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Date:         Fri, 9 Oct 1992 11:46:48 EDT
Reply-To:     "(Bill McGarry)" <wtm@sheldev.shel.isc-br.com>
From:         "(Bill McGarry)" <wtm@sheldev.shel.isc-br.com>
Subject:      Handicap Digest # 2962

                             THE HANDICAP DIGEST

                                 Issue # 2962

                         Wednesday, October 07, 1992

Today's Topics:


                                ******


                               Jerry's orphans
                               Jerry's orphans
                               Jerry's orphans
                               Jerry's orphans
                               POLIO CHIT-CHAT
                               Jerry's orphans
                           The Tale Of The Farmers
                             UHF Annual Meeting


                                ******


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                              Bill McGarry (Moderator)
                              (203) 337-1518



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Subject: Jerry's orphans
From: Melissa.Mead@f136.n267.z1.fidonet.org (Melissa Mead)
Organization: FidoNet node 1:267/136 - Access BBS, Ballston Spa NY


[This is from the AbleNews Conference]

I would say it uses a little of both approaches because,
unfortunatly, pity sells. But not all the stories are that way
either. I have had friends on telethons who are anything but
pitiable! It still DOES need to mention adults, I think. But
Telethons are good for what they do.

Missy

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Subject: Jerry's orphans
From: Jeffrey.Vandyke@f14.n279.z1.fidonet.org (Jeffrey Vandyke)
Organization: FidoNet node 1:279/14 - Project Enable, Dunbar WV


[This is from the AbleNews Conference]

MA>not.  Controversy creates attention.  Attention creates an opportunity
MA>to profit, and I'm convinced that some of these folks merely want to
MA>start getting some of the money for their own personal use rather
MA>than the MDA's.
.
MA>Day.  From all I've read, the opponants of the Telethon tend to believe
MA>that an incorrect image of those dealing personally with MD is being
MA>projected by the Telethon.  I'm sorry, but I've seen the Telethon for
MA>years, and it's always shown me people who are quite admirable in their
MA>ability to deal with MD.  It's shown me families drawn closer together.
MA>It's shown me individuals who have developed a strong sense of purpose
MA>in their lives.  It's shown me people who have evidenced tremendous
MA>courage in facing the inevitable.  It's shown me people who have
MA>sacrificed time and money to help others.  It's shown me that groups
MA>and communities can indeed work together for a good cause.  It's
MA>shown me that there is a tremendous amount of good will in the world
MA>that can be tapped into if someone just gets up there and asks.
.
MA>So the premise that the Telethon portrays people with MD as helpless
MA>and asks that they be pitied is a false one as far as I'm concerned.
MA>I've seen too much evidence to the contrary.  Sure it tugs at the
MA>heart here and there in an effort to loosen the purse-strings, but
MA>that's the nature of any effort to gather money.  Some people react
MA>to facts.  Others to emotion.  The Telethon wants to reach them all.
.
MA>I'd suggest that the format of the Telethon is working extremely
MA>well and the only thing needing work is the attitudes of those
MA>who wish to tear it down.  A thing is not successful and long-
MA>enduring if it's not doing something right, and there are few
MA>money-raising efforts out there as successful or as long-lived as
MA>the MDA Telethon.  While it's true that Jerry Lewis is not a
MA>saint, it's probably time that his detractors took a look in the
MA>mirror.
.
  I really have to agree with this. I have watched the Telethon off
and on for years, and I didn't like the early ones myself. In all
fairness, there wasn't a lot of hope back then, anyway. Anyone who
has watched it should note that they HAVE changed with the times,
and are doing much more now with showing how actual people are
leading their lives.
  People have to also remember who is doing the Telethon. In
particular, it is done mainly SHOW BIZ people (and NOT just Jerry
Lewis, so people shoudn't pick on him). When show biz people run
the show, you are going to get a certain amount of song-and-dance,
some other entertainment, and some tugging-at-the-heartstrings.
After all, that's what they DO. They ENTERTAIN. Emotions are
what Hollywood is all about. Think about this: if Ted Koppel or
Dan Rather or any number of ther other top-flight newscasters
were running the Telethon, I'm sure you would get more dry facts.
You wouldn't, however get the kind of feedback to the fundraisers
that they get now. People put a lot of work and time into the
thousands of fund-raisers that are held. On the Telethon, these
people and their organizations are recognized for their hard work
in a very public way. Otherwise, many would't have much incentive.
A news format show would merely say something like... "...and we
thank the firefighters, stores, and other people who contributed
funds. A printed transcript of the contributors may be obtained
by sending $19.95 to..."   I don't think that would generate
too many funds.
  Other things people could keep in mind. With the research that
MDA has funded, a lot of things in genetic techniques have been
discovered. Many of these techniques, I hear, are now being used
in other human genetics-type research for the study of many other
diseases. Also, these techniques can also be used in plant and
animal genetics etc for food production. The information is
shared around the scientific community, so everyone benefits.
  Just my opinion I had to get off my chest.
            -- Jeff

 * SLMR 2.1a * Member, Off-Road Wheelchair Association

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Subject: Jerry's orphans
From: Tony.Young@f304.n109.z1.fidonet.org (Tony Young)
Organization: FidoNet node 1:109/304 - WID East, Springfield VA


[This is from the AbleNews Conference]

I just read the reply on the Telethon. I don't know what telethon
you've been watching, but the one with Jerry Lewis on it is
horribly demeaning to people with disabilties.

Jerry treats people with disabilities as non-persons, objects of
pity, half-persons, and in need of total care from others. This is
patently ridicules. It is not an acceptible way of raising money.

Imagine going in to a job interview, and having the employer treat
you like you were a kid, or helpless. Imagine going through life
with people wanting to pat you on the head, or put a few coins in
your tin cup. That's what Jerry does to people, and why Jerry's
Orphans was created.

I support Jerry's Orphans, and will do so until Jerry leaves the
telethon and MDA changes the way they portray people with
disabilities in their fund raising and other materials.

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Subject: Jerry's orphans
From: Mike.Adams@f10.n19.z1.fidonet.org (Mike Adams)
Organization: FidoNet node 1:19/10 - Majik Shoppe BBS, Altus OK


[This is from the AbleNews Conference]

TY>  I just read the reply on the Telethon. I don't know what telethon you've b
TY>  watching, but the one with Jerry Lewis on it is horribly demeaning to peop
TY>  with disabilties.

TY>  Jerry treats people with disabilities as non-persons, objects of pity,
TY>  half-persons, and in need of total care from others. This is patently
TY>  ridicules. It is not an acceptible way of raising money.

Just goes to show we all tend to color what we see with our
own ideas.  I've never seen what you describe, and I've been
watching the telethon since the sixties.  All your colorful
language won't change the truth as I see it.  ;)

 * SLMR 2.1 *

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Subject: POLIO CHIT-CHAT
From: Phyllis.Doering@f24.n3602.z1.fidonet.org (Phyllis Doering)
Organization: FidoNet node 1:3602/24 - ADAnet One (tm) Net, Pinson AL


[This is from the AbleNews Conference]

  LS> Just asking for comments from any polio survivors/family/friends
  LS> regarding how they are coping.  LaVonne Schoneman, HOW TO COPE,
  LS> Seattle, W Washington

You ask,S How do family members cope with the disability of a
spouse?S Let me answer that by telling a little story.

Once upon a time, in a small farming village in the plains there
lived a family. This was a particularly happy family. There was
Mother and Father Farmer, their only daughter Melissa and her
husband Frank. Now Melissa was a very bright and ambitious young
woman who worked hard both in the fields and in the house to help
provide a nice home for her family.

Now over the years the land had been good to the Farmers and they
were considered most successful by their neighbors. They had plenty
to eat and a quite lovely house. They had plenty of money put away
and they really didnUt have to work as hard as they did in order to
maintain a rather high standard of living. But the Farmers were the
kind of people who just needed to keep working.

One day  Melissa Farmer became ill. The village doctor sent her to
bed and there she stayed for over two months. When finally she
started feeling better it became clear that Melissa had lost the
use of her legs. She could no longer walk. No one had any idea what
had caused this but non the less it was true.

At first her family was most concerned and supportive. The helped
her with everything they could. Father Farmer built a ramp in the
front of the house for Melissa to roll her wheel chair up and down
and Fred Farmer built special devices to help his wife get in and
out of bed and Mother Farmer took over all Melissa's duties in the
home.

But soon things began to change. Father Farmer said the ramp made
the house look funny and all the people that came by would stop and
look and stare. Fred Farmer said the devices he had built got in
his way when he got up in the morning and Mother Farmer complained
that she was working too hard.  And they all started complaining
that Melissa needed to do something about   her chores that she
hadnUt been able to do since she became ill. They said that her not
doing cost them money and made them work harder and that all she
was doing now was sitting around the house keeping the financial
records of the family and selling the produce they grew and
managing all the other interests that the family had acquired over
the years.

RYou have changed.S They said RIt isnUt right to make us change
too.S

RBut I havenUt changed,S she said RNot really. I am the person I
have always been. I just have to do things differently.S

But her family just couldnUt get used to the change in Melissa.
You see, what Melissa's family saw as Melissa was not what Melissa
was but what Melissa did, and what is more important, DID FOR THEM.
When Melissa could no longer DO FOR THEM  they no longer recognized
her as being anything more then a burden.

But they decided that  for the good of the family and for
appearances in the village they must learn to cope with the
situation. This meant that they had to sacrifice what to them was
an important aspect of their lives in order to accommodate someone
that they no longer really knew.

But you see, they NEVER knew Melissa and they were incapable of
knowing her now. Had they known her at all they would have realized
that the change in her physical condition was nothing other then
one of the inevitable changes that all people go through during
their lives and that even though this change was different from
others they were more used to it was nothing more then the
evolution of a person and would have been  an antithesis to them
that would have precipitated a change in their own lives.  In other
words, THEY WOULD HAVE GROWN.  But they didnUt. They COPED and
because of that they and Melissa and everyone around them did not
grow. They remained stagnant and dry and bitter.

Coping presupposes some negativity with which one must come to
grips . Changing is a natural and healthy way of learning and
growing and reaching maturity.

I do not Cope with my wifeUs disability. There is nothing to cope
with. she is physically different then she was when we were first
married but her disability is part of her and to say I had to learn
to cope with her disability is to say I had to learn to cope with
her which in turn raises the question,S If I have to learn to cope
with my own wife, why did I marry her in the first place.S

To say I had to learn to cope with her disability is to say that,
like the Farmer family, she can no longer DO FOR ME, so therefore
she is somehow less of a person then she was when I married her. I
would be judging her worth on how much she did FOR ME not what and
who she is as a person.

My wife has had to learn to deal with her disability. That
disability is part of what she is. For me to say that  she is some
how less then the person I married because of this disability would
be for me to reject the entire concept of change and growth.
Families, husbands and wives should always strive to grow together.
Without this growth only stagnation is possible. Change is a
catalyst for growth not something to be coped with.

CARL DOERING
 # Origin: DA GREAT CITY OF CHICAGO (94:3120/2.2)

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Subject: Jerry's orphans
From: Phyllis.Doering@f24.n3602.z1.fidonet.org (Phyllis Doering)
Organization: FidoNet node 1:3602/24 - ADAnet One (tm) Net, Pinson AL


[This is from the AbleNews Conference]

MM>         Jerry Lewis is not a saint, or a devil. He's
MM> just a well-meaning man with all the predjusices and
MM> biases of his age. Rather than condemn him completely,
MM> I think we should work positively to develop a new,
MM> more accurate image of people with disabilities.

No, Jerry Lewis is a bigot! He MUST go!!!! Would the United African
American College Fund want a on their TV fund raiser want a KKK
member to tell all about African American people inorder to raise
money.for their schools? He* the KKK member (*as far as I know they
donUt have sheUs as members) would also talk about RthemS being
half human and that he thanks god he wasnUt born one of them. This
flagrant show of bigotry must stop!

Phyllis

 # Origin: DA GREAT CITY OF CHICAGO (94:3120/2.2)

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Subject: The Tale Of The Farmers
From: Marianne.Spengler@f24.n3602.z1.fidonet.org (Marianne Spengler)
Organization: FidoNet node 1:3602/24 - ADAnet One (tm) Net, Pinson AL


[This is from the AbleNews Conference]

I began a reading of THE TALE OF THE FARMERS a few days ago that
I'd like to continue today in brief.  (I'll try to do a full
critique of the allegory later).

First, let me state clearly (rather than imply) the argument of my
reading: The narrator of THE TALE OF THE FARMERS reveals a deep am-
bivalence towards the disabled.

Now, let me restate my earlier evidence.  The narrator's slips of the
tongue in naming and renaming the tale's characters speak of his/her
deep ambivalence.   Thus, the narrator's confusions undercut the
tale's moral, the moral itself but another example of ambivalence.
I'll explicate that point here.

Reexamine for a moment the story's moral: changing our attitude towards
the disabled is better than coping with the disabled.

Since definition is the tale's organizing principle, the narrator forces
us as readers to ask what it means to change and to cope.  The narrator
argues that change is positive, ". . . a natural and healthy way of
learning and growing and reaching maturity."  Coping, on the other hand,
is the lesser good since it ". . . presupposes some negativity with which
one must come to grips."

Now who of us would not want be on the side of the angels when the story's
argument is explicated in those terms?  But let us be wary readers so that
we do not mistake dross for gold.

Having introduced the underside of the word 'cope,' the narrator closes
us off from the underbelly of the word 'change' because s/he is silent on
that point.  The narrator would have us believe that s/he defines
'change' to mean accepting the disabled individual for who or what the
individual is, admonishing us to look beyond what the disabled individual
can or cannot do for the family.

But change need not mean acceptance.  It can mean flight or escape, a
meaning implicit in the narrator's move from the drear of the farm's
landscape to the high ground of the allegory's framing moral.

So which meaning is the narrator's real meaning?  Accepting the disabled?
Flying from them?  We as readers do not know: we can only identify the
ambivalence in the narrator.

Now let us hear again what it means to cope, but let us do so without the
narrator's godlike guidance.  My WEBSTER'S defines the word as "to fight
or contend [with] successfully."  The narrator is right to have us see the
negative elements of the word 'cope' since fighting and contending are
fraught with tears, and pain, and, yes, agony.  But s/he is silent (again)
about the word's positive elements: to fight successfully . . . to stay
the course.

So what would I have you do . . . change?  . . . cope?  I would have you
NOT seduced by me or by the narrator.

Sanctimonious prattle, whoever's it is, cannot answer the dilemmas we face
in the real world, although it always answers problems within the confines
of the storyteller's narrative.

 # Origin: I CAN! BBS * Chicago, IL * ADAnet(tm) Regional Hub (94:107/1)

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Subject: UHF Annual Meeting
From: Gordon.Gillesby@f1007.n282.z1.fidonet.org (Gordon Gillesby)
Organization: FidoNet node 1:282/1007 - DRAG-Net, Andover MN


[This is from the AbleNews Conference]

                     United Handicapped Federation
                             Annual Meeting
                              Nov 14, 1992
                               1pm - 3pm.
                             Courage Center
                         3915 Golden Valley Rd.
                           St. Louis Park, MN

   Senator Paul Wellstone is the keynote speaker.  The main items on the
agenda are electing new Board members (if interested, call UHF),
changing the organizational name (at last, at last) to Disability Rights
Alliance and demonstrations of our DRAGnet BBS. Great fun.  Please come.
Free and open, spread the word, we would like to see hundreds.  But
please call UHF to let us know if you'll be there 612/645-8922 (v/TDD).

 * OLX 2.2 * Genuine Exploding Tagline.   Acme Tagline Inc.

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                                ******

                  End of Issue # 2962 of the Handicap Digest

                                ******
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU