The Jerry
Lewis Labor Day Telethon
For six decades, Labor Day meant an American tradition: the Jerry Lewis
Labor Day Telethon for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. MDA ended its
association with Lewis in 2010, and the telethon kept getting shorter until its
final broadcast in 2014. But the association of Labor Day with the MDA
continues. Some local areas still host telethons and firefighters across
America are out this weekend at intersections, collecting cash for their “Fill
the Boot” drive. If you see them, I hope you’ll dig into your pocket and give
generously.
MDA leaders say that a 21-hour telethon no longer fits into today’s short
attention span world. But they’re adapting to changing times by turning to
Internet fundraising, with online gaming competitions and entertainment by
comedian Kevin Hart (stepping into Jerry’s old hosting role) and other
celebrities, all streaming on major social media platforms. You can learn more
about that or keep up your Labor Day tradition of donating at https://www.mda.org/telethon.
Although Jerry Lewis passed away a few years ago at 91, active right up
until the end, I’m sure that he would want you to continue giving generously
and remember that it’s about helping the kids. In fact, while Jerry made the
telethon the success that it became, he wasn’t the one who started it all rolling.
He gave credit for sparking his six-decade mission to wipe out muscular
dystrophy to another man -- a man you’ve probably never heard of. Jerry kept
the story secret for many years, until the publication of his memoir, “Jerry
Lewis in Person.”
Jerry recalled that it was in 1948. He was 22, and he and Dean Martin were
the hottest comedy team in show business. His good friend and press agent, Jack
Keller had helped make them stars, but never requested a single thing for
himself -- until one day, he came to Jerry and begged a favor. He had a friend
who was in trouble and asked if Jerry would talk to him. His name was Paul
Cohen. He’d had MD since childhood, and he’d started a group called the
Muscular Dystrophy Association to fight it. They had a few patients, their
parents, and nothing much else.
By chance, Jerry knew someone whose nephew had had MD. He said he’d watched
helplessly as that child had withered like a leaf in the winter, and the effect
of seeing that would never leave his mind until a cure was found. So he agreed
to meet with the handful of doctors who knew anything about MD at the time.
They weren’t encouraging. They warned him that research was in the Dark Ages.
Nobody even knew what caused MD, and no known medicines helped. It was like fighting
an invisible killer. But that just made Jerry more determined to take it on.
He and Dean began hosting live fundraisers…until one night at the end of
their TV show, Jerry jokingly ad-libbed that viewers should each send in two
dollars. He was stunned when over $2,000 arrived in the mail. And that’s when
it hit him: the power of television to raise money for charity. So in 1951,
Jack Keller put together a special hosted by Dean and Jerry. It aired on just
one station and raised $68,000 (over $714,000 in today’s dollars), and the MDA
telethon was off and running.
Over the next six decades, Jerry Lewis’ tireless work on his Labor Day
telethons helped raised well over a billion dollars to fight neuromuscular
diseases and help the victims and their families. He also inspired millions of
Americans to join in the effort. That’s why so many Americans will always
associate him and the MDA with Labor Day.
But let’s also salute an unsung hero. If you think one person can’t make a difference, remember that the Labor Day tradition that raised over a billion
dollars to help children with MD started because a man you’d never heard of,
Jack Keller…for the first time in his life…asked someone for a favor. And as
Jerry observed, it was no surprise to him that the favor was a request to help
somebody else.
So when you see a firefighter out collecting for MDA, doing his or her bit
to help the kids, please do your bit and toss something into the boot. You'd be
amazed how all those little individual efforts add up.
Labor Day
Today is Labor Day, which is sometimes jokingly described as the day when
Americans honor work by taking the day off work. I hope you enjoy the holiday
with your family and enjoy this special Labor Day edition of my newsletter.
These days, it’s easy for free-market conservatives to distrust labor unions
because of their corrupt leaders or one-sided politics (more on that later.)
But Labor Day reminds us of that era in history when unions were more
interested in protecting workers than in protecting the jobs of union bosses
and Democrat politicians. Labor Day observances unofficially began around the
turn of the 20th century as a celebration of the union movement, which was
fighting truly dangerous and exploitative working conditions, not to mention
violent strike-busting tactics. Those kinds of conditions are not beneficial to
labor or management.
Workers who get good pay, reasonable hours, and a safe workplace are
motivated to work harder and make their employers profitable. America’s
prosperity and world leader status were the results of shared benefits between
labor and management. Recruiting good employees, treating them well, and giving
them a stake in the outcome is good business. When labor and management are
partners, everyone wins stockholders, management, workers, and most
importantly, consumers.
Before the Chinese unleashed a virus that knocked the wind out of our
economy, President Trump wasn't just helping to bring back jobs, but the strong
job market and record low unemployment meant companies had to offer higher pay
and more benefits to attract good workers. That's how getting government out of
the way of job creation benefits everyone. Currently, businesses are offering
higher wages and benefits to attract employees only because the government is
paying them more not to work than to work, but that’s unsustainable, as our
$28.7 trillion national debt proves.
Unfortunately, we are living through a dangerous period in which both the
White House and Congress are in the hands of a party that doesn’t understand
how businesses work and are mostly interested in using government to exercise
raw power. One of the major reasons they are in power is because of the
support, monetary and otherwise, of powerful union leaders. These leaders are
supposed to be looking out for workers, but does anyone believe that the people
they’ve helped install into power are making life better for workers?
A union is supposed to act as the voice of its workers, but too many unions
today prioritize advancing the Democrats over that. For instance, many energy
and pipeline industry workers supported Trump, but their bosses worked to elect
Biden…who, upon taking office, promptly picked up his executive order pen and
stabbed them in the back with it, killing the Keystone XL Pipeline project,
going to war on domestic energy production, and destroying many good-paying
union jobs. Likewise, his open border policy that’s flooding the nation with
illegal immigrants will lower job opportunities and drive down wages for
low-skilled American workers. This is particularly hard on minority workers,
who were finally seeing real wage increases for the first time in decades under
Trump.
I also hear these days from a lot of teachers who are horrified at the
leftist indoctrination and racist “Critical Race Theory” their unions expect
them to teach, but they’re terrified to speak up about it. Is that how today’s
unions “give the workers a voice,” by making them afraid to speak up?
Maybe the union bosses think it’s worth it if the Democrats can shove through
their PRO Act bill that would essentially unionize the entire economy. Union
leaders and Democrats claim that the bill would empower workers and protect
their rights, but it would actually force Americans to hand over billions of
dollars in union dues to union bosses, along with much of their freedom. It
would repeal all state right-to-work laws and destroy the modern
freelance/gig/contract worker economy that many workers prefer.
It’s no wonder that when given a choice, many workers stop paying union dues
because they believe their unions aren’t doing enough to deserve them and are
actively working against their interests and personal beliefs.
I have nothing against unions in theory, and they did a lot of good in the
early 20th century to give workers a voice, to protect their safety, and to
assure fair wages and reasonable working conditions. But like most things
embroiled with Democrat politics, they forgot their original mission and became
corrupt.
That’s why on Labor Day, we can reflect on the good that unions did a century ago, but mostly, I prefer to think of it as a day to celebrate American
workers: the people who put in a hard day’s work, sweating through their
clothes on-farm and in factories…those who don cop and firefighter uniforms and
rush toward danger when the rest of us are running away from it…and the ones
who kept working through the pandemic, from the doctors and nurses to the
truckers and grocery shelf stackers, to keep the rest of us supplied with the
necessities of life. These are the people who deserve a holiday in their honor.
So this Labor Day's for you!
One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors. -- Plato (429-347 BC)
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