Talk of the Town - Whitley County

(Talk of the Town photos by Jennifer Zartman Romano) Above, from left, is Tom O'Neill, Gregg Goewert, Alaina Beckner, Andrew Tourney, Amelia Roman, Jordan Chapple, Jim Pope, Miriah Hicks, Karen Koday and Stacy Keener.

By Jennifer Zartman Romano

Words that were once used in clinical terms to describe the disabled or differently-abled members of society are now some of the ugliest words, words that that hurt deeply.
In recent weeks, Passages Inc. and Columbia City High School joined efforts to bring awareness to the hurtful nature of one particular "R" word and other words that hurt people with disabilities through a creative expression contest to "Spread the Word to End the Word." The words they hope to encourage people to stop using include stupid, idiot and retarded.
A panel of judges representing the high school and Passages Inc. reviewed more than 50 creative entries from local high school students. Students used a variety of means to express themselves -- from artwork to poetry to essays. In the end, five teens were selected to win $75 prizes and shirts donated by Running Around Screenprinting that were specially designed for the contest.
Last Tuesday, the five teens, including Amelia Roman, Jordan Chapple, Miriah Hicks, Andrew Tourney and Alaina Beckner were invited to attend the Columbia City Rotary meeting to share their award winning entries.
Tourney spoke about his brother Zack, who has autism. "Zack has taught me and my family life skills and how to be better people," Tourney shared.
Chapple shared that people with disabilities are, he said, "The same, but different." He added that, "disabilities are close to my heart."
The hurtful words often used thoughtlessly in conversations are bothersome to Miriah Hicks whose sister is in a wheelchair. "It really makes me mad when people would say a word like that," she said, the emotion showing on her face.
Equally emotional, Alaina Becker talked about her experience in observing a disabled child who played with his young friends and interacted with them as if he were no different than they were.
Roman brought forth a painting she had done using the universal image of a wheelchair on a blue background, except beneath it she painted "able." When describing her work, she said, "They're not disabled...they're abled."
"They've said it much better than I could have ever said," said CCHS principal Gregg Goewert who worked with Tom O'Neill of Passages to plan the contest. "All of them were great."
"I really appreciate the experience," said Jim Pope. Pope helped to judge the entries and was present for the awards presentation. "In the bigger picture, we did bring awareness to Columbia City High School with Disabilities Awareness Month," added Pope.
"I've very proud of these students and of the 50 students who entered," O'Neill said. "This was our forum to talke to high school kids about being sensitive."
O'Neill shared that there are 2.5 million people in the United States with some level of intellectual disability.
"Today as never before we are having young people with intellectual abilities participating in the community," O'Neill said. He added that the iradication of hurtful words used casually is particularly important to those young people as they strive to achieve great things in our society.