Colin Farrell is a gifted and popular actor. His starring roles in dozens of films over the last two decades—including “In Bruges,” “The Batman” and “Widows”—have made him famous world-wide. Last year Time magazine named him “one of the most 100 most influential people in the world.”
Colin Farrell is also a dad like us.
In a recent interview he talked about his son, James, now 20, who in childhood was diagnosed with a rare neurogenetic disorder called Angelman Syndrome. James has developmental disabilities. He is not able to speak and will need life-long cares. To honor his son, Farrell has established a foundation to provide support for families with adult children living with disabilities.
That’s impressive right away but something he said in that interview was even more so. While talking about his son, this dad like us said, “I want the world to be kind to James. I want the world to treat him with kindness and respect.”
That’s obviously something every parent wants for his or her child. But for those of us who are parents of a child who has disabilities and is facing life with intellectual and physical deficits, a desire for our kids to be treated with kindness and respect goes very deep. We feel it in our gut, daily.
We’ve heard the statistics. For some ungodly reason our kids are actually more vulnerable to disrespect, bullying, even physical assault than “normal” kids. (Recent studies found that children with disabilities are more than twice as likely to be sexually abused). Our children are weaker, more vulnerable, and are easier “targets.” Lord, have mercy.
So, thank you, Colin Farrell, for saying this out loud. For publicly stating an obvious fact—”we want the world to be kind to our kids”—to a world that can often be unkind. Thank you, too, because thinking about kindness makes us grateful for so many people who DO treat our sons and daughters well, who value and honor them, who love and care about them, in big and small ways.
Today, let’s be kind. Let’s encourage others to do the same. For everyone’s sake. And while we’re at it, let’s rent more Colin Farrell movies.
