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الرئيسية / الألبومات / Nashville - Free Our People Hearings, March 2006 37
- ADAPT (1617)
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Testimony [ADAPT logo] Randy Alexander, Tennessee Glen Barnhill, Tennessee James Boyd, Tennessee Marvin Boyd, Tennessee Kurt Breslaw, Colorado Tameka Caleb, Pennsylvania Mike Clark, Kansas Connie Cummings, Ohio Sheila Dean, Colorado Margaret Peggy Dougherty, Pennsylvania Phyllis ElDahouk, Maryland Earl Ellison, Tennessee Bob Fesel, New Jersey Kari Foland, Georgia Roberta Gallant, NH Cathy Garber, Utah John Gladstone, Pennsylvania Oneda C Gordon, Georgia Dawn M. Green, Wisconsin Teresa Grove, Illinois Ken Hauser, New Jersey Charlie 'Buddie" Homiller, PA Rick James, Colorado Jeffrey Johnson, Wisconsin Chris Jones, Tennessee Rick Leotard, Colorado Devoe Mack, Colorado Lori Marabry, Tennessee Michelle McCandless, PA Mike McCarty, Colorado Frank McColm, Colorado Linda Merkle, Maryland Albert Metz, Texas Angela Miller, Washington DC Richard Miller, New York Samuel Mitchelle, Georgia Shelly Perrin, New York Daniel Remick, Wisconsin Elizabeth Richter, Connecticut Dorothy Ruffin, Pennsylvania Larry Ruiz, Colorado Eileen "Spitfire" Sabel, PA Danny Saenz, Texas Steve Schaefer, Illinois Rebecca Schefer, New Jersey Dane Scotin, Georgia Jean Searle, Pennsylvania Dan Smith, Utah Gene Spinning, New York Rance Stewart, Tennessee Floyd Stewart, Jr., Tennessee Pam Stover, New York Gordon Sunny, Indiana Greg Sutton, Georgia Mike Taylor, Tennessee Daryl Teague, Pennsylvania Zella Tegtmeier, Texas James JT Templeton, Texas Lype Vasquez, Texas Erik Von Schmetterling, PA Sarah Wendell, Vermont Jamie Ziegler, Illinois [next page] ADAPTs Day of Testimony Documenting the Institutional Bias in the American Long Term Care System. Real People, Real Voices Sunday, March 19, 2006 Nashville, Tennessee Hilton Hotel Volunteer Ballroom [ADAPT logo] - ADAPT (1646)
[Headline] Protest shuts down downtown [image] [image caption] Members of the health care group ADAPT block streets demanding a meeting with the governor and creating havoc for drivers. Page 3 [boxed text] Is blocking traffic a valid way to protest? Vote online at Nashvillepaper.com - ADAPT (1616)
[Headline] Disabled Take Over Downtown Nashville [image] [image caption] Police began cuffing and removing protesters. Activists using power wheelchairs were the most difficult Cops dragged one and attempted to use the controls to drive another one from the street. Four hundred disabled people took over Capitol Hill in downtown Nashville on March 20-21. Governor Bredesen refused to meet with his disabled constituents for two days. Bredesen has cut two hundred thousand people from the state's Medicaid program and enforced severe restrictions on thousands of those he permitted to stay on the program. After Bredesen cut millions of dollars from the state Medicaid program, untold numbers of disabled people were forced into nursing homes. ADAPT organized the event to fight for an end to immoral state and federal policies that require elderly and disabled people to live in nursing homes against their will. They held a march and a day of testimony by people formerly warehoused in nursing homes. After several peaceful attempts to enter the Capitol to address an elected public official, the delegation blocked the Legislative Plaza area. Hundreds of folks in wheelchairs blocked at least half a dozen downtown intersections for hours. It was raining and the temperature was 40 degrees. Protestors wrapped themselves in raincoats and their chair's power controls in shower caps. The disabled protesters prevented hundreds of Lawmakers, state workers and legislative staffers from leaving work at the onset of rush hour. The protesters chanted: "Just like a nursing home you can't get out." Rather than listen to the voice of the people, Governor Bredesen responded with force: a huge police presence and barricades. The police moved in and arrested 80 people the first day and over 60 local and [boxed text] Help ADAPT Persuade Governor Bredesen to: national advocates the next day. 1. Support the passage, funding and implementation of the Tennessee Community Choices Act of 2006. 2. Reverse all funding cuts and policies in Tennessee that remove disabled and older Tennesseans from their own homes and force them into institutions. 3. Work with ADAPT and the National Governor's Association to implement state and federal "Money Follows the Person" (MFP) funding and policies. 4.Write Senator Frist and the Tennessee delegation telling them that Tennessee supports MiCASSA (Medicaid Community Attendant Services and Supports Act) and asking them to support MiCASSA and hold hearings on the bill. Bob Kafka 512-431-4085 Janine Bertram 503-504-9787 www.adapt.org [image] [image caption] The police realized they were not equipped with accessible transportation. Without a way to take those who use wheelchairs to the station for the arrest, the police ended up giving everyone citations. Mother Warriors Voice page 7 - ADAPT (1640)
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3 www.tennessean.com The Tennesseean Wednesday, March 22, 2006 3A Nation From Page 1A Police officials said they did not know of the roadblocking plans of the activists, who are members of the group American Disabled for Attendant Programs Today, or ADAPT. Nor did they make arrangements for wheelchair-accessible vans and buses to be used right at rush hour to arrest large numbers of ADAPT protesters Those vehicles didn't show up until later in the day. Metro Police Chief Ronal Serpas yesterday called the groups roadblocking “spontaneous,” and said in e-mail to The Tennessean that Metro “had no forewarning that this was going to be their behavior.” The ADAPT members. in town for a national meeting, made a mess of Monday afiemoon traffic for state workers by using themselves and their wheelchairs to block several key intersections around the Capitol. The streets they chose effectively boxed in drivers in several parking ‘garages and large surface lots designated for state workers. The Tennessee Tower, for instance, in the heart of the protest zone, is the workplace for 2,300 people. Many state workers left work late —- and angry. Secretary Carolyn Newman said she needed medicine at home that she takes for her epilepsy. “At 7:30, I was beginning to get a little frightened." she said She said she asked the protesters to let her leave and they refused That was stunning, she said. because the group was hurting many of the rank-and-file workers who joined state govemment to help people Now, this group was preventing many from picking up children at day care, catching planes, or getting medicine. ‘They said, ‘We don't have our medicine, either,‘ " Newman said. “Don't they know we are the people up here helping people?" The group blocked only one street yesterday, Charlotte Avenue, in front of the Capitol It prevented no workers from leaving Meanwhile, Metro officials appeared more prepared to make arrests yesterday and had the equipment on hand they needed to cart away numerous people in wheelchairs Starting at 4:30 p.m., police arrests began- 44 in all. On Monday, the people blocking the streets couldn’t be arrested because Metro had no way to carry them to jail until traflic had been blocked for hours. “In order to accomplish mass physical arrests of wheelchair bound individuals, we would need specially equipped vans and vehicles such as those used by MTA and the school system,” Serpas said. ‘These vehicles were in use and were not available until late in the day.” ADAPT has chalked up a history of civil disobedience since its founding in 1983, and has gotten results: The group was crucial in getting wheelchair lifts installed on buses nationwide. The group, which has offices in Austin, Texas, and Denver, has chapters throughout the US, including Tennessee, and can mobilize activists to meet at cities to protest for the rights of those who have disabilities — and, at times, get arrested doing so. indeed, almost a year to the day after the Tennessee State Capitol shutdown, the group, using wheelchairs, canes and bodies, blocked a budget committee room at the Colorado state Capitol in Denver. Protesters stayed until a lawmaker agreed to listen to their demands Also last year, the group staged similar actions in two Pennsylvania cities, Lebanon and the capital, Harrisburg And 104 ADAPT members were arrested in September when they occupied congressional offices in Washington The protesters’ point, the group said, was to show people what it is like to have trouble going from place to place. “People have ignored us," said protester Bob Kafka, 60, from Austin, Texas. “You don't understand the urine, the feces, the bedsores.” In the 1993 Nashville protest about 100 members of the group were arrested at the Opryland Hotel They tried entering the hotel to confront officials of the American Health Care Association, a national nursing home group that was meeting there A news release from the group on March3 announcing its meeting in Nashville — to listen to testimony — alluded to civil disobedience. It said “People have been asking me. ‘Why Nashville?" as the site for this hearing,‘ wrote Randy Alexander, Tennessee ADAPT organizer. ‘I tell them, where better? After all, Tennessee has a history of being the site of some of this country's seminal civil rights demonstrations'“ [image] [image caption] Blocked in. Protesters from the group ADAPT barred state workers from getting out of downtown Monday evening after shutting off key key intersections near parking garages for major state office complexes. [image] [image caption] Protesters from American Disabled for Attendant Programs Today, or ADAPT, block Charlotte Avenue yesterday. Metro police brought in buses to carry many of the protesters to jail. Sanford Myers/ Staff