Are Normal People Really Human?

A friend of mine's frequent comment about individuals with intellectual disabilities is, "they're just people." I have amplified this statement to "they are fully human, only more so."

In a class on Mental Retardation at University of California-Riverside we were instructed on the "six characteristics of mental retardation." As the professor lectured on these indicators that set  the "mentally retarded" apart from the rest of us "normals," I was astounded to realize that these were the very characteristics that make all of us human. I realized that every one of us in that room, doctorates included, had in their natures every one of those characteristics. All people have all of the indicators of mental retardation to one extent or the other.

I believe that those are the characteristics of being human. Since the "mentally retarded" have them in a greater degree than the supposed "normals," they are much more human than the allegedly normal people are.