. Which is true, they experience much more difficulties then any of us have to. While we worry about getting perfect scores on our SAT’s and getting into our dream school my brother could only go to school until the age of 21 and perhaps come out with the ability to feed himself with limited assistance. And the saddest part as a sister is that there was nothing I could do to change that outcome for him. As a few may know, my brother passed away in the beginning of this school year. He was about to turn 19. It was unexpected gave me an unexplainable pain like nothing before.

After months of reflecting upon it I realized 2 things. The first is the uncomfortable truth to admit because a sibling wants to believe that regardless of the fighting they still love their sibling like nothing else. I never fought with my brother but I certainly could have done a lot more for him and tell him more often that I loved him. I should have been more patient, understanding, taken him out with my friends, and spent more time with him. And I now stand here admitting that publicly for the first time and knowing that I don’t have another chance to do that with him. But the second thing that I realized that I still can do is correct people who use the r word along with being the sister I should have been to others with disabilities. In psychology we learned about the bystander affect. How people witness a bad thing happening and don’t do anything about it if they see other people dismiss it as well. The America I want to live in as an adult is one where we don’t just passively watch something happening that we know is wrong and walk on by. I want us to push aside the uncomfortable feeling and fear that we will be judged if we speak up. Simply not using the word retard isn’t going to severely impact the people with disabilities. They will still struggle daily to complete the tasks we consider simple. They will struggle with being accepted and loved and many will live in group homes for the rest of their lives because they do not have family or friends. And families taking their disabled son or daughter out for the day will still be stared at questioned why take them out if its such a hassle.

But no longer using a word with a negative and hurtful connotation is a small start. Not be extremely cliché but my favorite quote by Ghandi that I whole heartedly believe is that whatever you do in life will be insignificant but it is very important you do it anyway. It is very important that we start speaking with a purpose. It is very important that we make a conscious effort to edit ourselves in the company of those you love. It is very important to me and I hope the rest of you that we correct those disrespecting the handicap community and empower them through our ability to speak up. I want us to all slow down and speak up.

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