Gary, the points you made was what i expected the show
to be, so i did not even bother to watch. 

--- Gary Peterson <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> I watched part of this - but didn't see that he got
> an augmentive 
> communications device - did ABC give him one?  I
> know the main
> focus was on his mother and the Little League
> baseball team, but I
> did think they should have thought of enabling him
> to communicate
> his needs - after all, his mother isn't going to be
> around forever,
> ascruel as that sounds.
> 
> Kat
> 
> 
> Kat,
> 
> The point you make here is by no means cruel.  I
> have lots of
> reaction from watching this.  This was my first time
> watching the
> show.  Generally I stay away from all these reality
> shows just
> because they all want us to believe they can take a
> sad or
> unfortunate situation and make it all better in an
> hours time.  I
> think we all no, it just ain't so.  The only reason
> I watched it
> was because of Anthony's recommendation.
> 
> Now I'm  far from even half way knowledgeable when
> it comes to
> building a house, but I have to think even with all
> those
> volunteers working together, it had to take a
> minimum  of 6 months
> to do what all those people did.  Speaking of time,
> does anyone
> here know how long the entire show took to finish? 
> I'm guessing
> lots longer then ABC would like us to believe.  And
> let us not
> forget the probably tons of material that didn't
> make the final
> cut.
> 
> I give the show high praise because in the end, it
> did what it set
> out to do.  I mean the family got their house and I
> guess that was
> the bottom line.  What bothers me is how the show
> chose to get
> there.  I will probably take a lot of heat for what
> I'm about to
> say here, but so be it.
> 
> After watching the first 10 minutes or so, I felt as
> if I were
> watching something straight out of the Jerry Lewis
> telethon.  In
> the beginning we get introduced to Aaron and his
> family.  Then the
> host of the show spends waaay to much time telling
> Mom how great
> and wonderful she is because of all she does for
> Aaron.  As much as
> they tried to show us that Aaron was just your
> average 14 year old,
> sadly I for one was left with just the opposite
> feeling.  I think
> the message was very deliberately  designed to say:
> "here's this severely disabled kid, and we want to
> keep pounding
> that point into you are audience at home, so  
> whatever you do
> don't change the channel, because by the end of our
> show, are
> friend Aaron and his Mom will magically be able to
> sweep Aaron's
> disability under the rug, and we can all go home and
> live happily
> ever after, and won't we from Extreme Makeover  be
> really cool."
> 
> I also thought the show  put to much emphasis on
> Aaron and his Mom. 
> I wanted to know lots more about the relationship
> between him and
> the rest of his family.  More interaction between
> Aaron and his
> brother and sister.  For those of you who don't know
> me, as well
> has having C-P, I'm also totally blind.  So before
> watching the
> show, I thought of having my Supported Living staff
> watch the show
> with me.  But after having it on for the first 5
> minutes, I decided
> there was enough dialog and sound so I let myself
> just imagine the
> visuals on my own.  So There's a chance there were
> visual parts
> that may have addressed some of my above concerns.
> 
> This show  might have had great potential.  But with
> the media's
> across the board attitude towards disability, in my
> view it fell
> way short of the mark.  Once again the media has
> left those nice 
> average Americans who would rather take their queues
> about what it
> meansto be disabled from people like Jerry Lewis and
> his kids with
> a feeling of: 
> "Thank God!!  Another problem wiped away in an hour,
>  and ain't we
> glad when we go to bed at night that we ain't
> disabled."
> 
> Thanks to all for reading my rant.
> 
> Gary
> 
> -----------------------
> 
> To change your mail settings or leave the C-PALSY
> list, go here:
> 
>
http://listserv.icors.org/SCRIPTS/WA-ICORS.EXE?SUBED1=c-palsy
> 


__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around 
http://mail.yahoo.com 

-----------------------

To change your mail settings or leave the C-PALSY list, go here:

http://listserv.icors.org/SCRIPTS/WA-ICORS.EXE?SUBED1=c-palsy