I enjoy political comedians, and one of my favorites is Lewis Black. That’s why we trekked up to a mountain winery one evening this summer to see his show and then, because of a power outage, we waited while they reinvented the generator (Sears was closed).
He was funny and had some new material. Fans who had seen “Lewis Black: Red, White and Screwed” on HBO could recognize several of the jokes. Maybe he thinks HBO doesn’t exist west of the Mississippi or that we still hadn’t heard about Cheney’s quail-hunting technique.
Black mocked the Democratic Party for selecting John Kerry rather than finding a candidate who could defeat George Bush. As I recall, he said: “It’s stunning. It would be like finding a normal person who would lose in the Special Olympics.”
He then paused for the laughs that never came. A group of people booed loudly. The comedian — apparently surprised that a joke which drew hisses in Washington D.C. was rejected again — whined that he expected a San Francisco/Silicon Valley audience to appreciate the humor.
Well, sure, it was a sophisticated audience. They had paid a lot for uncomfortable seats and $7 a glass for so-so wine. They were also sophisticated enough to know that comparing a “normal person” to disabled people is real high school, and besides, the Special Olympics ain’t what they used to be, so there’s no joke.
My short version about the Special Olympics:
The Special Olympics (for intellectually disabled) has changed immensely since it began in 1968, promoted by Eunice Kennedy Shriver. It mirrors the Olympics, with athletes from 150 countries. The world summer games, to be held in 2007 in Shanghai, include 21 sports such as soccer, sailing, judo, basketball, gymnastics, and tennis. The world winter games, held 2005 in Japan, include speed-skating, figure-skating, alpine skiing, and snow-boarding.
Regional games are held in the off-years, for example, in 2006 in San Salvador.
I’ll save my story of the Disabled Movement, and the nation-wide HEW sit-in, for another time. Politics always hovers. However, I’ll share the following, learned from the son of a nurse involved:
It was when Reagan was governor that some miracle drug was supposedly discovered to treat developmentally disabled [intellectually disabled] people. Reagan thought it was
a great cure for the state budget. He proposed closing state hospitals, which at the time housed probably most DD individuals along with a smaller number of psychiatric patients.
Of course, the drug didn’t work. Neither is deinstitutionalization that simple. Patients who were sent home got lost walking to the corner. Their parent(s) were unable to care for them.
A group of brain-storming nurses at Agnews State Hospital concocted a plan. They had a new program which matched older people outside the hospital with patients, sort of a grandparent version of Big Brothers. They wrote Nancy Reagan, and she was quick to take ownership of it. Then they invited her to Agnews for a tour.
When Mrs. Reagan arrived, the nurses took her to the ward with the most severely disabled patients. These were adults in diapers who slept in cribs.
Nancy Reagan returned to Sacramento with an urgent message: Ronnie, you simply can’t send everyone home.
And so Governor Reagan didn’t close all the state hospitals, after all. He did, however, reduce the hospital workforce without ensuring that funding for residential homes was sufficient to take up the slack.
Agnews (now merely a developmental center) is slated for closure next year. The issue of housing for former residents generates controversy in one story after another and another.
Maria Shriver Schwarzenegger, athlete husband in tow, continues to promote the Special Olympics started by her mother.
A liberal California public which enjoys political jokes and is comfortable with a plethora of swear words can still be sensitive. They can appreciate criticism of the Democratic Party, the party which had settled on John Kerry before the California primary. But they recognize that cheap shots at the Special Olympics are cheap shots at disabled people. That’s why you were booed, Mr. Black.
