Tim Shriver, chairman of the Special Olympics: Obama’s Special Olympics Quip Is ‘Teachable Moment’

[Emit]

Tim Shriver saw it as “a teachable moment.”

When President Barack Obama told Jay Leno last night that his bowling skills were lacking — “It was like the Special Olympics or something,” he quipped – the White House immediately recognized he messed up. Even before the show aired, Obama called Shriver, chairman of the Special Olympics, from aboard Air Force One to apologize.

In an interview on ABC-TV’s “Good Morning America” today, Shriver said the president “apologized in a way that was very moving” and said “he not intend to humiliate this population.” Special Olympics, a nonprofit founded by Shriver’s mother, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, aims to empower individuals with intellectual disabilities through sports.

Shriver went on to give Obama and the rest of the country, for that matter, a morning lesson: “I think it’s important to see that words hurt and words do matter.”

He went on to say that “This language needs to be a teachable moment, I think, for our country. I would hope every parent who is at home this morning, can turn to their children and say, ‘This is a chance for us to recognize that when we talk about Special Olympics, when we talk about people with special needs, let’s make sure we talk about it in an affirming way.’”

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2009/03/20/shriver-obamas-special-olympics-quip-is-teachable-moment/