Over at When Falls the Coliseum Ricky Sprague finally discovers how to hitch himself to the shooting star that is modern American culture:

I understand that words can hurt. For most of my life, I have been underweight, and had lower than normal upper body strength. For instance, today I find it taxing to lift a window-mounted air conditioning unit and carry it up one flight of stairs. I am, in other words, “weak.” And yet, every day I am confronted by situations in which I hear people using the word “weak” when they mean “foolish” (i.e., “Lady Gaga’s use of a wheelchair during a concert was really weak, let’s throw eggs at her,” and “When Lady Gaga used ‘the R-word’ to attack her critics, that was really weak”). How do you think I feel about this? I feel very insulted. I feel hurt. I feel bullied. People would never think to say that Lady Gaga’s use of a wheelchair during a concert was really N-word, so why would they be so willing to say that it was W-word?

Insensitivity comes in many forms and we have to nip it in the bud — if there’s one thing I’ve learned from the “Glee” public service message, that’s it.