Reply #11: "Some .. people" is a standard propaganda technique. Just who .. [View All]

[struggle4progress]

.. these alleged people whose activism is for "no empathy, no help, no laws and programs to make sure employers enable you to work - and no economic assistance for those who just don't have the determination to overcome it all"?

That sounds like the current Republican agenda to me, not the agenda of any disability activists I've ever met.

The criticism is that the Telethon dehumanizes its alleged beneficiaries for fundraising purposes

Friday, November 18, 2005
Jerry Lewis vs. Jerry's Kids

.. In yearly telethons since 1966, Lewis has helped raise an estimated $2 billion in donations for "Jerry's Kids," a staggering figure that one might expect to shield him from criticism. But Ingrid Tischer, a woman with muscular dystrophy, describes how Lewis depicts people like her as wretched, helpless and hopeless, a portrayal that pulls in the money at the expense of their self-worth:

Minutes after I tuned in this year, a little girl was profiled in a video montage before she and her parents joined the host on stage. She sat listening quietly as her parents talked about how their little girl didn't have a future.

Unlike "normal" children, she was "confined" to a wheelchair and could be "struck down" at any moment. You couldn't see how these dramatic statements affected her because a "Call Now" graphic covered the lower portion of the screen -- right where her face was, and where the face of of any person who uses a wheelchair would be expected to be.

Here's the thing: Little girls who hear they don't have futures become women who don't have jobs. And people will never care that women with disabilities are excluded from their work places if they think of us as faceless bodies with special needs instead of women with equal rights.
http://www.cadenhead.org/workbench/news/2808/jerry-lewis-vs-jerrys-kids