Class act: A friend Ann Coulter doesn't deserve to make

Illustration: Paul Szep via Huff Post

When John Franklin Stephens read Ann Coulter's tweet calling the President a retard,  he decided not to let her get away with it:

Dear Ann Coulter,

Come on Ms. Coulter, you aren’t dumb and you aren’t shallow.  So why are you continually using a word like the R-word as an insult?

I’m a 30 year old man with Down syndrome who has struggled with the public’s perception that an intellectual disability means that I am dumb and shallow.  I am not either of those things, but I do process information more slowly than the rest of you.  In fact it has taken me all day to figure out how to respond to your use of the R-word last night.

John goes on to wonder what Coulter meant by the slur:

... I wondered if you meant to degrade him as someone who is likely to receive bad health care, live in low grade housing with very little income and still manages to see life as a wonderful gift.

I read John's letter with tears in my eyes, not just for John, but for my daughter and everyone else in the country at risk of losing hugely if Romney and Ryan get their way.

Having watched my daughter (who will remain unnamed here) grow up in and cope with this mean-spirited, selfish society we have built ourselves, I can still not fathom what it must be like to be John Franklin Stephens. Even more baffling is Mr. Stephens' ability to, as he puts it "[love] life so much":

I have to wonder if you considered other hateful words but recoiled from the backlash.

Well, Ms. Coulter, you, and society, need to learn that being compared to people like me should be considered a badge of honor.
No one overcomes more than we do and still loves life so much.

John signs his letter "A friend you haven’t made yet."

Ann Coulter should be so goddam lucky. Read John's entire post.

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Update: Can we please be rid of this sociopathic asshole? Just stop reporting the worthless shit she says. Please.