I can't believe Lewis didn't know he was much criticized for presenting Jerry's
kids as pitiful. He got his brownie points for raising billions. So why isn't
there a cure for MD?
abby
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Tuesday, August 22, 2017 9:14 AM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Dick Gregory
Bonnie,
Thanks for sharing a softer side of Jerry Lewis. Goes to show you that each of
us has our own perception. Either or neither could be right...usually
somewhere in the middle. I hope I made the point that my observations were
based on my own perception of that image Jerry Lewis placed before the public.
I never read anything regarding his personal life.
As for just who is going to enter the Kingdom of Heaven? I suspect if there
truly is a heaven and hell, that there will be a great multitude of
disappointed people when they read their new address.
Carl Jarvis
On 8/22/17, Bonnie L. Sherrell <blslarner@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Jerry Lewis never meant to present the kids he fought so hard for as
"poor little orphelines." He was very passionate about getting
funding to help such children survive their childhoods, which was why
he did those telethons year after year after year. He never told why
this mattered so deeply as it did to him. It is suspected that he had
close friends and possibly relatives who died of muscular distrophy,
and that this was done in their memory. The presentation of the
children he worked so hard for as pitiable was simply the way such
appeals were presented when he was growing up, and he continued them,
not knowing any other way to do so and not realizing that he was
possibly demeaning the very children he wished to help. He poured the
greater portion of his own excess income into funding research to help
these children live to and through maturity, and had specific children
he sponsored he visited regularly, grieving deeply each time one of
them died in spite of the medical care he helped obtain for them.
He was a perfectly normal person who did indeed put on the persona of
a mentally and/or socially challenged person in his performances, and
he was excellent in pantomime, a skill most on this list would not
appreciate as it is basically visual in nature, as is slapstick humor.
As a kid I loved his performances.
Was never into the telethons, as they were not of any interest to my
stepdad, who ruled the television on his days off from Boeing. And
believe me, Labor Day was one of his days off from work.
I was highly offended by the pastor of a Wisconsin-Missouri synod
Lutheran church to which I took one of my past clients. He held up
Jerry Lewis as a man to be lauded as one who worked hard at a cause
that he served passionately, and then casually threw the man away by
noting, "Too bad he won't reap anything good from it in the end as
he's Jewish and not a Christian who has been saved by his faith."
I've seen a lot of so-called Christians who have done not one whit of
good for the world in which we live. I doubt that their surface-held
faith will get them anywhere, actually, while I suspect that the good
Lord is already welcoming Jerry Lewis as one who did indeed always
seek to help the least of the children of the world in whatever ways
he knew how.
Bonnie L. Sherrell
Teacher at Large
"Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the
very wise cannot see all ends." LOTR
"Don't go where I can't follow."
We gave the Goblin King control of our nation!