I’m having a really hard time (as an able-bodied individual) understanding this debate. Let’s forget the Humanitarian thing. Jerry Lewis is not a nice guy period. He’s an embarrassment. He forged his career pretending to be mentally challenged (and we call this humor?). How he became the figurehead for any non-profit organization is beyond me.

There is a line between being funny and being malicious. What he has said to people with Physical Disabilities can only be categorized as malicious. He is hateful to all these different groups of people. He says bigoted things against women, GLBT people, and worst of all, the physically disabled people he claims to help.

My mom always taught me not to bite the hand that feeds. Jerry is getting a 50 course meal off the MDA and those with Muscular Dystrophy. It’s bad enough all of his travel expenses are paid by the organization. That is ludicrous. He does one gig for MDA per year as the telethon host and they pay for him to travel here and there. I wonder how many wheelchairs they could buy with that amount of money.

I don’t know why you think Dominick and other people with Muscular Dystrophy should be obligated to like Jerry Lewis. I don’t think taking advantage of children (which is what Jerry does – to raise money for MDA) makes you a good human being. Almost all of the protesters have been there. They’ve served MDA as those children and they’ve seen the ugly side of the organization first hand. Yet they are the ones getting attacked for telling the truth??

At the end of the day, we all have to wonder why the MDA would want someone like Jerry acting as their spokesperson. It just goes to show that the MDA is outdated, out of touch and really has little regard for the people they claim to want to help.

It’s those of us who have disabilities who have to teach those that are able-bodied that these kinds of comments that Jerry Lewis has made are not only unacceptable, they are also hurtful to the entire disability rights movement, which is trying to get equitable and fair treatment for all with disabilities — something Jerry Lewis doesn’t believe we deserve.

The will MDA is not saving kids’ lives. In fact, I’m not sure the charity itself isn’t corrupt.

Which is why disability-rights activists from across the country are converging on Hollywood to protest this award. We have more than 2000 signatures on a petition, but the Academy doesn’t care.

What I do know is that Lewis exploits kids with disabilities (including me, 40 years ago) to use pity as a strategy for fund-raising, which sets the cause of disability rights back a generation or two. “Help Jerry’s kids” is insulting. More important, it’s dangerous for our social status and self-esteem. No, it’s not easy being a person with a disability in an able-bodied world. But we certainly don’t need Jerry’s raising pity, or Jerry’s bucks for medical charity, making matters worse.

Would you hire one of Jerry’s kids for a job? Would you want your son/daughter or brother/sister to marry one of Jerry’s kids? Clearly, the whole idea does not further equality or full integration of the disabled. It marginalizes us.

For two decades Lewis and the MDA have refused to work things out with us. We have tried. Instead, Lewis threatens us with nothing short of assassination. The organization does not join the fight for disability-rights legislation, does not employ people with disabilities in any meaningful way, and does not hold its corporate sponsors to any kind of standard of fairness. Neither the MDA nor Jerry Lewis fit the definition of humanitarian.

I would be happy to discuss this with anyone interested. For more information, go to http://www.TheTroublewithJerry.com