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How Bruce Springsteen Showed Up Jerry Lewis's Big Lie: For years Jerry Lewis has maintained that raising big money for people with disabilities requires many degrading things of the community being helped. He and his Muscular Dystrophy Association annually emphasize what people with disabilities cannot do, their supposedly wasted lives and the wheelchairs that keep them "bound" instead of actually freeing them.
This in the face of Easter Seals fundraising that talks up the need to change societal attitudes to improve access, and the United Negro College Fund drive reminding us of lost potential and its implications for us all. For years the public has bought into the belief that the MDA telethon needed trashy sets, gaudy lights, fading stars and poor performances. That is, until people like Paul McCartney and Bruce Springsteen decided to raise money for families and relief workers after the September 11th terrorist attacks. With most of the nation watching, we were given a different model to replace that of the old, tired MDA Telethon. The post-September 11th events had muted lighting and artfully placed candles. There was a lot missing: tacky tote boards, giant checks, and stars determined to get their names mentioned as often as possible. Celebrities staffed phones without expecting to get their moment in front of the microphone. Music was chosen with the tastes of surviving families and rescue workers in mind. The emphasis was on respect for those affected and the need to fund already existing potential. Loss was noted; but no one talked about planned funds going to people who were any "less" than those who were doing the giving. The stance of all the September 11th fund raising was that we were a community taking care of our own. And that is exactly the stance taken by "Jerry's Orphans," the group that protests the dehumanizing fundraising tactics of the MDA and Jerry Lewis every Labor Day weekend. The "Orphan" message remains very simple: 1 out of very 3 people in the United States have daily contact with a person they care about who is disabled. 9 out of 10 disabilities are invisible. Right now over 50 million Americans are disabled. Anyone can become so at anytime due to illness, accident, age or genetics. "Jerry's Orphans" says MDA telethon techniques make it out to be "us" -- the able-bodied givers -- vs. "them" -- "Jerry's Kids." The reality is that it is all "we" - "us." The same "we" who came together to take care of our own after September 11th. When "we" came together in that aftermath, it was with the assumption that those needing help were our neighbors, friends and family -- our equals and comrades. The MDA Telethon still operates as if there were a line of demarcation separating the Handicapped With Half-Lives from everyone else. Think back to the memory of those off-duty firefighters dancing in the aisles to the music of "The Boss" that they loved. Have you ever seen disabled people celebrating anything as a group at an MDA telethon? That should tell you something very important. Indeed, when I visited the MDA Telethon site in Las Vegas not too long ago, only a few wheelchair users were allowed in at any one time. We were required to go through the kitchen and use the service elevator so the press could not reach us for comments. (I kid you not.) If we must continue to have telethons, we've now seen how they can be done with respect, emphasizing that the people being helped are capable and that they count fully. Paul McCartney and his friends have exposed, once again, in the biggest way possible, the Lewis/MDA lie that anyone being helped has to be portrayed as pitiful. Will this be the year Lewis and the MDA get called big-time on their big ol' lie? That's up to you and me.
Finally, know that "Jerry's Orphans" are looking out for you whether you have a disability yet or not. Remember, the disability community is the most equal opportunity group in existence. Posted Aug. 28, 2002 Rus Cooper-Dowda is a minister and freelance writer in St. Petersburg, Fla.
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