My plea to you

You may or may not have seen on my blog me talking about the new movie "Tropic Thunder". Here is a short synopsis of why this movie is being hit by national disability activists due to the movie's use of the word "retard". Understandably, that is not a popular word in my house.

The following information should offend you. I even was surprised at the extent of it. I feel that if I don't pass this on, then other's feeling that I am overreacting to something simple might not quite come across as it should.

The "full retard" scene between Stiller's Speedman and Robert Downey Jr.'s Kirk Lazarus is more extensive than the clip distributed on the internet. Among the lines not included in the Internet version are this:

Stiller: You know, it was an intense experience, you know? I just did the work. I watched a lot of retarded people, spent time with them, observed them, watched all the retarded stuff they did. In a weird way, I had to free myself up to believe that it was okay to be stupid or dumb. To be a moron. To be moronical. To be a moron. To be an imbecile. To be the dumbest mother fucker that ever lived. Stupid ass Jack.

Stiller is made to re-enact Simple Jack to entertain his captors, and wear a coconut wig, improvised overalls and borrowed dentures to act the part. When he doesn't perform the way they like, they hit him and say "more stupid".

Offended? You should be. My daughter has a degree of mental retardation and in essence this movie is portraying to society that she is a moron, that she is an imbecile, that she is dumb, that she is stupid. This is being portrayed to a society that we fight so hard to just be accepted.

Maybe you can pass the word to more people so they too can realize that this isn't a comedy made to poke a little fun. Rather, it's offensive and if you substituted any race or nationality instead of it being pointed at the disabled, it would be considered a HATE CRIME. Please for my daughter's sake, don't see this movie. We need to prove a point to Hollywood.

Summer Fun

Today the kids and I went to Signal Bay Water Park. We met up with one of Mason's friends from Chesterbrook, Alex, and his family. Mason and Alex are still best buds and I wish we could get them together more often.

I'm so proud of them

I'm so proud of my friend McKenna, mom to Darah, who has Down syndrome. She is awesome, they both are awesome. McKenna has had such a good voice about this whole Tropic Thunder controversy ... and tonight she made the news {click to see the video}! Good job McKenna ... I'm honored to call you my friend. :)

Also ...

My friend Diane, mom to MaryEllen, who also has Down syndrome, was also on the news {click to see the video} tonight! Diane is also an awesome voice for our kids and she has to be the sweetest person ever. Good job Di ... I'm honored to call you my friend as well! :)

She's Famous!

My friend McKenna just called me to tell me that Payton's picture is in a video on The Arc's website! The video was produced by Will Schermerhorn from Blueberry Shoes and is being promoted by The Arc in response to the objections to the new movie, Tropic Thunder. The original tagline of the movie was, "Once upon a time ... there was a retard." I'm sure you can imagine I'm less than thrilled about this movie.

Will Schermerhorn happens to live locally and also took that picture of Payton that is in the video. Here is the video ... Payton is right at the beginning where it says, "When you call me beautiful ..."

Swedish Festival

I mentioned that we went up to Mt. Jewett, Pennsylvania, this past weekend for their annual Swedish Festival. Back in the day, there were a lot of Swedes that settled in Mt. Jewett, thus the annual Swedish Festival. My grandfather was actually a founding father of the festival and this year, my grandmother was named Senior Queen. She said it meant a lot for her to have all of us there to celebrate with her and of course we were happy to oblige.

Here she is, the Senior Queen ...

Me and the Senior Queen ...

After we got there on Friday, we walked around to see everything. There is a new park, called Heritage Park. In order to raise money to build the park, they sold bricks to bear the names of people who live in Mt. Jewett. My grandmother got a brick for herself and one in memory of my grandfather ...

Mason and Tristyn {second cousins}

Natalia {my cousin} and Payton ...

There was a face painting tent that we found out was being run by a long lost second cousin, David Mollander, of my grandmother. This man's father {who was my grandmother's cousin} had committed suicide when he was young and as a result, this man really didn't know much about his heritage. It is such a sad story and it was cool to see him and my grandmother get to talk.

L-R: Grandma, David, Bonnie {my aunt} and my mom

Mason, showing off his flames ...Payton {eating her all time favorite ... french fries}

The dunk tank ... aren't these always so fun? The kids {including Kyle and Casey} took their turns ... in fact, I think everyone but Kyle and Casey dunked the guy!

Mason taking his aim ...

Later on there was a parade ...

the Senior Queen riding in her throne ...

L-R: Tristyn, Ethan, Mason and Payton {second cousins}

L-R: Marcus {Tammy's husband}, Tammy {my cousin}, Sherry {my aunt}, Bonnie {my aunt} and Lee {Bonnie's boyfriend}

Payton trying to motion for the firetruck to honk its horn ...L-R: Lindsay {Nathan's fiance}, Nathan {my cousin} and Kristie {my sister}L-R: Shirley, Alice and Betty {my great aunts - they are all sisters of my grandfather}

My cousin Natalia's husband, Larry, has a motorcycle. Mason is pretty much obsessed with motorcycles, so I asked him if he would give him a ride. Apparently they don't believe in helmets, so I told him he could go if he just went up the street and back ... slowly ...


After I found out that Larry didn't have a helmet for Mason to wear, I went searching for one in my Grandma's garage. I came up with my grandfather's old hard hat, but didn't have Mason wear it because I figured it would be more of a hinder than a help. Here is Ms. Payton modeling the hard hat ...

Payton and Tom {my uncle}

Tammy {my cousin} and the Senior Queen ...

On Sunday, we went to church at Nebo. Every year during the Swedish Festival, church is held there and parts of it are spoken in Swedish. It's pretty cool, especially when that is my heritage.

Nebo sits in the middle of the cemetery that most of my ancestors on my mom's side are buried at, including my grandfather. It always is an emotional visit ...
All in all, it was a great weekend. I love going to visit Mt. Jewett, I just wish I had the time to do so more often. Thanks for a great weekend everyone!