Ignorant-A-Saurus.

Dumb Dinosaur.

You'd think those one's would be the first to go off and get extinct, due to natural selection and all, but OH no they are still around.  I encountered one today.

 In one of my classes today we were having a discussion about the benefits of healthy eating and exercise. One  guy raised his hand and started blabbering on about something, I don't remember what he was saying because I  really only caught this: "and be diabetic and gross."

Not cool guy. Not cool.  

   Being Diabetic does not mean you are gross or fat or lazy.  And yeah I know he was talking about Type 2,  that is the more common type in our society, but it still is not okay.  First of all, genetics play a big part as well. I know of a guy that goes to my school that was diagnosed with Type 2 recently.  Fit, young and healthy.  And while there is a large chunk of people who develop Type 2 because of poor life choices, it still does not make them gross.  They are not gross and they shouldn't have to feel disgusting just because of what you say or what they have done. It happens, but the good news is they can change and take control and don't have to be "gross" anymore. Type 2 does not make a person stuck where they are, but comments like this can make it seem that way.

   Second, a lot of people won't distinguish between the diabetes you were talking about and the kind that I live with, I am not even sure if you knew which kind you were talking about.  So by not making clear which kind you are talking about,  you were lumping me and all PWD's in the same category that you think is "GROSS," thereby prepetuating the myth that ALL Diabetics (Type 1 or 2) are lazy and disgusting when it is just not true. Do you know what that myth does for funding for research to cure Type 1?  Nothing.  It makes people think that the research is not important, and that if all these "lazy diabetics" would get off their couches and brush off the crumbs, than they would get better and we would not need to spend money on a cure.  Type 1 can't be controlled by exercise or diet alone, heck even some Type 2's need insulin injections just like me!  My immune system attacked my pancreas, that is not my fault, but they are SO close to finding a cure, and its comments like these that can ruin all that.  

Now I am not trying to put this guy down, he has probably not been blessed to have superior Diabetes know like me, He just doesn't know, he is just ignorant, and most likely not because he chooses to be.  

ig·no·rant/ˈignərənt/Adjective

Lacking knowledge, information, or awareness about something in particular: "ignorant of diabetes".

And just like diabetes doesn't make me or any other diabetic "GROSS" or "REVOLTING", his ignorance doesn't make him dumb or stupid. AND Just like diabetes, it doesn't make him stuck this way.  

That is why I tell you this story, not because I want to make him seem dumb or make myself feel better, but because we need to make the Ignorant-A-Saurus Diabeticus EXTINCT.

I didn't correct him in class today, because A) it was not relevant to the discussion really and B) I could feel my blood sugar dropping at that point and whatever I might have said might not have come out nice...or even understandable. C) I was not going to suck down my glucose frosting in front of everyone while we had a discussion about nutrition, so I went out in the Hall, hahaha!

Have you ever met any Ignorant-A-Saurus Diabetici? How did you educate them in a nice way?

That is all :)