ugliness.........

I had another post planned....... but then I read this post written by a hurt, angry mama bear.  A search engine searching for words "ugly", "r&tarded", "baby girl", "toddler"......  Imagine their surprise when what came up was a picture of absolute PURE BEAUTY.   A picture of the face of God, in his image.  

While I know we live in a broken world, it still makes my heart hurt to know this ugliness exists and is directed at our children.  It makes me angry,... it makes me sad, ....it makes me want to work harder to change the world and at the same time it disheartens me.

 The internet has been a wonderful place to connect and become part of the "larger"  down syndrome family, but it has also proven to be another vehicle to spread ugliness.   This type of hate, this type of ignorance is why I do frequent searches using Nevin's name, or other combinations of descriptors such as ds adult, ds teen, r&tard, etc. .......to try and protect him as best I can.   I have had several instances of his picture being used inappropriately, but at least by people willing to take it down (for e.g. his picture in an article that promoted prenatal testing to avoid ds.)  I haven't been sucker punched by "hate driven" searches yet.  But I've also avoided using the words down syndrome and his name together very often...... is that me just being chicken?......  am I failing at advocating?  ...... I know that I may not be connecting with as many people as I could because I've been "timid".    Not like I'm a powerful blogger or anything..... but it does make me think?

If you get a chance go over to this mama bear's blog and let her know what a beautiful daughter she has (even though she knows that..... a little extra lovin' can't hurt!!)  tell I sent you.   ummm..... tell her Nevin sent you  :)