Nathasha,
That was a great article about the MDA Telethon
I have heard on the news and in the newspapers a few years ago that Jerry Lewis gets a percentage of the money he raises
I have also heard that some of the entertainers get paid.
I speak to many people online
There are people with Muscular Dystrophy who say they are getting nothing from MDA.
MDA is not the only organization that has fund raisers, they all do, some even have telethons
There is nothing as spectacular as the MDA Telethon and no one raises as much money.
Alan Weinrib
*******
Nathasha,
Jerry Lewis started his Telethons many years ago when people responded best to donating to beggars.
There are still huge numbers of people who like to be begged as that lets them feel superior and benevolent.
That’s a shame.
I agree Lewis’ pathos is sickening, and way outdated, but what we all would really like to know is where has all that donated money REALLY gone over the years.
I wonder if a Challenges Network on the cable schedule would benefit all kinds of people who have to live in a physically different manner. It could be a shopping and info oriented set-up. allowing folks to sell equipment, fashion items, medical helps, crafts and art, music and other things, including books, and the only restriction would be that the items would have to be made and/or sold by the people living with their various conditions.
By the way, isn’t it time the word ‘disabled’ was changed to something more positive? Differently Abled, for instance.
Martha V.
Brunswick, Georgia
*******
Nathasha
“The spaces are closest to a ramp because people who use mobility aids
need access to the sidewalk.”
What about people who have leg weakness and can’t lift their legs
curb-high? Are they not for those people as well?
My mother has multiple sclerosis, and while she can waltz into the mall
pretty steadily, by the time she’s walking out, she can’t always make it
across the parking lot. I don’t see a reason to attack people who are
slightly more abled but still not entirely abled for parking in a spot
that their doctors deem medically necessary. If there’s not enough
handicapped parking for you, maybe you should take it up with the owners
of the lot. Or the government for not mandating putting enough of them
aside. Just because you don’t show up in a scooter doesn’t mean you
couldn’t use one or be better off with one … you just don’t have one,
or you may just not need it on the way in. The disability community
needs unification, not rants like this “more-disabled-than-thou” attempt
at humor. Your idea of putting aside other spots in a different color is
a good one, but until then, this is what it is. Listen to your friend;
invisible disabilities have their own maddening stereotypes … and this
is one of them.
Robyn Heller Gerbush