I'm a Person First


 A short rant.

If I hear the words

 'she had a Downs';

 'He didn't want to date me because I have a Downs child'; (consider yourself lucky, Girlfriend)

'They have a Down's syndrome';

'That Down syndrome girl in...'

one more time I am going to...scream, stand on my head on the busiest road I can find, kick a tree, phone George Bush.

This is Lily. She is a serious student, a good neighbor, a friend, a daughter, a guitar player, a poet, a reader, a theatre-goer, an enviromentalist, a teenager, a door-slammer, a cat-lover, a soccer player, a basket-ball player, a fan of her two presidents, a rock-painter, a hiker, a dancer, a budding cook, a granddaughter, a niece, a dedicated recycler, a sister. Furthermore, she is not always happy. She is a person with a full range of emotions. She is not an angel, never will be.

Google Down Syndrome Ireland, they will send you two jpg posters from their 'I'm A Person First' campaign.

Meanwhile, use person-first language. 

Or feck off.