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Hjem / Albumer 1815
Dato for opprettelse / 2013 / July
- ADAPT (833)
[Headline] ADAPT's good cause deserves calm debate There is a tremendous difference between getting attention and getting results. Americans Disabled for Attendant Programs Today, or ADAPT, received plenty of attention last week. Whether that attention translates to results will depend in large part on whether the group focuses in the future more on its message than on its manner. ADAPT's message is that this nation's health care system is skewed too heavily toward nursing home care. It argues that many people with disabilities who could live independently at home are forced into nursing homes because home health care isn't adequately funded. It specifically asks that 25% of the nation's Medic-aid money be funneled into home health care instead of nursing homes. ADAPT's basic premise is sound. While its demand for a particular figure of 25% of Medicaid money is debatable, there is little debate that a new focus on in-home-care, not just for people with disabilities but for many other people who have long-term illnesses, would stretch health care dollars and increase quality of life. But last week, ADAPT's manner over-shadowed its message. ADAPT brought its crusade to Nash-vile last week because the American Health Care Association, a lobbying group for the nursing home industry, was holding a convention at the Opryland Hotel. On Sunday, an ADAPT demonstration blocked the entrance to the Opryland Hotel for nearly two hours. On Monday, ADAPT members lined the halls of the state Capitol, demanding to meet with Gov. Ned McWherter, who was in Germany. [Subheading] Group should make its pitch to government! On Tuesday, when a meeting between ADAPT and AHCA didn't come off as scheduled, ADAPT members attempted to storm Opryland Hotel. Ninety-seven of them were arrested for trespassing. The real pity is that ADAPT can and should be making a serious contribution to this nation's health care debate. Per-aps its members sincerely believed that the only way they could draw attention to their cause was through protest. But even then, they were protesting to the wrong people. AHCA and ADAPT are both advocacy groups. ADAPT shouldn't be taking its case to AIWA. It should be making its pitch to Congress, the Clinton administration and state legislatures. But in order for ADAPT to achieve results, government officials need to view . ADAPT as a serious, responsible advocacy group. ADAPT's cause is too just, too necessary, and too immediate to be lost in a confusing shouting match. People can hear ADAPT's message much more clearly when its members talk, not shout. - ADAPT (935)
THE Montgomery Journal The daily newspaper of Montgomery County, Md. Thursday, May 18, 1995 [Image] [Image caption] Demonstrators that blocked Route 29 for more than four hours are arrested by county police officers yesterday. Katherine Frey/Journal [Headline] Nearly 100 arrested in health care protest By TOM BERSON Journal staff writer Police arrested about 100 disabled people, many in wheelchairs, yesterday after an all-day protest that blocked dozens of people in-side a nursing home provider's headquarters in Silver Spring and tied up traffic on Columbia Pike for hours. Police charged the protesters with trespassing and disorderly conduct after some members of the group Americans Disabled for Attendant Programs Today encircled a Manor Care Inc. building and blocked all entrances and exits, while others lined up across Columbia Pike. It was the largest county police action of the year, but the number of protesters wasn't the only difficulty in clearing the scene. It took hours for police to figure out how to arrest so many people in wheelchairs. Police had to drag and carry some of the protesters, who chanted, "We'd rather go to jail than die in a nursing home." "We really don't want to arrest them," police spokesman Sgt. Prank W. Young said yesterday afternoon. Group members said they had come from 28 states to meet with House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., in search of more Medicare funding for in-home attendant care programs. When Gingrich refused to meet with them, they decided to ask Manor Care executives to sign a letter endorsing their proposal, which calls for diverting some Medicare funding for nursing homes. "So much of the budget goes for nursing homes and not much money goes for in-home attendant services," Nate Butler, 43, of Baltimore, said. "The reason we're here is Manor Care is a major player in nursing homes." [Image] [Image caption] Brenda Hanna (right) of Topeka, Kans., and Shirley Klein of Charleston, W.Va., protest Medicare's funding formula. Jeff Taylor, Journal Manor Care is the fourth largest nursing home provider in the United States, according to company spokesman Gregory Miller. The protesters arrived at Route 29 about 11 a.m. to block traffic until they could get a meeting with Manor Care executives, said protester Bob Liston, 43, of Michigan. Ten protesters met with Stewart Bainum Jr., chairman of the board and CEO of Manor Care Inc. for about a half-hour at noon. Bainum said that the meeting went well and that there was agreement on several issues, although he did not endorse the letter. "The nursing home of today is not the same as it was years ago," Bainum said. There is now much more of a focus on rehabilitation," he said. "Over 80 percent of our patients go back home and lead productive lives for decades to come," he said. Bainum said his company was sympathetic to the protesters and offered to lobby with the group for more overall Medicare funding. Liston said he wasn't satisfied. "We didn't get diddly," he said. The group moved from the street to the doors of Manor Care. The protesters did not allow employees to enter or exit the building for hours, although some were able to squeeze out through the doors with the help of police officers. Vicki Dobinski, a fiscal coordinator from Silver Spring, was able to get out, but then realized she had left her car keys inside. "I don't disagree with the people or the cause," she said. "But not being able to get into my office, I'm a bit frustrated." Valerie Williams, a graphic design-er from Silver Spring, also said she had nothing against the protesters. "They have every right to be angry and be upset and stand up for their rights," she said. Some people stuck in the building were there for a health fair, and didn't work for Manor Care. One of them, Kandy Hirsch, a massage therapist, said she fell down struggling to get out and lost a $40 piece of her massage chair in the crowd. "I don't have any gripe with their politics," she said. "I just have an appointment I'm going to be late for." As the day went on, Manor Care officials began to complain that some people needed to get out to pick up their kids from day care, but the protesters wouldn't budge. [Image] [Image caption] Mary Hither (right) of Philadelphia and Elaine Kolb (second from right) of West Haven, Conn., voice disapproval of Medicare's funding formula. Jeff Taylor/Journal "Whenever you're in a 'war' situation, and you take prisoners of war, you don't ask what they do," said George Wolf, 43, of Kansas. Another protester likened the plight of the disabled to blacks be-fore the Civil Rights Act. "We suffer from segregation just the way any black person did," said Lucy Gwin, 52, of New York, citing high numbers of disabled people who are unemployed or "shuttled off to a home in the woods." While protesters chanted slogans outside the doors of Manor Care, others remained on Columbia Pike where they waved signs at passing cars until the road was closed at about 3:30 p.m. The road closing backed up traffic for miles. One neighbor said she sympathized with the protesters' message, but said they were defeating their own cause by angering motorists. "The traffic is unbelievable," said Margaret Kerr of Silver Spring. "This is a monumental disgrace. I told one of the protesters, 'I'm all for your cause, but I think you're alienating an awful lot of people." More than 50 police officers were called in from all five districts. More than a dozen officers who had been taking a civil disobedience training class at the police academy at the time also were called in. Traffic was blocked at University Avenue and the cloverleaf for New Hampshire Avenue as arrests began at 4 p.m. and continued through rush hour. Students at five county schools were kept in class for an extra 30 minutes because buses were held up in the traffic, said Carolyn Reed, county schools bus operations manager. Police spokeswoman Ann Evans described the logistics of cleaning up the scene as "a nightmare." Police borrowed transport vehicles for the disabled from Ride-On and other county agencies to trans-port the protesters to the Silver Spring Armory, where they were to be given citations for trespassing and released. Others were processed at buildings and streets near the scene. Because the effort was time-consuming and diverted manpower from regular beats, police didn't arrest anyone who left peacefully. Young said. - ADAPT (991)
[This page continues the article from Image 992. Full text is available 992 for easier reading.] - ADAPT (1359)
Foreign language article about the ADAPT action. - ADAPT (827)
[Headline] Disabled activists think tactics work By Jeff Woods and Rob Moritz Banner Staff Writers At the height of this week's clash between police and disabled-rights activists at Opryland Hotel, one enraged protester shouted, "It's Apocalypse Now!" As a police helicopter swept across the sky, the throng of demonstrators charged into out-numbered security guards at the hotel's entrance. Before the battle ended, over-turned wheelchairs littered the roadway, one protester sprawled on the pavement with blood pouring from his head, and police arrested 97 others on charges of criminal trespass. The bleeding demonstrator was not seriously injured. But if the scene bore any resemblance to Francis Ford Coppola's Vietnam War movie, protesters were gleeful. They are front-line fighters for America's newest civil rights movement--the crusade for equal rights for people with physical disabilities. "I just want to say, you all kicked ass. It was one hell of an action," protest organizer Bob Kakfa told a victory rally Wednesday before the demonstrators began leaving Nashville. "You guys. knock down barricades better than any battering ram," Kafka yelled from his wheelchair as the crow cheered, then chanted "Free Our People!" The protesters belong to ADAPT (American Disabled for Attendant Programs Today), a 10-year-old, Denver-based organization practicing the politics of confrontation around the country. ADAPT members stage rallies, occupy offices, blockade buildings and force mass arrests [Please see B-3] (unavailable at this time) [Headline] ADAPT: Group doesn't care if others see tactics as violent, offensive [Continued from page B-1] (unavailable at this time) in order to gain the media spotlight for their cause. [Subheading] CMA protest averted Three noted country artists met with the disabled activists Wednesday and said they "sympathize" with their goals. The meeting with the artists was part of a compromise that prevented any possible ADAPT-sponsored disruption of the nationally televised Country Music Association Awards. The group had threatened such an action after 97 protesters were arrested Tuesday for trespassing at the Opryland Hotel.. "we are here to try to help and help you every way we can. We want to bring attention to your cause and your fight," Grand Ole Opry member Porter Wagoner told about 150 members of ADAPT. "These people need to be heard. We hope we can bring people's attention to it," Wagoner said. Wagoner, Bill Anderson and William Lee Golden met with the protesters in a parking lot on Music Valley Drive across from the Opryland Hotel. The three country artists each were presented with an ADAPT T-shirt and a list of the group's goals and objectives. "These people do have a reason for what they're doing," Wagoner said. "They should be heard." Golden, a former member of the Oak Ridge Boys, specifically was requested by ADAPT when the offer was made by Opryland to call Wednesday's meeting. - ADAPT (917)
American Hospital Association Vol. 31 No. 21 May 22, 1995 [Heading] AHA blasts proposed federal budget cuts [Subheading] Association leaders favor less drastic measure by Farah Kostreski The GOP-controlled House last week passed a budget resolution that health care groups and many seniors believe moves too far too fast to curb Medicare and Medicaid spending. The Senate this week continues debating a similar plan, which if passed, will set Congress on a course tar making the largest reductions in the federal health pro-grams' history. After spurning alternatives offered by the Congressional Black Caucus. and conservative Democrats and Republicans who wanted deeper spending cuts. the House voted. 238-193. to approve a plan by House Budget Committee Chairman John R. Kasich (R-OH). Kasich's S1.4 trillion deficit-reduction proposal would slow Medicare spending by 5283 billion. and Medicaid spending by S184 billion. over the next seven years. House Speaker Newt Gingrich ( R-GA ) called Republican unity behind the plan "pretty amazing." But House Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt ( D-M0) maintained that Americans "are not balancing [the budget] on the backs of senior citizens and middle-income people." President Clinton issued a May 18 statement noting that the House budget "fail to meet the test" of reducing the deficit and reflecting Americans' values. Earlier in the week, the president buoyed by a May 16 Washington Post/ABC News poll that found that most Americans oppose the GOP budget plans. urged congressional Democrats to reject Republican plans to reduce Medicare and Medicaid spending absent comprehensive health-system reform. "We're extremely disappointed in what the House did."' said Tom Nickels. AHA vice president and deputy director of federal relations. The numbers are clearly too high to sustain." In a May 17 letter. officials from the AHA and the Federation of American Health Systems offered support for the alternative crafted by Rep. Charles W. Stenholm ( D-TX ) and two dozen conservative Democrats. That plan would have trimmed Medicare spending by S174 billion by 2002—S109 billion less than Kasich's Medicare proposed cuts. The same day, the AHA and the federation joined a coalition of 20 other hospital and health care provider groups in a letter to House members. "We know that savings in the system can be achieved, and we are willing to accept sonic: reductions through restructuring," the groups stated. "The proposals put forward by the House Budget Committee, however, go too far, too fast." The AHA and the federation ran a series of newspaper ads asking lawmakers to work with them to "reform, restructure and save money in Medicare—not gut it." Six teaching-hospital officials converged on Capitol Hill May 16 to plead for parity. The group, convened by the Washington-based Association of American Medical Colleges, said GOP plans to cut Medicare's hospital payment updates and graduate medical education add-ons amount to a double-whammy for them. "We're willing to take our fair share, but not some sort of a KO punch." William Rice, chancellor and vice president for health affairs at the University of Tennessee in Memphis, told reporters. Teaching hospitals may have allies in Senate Finance Committee members Alf once M. D'Amato R-NY) and Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-NY ). who represent the state with nearly 15 percent of the nation's teaching institutions. The Senate debate continues this week, with members expected to cast final votes on May 25. The Senate Budget Committee's plan would curb Medicare spending by $256 billion and Medicaid spending by $175 billion by 2002. [Image] A dozen or more ADAPT people in wheelchairs sit in front of a door. There is a railing in the middle of the group and up against the door are two police officers. Kevin Ervin of West Virginia ADAPT is sitting on the left side of the photo behind the railing wearing dark sunglasses next to the standing person with the wild hair. Someone [maybe Mary Johnson of the Disability Rag] is on a phone next to the door. Above that persons's head is a poster taped to the wall that reads "Shame on Newt." [Image caption] On Newt's doorstep. Capitol police guard the front door as disabled activists and other demonstrators portest proposed Medicare and Medicaid budget cuts outside House Speaker Newt Gingrich's (R-GA) apartment building. - ADAPT (759)
Page 10/Handicapped Coloradan two major presidential campaigns. The following is one participant‘s day-by-day report of the week’s events. Saturday: Day One Activists from the Bay Area hold a rally in Pioneer Square. Four of us, having arrived early with ADAPT’s advance team, decide to go check out the rally. We get there right at 2 p.m. when the gathering is supposed to begin; we are the first ones there, except for a dozen or so cops. Soon, however, Connie Arnold, Peter Mendoza, and a few other folks from the disability community show up, with arm bands, flyers, and a megaphone. Gradually a crowd of 40 or 50 gathers. As a gesture of support for ADAPT, the rally’s timing seems a little off, since most ADAPTers won’t arrive until later today. But at least it’s one way to encourage the involvement of some local people who, for one reason or another, won’t be joining the ADAPT protests. And locals do have a compelling interest here: California, once regarded almost as a disability utopia because of is generous and consumer-controlled services, is now experiencing harsh cutbacks due to a state budget crunch. Some in the community are beginning to realize that a nationwide system is needed. A few speakers introduce the issues: the cuts in personal assistance services, and the monopoly exercised by the nursing home industry. Then individuals are invited to come before the crowd and describe their own experiences with personal assistance services, independent living, and/or institutionalization. Sunday: Day Two Members of ADAPT from throughout the country, having rested a bit from the previous day’s traveling, gather in the hotel’s huge meeting room. The four-hour training covers ADAPT’s history and purposes, the basics of civil disobedience, and a tentative outline of the week’s activities, including the convention of the American Health Care Association (AHCA), which represents the nursing home industry. (The convention is the main reason ADAPT chose San Francisco this time around). Like most ADAPT meetings, this one is part strategy session, part pep rally. Mike Auberger, Stephanie Thomas, Shel Trapp, and others remind the group of our previous successes and our proven collective power. Meanwhile, the back of the room bustles with the buying and selling ofT-shirts, jewelry, luggage tags, books, bandanas, and other ADAPT-logoed paraphernalia. These entrepreneurial activities are an important fundraising strategy; local chapters use the proceeds from these sales to help pay members’ travel expenses to ADAPT actions. With the introductory business taken care of, the group discussion tums to immediate plans. AHCA delegates are arriving today and will attend a cocktail party this evening. Since our arrival, the word has been passed that we would hit the Marriott Hotel, where the AHCA delegates are staying. But we don’t want the police to know that until we get here. So at the meeting, Auberger announces that our target is a cocktail party at the Moscone Convention Center. The meeting ends. People disperse to grab late lunches and/ or bathroom breaks. Then we reassemble in the lobby at 4 p.m., lining up and dividing into color-coded teams. This preparation period is always busy but fun: hand-printed placards and duct tape are passed up and down the line, turning wheelchairs and bodies into mobile signboards with slogans like “NURSING HOMES = DEATH" and “MY HOME, NOT A NURSING. ” This is also a time of socializing and reunion, punctuated by shrieks of recognition, hugs, sharing of news. As we await our marching orders, we meet new people and greet friends we haven’t seen since the Chicago actions back in May or the Orlando actions a year ago. Finally we head out, marching single file down the middle of the street. We chant along the way: “FREE OUR BROTHERS, FREE OUR SISTERS, FREE OUR PEOPLE NOW!” and "UP WITH ATTENDANTCARE, DOWN WITH NURSING HOMES!” The police dutifully block the traffic, providing a safe and visible route through city streets to our destination. Our relationship with the police is a strange and sometimes contradictory one: they play a dual role, both adversary and escort. Along our route some are courteous, some indifferent. Here we don’t engage with them on the same intense level we will later on. When we get to Fourth Street, we stop at the Marriott instead of continuing on to the Moscone Center. We quickly separate into our teams. Despite our efforts to deceive them, the police are ready for us. They have fenced off every entrance with their steel barricades, yellow tape, and armed, heavy-booted officers. But this works fine for us—if they can keep us out, then we can keep everybody else out. Each team takes a different door. I end up posted at the main entrance, in line with a dozen other protestors. A barricade separates us from the door, but we are effectively blocking access for the AHCA delegates, many of whom are trying to return to the hotel - ADAPT (1146)
- ADAPT (969)
Detroit Free Press 10/26/95 [Headline] Capitol Blockade About 300 members of Americans Disabled for Attendant Programs Today (ADAPT), a group dedicated to better rights and services for the disabled, disrupted business Wednesday at the Capitol by blocking building entrances for about 45 minutes. State Police reopened an entrance at 1:30 p.m. and the protesters began to disperse at 3:30 p.m. after meeting with a representative of Gov. John Engler. Five were arrested for trespassing or disorderly conduct in the group's third day of protesting, State Police Inspector Gary Post said. ADAPT wants Engler, among other things, to ask House Speaker Newt Gingrich to propose earmarking 25 percent f the Medicaid nursing home budget for home and community services. [2 Images] [Caption for both images] Left: A worker jumps out a window at the Capitol in Lansing after demonstrators blocked all exits and entrances to the building Wednesday. Below: A student from Garfield School in Adrian breaks through the crowd of protesters at the Capitol. Students were touring the building and were blocked in by the demonstration. Police later cleared an exit. - ADAPT (1418)
- ADAPT (1356)
PEOPLE IN WHEEL CHAIRS DO NOT WANT TO DIE IN NURSING HOME! THEY DEMAND THEIR VOICE TO BE HEARD TERMS TO BE MET! A large group of the Disabled Population known as ADAPT protested at Laguna Hunda Hospital protesting "Free our People". The Disabled group was represented from all parts of the U.S. and have protested before in other states, facilities, hospitals, courts, and as far as the Federal and Legislative Governments. The purpose of the protest was to oppose the funding in which the hospital was recipient to funds to re-model the hospital with Medicaid funds. Funds were to be dispensed for the re-building of the hospital which was creating the same restrictive environment that institutionalizes peoples lives. ADAPT demands were to allocate funds instead for the building to be scattered affordable and accessible housing in which would enable persons with disabilities to have choices in their lives where they would have their home. The city of San Francisco owns the Laguna Hunda Hospital so the city could have the choice of what to do with the hospital. The protest continued peacefully throughout the week. A spokesperson for the ADAPT group were in hoping to meet with the Mayor Willie Brown to discuss options for the disabled community. - ADAPT (826)
"We sympathize with your plight here," Golden told ADAPT members. Anderson said he hopes to learn more about the organization and its goals. "The first step of the education is learning," Anderson said, adding that he sympathized with the group. "By the grace of God she isn't out there," Anderson said after the meeting with ADAPT. Becky Anderson suffered severe head injuries in the wreck. She has since recovered but suffers from some lasting brain damage. Auberger said ADAPT made a name for itself during the trip to Nashville. "I'd say it has been very successful," he said. "When the public starts understanding issues, change comes." Auberger also said Nashvillians are more understanding of the disabled and who they are. "I think people of Nashville have a better perception of people with disabilities. They'll no longer think of us as helpless or pitiful." The meeting with the country artists was a "postive way" to end ADAPT's trip to Nashville, Auberger said. "We got some assurances from them that they're really interested in learning more," he said. "Our next stop will be Las Vegas, when AHCA has its next national convention." [Subheading] No room for pity Members of ADAPT do not mind if their protest tactics offend. Their newsletter is named Incitement, and many wear T-shirts bearing a defiantly anti-pity slogan. "Our strategy flies in the face of the stereotype that disabled people are helpless, dependent and pitiful. In fact, we are strong, determined and powerful," says Diane Coleman, leader of Tennessee's ADAPT chapter. - ADAPT (1560)
- ADAPT (975)
Chicago Tribune, Thursday, October 26, 1995 Section 1 5 [Image] [Image caption] Michigan protest: Demonstrators in wheelchairs block the steps of the State Capitol in Lansing, Mich., Wednesday. They want federal laws favoring in-home care over nursing home care. - ADAPT (970)
The Detroit News AND Free Press Metro .. Sunday, October 29, 1995 [Headline] Engler staff lapse led to security breach of governor's home GEORGE WEEKS Gov. John Engler and First Lady Michelle Engler are rightly outraged at misguided demonstrators who pounded on doors and windows of their home while they were gone and their triplet daughters were in the kitchen with their nanny. The Englers are also understandably concerned about the rare and baffling security lapse that allowed wheelchair-bound demonstrators to scoot through an open gate on a driveway leading to the official governor's residence in the fashionable Moors River Drive section of Lansing. Make no mistake, an elite state police detail provides excellent around-the-clock security for the first family. When Engler travels, it is with well-trained plain-clothes troopers who know what to do and do it well. They are hard to spot, but they are there, and well armed. There is 24-hour security at the residence, assisted by a variety of electronic devices connected to monitors that guard outposts. An intruder would be foolhardy to try to scale walls or rush the residence day or night. Yet, in broad daylight on Tuesday, about 70 demonstrators, many in wheelchairs, were able to get to the front porch of the residence after the gate opened for a delivery. There should have been sufficient warning. The Denver-based ADAPT (American Disabled for Attendant Programs Today) declared in advance by press releases that they were coming to Lansing to protest planned GOP changes in the federal Medicaid program. There were about 200 demonstrators, most from outside Michigan. They had 150 rooms at the Radisson Hotel, two blocks from the Capitol. On Monday, they seized the GOP state headquarters for several hours, taking over the switchboard and blocking some staffers in their offices. They demanded to see Engler, who ironically supports their call for more funds for more care. They said they targeted Engler because "He's a high profile potential v-p"; he has the ear of House Speaker Newt Gingrich; and he frequently lobbies Congress on welfare and health care issues. Engler declined to meet with them, but Communications Director John Truscott did meet with them and outlined Engler's position in writing. Law enforcement authorities knew that ADAPT planned to demonstrate Wednesday at the Capitol where Michigan Militia demonstrators planned on Tuesday to protest against the UN. Extra security personnel were at the Capitol on Tuesday. Truscott said, "We had no idea they would hit the residence." But on Tuesday, although they did not announce it in advance, the handicapped demonstrators assembled at a park near the residence. They carefully watched the comings and goings at the residence before they made their move. Apparently they were not watched with sufficient care. Once they began going through the gate, security personnel were reluctant to swing the gate shut for fear of injuring some of them. The massive swinging gate, with black iron bars, takes about 10 seconds to close. Truscott said "It was a slow gate and they had very fast chairs. They came flying." Although 11-month-old Margaret, Hannah, and Madelene did not hear the protesters, Truscott said they were "so rattled" by all the security and other activity within the residence that they had a sleepless night. All of Michigan should feel violated because protesters, no matter how just their cause or how difficult their lives, were able to storm right up to Michigan's front porch. The way to agitate for funds for home care is not to attack someone else's home. It remains to be seen if they awakened interest in home care or caused a backlash. But by breaching the security ring around the governor's residence they delivered a wake-up call. Truscott said "Clearly, we'll take a very serious look" at security arrangements. For starters, there will be a gate that closes faster. Furthermore, when the gate is open, there will be more security personnel to thwart a rush on the residence.