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Avaleht / Albumid / Washington DC, Spring 1999 - 30th National Action 24
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The Washington Post Metro Wednesday, May 12, 1999 Metro [Headline] Demonstrating for the Disabled [image] [image caption] Advocates for the disabled station themselves in front of the main entrance to the Department of Housing and Urban Development. It was the second day of demonstrations by activists, who are concerned about a case before the Supreme Court that could determine whether states or individuals have the right to decide where disabled people will be cared for when Medicaid picks up the tab. By Rich Upsiq--The Washington Post
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[three images] [image caption] photos by Carolyn Long. Left: Despite hours of negotiations with police, the NGA refused to meet or talk. Below: ADAPTers take and hold the NGA's building. [Headline] THE SECRET OF GETTING MEDIA COVERAGE IN DC Back at the other locale, the teams were gathering and once assembled, the first marched from Union Station to Hall of the States. Amazingly, despite the couple of hours for everyone to arrive, ADAPT had apparently not been spotted. This time building doors were not guarded and locked as they usually are when ADAPT comes for an appointment. So all 200 in the first team filed inside, and just as we finished, the other team of 200 arrived from their march across Capitol hill. ADAPT filled the lobby! Coincidentally, we found way to get media coverage in DC Lots of news folks have offices in the Hall of the States, and DC media will apparently cover a protest when the story falls on their doorstep and blocks their front door. The National Governors' Association, NGA, acting as ringleader refused to negotiate, or even discuss the issues. The other groups went into hiding. Then the chants and Celtic drumming began. A small group went and covered the parking garage for over an hour, until things got rough and eventually 30 were arrested, after a dramatic tussle. Strangely the police reacted by using their cop cars to block us in to a courtyard in front of the building. Everyone was still inside so it did little to affect the protest, but served as a sensational backdrop. After a few more hours during which the NGA staff continued to stonewall pretending their director was AWOL, and the other groups remained in hiding, police and NGA alike came to the realization we would not be moved. ADAPT was not going to let these groups wipe their feet on the backs of our brothers and sisters and come out smelling like a rose. So the police began to prepare for arrests. Those in the ADAPT group who were not ready to be arrested moved out-side into the courtyard, but remained on site in solidarity with our brothers and sisters inside. The chant "I'd Rather Go To Jail Than To Die in a Nursing Home" began to echo through the lobby. A restaurant in the building responded by blaring country western muzak out into the courtyard. We waited for Elvis' Jailhouse Rock. Folks from the building peered out of windows and some even went out on the roof to watch. Meanwhile, the Mayor's Conference team was headed over to the Hall of the States to join the rest, but unfortunately some misinformation from the cops lead to a march across town in another direction. [2 images] [image caption] Arrests at the NGA. photos by Carolyn Long [text continues] They handled it well though and eventually headed back to meet us at the hotel. Like a slow motion scene in a movie, the cops came and went and finally three city buses pulled up. Slowly the 59 people inside were lead or carried out and shuttled off to jail. Though threatened with 19 days in jail, they were eventually let out and returned to the hotel around 2 am! Hungry and tired, they were also proud of their statement for the 2 million locked away in institutions and nursing homes for the crime of being disabled. One man entered the front doors and said I'm no longer a virgin! [Subheading] OUR HOMES NOT NURSING HOMES, HOW ABOUT IT HUD? Despite the 12 to 15 hour day folks had been through on Monday, Tuesday ADAPT was downstairs and ready to rock by 8:30 am. For those arrested at the garage, there was court. For the rest of us, this time the focus was to be HUD, the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Support services are a critical piece of the puzzle, but agencies refuse to deliver services under a bridge or in a cardboard box; you also need a place to call home! ADAPT has been working to hold HUD accountable for their support of institutional warehousing for people with disabilities at the same time this federal agency fails miserably to hold housing providers responsible for making their stuff accessible to us! ADAPT had filed a lawsuit against HUD for their failure to enforce their own accessibility regulations Unfortunately, last winter the courts failed us and we lost the lawsuit. The courts said it was up to HUD to decide how it would enforce its own rules. So, clearly there was only one way to make them enforce 504 and stop supporting institutions as housing with the 232 program, etc.: take it to the streets, or in this case their doors. Again we split up and came together in a march on their headquarters, which covers an entire city block Such a concentration of bureaucrats is a dangerous thing, but this is a dangerous town. ADAPT was ready, surrounding the building like clock-work. The cops helped out by parking their cars across the front doors. We simply surrounded their cars and then covered the other doors with masses of wheelchairs and people Learning from our experiences the last time, a group of dedicated folks also blocked the hardest door, the side en-trance/ exit to the garage. This time it was held so tight trouble was minor compared to before. The leadership sent our demands inside. ADAPT demanded that HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo: end the 232 program and use the funds for a guaranteed home loan program for people with disabilities; immediately begin an aggressive program that would result in enforcement of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act; include on HUD reporting forms a place to identify all accessible units, and to allow people with disabilities to voluntarily identify themselves as using HUD funded housing; and last but not least assign Section 8 voucher certificates for people with disabilities coming out of nursing homes or other institutions as well as all people eligible for Medicaid Home and Community-based waivers. Eventually the top level folks inside sent down people to set up negotiations. However, the process was slowed as the HUD folks couldn't get their own security to cooperate, but finally the officials pre-vailed. ADAPT sent in a delegation to negotiate. With their attention focused on the issues at hand, HUD agreed then and there to begin collecting data on disability related to their housing programs (after five plus years of refusing to do so). They also agreed to set up a meeting with Secretary Cuomo for June. Victorious, we headed back to the hotel. The line for the subway was two city blocks long... and that was only half our group. We waited, but we waited with the satisfaction of having finally gotten the attention of the mule.
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INCITEMENT INCITEMENT INCITEMENT Volume 15 No. 1 A Publication of ADAPT Spring/Summer 1999 [Headline] 30th Time is a Charm! by Stephanie Thomas ADAPT's 30th biannual national action drew over 600 activists from across the nation for one of the greatest actions to date! Washington DC in May was the location for this auspicious gathering, and the nation's capitol was decked out in style with azaleas, cherry blossoms and fine weather. Though the log jams in the hotel with that many wheelchairs was a lesson in patience and perseverance, the comradeship and sheer mass of hard core activists more than made up. Sunday's workshops and meetings were a navigation experiment but once inside one could learn about the history of ADAPT from those who were there, a kid's eye view of the movement, legal aspects of civil disobedience, nonviolence from some of it's most intense practitioners, as well as updates on all the issues. Equally important, networking was almost impossible to avoid as we made our way through the ADAPT bazaar in the front hall: caps, shirts, magnets, beanie babies, books, blankets, clocks, etc. And best of all, all profits going to help more activists participate! [Subheading] SMILING OLMSTEAD SCORES WITH THE EVIL EMPIRE [Image] [image caption] photo by Carolyn Long Monday morning bright and early we headed out to visit the evil empire participants: National Governors' Association, US Conference of Mayors, National Council of State Legislators, the State and Legal Center and the Council of State Governments. These groups signed on to another brief (separate from the one the 26 states signed onto) in the Olmstead case which also asked the Supreme Court to overturn the integration mandate of the Americans with Disabilities Act, ADA. Nationally, the disability community spent the last several months advocating very effectively to get the supporting states on the one brief to reverse their position, reducing the number of states participating from 26 down to 7. However, these evil empire groups refused to budge and staunchly maintained their anti-integration position against people with disabilities. ADAPT demands for these group were to withdraw their names from the amicus brief opposing the integration requirement in the ADA in Olmstead case schedule ADAPT presentations on most integrated setting for their boards and national conference; identify people in or risk of going into a nursing home and/or other institution and develop the funding and a written, specific plan of service to g or keep them out; support the introduction and passage of MiCASA, and meet with ADAPT on a biannual basis. Being so large, we split into smaller teams to simplify movement. Snaking through subways we had three destinations. Two teams would converge on the Hall of the States, where several of these groups officed. At the same time, the third headed straight to the US Conference of Mayors offices. 200 ADAPT visitors headed upstairs on arrival to deliver this message stay the hell away from our right to liberty and justice. (This is especially true for the folks, since cities do very little with long term care and attendant services. Mayors should mind their own business.) Entering the office, ADAPT folks started looking fo the top brass in every office, something th staff found so disconcerting they left to let ADAPT run the place. It seemed the May-ors' big wigs were off on safari in Africa. Certainly the Executive Director was surprised when he called back to the office di morning and ADAPT answered his phone hey just trying to help out here. Though their president-elect Denver's Mayor Wellington Webb recently penned the Conference a letter expressing his discomfort with their involvement in this Olmstead amicus brief, the staff were a rigid bunch and it took a day of occupation by ADAPT before they started to comprehend what life is like when you are not in control of your home and supports, and they agreed to set up a meeting when the honchos returned from their world travel.
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THE DENVER POST LEGISLATURE 1999 Wednesday, April 7, 1996 [Image] [Image caption] Gil Casarez protests outside the Capitol against Colorado's support of a Georgia law allowing disabled people to be treated in nursing homes rather than community-based treatment. The Denver Post / Dave Buresh [Headline] Capitol closed to protesters in wheelchairs By Mike Soraghan Denver Post Capitol Bureau Wheelchair access to the Colorado Capitol building was cut off Tuesday afternoon to block potentially disruptive disabled protesters. The State Patrol security detail locked the two doors that allow people in wheelchairs to enter the building because it had heard that members of the protest group Denver ADAPT were heading to the Capitol. Members of the group have been arrested at several sit-ins this year at the attorney general's office and the governor's office. [Headline] Lawsuit sparks protest The group was protesting Colorado's support of a Georgia law al-lowing disabled people to be treated in nursing homes rather than community-based treatment. The law was overturned by a federal appeals court, and Georgia is taking its case to the U.S. Supreme Court. The ADAPT group says if Georgia wins, disabled people could be forced into nursing homes. Gov. Bill Owens and Attorney General Ken Salazar decided Colorado will remain a signatory on a friend-of-the-court brief filed by several states in the Georgia case. They say they are worried about the potential financial impact of the appeals court's ruling, which says community-based services must be used regardless of cost. [Headline] Blocking draws criticism The blocking of access drew criticism from one Democratic law-maker, who said the Capitol should remain open to all. "Just because someone is handicapped shouldn't mean they can't get in to the Capitol," said Rep. . Ken Gordon of Denver, who leads the Democratic minority in the House, "Everyone else is allowed into the Capitol." He said the protesters should have been allowed in, then removed only if they broke the law . Sgt. Don Smith, who is in charge of the patrol at the Capitol, said blocking of access was justified because the group has been disruptive in past protests He said some even got out of Their wheelchair* and urinated on the floor. "The attorney general's office and the governor's office aren't gal' ing to tolerate that kind of behavior," Smith said. Troopers were stationed neat' the doors to allow disabled people not part of the group to enter and! exit, Smith said. For at least some; time, when a reporter checked it the north door of the Capitol was unmanned. During the protest, at least one Capitol staffer in a wheelchair had to be allowed in. Protesters yelled at her as she wheeled in. [Subheading] Governor's office consulted Smith said the patrol consulted with Owens' office but made the decision to lock the handicapped access doors on its own. Joe Ehman, a leader of the ADAPT group, said he had never heard the accusation of any pro; testers urinating on the floor duq ing a protest. He said if it happen. ed, it wasn't intentional, but possibly the result of the paralysis that keeps some members in wheelchairs. The ADAPT group first protested in front of the Governor's Mansion on Tuesday, then made its way to the Capitol, where security and locked doors awaited. Protesters brought a coffin filled with names of people who they said had died in nursing homes. The State Patrol allowed one person from the group to go inside with an escort and deliver a letter to the governor's office. A while later, the group left. No one was arrested.