PLEASE!!! Sign this petition!!!!!

[Justy Me]

Go to that site and it will go into detail for you. I think it would be great if we could get enough signatures to make it so that Jerry Lewis does NOT get this award. He does not represent the disabilities community with the respect we deserve....as well as his choice words toward women and gay people. This affects us all so I thought I would pass this along.....Thanks to all who sign!




http://www.petitiononline.com/jlno2009/petition.html

[Dodger67]

Done!

Have you posted it to other forums, blogs and sites such as facebook etc?

[Barb]

I signed as well.

This is a pretty good article on it: http://www.cripcommentary.com/frompost.html

It is the same thing I constantly say about the March of Dimes and Spina Bifida Association. They use todays people to create pity to donate money for a 'cure'. What about helping people break down barriers that are living now? The amount of money wasted on the folic acid campaigns is sickening and could have gone to some very good programs that allow the 'disabled' community to have the same access and rights as the 'non disabled' community

[Justy Me]

I very much agree with you Barb! It should be about improving our quality of life, in the here-and-now....I hate the use of pity, it serves to segregate us even further and it perpetuates the stereotypes that we SO badly need to bust (that we are sad pathetic people who need only worry about getting thru the day... It must stop...Being pro-active about it feels awesome, lets rob him of this undue privilege!!!

Dodger...I have sent it on to people and ask them to do the same....if you have a myspace or facebook, etc. then PLEASE feel free to send it on!

[LisaJoy]

I signed, too. I'm with you, Barb, especially since the folic acid campaigns are pretty ineffective for their cost. I'm fine with requiring supplementation in the food supply and fine with women routinely being told by their docs/health departments to take it. But if most of that money could be redirected to trying to change attitudes toward disability, think what might be accomplished!

I'll post the link on my facebook wall, the SBA's facebook page, and I'll send it out on the email list for the Disability History Association.

[Justy Me]

You guys are so AWESOME!!!! You are doing a great job in helping out and I am glad we could come together to try and make a difference. I knew I could count on you. We owe it to ourselves to try as hard as we can to prevent that jerk from getting anything

[Justy Me]

Barb that crip commentary link u posted had me glued to my computer screen. It made me cry at times, to realize that, yes, most people do not care to help us help ourselves. If I had better funding for the things in life that would help me to be more productive, I know I would be so much happier. It's as though our basic human right to live and exist is stripped away by narrow-minded people like that

[LisaJoy]

If you page through the cripcommentary site, you'll find an article she wrote about escaping the SSI/disability/medicaid trap. It is very interesting and daunting. She needs a personal attendant and a respirator and therefore can never survive on private or employer health insurance -- but she wanted to work and be self-supporting, so she battled the system.

[Justy Me]

oooh that would be worth a look. I'll have to go back and see that!

[lisawalker23]

ive signed the petition, not sure i fully understand it tho

[Darangen]

EDIT: uh, my mistake, I thought Jerry Lewis was someone else (the comedian Richard Jerry Lewis from Curb Your Enthusiasm to be specific). As a result what I said is wrong and does not apply. However I have left the second part of my earlier message as I still feel it's applicable.



I also don't disagree with him using pity as a way to earn money. You have to decide between choosing to be offended by it, or acknowledging it as an effective way to show that life IS difficult being disabled to people who haven't dealt with such things, and get them to donate money that leads to finding cures, preventions, improved treatments, and so on.

I'm sorry but my dignity is not worth more than even a single dollar using pity as an advertisement might raise to prevent anyone from having these problems. Not only that, but I don't see it as an insult either. And I don't see why anyone else chooses to see it that way. *shrug*.

[Justy Me]

It is insulting due to the fact that it takes away from showing that we can be and ARE active members of our community or that with "help" we can help ourselves. These telethons tend to imly that if there's no cure there's no point in receiving funding to make our day-to-day lives better. Believe me I know better than to assume that people should be lead to believe that our lives are rosy.....but the focus is placed on the wrong thing. If we wait for a cure we let our lives slip away. I want to receive "help" with making my life in the here-and-now better. That would make me happy, not a cure that may never be found. My dignity is worth a HELL of a lot more than a dollar. It's priceless.

[lovemydaughter]

I am so happy to know that someone else is bothered by the March of Dimes' constant focus on folic acid!!! That drives me insane!!! I was taking folic acid when I got pregnant and what do you know?!? My baby (now 10 years old) was born with Spina Bifida. They act like if you take folic acid, then you won't have a child with Spina Bifida. I realize there are certain levels of folic acid people should take to avoid having another child with SB, but all of the focus on folic acid, at the expense of other things they could spend their money on, drives me crazy!!! :33a:

I have also felt for some time now that the SBAA is also lacking in where they place their focus and funds. I am just relieved to finally know that someone else feels the same!

Thank you all for sharing. I wish I could have signed that petition! I am so glad I found this site!!! :)

[Dodger67]

As an outsider (not American) judging by all the comments about the SBAA here and elsewhere - I think its time that those who feel the way we do either overthrow the current "regime" - starting with your local branch and moving up the hierarchy - or else break away and form a new SB org that focusses on the issues that really matter.

(Meanwhile there is no SB org in South Africa. Unfortunately my present priorities don't allow me time and energy to get one going.)

What happened with the original issue of this thread - the petition - did the guy get the award or not?

[angel]

I am also not a huge fan of the SBAA. I think the focus is in the wrong place and at the first national conference I went to I was so pissed off at what I was hearing!
Volunteer they were stressing to volunteer and not stressing employment! The unemployment rate among the disabled is enormous! So why not stress employment. If you are able to get out and volunteer then you should be able to get paid for your work. I don't knock volunteering don't get me wrong I do a lot of it in various things some dealing with SB some not.
I can't even go into all the things that pissed me off about it, it would take up to much space.

Angel

[LisaJoy]

Yes, he got the award.

http://articles.latimes.com/2009/feb/23/entertainment/et-oscarjerry23

[Dodger67]

Very sad that the article doesn't even mention the petition or opposition to this award.
"We" need to learn how to make a lot more noise about issues - otherwise we will remain sidelined for ever.

[Justy Me]

He shouldn't have received the award and it seems to be subjective reporting at it's best. Which is an oxymoron, seeing as how reporting is always supposed to be objective. I see that the media is still in full force when it comes to forming others' opinions of P.W.D. We appear to be the last group of people who are actively treated as "separate but equal". It angers me, and I don't even know where to begin.

On a side note, I was trying to find the thread on the 24 babies with spina bifida who were a part of the "experiment" of doctors playing devil's advocates that ultimately lead to their deaths. Anyway, the program Good Wife had an episode last night whose subject matter played off of that incident. They even specifically mentioned spina bifida. Did anyone see it? I really enjoy that show and now I have even more respect for it. They have great writers.

[Papillon]

I signed it, but are we sure they're not just collecting e-mail addresses and that it is genuine? (I'm not in the US, so have no idea whether or not he really is supposed to be getting an award.) Anything to stop him, though - he degrades all sorts of people.

[Dodger67]

You're more than a year late... Sorry!
(Take a look at the dates of the rest of the posts.)

The guy got the award and there doesn't seem to have been any publicity at all about the opposition to him getting it. No public protests, no press releases, nothing. The petition was a total waste of time and effort - without publicity it may as well not have existed at all.

The fact that you were able to sign it a whole year after the event just shows how disorganised the people who created it really were. They couldn't even be bothered to close the petition web page.

[Justy Me]

You're more than a year late... Sorry!
(Take a look at the dates of the rest of the posts.)

The guy got the award and there doesn't seem to have been any publicity at all about the opposition to him getting it. No public protests, no press releases, nothing. The petition was a total waste of time and effort - without publicity it may as well not have existed at all.

The fact that you were able to sign it a whole year after the event just shows how disorganised the people who created it really were. They couldn't even be bothered to close the petition web page.

You're right Dodger, it may as well have never existed. I feel a little heartsick about that. (I had nothing to do with the fruition of the petition, btw)....I feel as though I added that post yesterday, time flew by!

Sorry for wasting everyone's time with that

[Dodger67]

Its not you that wasted everyone's time, the people that organised it wasted the time of everyone who signed it. They didn't follow through with publicity and it obviously was never even delivered to the Academy Awards.

[Justy Me]

Its not you that wasted everyone's time, the people that organised it wasted the time of everyone who signed it. They didn't follow through with publicity and it obviously was never even delivered to the Academy Awards.

I know....I suppose that shouldn't be surprising. I watched the documentary on Jerry's Orphans again tonight and it just reignited my furor over the whole thing.

[Gymp]

...the people that organised it wasted the time of everyone who signed it. They didn't follow through with publicity and it obviously was never even delivered to the Academy Awards...

Maybe not,each year the collective voice gets louder and louder until it can't be ignored.
You haven't wasted anyone's time Justy!
Gymp

[Justy Me]

Maybe not,each year the collective voice gets louder and louder until it can't be ignored.
You haven't wasted anyone's time Justy!
Gymp


I suppose it is better to try and fail than to never try....I would hope that eventually all those who oppose his tactics will be heard and I for one will throw a celebration when MR. Lewis goes into retirement!:26aa: