There are times when someone specifically tries to offend and hurt you for no reason.
And when that happens, it’s easy to feel vulnerable and helpless.
You simply don’t know what to do.
Well, here’s a family who did something amazing when faced with a hate crime.
The Hollis family lives in a small town in Central, Illinois, and one April morning of 2011, the family woke up to see their cars and home spray-painted with hate graffiti.
Words like “RETARDS,” “Get Outta here,” and other hateful language was used.
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This was because of their two adopted daughters from Ukraine, Meg and Alina, who both have Down’s Syndrome.
It really was a sad and terrifying experience for the family.
However, they refused to be silent about it. Instead, they chose take action.
After the attack, Anne’s two sons said that they wanted to make a video, to “speak up for our sisters.”
These two boys, age 6 and 7, asked their parents if they could help them.
After a bit of a struggle, the boys put out a video – publicly calling for help to put an end to using the word “retard”.
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Then, Everyone Matters, a global awareness campaign designed to advocate every person’s right to dignity and respect without judgment or shame, saw the video and wanted to feature the footage for their global following.
Everyone Matters contacted the Hollis family, asked if they could tweak the video a little bit to add more information.
The result?
You can watch it from below, but it truly is an amazing video.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObPoZCTTVeI&w=560&h=315]
The Hollis family really turned the worst thing that happened to them into an opportunity to remind others to be inclusive.
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