Obama's Faux Pas

Zach Finken is the executive news director for the Chicago Sun. He is one upset and disappointed father and husband. He's not too happy with Barry Obama, either
"My son is a joke to the president of the United States.

That's how it feels after President Obama told Jay Leno his woeful bowling skills are "like Special Olympics, or something." The most powerful man in the world scored some cheap laughs on "The Tonight Show" by mocking people like my autistic 8-year-old.
Zach Finken with his wife, Deb, and their son, Jackson, at Walk Now for Autism at Soldier Field last May
Many will tell me that I'm taking Obama's screw-up too hard, that I should get over it. It was a throw-away line, a momentary lapse from a man whose every word is recorded and broadcast around the world. But how many racial or gender or homosexual slurs are shrugged off as "throw-away lines"? Words hurt. Words like these from the most powerful man in the world are devastating.
Yes, Obama has said he's sorry. He called the chairman of the Special Olympics to apologize. That's not good enough. When Obama made that crack, he showed where his heart really is. If this was just an "unguarded moment," then that means this is how he talks when the cameras are off. Jokes like this aren't a big deal to him.
I've bristled at jokes like this my whole life. In addition to my son, I have a profoundly retarded brother. Seth is 30 years old, can't move or communicate, wears a diaper. I wish he could be a Special Olympian, Mr. President.
My son and my brother will never be full-fledged members of society. My son may never have a job or a girlfriend or an apartment of his own. My brother definitely never will. But could they please, at least, get a little respect from the president?
My son is just a second-grader, and he's already an outcast among his classmates. What do the normal kids in my son's class learn from Obama?
They learn that my son is a punch line."