Recently I’ve noticed many people misusing words such as “retard” and “gay.” And sure, people have always fallen into the trap of saying these words without being aware of the effect, but it’s now a matter of caring. Some people seem to just brush it off and not really take a step back and care about what they are saying and how it will make people feel.

The use of these words is now so common in our society that people don’t see the harm that may come about as a result. These words often slip out of people’s mouths without them thinking about what they’re really saying beforehand. Public figures are even caught slipping up and misusing them.

Ann Coulter, a political commentator, recently tweeted during the presidential debates,“I highly approve of Romney’s decision to be kind and gentle to the retard.” This tweet was referring to President Barack Obama as “the retard” and caused a great controversy.

John Franklin Stephens, a 30 year old Special Olympics athlete with down syndrome, wrote an open letter to her, in which he shamed her for her use of the r-word.

When this tweet was made, Coulter probably wasn’t thinking about the real meaning of retard, just like most of us don’t when we use such words. It seems that people nowadays use retard or gay as a synonym for loser, because they don’t care about what they’re saying. Or maybe they just don’t realize how offensive they are being.

Of course, public figures will always be scolded more than everyday people for their slip ups, but that is no excuse for us to throw these words around without giving it any thought. We shouldn’t need to be shamed into not using such vocabulary. Just because millions of people don’t hear you calling someone gay doesn’t make it any less wrong. It really all comes down to our personal morals.

When abusing the use of these words, we all need to take a moment and think twice before saying them. After all, someone doesn’t necessarily have to have a gay relative or mentally disabled friend to find it offensive. From our own morals, we touch on the common idea of respect.

And that’s just it. Respect. As cliche as it might be, the Golden Rule still applies: treat others how you want to be treated. What kind of world would we live in if people went around disrespecting everyone?

Although people have their personal opinion about gays or mentally challenged people, their thoughts can be kept to themselves. Most people see such differences as a way they were born.

One might be walking down the street and see a homosexual couple holding hands and look down upon it, but that’s a matter of personal judgement. Had it been a young child in an electric wheelchair, the correct way to acknowledge this would be to show respect, not to bat your eyes at the fewer students who were born with these disabilities.

Common misuse of these terms does more than offend other people. It shows other people how we act in public and kind of reveals a great deal about ourselves. During times of our lives, we will be faced to enter places of business, and under those circumstances “retard” or “gay” would not be the proper terminology that would give the message that we are able to act appropriately when needed.