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Prima pagină / Albume / Houston, Spring 1996 18
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ADAPT (1013)
Incitement [This picture contains an article and the "ADAPTed" lyrics to a song. The article text continues in ADAPT 1012, 1011, 1010 and 1009, but is included here in it's entirety for easier reading. The lyrics appear here after the complete article.] Photo: A man (Cisneros) and woman (Julian) sit with heads bowed writing on pads in their laps. At their feet a woman (Searle) sits on the floor her arm extended, speaking forcefully. Behind her Three guys in wheelchairs sit in front of a mostly obscured crowd. One other wheelchair user is visible between HUD Secretary Cisneros and Deputy Sec. Julian listen as Jean Searle tells it like it is! Norbert _______, Alfredo Juarez, Jose Lara and Sean Pevsner watch the fireworks. Photo: Holly G Gearhart [Subheading] DEEP IN THE HEART OF TEXAS THE EYES OF TEXAS ARE UPON YOU! Five hundred strong ADAPT took on the third largest city in the United States, Houston Texas, which is home to the third largest nursing home corporation in the nation, Living Centers of America, LCA. As if anticipating ADAPT’s impact, Houston had record high temperatures of over 95 degrees each day. But ADAPT’s stalwart troops withstood the melting temperatures for one of the hottest actions yet! Action started Monday morning as wave after wave of wheelchair warriors reached the front door of Living Centers of America. Transporting these record numbers was quite a trick, especially since Houston’s traffic is known for bumper to bumper log jams on the maze of highways which crisscross its 596 square mile face. Living Centers of Americas corporate headquarters stand alone on the feeder road of IH-10. As if built for defense, this industry giant is surrounded by flat grassy fields, impossible to approach undetected. Clearly everyone could not gather before we entered the building, so speed was of the essence for the first arrivals. Unloading with efficiency learned from experience, the leadership team and first arrivals rushed through the front doors and the lobby. Building security began to realize something funny was going on. As they insisted we sign-in the guest register, we piled in the elevators and headed up to the eighth floor to find LCA corporate mogul Edward Kuntz and his cohorts. Photo by Cante Tinza Inc.: A tight shot of a crowd of ADAPT protesters in front of Living Centers of America glass building. Folks look hit and one woman is holding a poster over her head that reads: I'd rather go to jail than die in a nursing home!! Caption reads: Barbara Hines, AJ and tons of others gave Living Centers of America a does of their own medicine when their office was turned into a nursing home for the day. Last year, in Texas alone, Living Centers amassed $39.28 million in revenues after allowable expenses, according to state human services department cost reports. Nationally, LCA increased their net revenues $185 million, 26%, from 1994 to 1995. Over 50% of their revenues come from Medicaid and other public funds. And 100% came from the lives of people like you and me who do not have a fair choice to stay at home and with attendant services. Insert footnote: When reporting this to the public, ADAPT of TX used to use the term profits, but the Texas nursing home industry threatened to sue us if we used that term. FYI The American Heritage Dictionary defines profits as "the return received on a business undertaking after costs have been met." Your guess at the difference is as good as ours. [back to article] Kuntz and his top level cronies personally pulled in over $2 million in salaries and perques in 1994. This cozy financial package allows Kuntz’s family to live in a genteel little village on the outskirts of Houston. On another much less prosperous edge of Houston, over 200 kids with disabilities are kept on the second floor of the "Thomas Care Center" one of Living Centers’ nursing homes. Fenced in with barbed wire, some do not even leave the grounds to go to school. This is just one of the 209 nursing homes with over 24,000 beds which help pay for the comforts of Kuntz, his staff, board and shareholders. The second wave of ADAPT’s activists went to deliver some barbed wire to Kuntz’s home (since it was apparently good for the kids at Thomas Care Center we figured his family deserved the same protection) but found that -- learning of our plan in advance -- the family had moved down the road a ways. Helpfully, a neighbor phoned the Kuntzes with the unpleasant news of our attempted visit. [Subheading] MEANWHILE, BACK AT THE OFFICE Back at the eighth floor of corporate headquarters, the first arrivals headed into the offices to seek out Kuntz. Doors were locked in our faces and one man pulled a sofa across a hallway to block our passage. However, it was obvious our message had already penetrated the office. ADAPT’s chants rang through their halls, and downstairs van-load after van-load of ADAPTers kept pouring into the building, packing the lobby. Houston police, apparently unable to arrest people in wheelchairs, tried to negotiate, Kuntz hid for the first few hours, but as the building owner grew more and more tense, Kuntz was forced to respond. ln paternalistic frustration police arrested five people who could walk (some with disabilities that were not visible ones.) Negotiations progressed at a snail’s pace, while the police dragged hundreds of ADAPT members out of the building. In the end, Kuntz agreed to meet with representatives from each of the ADAPT `groups` that had come to Houston. The police delivered him outside, where he read a typed, prepared statement of the same old tired lines AHCA folks always use. Then he scurried back inside. << Photo by Cante Tinza, Inc.: Protesters are standing and sitting jammed in by the front of a building. Their mouths are open yelling, one person has a bullhorn and several have their arms raised in the air. Caption reads: Outside the Republican Headquarters ADAPT cheered upon hearing the party chairman had arrived and agreed to our demands. [Back to article] [Subheading] BACK TO THE BEGINNING The Houston event started Sunday with a day of workshops and a Housing Forum with HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros. The workshops were an excellent exchange of information on everything from promoting state versions of CASA (the Community Attendant Services Act, ADAPT’s draft legislation) back home, to developing real housing opportunities for people with disabilities. Justin Dart welcomed ADAPT and Cisneros to his old stomping grounds: Texas. At the forum Cisneros seemed to pick up on many housing issues and was supportive of "visitability" (adaptive or universal design offering basic access so people can visit family, friends, etc.) in addition to better alternatives and more consumer control. However, he was either unwilling or unable to see the problem with HUD sponsoring finance packages for nursing homes and other institutions. In fact he referred to nursing homes as a housing opportunity for older Americans, and seemed to think because people were older they would somehow require such "housing." Clearly, the Secretary’s understanding of disability discrimination is superficial -- at best. More education will be necessary. [Subheading] WE’RE HERE, WE’RE THERE, WE’RE EVERYWHERE Tuesday dawned with the same blistering heat as before. But ADAPT activists were as fired-up as ever to tackle the day’s targets. With over 500 people we could again divide and hit two places in one day, thereby reinforcing our message to the target, namely the leadership of the party in power, the Republican party. Speaker Gingrich and his cohorts still had not lived up to his promises to introduce CASA and include its principles in Medicaid reform proposals. Despite its adherence to the professed Republican values, the party generally has ignored the benefits of CASA: supporting family values, cost effectiveness and getting government out of people's lives. Photo by Carolyn Long: Three women in straw cowboy hats stand in a line arms around each other grinning. Caption reads: Free at last, Donna Redfern, Kathleen Sacco and Marita Heyden finally came out of jail. Bill Henning and Mike Butte were released earlier that day. [Back to article] Half of ADAPT headed for the Harris County Republican Party, and half for the district office of Tom Delay, the US House of Representatives’ Majority Whip (they guy who lines up the votes in favor of the Contract on America). [Subheading] NO ACCESS TO THE REPUBLICAN AND DOLE ELECTION HEADQUARTERS The two actions worked like a charm. ADAPT surrounded the converted gray house where the Harris County Republican Party Headquarters are located. Ironically, this inaccessible building was also the Presidential Campaign headquarters for Dole, who sells himself as the "disability candidate." After quite a wait staff finally located Gary Polland, Chairperson of the Harris County Republicans. In the meantime, ADAPT folks sang the staff numerous versus of "Deep in the Heart of Texas," ADAPT style (see below) When Polland arrived he was very receptive to our demands. He understood that our reform proposal CASA, met many of the Republicans’ goals, and that choice of services was the way to go. He faxed the letters to Dole, Gingrich, Delay and others regarding our concerns and promoting support of our CASA. He also spontaneously offered to have ADAPT representatives present our proposed Party Platform language to the Texas Republican Party Platform Committee when they met to prepare for the state Convention. [Subheading] DON’T DELAY, DELAY All of the 200 crack ADAPT troops who went to Representative Delay’s office managed to get inside the building unhindered, and most made it up to the second floor where Delay had his office. ADAPT’s negotiators were tough, at one point wadding into a ball a draft statement Delay’s staff offered and throwing it back across the table at them. After intense lengthy negotiations, Delay produced a letter committing that he would meet with ADAPT. [Subheading] FREE AT LAST Around midnight that night the last of the five arrested and jailed the first day were released to a rowdy welcoming home crowd of ADAPTers. [Subheading] DAVID AND GOLIATH On Wednesday ADAPT went all together to confront the potentially largest and most heinous enemy of long term care. This menace, lurking just on the horizon, is corporate managed care; this time in the form of one of the industry giants -- Cigna. Although police had spotted us gathering in a nearby empty parking lot, as van load after van load of activists unloaded, they could not stop us as we began to roll. Cigna is one of the biggest insurers handling managed care, a real mover and shaker in the health care arena. As both private and public health care systems move closer and closer toward the managed care model, many problems are surfacing for people with disabilities who have health care needs. Not least among these are the needs for long term care. Long term care is not considered as profitable as acute health care and therefore is less desirable to the managed care corporations. They tend to try and "cream" the most profitable services and ignore the rest. Marching in the front doors, we headed for the elevators to the 12th floor. Leaders demanded to see the CEO as ADAPTers kept filling offices after office and hall after hall. Once the 12th floor was packed, people went for the 11th and 13th floors, and still the lobby remained full of chanting protesters. We took building security and occupants by complete surprise. Working upstairs, a mother of a child with a disability heard the protest and came down to thank ADAPT for lighting for her son. "I worry about him having to go to a nursing home someday. It’s a frightening thought!" she said, and she is right. After some masterful negotiations upstairs and several rounds of ADAPT’s "Deep in the Heart of Texas" from those downstairs in the lobby, Cigna’s Houston CEO Richard Todd, came down to read their letter agreeing to meet with ADAPT to discuss our concerns. The air rang with cheers for ADAPT’s third day of victories. The building chief of security said to one of the day leaders that he was not too happy with our tactics, but the protester pointed out to him that training like this would have cost him over $1,000 a day, yet we had given it for free. The security chief looked amazed, but admitted with a grin it was true! Photo by Cante Tinza, Inc: Between two gleaming metal walls of elevators ADAPT protesters fill all the available space. Facing in all directions waiting for elevators, the group is packed together. Caption reads: ADAPT filled the lobby and several floors of Cigna. We don't want managed care to manage us out of the picture. [back to article] [Subheading] HAVE NO FEAR, ADAPT IS HERE With the largest numbers we have ever had, ADAPT was tested in our ability to work as a team. Each local group had worked hard and in almost every case was able to bring more activists than ever before. Many new faces and many new places were among us. Our people were tested in our faith in one another, and learned the strength we can harness when that faith is kept. Despite some wrinkles, we bested the tests of heat, lack of elevators and transportation. People put up with half hour long waits to get down from the hotel rooms to the staging area, inaccessible vans with make-shift ramps, long cross-city trips on Houston’s traffic-jammed highways, police targeting walking protesters, and record high temperatures and humidity. We put up with these hassles to get across a message, FREE OUR PEOPLE. Acting together ADAPT, once again, was a force to be reckoned with. ADAPT’s message was sent to as many players as possible: day one to the private corporations who seek tremendous profits from the current warped system, day two to the political forces which could effect change but don’t, and day three to those who seek to control the system as it moves to "public- private partnerships." Next stop ATLANTA! [The end of this article] Lyrics Deep in the Heart of TX (song to the tune of Deep in the Heart of Texas) We take no crap Cause we're ADAPT CHORUS: Deep in the Heart of Texas Nursing homes stink They're worse than you think Deep in the Heart of Texas Politicians lie We all know why Deep in the Heart of Texas We'll put a cowboy boot Up the ass of Newt Deep in the Heart of Texas But have no fear ADAPT is here Deep in the Heart of Texas It is my place To get in your face Deep in the Heart of Texas You will be trapped Cause we're ADAPT Deep in the Heart of Texas We want CASA new We don't care how Deep in the Heart of Texas We're making a plea To just be free Deep in the Heart of Texas Rather live in my home Not a nursing home Deep in the Heart of Texas So just be sure What we stand for Deep in the Heart of Texas We take no crap Cause we're ADAPT Deep in the heart of Texas - lyrics by Zak Zakarewsky
ADAPT (1018)
Houston Chronicle Tuesday May21, 1996 Headline: 5 arrested after building is taken over in protest [page has a crease down the middle so some text is hidden, most was able to be figured out] by Lisa Teachey -- Houston Chronicle About 400 disabled people took over a westside building Monday until police arrived to move the protest outside. Members of American Disabled for Attendant Programs Today, most of them in wheelchairs, blocked the entrance and elevators leading to Living Centers of America at 15415 Katy Freeway at about 10:30 a.m. Five people who refused to leave the building were arrested for criminal trespass, said Houston police Capt. D.E. Watkins. None of the arrested was wheelchair bound. The protest was staged because ADAPT wants a larger share of the federal money dedicated to nursing home care to go to programs that provide in-home care or community-based care for the disabled. “We're tired of the nursing home industry keeping a lock on over 85 percent of the long-term care money,” said protester Diane Coleman. “If a person needs long-term care, they should be able to say where they [obscured partially here] get, not the system.” Federal money is set aside through Medicaid for nursing home care as well as for attendant-care and community-based programs, said Katherine Hinson, of the Texas Health Care Association, a trade organization that represents long-term care facilities. “They want to take money from one under funded program and put it in another under-funded program,” Hinson said. “There’s not enough money to go around. We've asked them to join us to get more funding for all.“ Living Centers is a long-term health care corporation that operates nursing facilities, rehabilitation centers a other types of facilities. “Their main quarrel is with the government,” said Edward Kuntz, Living Centers chief executive officer. “They want additional funding." Kuntz said he agrees with ADAPT's call for more money, “but not at the cost of long-term nursing facilities."
Video_Incitement Houston
This is a video from the action
ADAPT (1031)
Houston Chronicle, Wednesday. May 22. 1996 [p. 22A] [Headline] Disabled protesters take over headquarters of county GOP By JENNIFER C. WANG Houston Chronicle Groups of protesters, most of them in wheelchairs, barricaded two local political offices Tuesday to demand changes in the way disabled people receive care in America. About 100 supporters of the advocacy group American Disabled for Attendant Programs Today took the Harris County Republican Party and denied party Garry Polland access to the building until he agreed to help their cause. A second group of about 150 ADAPT supporters blockaded and occupied U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay’s office in Sugar Land, until DeLay agreed to meet with them. ADAPT is a nonprofit group of activists who want federal funding for disabled and elderly care to be diverted from nursing homes to programs that provide in-home care or community-based care. ADAPT staged a similar demonstration Monday at Living Centers of America, one of the nation's largest operators of nursing homes, rehabilitation centers and other facilities. “Politicians in Houston are very important within our government. So, we want to make our case heard,” said Kathleen Kleinmann, an activist who traveled from Washington, Pa, to protest in front of the Republican Party Headquarters. "We are committed to getting attendant care as a national right. It is basically the same type of services as nursing homes - aides would help you get out of bed in the morning, help you get your food... but it keeps you in your own home and it gives you freedom," Kleinmann explained. At the Monday protest at the Living Centers of America, five people were arrested and spent the night in jail. Tuesday's protesters narrowly escaped arrest by Stafford police when DeLay, who is in Washington DC, agreed to meet with them next month. Both groups of protesters declared their demonstrations a success. Polland agreed to write presumptive GOP presidential nominee Bob Dole, Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and DeLay, urging them to meet with ADAPT at the party's state convention in August. Polland said he disagreed with ADAPT’s proposal to mandate a redistribution of funds, but that the group's demands are in line with Republican initiatives promoting choice, empowerment and health care vouchers. “This is really a Republican agenda," Polland said. “The system mandates certain types of treatment. That‘s their complaint." Mike Oxford, an ADAPT activist from Kansas said because meetings in the past with Dole and Gingrich have yielded no action, the group is cautious about promises for action from Polland and DeLay. “The problem with vouchers is it's like giving somebody a dollar and saying, ‘Here, go to Red Lobster.’ You‘ve got choices, but you've got to have resources to back that choice up, otherwise, it's meaningless," Oxford said. ADAPT, which stages two national protests each year, said it has more activities planned for Houston throughout the week but declined to reveal where or when. “We're going to dog this issue until we get it," Kleinmann said. “We're not going to give up. Never." PHOTO by John Everett / Chronicle Group of at least eight ADAPT protesters in wheelchairs and standing fill a small office with a door and reception desk. They are talking with a man in a white shirt and tie. One protester holds a sign that reads "Too Sexy for your Nursing Homes!" Caption reads: Harris County GOP chairman Gary Polland, standing, talks with members of an advocacy group for disabled rights Tuesday during the group's protest over the way disabled people receive care.
ADAPT (1010)
This is part of a story in ADAPT 1013, 1012, 1011, 1010 and 1009. The entire text appears in ADAPT 1013 for easier reading. Photo by Carolyn Long: Three women in straw cowboy hats stand in a line arms around each other grinning. Caption reads: Free at last, Donna Redfern, Kathleen Sacco and Marita Heyden finally came out of jail. Bill Henning and Mike Butte were released earlier that day.
ADAPT (1011)
This is part of a story in ADAPT 1013, 1012, 1011, 1010 and 1009. The entire text appears in ADAPT 1013 for easier reading. Photo by Cante Tinza, Inc.: Protesters are standing and sitting jammed in by the front of a building. Their mouths are open yelling, one person has a bullhorn and several have their arms raised in the air. Caption reads: Outside the Republican Headquarters ADAPT cheered upon hearing the party chairman had arrived and agreed to our demands.
ADAPT (1019)
Houston Chronicle Tuesday May 21, 1996 photo by: Carlos Antonio Rios / Chronicle: An African American woman with a stern face and an ADAPT T-shirt sits in a manual wheelchair, several other people in wheelchairs and walking are behind her. Over her head she holds poster that reads "I'd rather go to Jail than die in a nursing home!!" The word JAIL has bars drawn over it. [Headline] Building takeover Barbara Hines, 48, who lived in a nursing home for 11 years, was one of about 400 disabled people who took over the Katy Freeway offices of Living Centers of America in a protest Monday morning. The protesters want more federal funds shifted into long-term care at home instead of nursing homes. Five protesters were arrested: Page 21A
ADAPT (1012)
This is part 2 of a story in ADAPT 1013, 1012, 1011, 1010 and 1009. The entire text appears in ADAPT 1013 for easier reading. The photo here: Photo by Cante Tinza Inc.: A tight shot of a crowd of ADAPT protesters in front of Living Centers of America glass building. Folks look hit and one woman is holding a poster over her head that reads: I'd rather go to jail than die in a nursing home!! Caption reads: Barbara Hines, AJ and tons of others gave Living Centers of America a does of their own medicine when their office was turned into a nursing home for the day.
ADAPT (1029)
[This is a continuation of the article on ADAPT 1030 and the entire text is included there for easier reading.]
ADAPT (1027)
A graphic of several sets of handcuffs piled on top of each other.
ADAPT (1009)
This is part 2 of a story in ADAPT 1013, 1012, 1011, 1010 and 1009. The entire text appears in ADAPT 1013 for easier reading. Photo by Cante Tinza, Inc: Between two gleaming metal walls of elevators ADAPT protesters fill all the available space. Facing in all directions waiting for elevators, the group is packed together. Caption reads: ADAPT filled the lobby and several floors of Cigna. We don't want managed care to manage us out of the picture.
ADAPT (1028)
Photo of sign on the wall of the hotel we stayed in. HOLIDAY INN: HOUSTON MEDICAL CENTER Daily Function Wednesday - May 22, 1996 NATIONAL DISABILITY RIGHTS CENTER Ballroom 7 am - 10 pm 1996 OLYMPIC TORCH RELAY San Marcos until - 9 am 1996 OLYMPIC TORCH RELAY Austin 4:30 am - 6 am 9 am - 10 am 1996 OLYMPIC TORCH RELAY El Paso until - 9 am 1996 OLYMPIC TORCH RELAY San Antonio until - 9 am 1996 OLYMPIC TORCH RELAY Room 920, 922 & 924 8 am - 24h [National Disability Rights Center was another name for ADAPT]
ADAPT (1030)
Houston Center for Independent Living Spectrum July/August 1996 [Headline] ADAPT Action in Houston—The Story By Lee Sanders and Judy Ziegler HCIL and ADAPT of Houston Thanks to all who participated in the National ADAPT action that lasted from May 18th to May 23rd in our fair city. That action was successful! Over 400 people from all over the country participated in workshops and several protests at key places in the area. At the end of our time together, spirits were high. A national action is a time of rejuvenation. A time to recharge weary minds and bodies. All refreshed, advocates return home to add a new spirit into local community issues. ADAPT training had five workshops. U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Henry Cisneros came to address critical housing issues for people with disabilities. Mr. Cisneros spent most of the time fielding questions from the audience of disabled consumers and advocates. His final answer was that the government has no money for subsidy and HUD development programs. Everything had been cut to help balance the budget. No one was surprised. The next day we left the hotel by caravan to confront the regional office of the huge nursing home chain, Living Centers of America (the antithesis of Independent). We went to see Edward L. Kuntz, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Van after van brought advocates to the regional office until the police would allow no more to unload. The first advocates to arrive went inside and straight to the office. By the time the second group of vans arrived, the police had insisted that we leave the building. What a sight to see. The whole area in front of that huge building was a sea of wheelchairs, bodies, and faces of people with disabilities who cared enough to confront Living Centers of America. Five people were arrested. Dozens of vans had been used. Despite misinformation in the confusion of traffic, the third group of vans arrived. The advocates in that group continued to put the pressure on local police and fire officials by parking alongside the frontage road of Interstate 10 and in front of roadblocks set up to stop us from entering the grounds of the regional office. Vans came, stopped in front of the roadblock, and then people disembarked. The police became frustrated. We explained that we needed these vans to take overheated people away from the site. [Image] [Image caption] (left to right) Justin Dart & Henry Cisneros. Photo by H. G. Gearhart One unidentified police officer was heard to say, “This doesn’t look like a major exodus to me.” Finally, Living Centers of America invited us to stay in the building, but asked us to leave their private offices and lobby. They refused to agree with ADAPT on its demand for support of the Community Attendant Services Act (CASA) and 25% redirection of medicaid dollars from institutionalized care to community base attendant services. ADAPT surrendered the building. It was the same old story. They didn’t want to lower their profit margin by endorsing CASA. ADAPT wanted to ask for his support of CASA, and the right of a person with a disability to choose where he wanted to live in a nursing home or in his own home. We surrounded the place. Some in wheelchairs were helped up steps, where we “held” the place and waited for Mr. Polland. When Mr. Polland finally arrived, we cleared the driveway for his car. I think he was amazed to find such a large number of people with disabilities ready to do business. He finally agreed to write a letter to Republican candidate for President Bob Dole. ADAPT members helped to compose this letter and it was faxed to Mr. Dole’s office in Washington, D. C. Mr. Polland’s letter supported ADAPT’s belief that a person should should have a choice in his/her life and not be pushed by circumstance into a nursing home. Mr. Polland also extended an invitation to Bob Kakfa and Stephanie Thomas to attend the state Republican Party Convention. While this meeting was going on, others were being transported to another ADAPT action site. They were visiting the Stanford, Texas office of the Republican Party Whip, Tom DeLay. ADAPT carried the same demand: Support of the Community Attendant Services Act (CASA), and right to choose where we want to live. We also wanted a letter of support regarding these issues faxed to Congressman DeLay’s office in Washington, D.C. asking for his support. After much confrontation, the Stanford office reluctantly agreed to contact DeLong’s Washington office. The Washington office refused to cooperate. On the third day, we all rode to a pre-arranged place off Woodway and converged on the CIGNA Corporation. CIGNA is a giant profit making company specializing in managed care. We challenge CIGNA to 1. Support (in writing) ADAPT’s proposed legislation CASA. 2. Set up, within 90 days, a meeting between ADAPT representatives and the CEO and/or President of CIGNA. 3. Begin meeting with regional ADAPT groups around the country to discuss long term care issues and start to reverse the institutional bias in long term care. 4. Develop a training contract between CIGNA and ADAPT to train CIGNA case managers and other personnel on managers on home and continuing long term care needs and options for people with disabilities. CIGNA agreed to demands 2 and 3, mostly because CIGNA wanted us out of their offices, their lobby, their patio, and off their property entirely. The ADAPT Action received local television and newspaper coverage everyday. People with disabilities were not invisible, as we all too often are to those who won’t accept what we want. The ADAPT Action ended with a celebration. We came. We acted. We are strong. Nobody is going to turn us around. See you in Atlanta.
ADAPT (1026)
Photo: A large group of ADAPT people in a very sunny plaza. Some are in wheelchairs, others standing. They wear many different colored ADAPT Free Our People t-shirts. Behind the group is a large grey cement and glass office building.
ADAPT (1017)
A real Power Move: get Yourself to an ADAPT Action [Headline] our friend Tom Cagle of Lakeport, New Hampshire tells Dear Diary about his trip to the ADAPT action in Houston Saturday 5/18/96 Dear Diary, it’s plane-to-Houston day. When I bought my plane ticket, I told the nice travel agent I needed 90+ minutes between planes to make a connection. I can walk a bit. But we all did a bit each day, too, if you get my meaning. So of course the first flight had closed it’s doors by the time I was finally wheeled to my plane. Lucky for me m the skycap who had hauled my butt around made it out to be the airline’s fault. This got me a first class ride to Houston. I got at least one semi-human-sized meal thrown in. I figured this is a good beginning. Houston, Hobby airport, 7 hours later—I am ready to curl up in a fetal ball and nap when I am thrown out into the heat. Whatever energy I had just pisses away. I have almost enough to sense to find a bus to the hotel. Friends are bringing my scooter by trailer, and I won’t have it until tomorrow morning at the earliest. I make it (as in walking , as in dying) to my room and back to see the start of the action. Looking for familiar faces, but don’t see y. Restaurant meal, then plushy room with a kitchenette. The camp food I brought has some potential. [Image] [Image caption] no caption Sunday 5/19 You are going to hear me whine about the heat. I will try to keep it to this one digression. Walking out into the air today was like being mugged. Every single overworked muscle cramped. It wasn’t until I tried to pee in the evening that my lack of need for a pee demonstrates how much of me has clamped down in the heat. Thankgod my scooter arrived. I may be able to fake some kind of normalcy. Justin Dart has Henry Cisneros, duke of HUD, in toe. Most of the meeting with Cisneros is civil but skeptical. We put out that closure of the set-asides (Section 8) means that wheelchair-accessible housing will not be built. What there is of it is routinely given to ABs. [Headline] The original crip power holiday…backing the PLODs into corners [Subheading] PLODs-People living off the disabled Plus, the vast preponderance of new construction is going into nursing homes and not into living spaces for disabled people. I bring up the HUD thing: that each HUD fiefdom is entitled to dictate when we must eat, who we may talk to, etc. I am not the only person to use the word ‘peonage.’ Cisneros should know the meaning of that word. The crowd is civil, as I said, but clearly not happy. I think he gets it. Time will tell. Monday 5/20 The size of our group (400 rolling, 150 AB and walking disabled) makes splitting into two groups prudent. The first target is AHC (American Health Care Centers, Inc.), the headquarters and the chairman’s house. ADAPT troops surround both. Our group at the headquarters is initially ignored, as most gimps usually are. Then the horror sets in when we are neither meek nor quiet as good cripples should be. Mr. Director agrees to write a letter to AHCA (the nursing home lobby group) with our demands. One of those demands is to present all the demands to AHCA’s next annual convention. For a director of a billion dollar operation, whose net for Texas alone was $20 million last year, this putz wasn’t a quick study. Before he spoke with us, he needed Houston’s Police Department to explain to him that they couldn’t arrest us all in anything less than three days. The best argument he gave us was the old saw, “You are trying to take from Peter to pay Paul.” [Demanding that 1/4 of the Medicaid nursing home budget be re-directed to home- and community-based service.] I hope the putz has his resume up to date. Five ABs arrested as ringleaders. (Gimps couldn’t have done this by themselves, you know). Tuesday, 5/21 Political target day: my group went to visit Tom DeLay-Majority Whip and #3 man in Congress. DeLay was at first unwilling to talk. His office, however, is in a little town within Houston’s borders. When the chief of police of this hamlet saw how many of us he’d have to contend with, he did most of our negotiating for us. [image with no caption] The chief did this partly so he wouldn’t break his annual budget arresting us. But he also learned that DeLay’s constituents had been asking for the budget changes we want for years. DeLay had delayed them. Once the Chief found out that we would settle for a letter to Newt Gingrich and Bob Dole in support of CASA, he put it to the Congressman, “Either get behind what these people want, or read my news release on the subject.” DeLay’s office air conditioning was turned off (not by us) for the 7 1/2 dreadful hours it took to twist a meaningful letter out of him. We stayed until we got what we came for. An aside: the person most hysterical about our occupation of the building? The building manager. Her demand was shrill and repetitive: get Those People out of my building. I got in my only zinger. "If you don't like the class of visitors to your building, Lady, get better tenants." [Subheading] Houston, Day 3 Wednesday, 5/22 Cigna Insurance [In this business of caring, according to their commercials] is downtown in a huge block-square-building on the twelfth and thirteenth floor of this twenty-floor behemoth. Both ADAPT groups joined up to move on Cigna. Starting our procession a block away, going single file, it took an hour for all of us to arrive. Then we streamed into the building quick. Building security of course ignored us until we'd blocked two entrances. We occupied all floors and all elevators. Business ground to a hault. Office workers were entertained by us singing ad-libbed verses like, "Nursing homes ain't what you think, they really stink...deep in the heart of Texas." [Subheading] Adios, Houston [Image, no caption] The Cigna chief started to get it when we asked him if his health insurance covered attendant services. He replied that his secretary is a paraplegic. When we asked if she had attendant services through Cigna, he said, "No, her family looks after her." We booed loudly. He promptly agreed to write a letter of support. Wednesday evening AB's never see it and probably couldn't believe it if they did: the meeting-greeting-dating-mating social that breaks out at the end of ADAPT adventures. There is nothing more likely to stimulate folks' juices than facing their fears and surviving them. I will say, Dear Diary, that this old wreck will sleep better at night knowing that somebody in this world thought I was manly enough to flirt with and chat with for a bit. God knows I carry too much baggage on this topic. No, I didn't follow my heart or loins. I ran like a greased pig. And she was a beauty, too. I'll keep on fighting. I'll keep on setting myself up to get this close to bliss. I'll keep swinging at our world 'til it's okay for anybody to meet and greet, date and mate. And someday, I will do the mating part, too. It's not like I have anything more important to do this lifetime. Thursday, 5/23 Up at 04:30, not home until 19:30. Hunover from two beers the night before, and just plain pounded flat. Home is cooler, anyway. Was it worthy all I could save for half a year? Oh yah. Did we do any good? Another secure yes. Can ADAPT action change things to the point where people with disabilities aren't routinely killed by institutions or placed by families? I dunno. But like I said, what else have I got to do this lifetime?