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Homework answers / question archive / Discussion 3: Disability does not mean Inability The Telethon One of the most well-known national fund raising activities over the last five decades was the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon held each year on Labor Day (Jerry Lewis was mysteriously fired as host three years ago but that has nothing to do with this forum discussion

Discussion 3: Disability does not mean Inability The Telethon One of the most well-known national fund raising activities over the last five decades was the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon held each year on Labor Day (Jerry Lewis was mysteriously fired as host three years ago but that has nothing to do with this forum discussion

Biology

Discussion 3: Disability does not mean Inability

The Telethon

One of the most well-known national fund raising activities over the last five decades was the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon held each year on Labor Day (Jerry Lewis was mysteriously fired as host three years ago but that has nothing to do with this forum discussion. . . or does it?). For many years there had been an active effort to boycott and remove this event from television, particularly from those same people for whom the telethon is meant to raise money for (Over 2 billion dollars has been raised since 1966). "Many in the disabled community wanted Jerry Lewis removed from the MDA for his comments and his actions towards the disabled. Many able-bodied people think the disabled should shut up and graciously accept all that Jerry has done for them."

Click on the following links, skim through the articles and try to get a feel as to why people were protesting Jerry Lewis' telethon and share your thoughts and reaction via this forum. 1. Can you see their point of view? Do you agree or disagree with the protesters? 2. Also, look at Jim Sinocchi's comment in a Profile in Diversity Consciouness on page 111 (3rd ed.) or page 89 (4th ed.) of your book, what do you think are the perceptions of people with disabilities in the workforce?

Submit your first response answering the above questions by Wednesday by 11:59 p.m. if you make reference to something in one of the articles or the book please cite it. (8 points)   Your second response should be to another student, whether you agree, disagree, or have further to add to their thoughts, please keep it appropriate due Sunday by 11:59 p.m.. (2 points) 

 

IF THE FOLLOWING LINKS DON'T OPEN WHEN CLICKED, COPY AND PASTE THE LINK IN ANOTHER WINDOW'S ADDRESS BAR

Article One: People with Muscular Dystrophy Protesting Jerry Lewis Glance through some of the links in this article such as: From Poster Child to Protester, No longer one of Jerry's Kids, Telethon's cost is in Dignity. 

http://reunifygally.wordpress.com/2009/01/11/people-with-muscular-dystrophy-protesting-pity/

Article Two: Protesting Pity

http://reunifygally.wordpress.com/2009/01/10/protest-pity/

Article Three: Speaking out against the MDA Telethon

http://www.laurahershey.com/?p=375

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According to the articles, most people with disabilities considered Jerry Lewis's telethons to be insensitive and self-serving to his ego. They said that Lewis pretended to pity people with muscular dystrophy while claiming to help them when on the hind sight he used offensive language when describing them and further treated them with little respect. Some of his benefactors stated that they were offended by his speeches in the telethon. For example he called disability a curse, wheelchairs a steel imprisonment and those who used them were eternally bound to them. He also said of the disabilities as being the dystrophic child's plight and that the children were really dealt a bad hand.

The point of view by the protesters who were mostly referred to as "Jerry's  children", was their distaste of Lewis insisting to the American people the message that disabled people are powerless, fragile,sad and can not contribute to anything meaningful to the society when in reality most of them want jobs, children, marriage and an ability to advocate for their own rights and inspire activism.  Their goal was to raise awareness about the negative effects of using pity to empower people with disabilities. According to Jim Sinocchi " If people could begin to look at each other more in terms of what we have in common as opposed to whats different, we'd accomplish more....in order to be comfortable relating to people who happen to be different,we need to relate intellect to intellect in a way that our bodies are simply along for the ride (Bucher, 2014,p.89). "I believe that Jerry used the telethon as a cheap tactic to financially exploit and convince many Americans that the only hope people with disabilities have is in charity and not in any of their abilities. In my opinion pity makes it hard for people with disabilities to advance their true talents, social equality and dignity. 

                                                                           Citation

Bucher, R.(2014) Diversity Consciousness: Opening Our Minds to People, Cultures and Opportunities. 4th edition

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