It’s time for Jerry Lewis to get an Oscar – By Christian Toto in Human Events

An excerpt:

It must crush Lewis to be on the receiving end of … protests, particularly from those who are disabled. Their efforts would be better spent meeting with Lewis directly or reaching out to the media to applaud his fundraising work while expounding upon his occasionally tactless retorts.

Lewis’ comments could be teachable moments to show how words can hurt, even when it comes from those with big hearts. Wouldn’t that be the proactive, positive approach to the situation?

Jerry Lewis doesn’t deserve an academy award – By Mike Ervin in the Progressive

An excerpt:

[Jerry Lewis] and his telethon symbolize an antiquated and destructive 1950s charity mentality.

This says that people with disabilities have no hope and nothing to offer unless we are cured, so the whole focus should be raising money for behemoth charities that can find that cure.

This is a dangerously simplistic outlook. It devalues and dehumanizes people with disabilities by suggesting we can be worthy contributors only if we first shed our disabilities.

It gives people permission to avoid addressing the daunting task of creating an inclusive society if they simply make an annual contribution to Jerry.

Video from the New York Times:

There are roughly 1 million people with disabilities in Afghanistan, most of them victims of war. Many cannot find work and must beg on the streets to support themselves. State hospitals cannot afford to treat them, so they rely instead on people like Alberto Cairo (above), an Italian physiotherapist who has been running a Red Cross center in Afghanistan for almost two decades. Cairo employs people with disabilities to make prosthetic devices.

Says Cairo: “I am not a very deep thinker. I think there are people who are happy if I stay, so I want to stay.”

By columnist Jacquielynn Floyd in the Dallas Morning News:

Several branches of Our Children’s House at Baylor, a Dallas area hospital, are making it possible for kids with disabilities to visit with Santa in a relaxed, stress-free environment. The Santas are greeting kids in quiet, low-key settings with soft music. An appointment list allows the kids to avoid the lines and crowds that are common in shopping malls.

“If it’s a child that doesn’t want to be touched, they can just stand in front of him,” said a therapist. “The mall Santas know about kids, but they don’t know about our kids.”

An excerpt:

To see so many lovely kids who face such profound obstacles in life was sobering, but it was as clarifying as a cool drink of water. Their problems may be complicated, but their sweet innocence is not.

Related stories:

Santa project helps autistic kids make magic memories – Kansas City Star

Sensitive Santa meets disabled kids — Kentucky Post

(Photo from Kentucky Post)

From the New York Times:

Project:Possibility, a nonprofit corporation centered at the University of Southern California, is working to encourage new technology that could help people with disabilities expand their capabilities.

Among the projects they’re working on: a program that would allow shoppers with impaired vision to point cellphones at supermarket shelves and hear descriptions of products and prices. Another would allow a person to guide a computer mouse using brain waves and eye movements.

The group plans to create a worldwide open-source Web site on which software developers can collaborate with people with disabilities on new ideas and add to existing programs.

From the Washington Post:

In the two decades since Anthony Kennedy Shriver came up with the idea, the annual Best Buddies Ball has become one of the hottest galas on Washington’s social calendar.

Held at the home of his parents, Sargent and Eunice Kennedy Shriver, the event has drawn politicians, celebrities and Kennedys in support of a charity that pairs people with intellectual disabilities with friends and mentors.

This year’s iteration raised $3.35 million and was the last of its kind, as the senior Shrivers have put their house on the market and Anthony Shriver is planning to replace the gala with a cycling event. An excerpt:

“Sargent Shriver and Eunice Shriver have probably touched more people with their volunteerism than any other couple in American history,” said Ted Leonsis, AOL’s vice chairman emeritus and Washington Capitals owner. “Now that kind of activist philanthropy is en vogue, but they really are the godparents of that movement.”

Lowell P. Weicker Jr., a former U.S. senator and governor from Connecticut, has a son with Down syndrome and said were it not for the Shrivers, “he and others would go on forgotten by America.”

(Photo: Brett Banford, of ‘So You Think You Can Dance,’ flanked by beauty queens. Photo from the Washington Post)

From the Las Vegas Sun:

The economic slowdown is threatening jobs for more than 350 adults with intellectual disabilities in Las Vegas, as companies that have supported a local employment program are pulling contracts in an effort to cut costs.

Organizers at Opportunity Village say the cost-cutting efforts are misplaced, and that workers with disabilities can do work with more reliability and less expense.

“(The companies) think they’re saving themselves money to do it that way, but they’re really not,” said one manager. “What they were paying us pennies to do, they’re now paying an hourly employee to do, and they don’t do it nearly as fast as we do.”

Opportunity Village is a not-for-profit organization that serves people with intellectual disabilities by providing them with vocational training, employment and social recreation.

(Photo of Kevin Schmidt arranging condiment packages for Harrah’s Corporation, Las Vegas Sun)

See also: Tony Orlando performance benefits Opportunity Village

From Thirdsector.org:

Paul McCartney has lent his support to a major fundraising campaign by the UK disability charity ParalympicsGB. The group’s first television advertisement features McCartney’s song “Live and Let Die” accompanying footage of performances by elite athletes with disabilities. (Video here.)

The second ad features McCartney on camera making a direct appeal to the public.

McCartney put his name to the Team Saatchi campaign after meeting paralympic horse rider Sophie Christiansen (with McCartney, at left). “I was completely blown away by her skill, dedication and the fact that she had won a world championship gold medal for Britain,” he said.

ParalympicsGB’s fundraising target is £2m, which will be used to help support athletes heading to the Beijing Games and to invest in disabled sport in the UK.

(Photo from Thirdsector.org)

See also:

• Sir Paul McCartney’s plea — [UK] Telegraph
• Paul McCartney: ‘I’m a sport wimp and proud of it’ — [UK] Guardian