Over 90 disability rights activists arrested in DC

[KamaAina]

looks like "change we can believe in" doesn't extend to people with disabilities who wish to live in the community, not in institutions like nursing homes.

http://www.adapt.org/freeourpeople/cca09/report03.htm

Ninety-one ADAPT activists were arrested this afternoon, many chained and handcuffed to the front White House fence, showing their anger at the Obama Administration's failure to include long-term services and supports in health care reform. Ten ADAPT members met with Counselor to the President and Director of the White House Office of Health Reform, Nancy-Ann DeParle, earlier in the day and were angered that the Obama Administration was not supporting change.

"They said very clearly that they would rather see people with disabilities in institutions, that they would leave them there, because there were higher priorities for this Administration," said Bruce Darling from Rochester, "this is a civil rights issue and they need to see this as a civil rights issue. No other group of people get locked up in institutions and nursing homes just because of who they are... We are making it clear to the President that this is not acceptable."...

"My heart is broken," said Dawn Russell, ADAPT organizer in Denver, Colorado. "Throughout the Presidential campaign, ADAPT worked hard to educate the Obama campaign. We came to believe in the Obama promise of 'change,' and we really believed that President Obama was the person who really would 'free our people' from being imprisoned in nursing homes and other institutions. Untold numbers of people have died or been abused waiting for their freedom, and we just got told we aren't important enough and so we have to keep waiting."...

ADAPT is in Washington DC to get the message across to lawmakers that the CCA is not just Medicaid reform, but it is also completing an unfulfilled promise of the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act. This year marks ten years since the US Supreme Court declared that inappropriate institutionalization is discrimination; a unique discrimination that applies to people with disabilities. However, in every US state there are still Americans who do not wish to live in an institution, but there are no services and supports to allow them to remain at home, with family or in the workforce.

[TheWraith]

1. Yeah, because we hate disabled people.

If we didn't hate disabled people we'd let them just lash themselves to the White House gates for any reason at any time, including protesting something not being in a healthcare bill that DOESN'T EXIST YET.

:sarcasm:

[KamaAina]

2. "They said very clearly that they would rather see people with disabilities in institutions"

thereby signaling that it's not going to be in the bill when it DOES exist.

[TheWraith]

5. Quoting one of the people who chained themselves to the White House as proof.

:eyes:

[Lyric]

3. My late brother-in-law chained himself to the White House fence once

in support of ADAPT WV's goals.

He was a great man, and he is deeply missed. RIP, Ken Ervin.

[FSogol]

4. And make sure you start every thread with: this doesn't look like "change we can believe in"

:eyes:

Whaaaaaa, Obama isn't fixing every problem fast enough!

[KamaAina]

6. You must have me confused with one of the Obama-haters

this is the first thread I've started with that, in nearly the entire "first 100 days".

The Community Choice Act has been kicking around in various forms for over a decade. One would have hoped that the first administration ever to appoint a disability liaison, Kareem Dale, would be more supportive of it.

[FSogol]

7. How does chaining yourself to a gate to protest a bill that hasn't been written yet help?

:shrug:

and I wasn't referring to you personally. Everyday someone starts a thread the same way. Write a letter to Obama and your Senators. Call his Disability liason. Encourage the people you know to do the same. That will go a lot farther than hysterical activists and symbolic acts.

[Traveling_Home]

8. Thank You Thank You - Here's a link to ADAPTs Twitter page

http://www.adapt.org/twitter.php