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Prima pagină / Albume / Lansing, fall 1995 45
Data creaţiei / 2013 / Iulie / 16
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Lansing State Journal Tuesday October 24, 1995 [Image] [Image caption] Handicapper group vents its rage. Voicing anger: Bob Liston of Ypsilanti, a member of American Disabled for Attendant Programs holds a copy of the Declaration of Independence, calling it "the real contract with America." Listo and other ADAPT members protested House Speaker Newt Gingrich's book, "To Renew America Monday at a Lansing Mall bookstore. Photo by CHRIS HOLMES/Lansing State Journal [Headline] Handicappers protest Gingrich book at malls [Subheading] Local Waldenbooks targeted; ADAPT also takes swings at Engler By David Wahlberg Lansing State Journal Scores of handicappers took over Waldenbooks stores in Lan-sing Mall and Meridian Mall Monday morning, pulling copies of Newt Gingrich's new book and demanding more federal money for in-home services. "No more nursing homes!" [text cuts off] of Denver-based American Dis-abled for Attendant Programs, or ADAPT, at the Lansing Mall store. They Jammed the aisles and stripped two dozen of Gingrich's "To Renew America" books off the shelves. "I was in prison in a nursing home for more than a year," said Dusty Hogue, 45, of Davison. "They get you up when they want to, they feed you when they want to, they turn on the TV when they want to. We have a right to more than that." ADAPT targeted Waldenbooks because the national bookstore [text cuts off] ADAPT's Michigan contingent is large, said Bob Liston of Ypsilanti. In addition, Gov. John Engler, like Gingrich, is a Republican leader of welfare reform, he said. ADAPT also protested Monday afternoon at state Republican Party headquarters on East Grand River Avenue. The group plans more events today and Wednesday before heading to other parts of the country. "Newt's message Is 'community first ' Engler's message is 'family first' We'd like to be a part of the community and the family instead of being institutionalized," said the 41-year-old Liston, ADAPT coordinator for Michigan. Dawn Lane, district manager for Waldenbooks at the Meridian Mall store, said the company faxed an ADAPT statement to House Speaker Gingrich's office Monday. But the company will continue to stock his books, she said. "Waldenbooks does not and cannot act as a censor. That would present an encroachment on the First Amendment." The Lansing Mall store has sold more than 20 copies of Gingrich's book. Protesters said Gingrich promised to funnel more Medicaid money to in-home services for handicappers, then went back on his word. "He seems more interested in profits than people," said 40-year-old Michael Auberger, ADAPT national organizer in Denver. "I have to use attendants every day," said Kelly Watson, 35, of Lansing. "They are not paid enough. They are very important." The group drew a crowd of mall observers when 9-year-old Kyle Glozier of Wisconsin played the 1972 Hillside Singers hit "I'd like to Teach the World to Sing" on his mechanical voice keyboard. All the handicappers clapped and sang along. In January 1994, ADAPT criticized downtown Lansing restaurants for not being accessible. In March 1994, it also protested the state Commission on Death and Dying because group members said the commission was not listening to handicappers.
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PHOTO: Yet another scene inside the bookstore. ADAPT folks filling the aisles so it would be difficult to get through the store. JT Templeton is in a blue hat and blue ADAPT shirt holding something, possibly a whistle on a string, in front of his chest. to his left in a tie dye ADAPT shirt with her beautiful red hair is Sharon ____ of Denver, an escapee from Tennessee where there were no attendant services.
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10/23/95 Lansing State Journal [Headline] ADAPT plans to protest [Subheading] Handicapper group prepares for action to improve home aid By John B. Albright Lansing State Journal They're mum about just when and where and what they will do, and to whom they will do it. But hundreds of people with disabilities rallying Sunday at the Radisson Hotel in downtown Lan-sing were preparing to demonstrate for their cause: more aid-at-home funding for handicappers. Leaders were describing what's to come as acts of civil disobedience. "In the past, we have done things like blocking traffic," said Verna Spayth of Ann Arbor, a polio survivor and one of the organizers of the group called ADAPT. "We have shut down buildings. We have trapped people who could make decisions on the redirection of Medicaid money," she said. "Trapped them in their offices to give them a little taste of what it's like to be some place, not in control," Spayth explained. "Strategically placed chairs in front of doors can cause those doors not to open at all," Spayth said, referring to the wheel chairs that she and others were using as they assembled on the mezzanine floor of the Radisson ahead of a welcome address by Mayor David Hollister. "These chairs are rather heavy." The demonstrations may come anytime today through Wednesday. "We will be in faces for three days," Spayth said. Members of Denver-based ADAPT — American Disabled for Attendant Programs Today said they are mainly angling for Gov. John Engler's support for more home-aid money from Medicaid. Denouncing nursing homes as prisons with financial bars, ADAPT members want federal legislation to tilt 25 percent of Medicaid's nursing home funds to pay for personal help in homes of handicappers. Bill Earl, 32, of East Lansing, among 300 or, more of the handicappers who attended Sunday's session, said he hated his stay some time ago in a Grand Rapids nursing home. "I was told when to get up, when to go to bed," said Earl, a cerebral palsy survivor now getting about eight hours a day of personal help at his apartment home under Medicaid funding. Hollister told the handicappers that the new baseball stadium under construction for the Lansing Lugnuts will be handicapper-accessible. A former Democratic lawmaker in the Michigan House, Hollister said he's been trying to set up a meeting between ADAPT leaders and the Republican governor. But he's not taking a side on a move to get federal legislation to mark a quarter of Medicaid's $64 billion a year in nursing home funds for home aid. "What we have to do is eliminate barriers and allow people to be their own advocates, and that's what my role is," Hollister said. A Community Attendant Services Act, not yet introduced in Congress, would help keep many people with disabilities out of costly nursing homes, advocates have said. Spending $21,000 a year for home care for one person might head off a $40,000 tab of a nursing home, said ADAPT organizer Bob Kafka of Austin, Texas.
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PHOTO: Mike Oxford stands in the middle of displays of books, a Waldenbooks sign over his head. He is using a megaphone. Around him are ADAPT protesters filling the aisles of the store. LaTonya Reeves is behind him in a read coat, and in front Randy from California looks down at his lap. This is the protest of Gingrich at a bookstore carrying his new book.
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State of Michigan Office of the governor Lansing October 13, 1995 John Engler Governor [Addressed to] Mr. Bob Liston ADAPT 1711 Gregory Ypsilanti, MI 48917 Dear Mr. Liston: I would like to thank you for requesting that Governor Engler meet with members of ADAPT/Michigan on Wednesday, October 25, 1995. Although Governor Engler greatly appreciates your invitation and consideration, he will be unable to attend. Please feel free to write again, should you be hosting other events to which you would like to invite the Governor. Thank you for understanding. Sincerely, [signed] Jennifer Bertram [typed] Jennifer Bertram Assistant Administrative Services Director of Scheduling
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[Headline] Disabled protesters take over Republican Lansing headquarters BY JUAN ELIZONDO Associated Press LANSING -- About 200 people in wheelchairs or using crutches and canes took over the headquarters of the Michigan Republican Party for more than two hours Monday to demand more money for in-home services. A party spokeswoman said the group arrived shortly after 3 p.m. and began crowding into the office where about eight to 10 GOP staffers were working. Protesters left the building around 5:30 p.m. They said protests would continue through most of the week in Lansing. "They just came in and started blocking the exit. They wouldn't let you out at all. They wouldn't explain what they were doing there," said Lori Tomek, Republican Party spokesperson. About 100 handicapped people appeared to be inside the building during the protest, Its- with about 100 more milling around near the entrances in a noisy standoff with police. They carried signs that read "Free our people now" and "Up with personal assistance services." Organizers claimed handicapped people had come from 32 states to participate in the building takeover. Lansing Township Police Chief Jeff Ashley said one person was arrested for assaulting a police officer. "We are not contemplating mass arrests. That will not accomplish any-thing. . . . We're going to wait them out," he said. A telephone call to the building during the protest was answered by Bob Liston of Ypsilanti, statewide coordinator of a group called ADAPT, or American Disabled for Attendant Pro-grams Today. The group's aim is to direct 25 percent of Medicaid's $65 billion a year in nursing home payouts to cover personal help in homes of the handicapped. The measure, the Community Attendant Services Act, has yet to be introduced in Congress. Liston said GOP headquarters were chosen as the target for the civil disobedience because of Michigan Gov. John Engler's prominence in the welfare revamping effort. "The Republican Party is working with John Engler on welfare reform. . . . He is a voice that has power and we want to have a discussion with him," Liston said. "We are tired of Republican rhetoric." But Engler spokesman John Truscott said the governor supports more home care and the group is directing its protests in the wrong direction. "We will not react to these kinds of tactics," Truscott said. Group members did succeed in getting through to House Speaker Newt Gingrich's office by telephone, where they repeated their demand that Gingrich give them a date by which he will introduce the legislation setting aside more funds for home services. "People are dying in nursing homes and other institutions. We are tired." ADAPT officials had been threaten-ing some type of civil disobedience since last week, but would not specify their target in advance. Bob Kafka of Austin, Texas, a national organizer for ADAPT, said the group plans more activities this week to try to get Engler's attention. A state GOP official who asked not to be identified said the handicappers indicated they may attempt to occupy the governor's office in the Capitol. Susy Heintz, state Republican Party chairwoman, said Monday was the first day of work for several of her staff and she hoped they would be back to work today. Staff writer Dawson Bell contribute ed to this report. Detroit Free Press 10/24/95
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PHOTO: Another scene inside the bookstore. ADAPT folks filling the aisles with book displays all around. Linda from Pennsylvania is at the center with a white sweatshirt. Someone on a vent is sitting behind her and someone in a Kansas ADAPT sweatshirt is standing behind her amid the displays.
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[Image] [Image caption] ADAPT takes the issue of attendant services in our homes, not nursing homes, right to the door of block-grant mastermind Gov. John Engler. Photo by Carolyn Long [Headline] Lancing a Boil: ADAPT at Work ADAPT's action in Michigan's tiny Capitol Lansing began with a double header. Breaking into two groups of 175 people each, ADAPT's crack troops simultaneously hit the Waldenbooks Stores in both Lansing area malls. Marching in single file through the malls, we made a bee line from the parking lot to the book stores. We silently slipped down the stores aisles between the shelves until every inch of the store was occupied by book browsing ADAPTers. All Newt Gingrich's books were collected and passed up to the leadership team by the front check-out counter. They asked to speak to the manager who was already threading his way through the throng. [Subheading] What would Thoreau have said? C.D. at Walden! ADAPT's demands were simple. Call your corporate office and tell them to call House Speaker (and author) Newt Gingrich with our message that he should stop the double talk. Until Gingrich makes good on his promise to introduce a Community Attendant Services Act, CASA, we want no one profiting from his book sales. By backing out on his commitment to introduce this legislation, Gingrich becomes an active promoter of warehousing people with disabilities n nursing homes and other institutions. "Take the book off the shelves, give it away if you like," our spokes people told Waldenbooks' management, "but do not allow the blood money to continue to flow through your stores." Looking around their jam-packed aisles, both managers quickly agreed to call the corporate offices. The corporate pencil pushers were willing to convey our message, but would not stop their sales. As this was only the start of a busy week we agreed that if the corporate headquarters would fax our demands to the Speaker, we would leave --for now. Waldenbooks complied, and we were on our way. Three actions in one day is probably some kind of record. Moving the troops was quite a job and took several rounds of shuttling. Literally hundreds of us gathered in a church parking lot, as we waited for the rest. Yet ADAPT was still somehow ably to surprise our next target: the folks at the state Republican headquarters just next door. [Subheading] SHOW DOWN AT THE ELEPHANT HOUSE Once again sheer numbers allowed us to pack all available space so that no one could get in or out of this building. This time it was so tight, however, that when the police arrived they could barely get close enough to the leadership who were at the center of this human mass. ADAPT declared the state Republican headquarters a nursing home, with no one getting in or out.without ADAPT's approval. We demanded that the Republican party call Speaker Gingrich and tell him to introduce CASA. We also wanted them to ask Michigan Governor Engler to meet with ADAPT, since he had not responded to ADAPT's previous letter requesting a meeting. Last but not least we wanted the Republicans to ask Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson, a Republican and head of the National Governor's Association, to meet with ADAPT. [Image] [Image caption] ADAPT activates their wheelchair-cloaking-devices to march up to Gov. Engler's house unnoticed. photo: Carolyn Long Michigan's Governor Engler was a prime target because he is one of the masterminds of the block grant with no strings attached, which is so popular in Congress these days. In addition Engler was one of 20 Governors who wrote the Speaker asking that, in the Houston version of Medicaid reform, they not include people with disabilities among the groups whose funding would be protected from being fully block-granted (see article p.6). Engler has also been slashing at the state community supports for Michiganders with disabilities,.so it was not too hard to imagine his vision for the federal reform of long term care. The party tried contacting the Governor and soon some of his top level staff appeared on the scene. The staff hemmed and hawed, and in the meantime someone back in the Governor's office typed up a letter -- back-dated of course -- trying to pretend the Governor had already responded to r letter of request. (It was such a shoddy job though, that no one was fooled for a second.) Various state department heads were offered up for meetings, but ADAPT remained firm on the Governor. Police swarmed around, not actually doing much of anything. When one rogue cop started to go on a rampage the crowd mellowed out the scene by chanting loudly "WE'RE NON-VIOLENT!" With another couple of intense days ahead, we returned their building, having given them a taste of the medicine forced down the throats of the over seven million disabled Americans needing long term care. [Subheading] CRIPS IN HIS 'HOOD Since Engler's Republican pals could not get him to budge, we decided we had to pay him a visit at home. After all, the policies designed by Engler and promoted by his buddies in Congress not only reach people with disabilities in our homes, they reach right into through our kitchens and bedrooms and into our bathrooms. Without the community based attendant services these power-brokers were so loath to support, many of us can neither eat, nor get in or out of bed, nor relieve ourselves; the only option left is the nursing home. Bright and early Tuesday morning we loaded up our vehicles and began to shuttle our group to the. refined neighborhood the Governor calls home. Mansions dot the little lanes that curve through this 'hood. A little park just down the street offered a somewhat sheltered gathering spot. We were thankful for any shelter -- since freezing drizzle and snow whipped around us in the arctic wind. Once gathered, we set out to find the biggest surprise of the trip awaiting us. Not only did none of the neighbors notice us, the Governor's own staff drove in and then out of the gated driveway as' we approached -- and they left the gate open. Some of the ADAPT gang, not a shy bunch to begin with, took it as an invitation to come on in --so we did. In fact over a hundred of us had strolled up the driveway before Security closed and locked the open gate. [Subheading] LAST ONE IN SHUT THE GATE While the cops were securing the one gate, several of our folks were securing our wheelchairs to the other gate with kryptonite locks. We declared Engler's home a nursing home for the day. Having been caught with their pants down, security and city police decide to get tough: no one allowed out, and no food or drink allowed in. It was sad to think they thought our commitment to freeing our people was only as deep as a McDonald's 65 cent burger or a chilled cup of coffee. Our hearts knew better, and we loudly traded songs and chants with our folks outside the gates. So we kept ourselves warm and our message strong. [Image] [Image caption] show the cops two could play at that game. Photo: C. Long [Subheading] NEITHER RAIN, NOR SNOW... SHALL KEEP THESE MESSENGERS FROM THEIR APPOINTED ROUNDS... Police milled around. The media were all over this story. The Governor's staff came over from his office. They told us that the Governor refused to meet with us. They told the media we were terrorists. But mostly they just wound up looking foolish as our group sat in front of the front door waiting on the Governor to return home. After a while the police picked off a few ADAPT people Who tried jumping the fence and arrested them. At about 4:00 pm, on a signal from our leadership, the ADAPT folks inside lined up along the 301) foot driveway, doubling back when we proved to be longer than the driveway. On cue we marched off the premises. The leaders had negotiated a meet-ing with the head of the state department of health and human services, and we still had one more card up our sleeve for the finale. [Subheading] LAST BUT NOT LEAST The last day offered up perfect fall weather, bright and sunny, with a slight chill in the air. It was far from the bone numbing cold and damp of the day before. This was great because we knew we would be spending much of the day outside again. For the first time we were free of the lengthy shuttling, because our target was just two blocks up the street: the state capitol. The day before the Michigan state militia had been here to protest U.N. Day. But while their message promoted isolationism, ours promoted inclusion and mainstreaming, allowing the many different individuals to enjoy and share, together in one community. We marched up the main thorough-fare that took us directly to the main entrance to the state capitol. We had tried having Engler's political buddies make a meeting, we had tried waiting for him at his home. The only place left it seemed was his office -- so here we were. Upon arrival, we lined up to listen to our leadership talk about our goals and to hear some recent escapees talk about living in the community versus existing in a nursing home or other institution. As our press conference ended, groups set out and took a side of the building. [Image] [Image caption] They literally climbed out windows at the MI state capitol. photo: C. Long [Subheading] GOVERNMENT SHUT DOWN ADAPT STYLE Within minutes every door of the Capitol was blocked. Security was dumbfounded, as were the power-suited lobbyists and legislators who had tried to ignore our presence up until then. Soon we saw suits climbing in and out of the ground floor windows as they tried in vain to go on with their business as if nothing had happened. Just before 2 pm, when the Senate was due back in session, the police made an all out attempt and pulled one door open and used themselves to hold open a small passage so that people could enter and leave the building through that door. But what could have been better for ADAPT? Now everyone entering and exiting the building had to pass through our midst, hear our chants and get one of our flyers. Engler still refused to meet and address our concerns, but he had heard us anyway. In fact we had made the Governor, the US Speaker of the House, the public and the state legislature very aware of our concerns. So we declared victory and marched back to our hotel to celebrate the end of another very successful series of national actions. Governor Engler and his minions were so freaked by ADAPT they have tried to build us into a super-funded, militaristic band of terrorists for the media and general Public. It is amazing the lengths some people will go to in order to save face. It is also interesting that within a week or so, Michigan ADAPT received an invitation to meet.
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The Nation's Newspaper USA TODAY No.1 in the USA...First in Daily Readers Wednesday, October 25, 1995 [Headline] Michigan Lansing--A crowd of about 500 militia members and United Nations foes rallied at the Capitol against a ceremony marking the world body's 50th anniversary. Opponents fear the U.N. stands for one world government... [text cuts off here] [Subheading] Lansing-- At least four people were arrested and ticketed when about 200 disabled people protested at Gov. Engler's residence. Protesters demanded to talk to the governor about home and community care for the disabled. [Subheading] Tuesday, October 24, 1995 [Subheading] Michigan [Subheading] Lansing About 200 handicapped people crowded the Michigan Republican Party's headquarters, blocking exits for two hours to demand more money for in-home services.