Dear Barry,

I am the father of a special needs child. I really DO understand your sensitivity with regard to Little Hawk's comment. However, please think for a sec. Little Hawk is just not the kind of guy to hurt others. He has compassion for people, and I know if he'd thought even for an instant that his words in the first post would have offended anyone who's the parent of a special needs child--well, buddy, he just wouldn't have posted it. It's not in him to be like that.

Years back I came sooo close to smacking a fellow in Safeway upside the head when he asked if my daughter was retarded. He was very close to a nap at that instant. But, when the 'rage' I felt subsided--took about two seconds--I realized he was smiling at her and asking her how she was doing, and she was responding to him. I replied that she was indeed a special needs child and he said words to the effect that she was pretty and he hoped we'd both have a good day, etc. Turns out he was a pretty nice guy. Over the next few years he would stop and talk with my daughter when he saw her in the store, and she got to call him by his first name. What he had said wasn't meant to hurt.

Bruce Murdoch