Jerry Lewis’ MD Telethon

As one of the disabled activists who protested MDA over Labor Day weekend for its unconscionable exploitation of disabled persons to raise money, I am responding to Jones’ column.

Perhaps Jones does not know that persons with disabilities have jobs, raise families, participate in government and therefore have some stake in how we are portrayed by the society at large. With the passage of the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990, we have been recognized as a minority who have been subjected to extreme prejudice by non-disabled people.

MDA does nothing to promote equality for persons with disabilities. How can persons with disabilities be given equal opportunities when Jerry Lewis refers to us as “half a person,” “cripples” and describes our wheelchairs as “steel imprisonment that long has been deemed the dystrophic child’s plight.” Our wheelchairs are tools that enable us to participate in society. He is misleading the American public as to what having a disability means.

As for the money raised, other telethons have managed to get with the times and reform their message. The MDA telethon does more harm than good to disabled persons participating in society no matter how much money is raised. This ridiculous show of degrading images of persons with disabilities has got to go. Jones does not recognize that dignity is not for sale.

MARTA RUSSELL

Encino