It seems to me that success is when you are trying to do something and
you do it. If you try to do something and you don't do it then you are
not successful. To speak of success without the context of a goal that
is met or not met renders the word meaningless.
On 8/21/2017 12:44 AM, Carl Jarvis wrote:
PS. I really enjoy the so so singing of Dean Martin) Carl
Thanks, Miriam. I really wasn't on a fishing expedition.
Actually, I am a successful person...by standards not used by main
stream Americans. But many people look at the Jerry Lewis's with eyes
green with envy. I can only hope that he believed that by parading
"My Children" across the TV screens, that he was doing good. From
where I sit, it was arrogant self serving. And to all of those who
wrote a check and sent it off in the morning mail, thinking that they
had done something good for those poor little unfortunates. Shame on
all of them! It this where our Capitalist System has led us? Shell
out a few bucks and the problem will be solved.
Sure, it's better than nothing. Or is it? Those wonderful Christmas
drives at our churches, gathering food and clothing for the down and
out families...the ones we look the other way when we pass them on the
street the other 364 days of the year. Of course the fact that from
the very first time I heard that shrill falsetto voice and looked upon
the image of a retarded person, and I must say that I honestly
believed that some people found Lewis funny because he came across as
the NYC typical Jew. Folks could chuckle and feel superior. Even
Dean Martin, a so so singer, looked pretty damn good in the company of
Jerry Lewis.
Of course it goes without saying that I never met the man, nor do I
have any idea of what sort of a person he is when he is out from in
front of the lights and cameras. But the image he projects on screen
is a very mean spirited one. If there is one thing I can honestly say
that I Hate, it's self serving people. This what I see in most
successful billionaires...huh? are there unsuccessful
billionaires?...but you know what I mean...really...I mean, really.
Carl Jarvis
(PS. I really do enjoy the singing of that so so singer, Dean Martin)
Carl
On 8/20/17, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
When I was young, my parents and I watched those telethons and were
completely taken in by the whole thing. Well, actually, everyone was and I
was extremely uncomfortable watching him. I couldn't have told you why. I
just didn't like what he did or how he looked. I didn't think it was funny.
But everyone else did so I watched and passively accepted. I suppose that's
one reason that I'm so obsessed with how the public is manipulated by the
media. But Carl, Jerry Lewis was certainly not a more successful person than
you are. Of course, I measure success differently than most people do. From
my vantagepoint, you're one of the most successful people I've ever known.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Sunday, August 20, 2017 6:56 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: dick Gregory dead at 84
Abby,
No! No! No!
Jerry Lewis never, never, never was a funny man. Now of course this is
just one man's very opinionated opinion. Prior to becoming totally blind, I
had the misfortune to agree to attend a so called comedy starring those rip
roaring funny men, Martin and Lewis. It was a movie about the Army, and I
think Jerry was a new enlistee. Error #1:
No Army recruiting center, no matter how hard up for live bodies, would have
accepted Jerry Lewis. Jerry Lewis looked...and this is My opinion, like a
retarded boy. And his voice was an insult to all mentally challenged people
everywhere. At that time we lived in Ballard, the Northwest end of Seattle.
Our neighbors were from New York City, and they had a boy who was mentally
challenged, who looked and sounded just like Jerry Lewis.
For years I thought Jerry Lewis had been born in NYC, but learned later he
was born in Newark, New Jersey. I never watched any of his movies, TV
specials or telethons. If I had been a practicing Jew, I'd have sued Jerry
Lewis for mocking the Jewish People.
After saying all of that, I have to admit that Jerry Lewis died a far more
successful man than I will be when my final drum roll occurs.
Carl Jarvis
On 8/20/17, Abby Vincent <aevincent@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Wry. That about sums it up for Dick Gregory.
As for Jerry Lewis, that's the final reassurance that there never will
be another telethon making people with disabilities into freaks. I
suppose he was a talented comedian, But physical humor is mostly lost
on me.Abby
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Miriam
Vieni
Sent: Sunday, August 20, 2017 12:33 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: dick gregory dead at 84
And I just read a headline that Jerry Lewis died at 91.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Sunday, August 20, 2017 2:37 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: dick gregory dead at 84
Watching all the once well known names fade from the "Reader board of
life", would not be so bad if it weren't for the fact that I'm on the
short list.
Carl Jarvis
On 8/20/17, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
It's an interesting place to be in when one is old, watching all the
people whose names dominated the world one knew, disappear.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Carl
Jarvis
Sent: Sunday, August 20, 2017 10:50 AM
To: blind-democracy <blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: General discussion list for ACB members and friends where a wide
range of topics from blindness to politics, issues of the day or
whatever comes to mind are welcome. This is a free form discussion list.
<acb-chat@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [blind-democracy] dick gregory dead at 84
Back in the mid sixties, my dad and I attended the performance by
what was then a little known comedian...at least outside the Black
community.
Carl Jarvis
Dick Gregory, satirist who transformed cool humor into a barbed force
for civil rights in the 1960s, then veered from his craft for a life
devoted to protest and fasting in the name of assorted social causes,
health regimens and conspiracy theories, died Saturday in Washington.
He was 84.
Mr. Gregory’s son, Christian Gregory, who announced his death on
social media, said more details would be released in the coming days.
Mr. Gregory had been admitted to a hospital on Aug. 12, his son said
in an earlier Facebook post.
Early in his career Mr. Gregory insisted in interviews that his first
order of business onstage was to get laughs, not to change how white
America treated Negroes (the accepted word for African-Americans at
the time).
“Humor can no more find the solution to race problems than it can
cure cancer,” he said.
Nonetheless, as the civil rights movement was kicking into high gear,
whites who caught his club act or listened to his routines on records
came away with a deeper feel for the nation’s shameful racial history.
Mr. Gregory was a breakthrough performer in his appeal to whites — a
crossover star, in contrast to veteran black comedians like Redd
Foxx, Moms Mabley and Slappy White, whose earthy, pungent humor was
mainly confined to black clubs on the so-called chitlin circuit.
Though he clearly seethed over the repression of blacks, he resorted
to neither scoldings nor lectures when playing big-time rooms like
the hungry i in San Francisco or the Village Gate in New York.
Rather, he won audiences over with wry observations about the
country’s racial chasm.
