Jul 18, 2012
More alike than different — PSAs from the National Down Syndrome Congress
Here is a collection of short ads from a couple years ago featuring several adults with Down Syndrome who would like you to know they’re not that different from the rest of us…
When this video was shared on Reddit recently, one commenter left a kind of counterpoint…which somehow actually strengthens the overall message…
I’m a father of a daughter with Downs Syndrome. I love all the people in this video but my daughter is not someone that would be able to promote this message in the same way that they did.
My daughter is 18 years old. If she opens the top of a yogurt on her own I give her a high five and a hug. I have to remind her to brush her hair and her teeth every morning. That’s sometimes a 40 minute “discussion”….
She’s also the most loving person that I’ve ever met….
Nobody hurts her. Ever. If they do, God have mercy on them because I wont. I spent too many years in a chair next to hospital beds to let that pass.
Every day when I come home from work she gives me the same production. It’s a song and dance and it goes something like this.
“My Dad! Best Dad! My Dad! I love you! I miss you! I miss you work! Welcome home daaaaaaaad!” and she does a dance.
Sometimes I’m tired and tell her to scram, let me just relax for a bit, but she gets her hugs, I always tuck her in at night, and let her know she’s loved.
I don’t know what I’m going to do when she’s older and needs to live somewhere where I don’t get my song when I get home.
* * * * *
Thought the last ad was a copy of the previous one. That would have been ironic.
One of the great tragedies about these awesome people is 90% of them are snuffed out before they even have a chance to breathe due to prenatal screening and elective abortion. Like the Nazi’s said, “Lebensunwertes Leben”.
Seriously? You’re going to make this into an abortion issue? Not cool. You’re just going to make people angry and vocal about their pro-life/pro-choice viewpoints. Everything is about abortion if you make it that way. Or politics, or religion, or whatever you obsessively think about.
That being said, I really enjoyed watching this wonderful series of ads. The first man especially made me smile.
Chad isn’t making the issue. If you are uncomfortable with the point he raised, perhaps you should move along rather than comment.
Chad is making the issue! This video is supposed to be inspirational and allow us to realize how alike we all are. All his comment does is divide us and cause conflict: the exact opposite point of the post. It wasn’t relevant to the video and it was jut a means of causing problems and pushing his views on other people.
This video works to try and counteract society’s rejection of these individuals. I don’t know how you can have a conversation about that without considering 50-90% (I’ve heard several statistics quoted) of them are aborted. I’m not interested in getting into an entire when-does-life-begin debate either, but this is totally a valid point to bring up when talking about Down Syndrome.
Godwin’s Law.
I don’t think Godwin’s Law works if you’re drawing what’s actually a parallel between conditions now (pregnant women are routinely screened for indicators their fetus might have trisomy 21 and given the opportunity to abort without question if the indicators are positive) and conditions then. It is a remarkable difference that during the Nazi killings of people with congenital mental problems, there was little element of family choice in the matter. But questions about the value being placed on the trisomic individual remain.
I write this as someone who thinks women should have the legal opportunity to decide whether or not to progress any pregnancy at any point before the 24th week: I would hate to think what would happen if one ever needed to explain exacly what pre-natal screening for Down’s meant to someone with Down’s.
Why get so upset with Chad? This video brought up these thoughts and feelings for him, and he has the liberty to express them here. If you disagree, fine. But I think we all need to recognize that disagreement does not inherently mean a person is evil.
As far as Godwin’s Law goes, it is pretty interesting how it always tends to go that direction. But you must admit, that was a pretty major event in recent history. Of course someone’s mind will always go there in a conversation! Should it? Probably not. But it is what it is.
I really don’t like having to deal with the people I know who have Down’s Syndrome. I guess that’s because I’m always the one who gets forced to shepherd them around my high school. I’m nice to them, but I get tired of trying to figure out what they’re trying to tell me (they can’t speak the same way people without the disorder can). I just don’t have the patience, and I feel really bad about it. But these people are pretty cool. I’d kinda like to meet them.
Give them the patience they need and maybe they can become like these people because they have someone in there life who’s willing to go the extra mile for them. Good luck!
Kids and people with Down Syndrome are always so sweet and super nice. I worked with a little boy who had it, he was so sweet! Don’t get me wrong, he was a handfull. Chad brings up a good point. Many of these precious people are killed. Just because of something they can’t help. Abortion is no different from Nazi Germany. The Nazi’s rounded up mentally disabled people and gassed them. And now babies with it are being killed in the womb. May God have mercy on America.
That’s a bit of a generalized statement, like saying “All fat people are jolly”…they are regular people, I’ve met some that are nice, some that are jerks just like everyone else…