Even in those relatively less-enlightened times, I remembered my jaw falling at the insensitivity.
Said you wouldn't like it....

Oh, I don't know, Norman. I might like it a lot...Wouldn't know until I heard the song -- take note of Kendall's experience.

That's actually one of my pet peeves. No one batted an eye when Rossanne Barr made jokes about being fat, or Joan Rivers joked about being in a bad marriage. But if Geri Jewell joked about having CP, then suddenly, it was all in "Very Bad Taste" -- or, "Oh, so Very Heartwarming!"

Comedians (and songwriters) are expected to put their personal lives into their work -- unless that experience includes disability. Then, for some reason, we're expected to put our lives high on the Pedestal of Sensitivity, right where everyone else wants it to be. The only problem is: there's not much room for living, up there.

Uncle DaveO:
Of course there was an outpouring of public sympathy.

This goes back to my discussion with Abby Sale, back when this discussion started -- whether sympathy means "compassion," or "pity."

Frankly, in this case, I suspect the latter; "the public" never knew this young man -- they only saw a symbol of their own fears, and they were reacting to that. And I actually find that pity more disturbing than the choice of song... pity like that sucks the life out of a person. If his teenage friends really were his friends -- kids who hung out with him and teased and ribbed him prior to the accident, than that choice of song is letting him know that the accident and his resulting disability won't change their friendship.

I don't know about you. But that's the message that would raise my spirits far more than hundreds of roses, or syruppy get-well cards...