After the eruption yesterday regarding Brother Wease’s apparent dismissal of our community’s protest of Jerry Lewis, Brother Wease was quick to seek us out to meet and clear the air. We met this morning in CDR’s office. The meeting was focused and productive and I don’t think I could have asked for better outcomes.

Attached to this blog, you can find a letter from Wease apologizing to the disability community for his remarks. Wease explained in our meeting and in the letter that he was not aware of the realities of the protest or the decades of nasty remarks by Jerry Lewis when he made his remarks on local media.

Please give the letter a read.

Also, I’ll be appearing on Brother Wease’s radio show Wednesday morning, February 25th, around 7:30 or 8:00 a.m. You can hear us on 95.1 FM or listen online http://www.fox951.com/main.html. We’ll be talking and clearing the air in a very public way – please call in if you want.

February 24, 2009

To the Greater Rochester Disability Community:

Last night, the blog article by Chris Hilderbrant was brought to my attention by a good friend of mine, Tom Turner. I was surprised by how angry Chris and others were about the comments I had made during a recent interview on Rnews. I felt strongly that the comments did not reflect my feelings and I wanted to resolve the communication breakdown.

Today I met with Chris and several others from the Center for Disability Rights. During this meeting, we discussed my comments and the reality of what Jerry Lewis has said about people with disabilities over the years. To be frank, I didn’t know what a dick Jerry had been.

When I made my comments on Rnews, I was not aware of what the protest was about. I was clueless. I was actually in a different location and had not been given the flyer handed out by the protestors with disabilities. The media was looking for a different radio personality and I filled in because he was sick at home. My mistake was in reacting to a situation without really knowing what was going down.

I am sorry that my words seemed to condone the awful things that Jerry Lewis said. Calling a group of people ‘half persons’ or saying that they’ll never be able to work, or that they should just stay home, is intolerable. I do not condone such awful things and in fact, I believe that I am a strong advocate for respectful treatment of people of all types.

Chris Hilderbrant will be joining me on my show tomorrow, Wednesday February 25th around 7:30 or 8:00 a.m. We will take some time to further discuss the issue. Please tune in to 95.1, the Fox, and feel free to call in.

Peace!

Brother Wease