{"id":372,"date":"2010-09-21T14:49:41","date_gmt":"2010-09-21T14:49:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/thinplaces\/2010\/09\/down-syndrome-girl-not-so-funny.html"},"modified":"2010-09-21T14:49:41","modified_gmt":"2010-09-21T14:49:41","slug":"down-syndrome-girl-not-so-funny","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/09\/down-syndrome-girl-not-so-funny.html","title":{"rendered":"Down Syndrome Girl: Not So Funny"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I have a new post at Bloom: Parenting Kids with Disabilities. It&#8217;s called &#8220;Not so Funny&#8221; and it begins:&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><span class=\"Apple-style-span\"><\/p>\n<div>I absorb a lot of news every week. We listen to National Public Radio morning and evening. We subscribe to Time, The New Yorker, and the Sunday New York Times. I read a handful of blogs and receive a daily Google update on stories with the key words &#8220;Down syndrome.&#8221; And usually, when an article or story catches my eye, I write about it. That might be because I appreciate the perspective or information shared, or because I&#8217;m saddened or opposed by the view it presents.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>But then there are the stories that bother me so much they don&#8217;t even seem worth commenting upon. The church that wanted to burn the Koran on September 11th, for instance, left such a bad taste in my mouth that I didn&#8217;t even want to mention it. And last year, when the TV show &#8220;Family Guy&#8221; ran a series of episodes with a character with Down syndrome, I refrained from wading in to the debate it inspired. Then it came to my attention that a song from &#8220;Family Guy&#8221; had been nominated for an Emmy. The song was called &#8220;Down syndrome girl.&#8221; It included the following lyrics:<\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: center\">Her kiss is so inviting<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: center\">and her hugs are so delighting.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: center\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: center\">And what makes them really nice<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: center\">is that they&#8217;ve got a little spice<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: center\">Because they&#8217;re tighter than a vice<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: center\">and they go on for an hour.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: center\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: center\">My boy, between the two of us<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: center\">we&#8217;ll get you on that shorty bus<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: center\">And then you&#8217;re going to take it for a whirl&#8230;<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: center\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: center\">Now go impress that&#8230;<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: center\">As of Monday, shoelace-tying<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: center\">Mega-rocking, pillow-talking<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: center\">Just a little crooked walking,<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: center\">Coyly pouting, booby-sprouting,<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: center\">For some reason always shouting,<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: center\">Fascinating, captivating,<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: center\">Happiness and joy creating&#8230;<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: center\">Down syndrome girl!<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: center\"><\/div>\n<p>Even then, I ignored the news&#8230;<\/p><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>To keep reading, click <a href=\"http:\/\/bloom-parentingkidswithdisabilities.blogspot.com\/2010\/09\/not-so-funny.html\">here<\/a>.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I have a new post at Bloom: Parenting Kids with Disabilities. It&#8217;s called &#8220;Not so Funny&#8221; and it begins:&nbsp; I absorb a lot of news every week. We listen to National Public Radio morning and evening. We subscribe to Time, The New Yorker, and the Sunday New York Times. I read a handful of blogs&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,1,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-disability","category-down-syndrome","category-family"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Down Syndrome Girl: Not So Funny - Thin Places<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/09\/down-syndrome-girl-not-so-funny.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Down Syndrome Girl: Not So Funny - Thin Places\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I have a new post at Bloom: Parenting Kids with Disabilities. It&#8217;s called &#8220;Not so Funny&#8221; and it begins:&nbsp; I absorb a lot of news every week. We listen to National Public Radio morning and evening. We subscribe to Time, The New Yorker, and the Sunday New York Times. I read a handful of blogs&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/09\/down-syndrome-girl-not-so-funny.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Thin Places\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-09-21T14:49:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"amyjuliabecker\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Down Syndrome Girl: Not So Funny - Thin Places","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/09\/down-syndrome-girl-not-so-funny.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Down Syndrome Girl: Not So Funny - Thin Places","og_description":"I have a new post at Bloom: Parenting Kids with Disabilities. It&#8217;s called &#8220;Not so Funny&#8221; and it begins:&nbsp; I absorb a lot of news every week. We listen to National Public Radio morning and evening. We subscribe to Time, The New Yorker, and the Sunday New York Times. I read a handful of blogs&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/09\/down-syndrome-girl-not-so-funny.html","og_site_name":"Thin Places","article_published_time":"2010-09-21T14:49:41+00:00","author":"amyjuliabecker","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/09\/down-syndrome-girl-not-so-funny.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/09\/down-syndrome-girl-not-so-funny.html","name":"Down Syndrome Girl: Not So Funny - Thin Places","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#website"},"datePublished":"2010-09-21T14:49:41+00:00","dateModified":"2010-09-21T14:49:41+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#\/schema\/person\/4dde10eee38770361dc9b46a9413776b"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/09\/down-syndrome-girl-not-so-funny.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/09\/down-syndrome-girl-not-so-funny.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/09\/down-syndrome-girl-not-so-funny.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Down Syndrome Girl: Not So Funny"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/","name":"Thin Places","description":"Amy Julia Becker on Faith, Family, and Disability","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#\/schema\/person\/4dde10eee38770361dc9b46a9413776b","name":"amyjuliabecker","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/222\/2222023dcae76abe6e896a3cf80e9836x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/222\/2222023dcae76abe6e896a3cf80e9836x96.jpg","caption":"amyjuliabecker"},"description":"Amy Julia Becker writes about theology, disability, family, and culture. Two major life experiences have shaped her writing and her faith\u00e2\u20ac\u201dcaring for her mother-in-law as she battled cancer and welcoming her daughter Penny into the world after she was diagnosed at birth with Down syndrome. Both experiences expanded and enriched her understanding of what it means to be human and to receive each and every person as a gift.\u00c2\u00a0 A graduate of Princeton University and Princeton Theological Seminary, she is the author of Penelope Ayers: A Memoir, and the forthcoming A Good and Perfect Gift (Bethany House). Her essays have appeared in First Things, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Christian Century, ChristianityToday.com, and Bloom, among other online venues.","sameAs":["http:\/\/amyjuliabecker.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/author\/amyjuliabecker"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/88"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=372"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}