Success and Sweet Comments

A few nights ago I had my IB personal project fair. Just in case you didn't know, this blog was specifically done for my high school IB personal project and I am proud to say it was a great success! I created a kind of scrapbook summary of my blog using Scraplog and displayed it during the fair. Two of my many favorite moments of the night were meeting a lady who helped start the United Cerebral Palsy in Washington State, (There are United Cerebral Palsys all over the country), and meeting a little girl who quickly told me that her grandmother has Cerebral Palsy and "is a very special person."

"Teachable Moments"

When I heard about President Obama's inappropriate comment comparing his bowling skills to the special olympics I was very upset. This newly elected President who I have admired and cheered for over the last months insulted something that is related to a major part of my life. President Obama who is, in my opinion, a believer of hope and equality has contradicted his own ideals, which were spoken in his hundreds of speeches given throughout the campaign season. In my opinion Obama slipped up BIG TIME! Nevertheless, I am still an avid admirer and supporter of him. I also believe that everyone makes mistakes that cause a lot of harm to certain groups of people and, yes, this is wrong, but the truth is that we do not live in a perfect world. Instead I think we should take this comment and turn into something good and productive, a time to realize that everybody has their differences and that the world is an amazing place because of these differences. Also, that everybody's differences, whether external or internal, should be respected by all. In the words of Special Olympics Chairman Timothy Shriver, "This kind of language needs to be a teachable moment, I think, for our country." So, I think, in my opinion
we can all use President Obama's comment as a "teachable moment" whether its for ourselves or for another. On this issue I found this video of Good morning America's interview with Tim Shriver to be quite, to use his word, "affirming." Finally, this letter to Obama, written by Sarah from Class of 2008 (found at To the Max) is great and puts an uplifting perspective on this issue.

In other news..

Also, I want to wish you all a happy 2nd day of Spring! I am so excited for Spring I can hardly stand it! Oh, and just in case you missed it, yesterday was World Cerebral Palsy Awareness Day. Don't worry, if you forgot or didn't know, I was informed by email a day ahead. Thank goodness for Facebook and its Cerebral Palsy awareness groups!

Feel free to share your thoughts...
What are your perspectives, opinions, or thoughts on President Obama's comment?
Are you all as excited for Spring as I am?
and
Did you do anything special for CP Awareness Day?