{"id":464,"date":"2011-09-12T01:54:00","date_gmt":"2011-09-12T01:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2011\/09\/belated-farewell-to-the-jerry-lewis-telethon.html"},"modified":"2011-09-12T01:54:00","modified_gmt":"2011-09-12T01:54:00","slug":"belated-farewell-to-the-jerry-lewis-telethon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2011\/09\/belated-farewell-to-the-jerry-lewis-telethon.html","title":{"rendered":"Belated Farewell To The Jerry Lewis Telethon"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

When I was a little kid I held a\u00a0Labor Day neighborhood carnival for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. \u00a0I still credit it as my first real social action project.<\/p>\n

I used to love the Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telethon.\u00a0 I think I just liked all the ritziness of it and seeing the stars on TV long after the stations had usually gone over to a test pattern.\u00a0 I\u2019d watch it all night and day. \u00a0Last week for the first time in 45 years, the telethon (what\u2019s left of it) went on without the Nutty Professor. \u00a0He was unceremoniously dumped by the organization.<\/p>\n

Now I know that Jerry Lewis could be a real putz.\u00a0 He sometimes said dumb things.\u00a0 And the way he pushed his cause could be very insulting to disabled people, especially by our more sensitive modern standards.\u00a0 Yet the man was trying to do some good in the world in a way that he knew how.\u00a0 So I was pretty ticked off when I saw this on The Nation\u2019s website<\/a>:<\/p>\n

This Labor Day, for the first time in forty-five years, there won\u2019t be a Jerry Lewis telethon on TV. It will be a great day for people with disabilities.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The writer goes on to list all of the embarrassing things that Lewis did and how insensitive he was to people with disabilities.<\/p>\n

His criticisms may be true.\u00a0 Certainly by a decade or two ago, the tactics he used to create sympathy for his \u201ckids\u201d were a bit insulting.<\/p>\n

However, the man did raise hundreds of millions of dollars that went directly into improving the quality of life for millions of disabled people.\u00a0 Those funds were put to good use and the beneficiaries of the Muscular Dystrophy Association are far better off today than they would have been had Jerry Lewis not come along.<\/p>\n

The style of fundraising that Lewis did is a thing of the past, but I refuse to \u201ccelebrate\u201d the end of a project that helped so many people.\u00a0 In a world of selfishness and cruelty, we should always honor acts of lovingkindness, even if in retrospect we might have done things differently.<\/p>\n

Lewis was a product of his time.\u00a0 He was often schmaltzy and inappropriate.\u00a0 But he worked very hard to do an enormous amount of good for many people.\u00a0 For that he should be applauded and appreciated.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I was a little kid I held a\u00a0Labor Day neighborhood carnival for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. \u00a0I still credit it as my first real social action project. 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