An Apology to the Young

On behalf of my generation, to those that have come after us:
I'm sorry.

I'm sorry that we taught you that homosexuality was something so offensive and wrong that it was okay to use it as a synonym for "stupid."
I'm sorry that we thought it was funny to imitate the uncoordinated motions and speech of those we called "retarded", in order to mock those born that way or anyone we wanted to brand as inferior. I'm sorry that we carelessly conflated those same disabilities with our own lapses of concentration or judgment ("duhhh, I must be retarded today"), to the point that some of you now mouth the words with no idea of the history or hurt behind them.
I'm sorry we taught you to hate and fear people whose skin or church or language was different.

You learned these lessons well, even the ones we did not deliberately teach. You slurped up this poison with your milk and cereal, most of you never questioning it, until it became part of you.
And why should you question it? Why should you not trust us? We were your parents, your aunts and uncles, your older siblings. We were supposed to know better. We were supposed to teach you right from wrong and to be good people. We were supposed to learn from our mistakes and help you to avoid repeating them. We were supposed to make a better world for you to inherit and grow up in.

We failed.
And I am very, very sorry.