THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT - a Documentary about a renegade Jerry's Kid - and Jerry Lewis "MDA Telethon"

TRAILER - YouTube Uploaded by myartwork1 on Sep 15, 2008

THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT is a half-hour documentary about a renegade Jerry's Kid named Mike Ervin. Mike was a Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) poster child in the 1960s. Today he is a disability rights activist who challenges the MDA's use of pity to raise money in its annual Jerry Lewis Labor Day telethon. THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT follows Mike as he organizes Jerry's Orphans, a group that protests against the telethon each year. 

                     
The film offers a critique of the "pity approach" to fundraising by contrasting the telethon's outdated attitudes (personified by Jerry Lewis) with a view into the real life of a disability civil rights activist today.

For the Full Half Hour Documentary, and more go to 
"THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT" at:
http://www.thekidsareallright.org/watch.html

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RELATED POSTS:

"Adopt a Smart Ass Cripple" by Mike Ervin : Labor Day (MDA Telethon) 2011
https://abilitychicagoinfo.blogspot.com/2011/09/adopt-smart-ass-cripple-by-mike-ervin.html

JERRY'S ORPHANS PROTEST THE MDA TELETHON : The Story
https://abilitychicagoinfo.blogspot.com/2011/09/jerrys-orphans-protest-mda-telethon.html

A Test of Wills: Jerry Lewis, Jerry's Orphans, and the Telethon : article from "The Disability Rag" from 1992
https://abilitychicagoinfo.blogspot.com/2011/09/test-of-wills-jerry-lewis-jerrys.html

"Jerry's Orphans" ; MDA Telethon : Jerry Lewis speaks about the disabled (video)
https://abilitychicagoinfo.blogspot.com/2011/09/jerrys-orphans-mda-telethon-jerry-lewis.html
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Mike Ervin publishes and writes the Smart Ass Cripple blog at:
http://smartasscripple.blogspot.com/

# originally posted Sept. 2011

Good riddance to the Labor Day telethon: opinion By Mike Ervin

As a person with muscular dystrophy, I'm relieved to know that this will be the first Labor Day weekend of my adult life without a muscular dystrophy telethon.

The Muscular Dystrophy Association announced in May that for the first time in decades, it will not organize a telethon to raise money. Comedian Jerry Lewis hosted the telethon for more than 40 years, and the show attained such a status that it was once broadcast for 21 1/2 consecutive hours from coast to coast.

I spent many past Labor Day weekends joining other people with disabilities in protesting the telethon. We protested because we objected to the telethon's damaging narrative that depicted disabled people as nothing more than helpless victims. It implied that as long as we remain disabled, we have nothing to offer or contribute, that our only hope was a cure. The telethon put forth the false and simplistic notion that the best way to serve disabled people is to contribute to behemoth charities that claim they will cure us.

I found this message to be not only insulting but also destructive. By pandering to pity, the telethon nurtured the very stigma of helplessness in which disability discrimination is rooted. It undermined the hard work of disability rights activists who have fought for decades to debunk that oppressive stigma. These activists correctly portray people with disabilities as a community engaged in a struggle for our civil and human rights. They put forth the message that disabled people have much to offer, and that it is everyone's responsibility to create a society that welcomes and accommodates us as we are.

Jerry Lewis retired from hosting the telethon in 2011. The telethon became increasingly shorter in the years that followed. Now, it is gone. It is a sign of great progress that the pity sales pitch no longer resonates.

ABOUT THE WRITER

Mike Ervin is a Chicago-based writer and a disability-rights activist with ADAPT (www.adapt.org), a national disabilities right organization. He wrote this for Progressive Media Project, a source of liberal commentary on domestic and international issues; it is affiliated with The Progressive magazine. Readers may write to the author at: Progressive Media Project, 409 East Main Street, Madison, Wis. 53703; email: pmproj@progressive.org; Web site: www.progressive.org. For information on PMP's funding, please visit http://www.progressive.org/pmpabout.html#anchorsupport

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RELATED POSTS: 

JERRY'S ORPHANS PROTEST THE MDA TELETHON : The Story: http://abilitychicagoinfo.blogspot.com/2011/09/jerrys-orphans-protest-mda-telethon.html

"Adopt a Smart Ass Cripple" by Mike Ervin : Labor Day (MDA Telethon) 2011 
http://abilitychicagoinfo.blogspot.com/2011/09/adopt-smart-ass-cripple-by-mike-ervin.html

A Test of Wills: Jerry Lewis, Jerry's Orphans, and the Telethon : article from "The Disability Rag" from 1992 
http://abilitychicagoinfo.blogspot.com/2011/09/test-of-wills-jerry-lewis-jerrys.html

THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT - a half-hour documentary about a renegade Jerry's Kid - Watch Online
http://abilitychicagoinfo.blogspot.com/2011/09/kids-are-all-right-half-hour.html

"Jerry's Orphans" ; MDA Telethon : Jerry Lewis speaks about the disabled (video) 
http://abilitychicagoinfo.blogspot.com/2011/09/jerrys-orphans-mda-telethon-jerry-lewis.html
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Mike Ervin publishes and writes the Smart Ass Cripple blog at:
http://smartasscripple.blogspot.com/

Man with Muscular Dystrophy refused service by Chicago bartender now accused of discrimination

Report By Craig Wall, FOX 32 News Chicago | June 22, 2015

A Chicago bartender is being accused of discrimination after refusing to serve a man suffering from muscular dystrophy, and the confrontation was caught on video.

There are two issues that have come out of what happened at Chris' North Land Tavern: was the bartender insensitive or did she have legitimate concerns about serving a man she felt was not in any condition to be consuming alcohol?

“He's not sick, he's just disabled,” a man in the video said.

“I told you, I told you, I can't do it,” the bartender responded.

The man shooting the cell phone video said he recorded the bartender after she treated his friend like someone who was subhuman.

The incident happened last Wednesday after the men were in town for an expo to promote their company whose goal is to educate people about those with disabilities.

“I turned to Jimmy, asked him what he would want to drink, and she immediately said no, there's no way I'm serving him. And we were both just kinda in shock. We've never had something like that happen to us before,” said disABLE spokesman Ed Doyle.

The bartender told FOX 32 on the phone that Jimmy Curren, the man in the wheelchair, looked sick and could not talk, and she was not comfortable serving him alcohol.

“If he gonna pass out, who's gonna be responsible, you or me?” the bartender said.

“You can say that about anybody,” Doyle responded.

“No, I'm not gonna serve him alcohol,” the bartender said.

The bartender also said the men, who are both in their mid 20's, refused to show ID's, which is a claim they deny.

“And I think this is a clear cut example of how it really is a societal issue that there are people out there who are ignorant of what it means to have a disability,” said disABLE founder Jimmy Curran.

But under Illinois law, bars and bartenders can be held legally responsible for serving someone who is in no condition to drink. That was the bartender's concern and the owner defended her decision.

“I don't think so and as far as I'm concerned, I would have wanted her to do it exactly the way she did it,” said bar owner Chris Gramatis.

Curran said he is not interested in filing a lawsuit or a discrimination complaint. He and his business partner just want to promote understanding.

“What we would rather do than penalize this one specific business or try to get one specific person in trouble, we realize it's a societal problem, and we want to bring light to the issue,” Doyle said.

http://www.myfoxchicago.com/story/29382155/chicago-bartender-accused-of-discrimination