Jerry Lewis’ MD Telethon

Who will defend Jerry Lewis the actor? Not I. Can’t stand him. Who will defend Jerry Lewis the telethon man? I will. Who has done more? Which of us can say our motivations are purely altruistic? How shall we blame him as the source of mistaken attitudes that almost all of us have held?

And who, in fear and trembling because he knows he can never fathom the life of Ben Mattlin, will chide that accomplished man that his letter is overwrought and overwritten? I will.

I am a teacher. Who is better qualified to instruct and correct Lewis than Mattlin? No one. Yet they are not good teachers who assume in any way that their pupils’ faults and errors are deliberate, or punish for their ignorance those whom they would correct. Vengeance wreaked upon Lewis is no more to be desired than pitying condescension toward Mattlin.

FRED SCIFERS

Downey