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Time - Man of the Year
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Time_Man_of_the_Year_Compact_Publishing_3YX-Disc-1_Compact_Publishing_1993.iso
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1993-04-08
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THE WEEK SOCIETY, Page 20Revenge of the "Orphans"
Jerry Lewis fends off attacks from the disabled folks he has
tried to serve
"Why wasn't I a terrible man when we brought them the
wheelchairs that are getting them around?" asked Jerry Lewis on
ABC's Prime Time Live -- a remarkably bitter comment uttered
days before the annual Labor Day telethon for the Muscular
Dystrophy Association that is the sole remnant of his once
glittering comic career.
Lewis' "them" are a small but vocal group of disabled
dissidents who call themselves "Jerry's Orphans" -- some of them
former muscular dystrophy poster children -- and consider
themselves victims of 27 years of pitches by Lewis that the
Orphans insist emphasize pity for cute dystrophic children over
the civil rights of disabled adults. Protesting in 16 cities
during the marathon appeal to the heartstrings of the
able-bodied, demonstrators called for deposing Lewis as the
MDA's tummler in chief. But the MDA would have none of it,
saying that most of its beneficiaries are adults who have
triumphed over their condition, and that this is reflected in
the telethon's steady flow of uplifting stories. If money talks,
the spat ended with a huzzah for Lewis, who raised a record
$45.8 million for his charity of choice.