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katoleary: So’s Your Face-

“I don’t know why I find it so offensive that people are so surprised that someone with a developmental disability is funny, intelligent, and lives a normal life. Um I don’t know, maybe because my organization not only employs people with dd but also serves about 20,000 in the greater NYC area.”

Oh hey.

There you are. I was waiting for you. I just knew you’d pop up. I thought all the positive reaction would get under someone’s skin from the left, and so it has.

Congratulations! You’ve expressed:

• outrage at
• a positive reaction
• towards a humorous reaction
• towards outrage
• at humor

That’s like, indignation thrice-removed. You’ve truly outdone yourself. It’s one finely-tuned affront-o-meter you’ve got there. If you’ll permit, I can explain why you find my comments offensive, and why you’re deeply wrong to think them so.

By the very nature of your job, you interact with a disproportionately large number of developmentally disabled folk—so many that you don’t see the broadness of the term.

But in this instance, we’re not talking about the developmentally disabled writ large. We’re talking specifically about Down Syndrome, a symptom of which is decreased intelligence. The actress, Andrea Fay Friedman, is cognitively impaired. That’s why it’s surprising to see her thinking so clearly when others around her are not. I would add yourself to the “others” category because this dynamic is obvious to everyone but you.

The reason it’s funny lies is the contrast. When a person with an IQ of 70 successfully teases the one-time leader of a national party—that’s funny. Sarah Palin potentially came within a heart-beat of the presidency and we expect a certain deftness at that level of politics. Yet a developmentally disabled person is landing punches on her in the New York Times. Amusing stuff. But to have that ridicule rest on a nuance of humor is hilarious. That the actress works at a law firm only heightens the incongruity. Taken as a metaphor for the current state of the Republican Party, it’s fucking hysterical.

And it might appear that way to some of you, too, if you weren’t all holding those 4th-degree black belts in butthurt.

We like the story because it’s heartwarming to see Ms. Friedman own her identity. It’s encouraging to the rest of us to see the political football intercepted from the insincere. And when it’s done by the unlikeliest of players, it’s just plain cool. Granted, it totally kills the humor and the pathos to have to spell it all out, but what can you do?