This morning I recieved a message that was forwarded to one of the GimpGirl mailing lists by Alejandra. The majority of the message follows:
Dear Fellow Activists,
I write today to ask you as a show of solidarity to NOT donate your hard earned dollars to the Jerry Lewis labor day telethon for the reason that follow. Please remember to call the local office at [number removed] and inform them of your decision.
1) Jerry Lewis says insulting things about disabled people, including that we are half-people.
2) The Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) now refuses to allow disabled people to be volunteers at its summer camps. This is ploblematic because summer camp is a venue for disabled youngsters to be exposed to role-models and ask questions without mom and dad around. For me, camp was the first place I learned about Personal Assistance Processes, disability scholarships and supports, and most importantly listened to the stories of my friends, who were as disabled as me,succeed at college.
3)Most of the money doesn't go towards providing people with muscular dystrophy (MD) with supports they need(such as wheelchairs, breathing therapies, personal care, ect.) Instead, money goes to research and overhead. Not that research is not important, but any "cure" is far away (and wouldn't work completely because muscles that are not regularly used present their own problems which will not vanish obernight) and a theoritical cure is no so important if you cannot leave your home because you don't have a chair.
On the above items, please visit http://www.stoppity.org and/or read
poet and activist Laura Hershey's essay "From Poster Child to Protester", (which is available on her website http://www.cripcommentary.com and a really good introduction to the issue.
Lastly, and in my opinion most importantly, telethons permote the image of disabled people as helpless. This is particularly damaging to children, who learn that the only way to get what they want or need is to act helpless. Hardly the most useful lesson when getting which you need as a disabled person generally involves being assertive and self-assured. Additionally, as the telethon is a major source of media imagery about disabled people, many able-bodied people think all disabled are not capable of managing themselves. This attitude makes the lives of disabled people in general much worse.
Here's why I think this is the wrong way to go.
Granted, the first two points are very true. It especially upset me to hear of the new policy on who they will accept as camp volunteers, because I had been thinking myself about going back to camp to volunteer. I do not dispute the fact that these are big problems that need to be dealt with.
However, withholding donations is not going to hurt the people who make these decisions. It is going to hurt those who receive the services that donated money pays for. As is mentioned in the message, research is MDA's first priority, which means that in the event of a decrease in donations, the things that are going to be cut the most are the services... equipment, clinic services, and camp. Should we deny MDA's clients these services simply because of bad decision making by leaders in the organization?
The third point in the message is not as accurate. You have the option when you make a donation, to designate what service or particular disease you want your money to benefit. If you don't want to fund research for a cure that's not going to come anytime soon, then you can choose to have your money go towards equipment or camp instead.
I attended an MDA summer camp for ten years. They were the best summers of my life. No one has to donate, and I'm not asking anyone to. I just want to say that I made my donation this year, and will continue to do so, because it's the least I can do to repay for those years of wonderful experiences and memories, and to ensure that other kids will have the same opportunity.
(Posting of this article was delayed due to a database problem.)
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