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الرئيسية / الألبومات / الكلمات الدلائلية Frank Lozano
+ civil rights 3
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Grapevine (the title is surrounded by grape leaves and clusters of grapes) Weekly Happy birthday, TJ, see Editorial, p. 2. New Thomas Pynchon novel reviewed, see p. 5. FREE! In This Issue: Editorial . . . . ............ . . . 2 Letters to the Editor ..... 2 City Board Agenda.........2 Lithuanian Story to Tell..3 Grapevine Digest............3 Sheffield Nelson's Vi......4 The Way Were.................5 Grapevine Comics...........6 KUAF Radio Guide.........6 Classifieds.........................7 Community Sportsline.....7 Dictionary of Democracy..7 Watching the Environment 8 The Movies . . . . . . ..............8 Local Live Music . . . ..........8 Volume XXI, Number 32 A Free Weekly Newspaper Fayetteville, Arkansas Friday, April 13, 1990 PHOTO (by Tom Olin): The front line of a big march, headed by an African American man (George Roberts) in a motorized wheelchair with dark glasses and a sign reading "We Shall Overcome", a woman (Stephanie Thomas) with frizzy hair and mirror sunglasses in a manual wheelchair, a sign across her legs reads "Access is A Civil Right", a Latino blind man (Frank Lozano) standing tall with his back back, bandanna-headband, and dog-guide Frazier on his left all with stern expressions on their faces. To Frank's left a young girl (Jennifer Keelan) almost stands in her wheelchair yelling a chant as her grandmother and sister Kailee push her along. Behind them a man in a white button down shirt (Evan Kemp) smiles, Justin Dart's hat is visible over Stephanie's hair and he is being pushed by a tall man (Jay Rochlin) in a suit with a button on his lapel. Between Frank and Jennifer, a short man (Michael Winter) in a wheelchair is visible. Behind them, row upon row of marchers heads, several with mouths open chanting. Breaking Down the Barriers Civil Rights for People with Disabilities by Yaél Hana Bethiem In 1983 I considered killing myself. l considered this out of a deep despair, an agony over my life. In 1983 I had been diagnosed with a progressive disease. I could no longer work, could no longer sit in chairs and could stand for shorter and shorter periods of time. In other words, I was becoming disabled. I was panicked. How could I live without my physical life, my strength, my independence? What I didn't see at the time was that I was buying into our culture's attitudes about disability. I could not value myself or value my life because the system I had to fight to get my basic needs met, did not value me; l live in a culture that believes that "out of sight, out of mind" is acceptable policy for dealing with people with disabilities. In a culture that values productivity above all else, those who cannot produce, or who need assistance to be able to produce, are considered a burden. Our culture also has a myth called the “American way," which says that if anyone "tries hard enough" he or she can “make it." When applied to people with disabilities this means that if only we “try harder" we can "overcome." We can rise above the barriers, showing superhuman strength, and then we will be more acceptable. This attitude makes people believe the barriers do not need tn be removed. Instead, they think we, the disabled, need to overcome them. In other words, the closer we cart be to “normal," the more we are accepted. Those who cannot become more normal are locked away, out of sight, out of mind. Those of us living within this oppression, for it is oppression, often internalize the culture's attitudes. We believe there is something wrong with us. Millions of people share this fate with me; we are locked away by a society that would prefer to pretend we do not exist. We are imprisoned by attitudes that do not see people with disabilities as fully human; attitudes that expect us to "overcome" (or heal ourselves); attitudes that create barriers, or do not see the barriers that do exist. There are 43 million people with disabilities in the United States. We are one of the most repressed minorities in this country. We are denied access to basic rights, transportation, jobs, and respect. For people with disabilities there are thousands of ways the oppression affects us, thousands of forms of prejudice and visible and invisible barriers. An example of the effects of this oppression is the story of David Rivlin. David was a quadriplegic who, last summer, chose to have his respirator turned off. He went to court to ask for the right to die. His story was aired on TV. I heard people around me say, “l would do that too. I wouldn't want to live like that." David lived in a nursing home. He lay in bed twenty-four hours a day tied to a stable respirator. David didn't have to live this way. He could have had a portable respirator and thus been able to use a wheelchair. He didn't know about a portable respirator and no one ever told him. The government was paying $2300 day to keep David in a nursing home, but would pay only $207 a month for an attendant so David could live independently. The day before David died, a reporter covering David's story discovered that money could have been gotten for David to live independently if someone had known how lo “work the system." David's struggle reflects the struggle of people with disabilities in this country. If David, and other people with disabilities were given their right to make choices in their lives all along, there would be no necessity of fighting for the right to die. The Americans With Disabilities Act There is a growing awareness of the need for change in policy and attitude toward people with disabilities. Last year a bill was introduced in Congress called the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA). The ADA would begin to guarantee civil rights for people with disabilities. Although it has already been modified since its inception, the ADA, as it now stands, would be a beginning to removing barriers that prevent people with disabilities from participating in society. Unfortunately, the ADA is facing serious compromise due to powerful lobbies against it. It is also facing changes that would remove its power as a civil rights act. Last summer, the ADA was passed almost unanimously by the Senate. It was endorsed by President Bush. It then moved into the House of Representatives, where it is now stalled. The most powerful lobbies against the bill are Greyhound and the National Federation of Independent Businesses along with the Chambers of Commerce. Greyhound is against the ADA because they will have to equip new buses with wheelchair lifts. They claim it will cost them millions of dollars, yet they are adding in costs that have nothing to do with the Americans With Disabilities Act. While using erroneous concepts for the cost figures, Greyhound is pouring money into Washington to fight the bill. The National Federation of Independent Businesses also base their antagonism to the ADA on erroneous concepts. The NFIB is saying the ADA will cause hardship for businesses. The ADA requires that public facilities constructed after the ADA becomes law be accessible. Existing facilities have to be accessible within two years of enactment if the access is "readily achievable without much difficulty or expense." In other words. businesses can decide for themselves whether they can afford to provide access. On March 10, American Disabled for Accessible Public Transportation (ADAPT) held a march on Washington to promote awareness of the Americans With Disabilities Act. Over 1,000 people with disabilities came from all over the country. They marched from the White House to the steps of the Capitol. The rest of the week was filled with talks with key figures and demonstrations. Many people participated in planned civil disobedience aimed at calling attention to the current injustice. Because the ADA is civil rights legislation, it ties in with the Civil Rights Act of 1964. New legislation has just been introduced that would create real remedies for violations of the Civil Rights Act. Because the ADA is tied to the Civil Rights Act these remedies would also apply to violations of the ADA. Opponents of ADA want to separate the ADA from the Civil Rights Act. For people with disabilities this would be a compromise that essentially negates the purpose of the ADA. People with disabilities deserve to be treated fairly and humanely, which at this point we are not. It is time to remove the barriers, especially the barriers of mind. It is time to break down the walls that have kept people with disabilities imprisoned. The Americans With Disabilities Act is a very important step. Please write to Hon. John Paul Hammerschmidt at U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, D.C. 20515 or 35 E. Mountain, Fayetteville, AR 72701 . Let him know you are aware of the ADA. Ask him to support it as it now stands. Only unity can save our threatened planet.On every level we have to move out of the mindset of differences and into the awareness of our shared humaneness. Now it is time also to move out of separation based on physical ability. Only then can we really share our resources. Only awareness of barriers can bring the possibility of their removal. Yael Hana Bethiemn is a free lance writer from Eureka Springs.
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St. Louis Post Dispatch 5-22-88 PHOTO by Ted Dargan/Post Dispatch: A Line of ADAPT people roll down a city street. The first person in line (Mike Auberger) has two long braids and sunglasses. His arms hang on either side of his motorized wheelchair and his ADAPT shirt is somewhat covered by the chest strap on his chair. Next to Mike is a man in a manual wheelchair with curly hair and a beard (Bob Kafka) who has is legs crossed and is wearing the same ADAPT shirt as Mike. Behind them a man (Jerry Eubanks) with no legs in a manual wheelchair is being pushed by a blind man (Frank Lozano) who is smiling. Behind them is another man in a maual wheelchair. Behind him is someone in a motorized wheelchair who is looking off to the side. Behind them is another person in a wheelchair. The photo is grainy so it's hard to make out many details. Caption reads: Disabled people demonstrating downtown last week for more accessible bus service. Title: Bus Stop By Joan Bray Of the Post-Dispatch Staff ACTIV1STS FROM local advocacy groups were absent from the scores of protesters who took to St. Louis streets last week asserting the rights of the disabled to accessible bus service. Leaders of the local groups say tactics, not goals, caused them and their members to opt out of the demonstrations. About 150 people blocked entrances at Union Station and surrounded buses at the Greyhound terminal. A majority of them were in wheelchairs, on crutches or otherwise disabled. And they were out-of-towners. They belong to a loosely woven group, American Disabled for Accessible Public Transit, called ADAPT for short. The group was protesting the policies of the American Public Transit Association, which was holding a regional meeting at the Omni International Hotel at Union Station. As a result of ADAPT's civil disobedience, 78 arrests were made, two group court appearances were held and a lawsuit was filed by the group over treatment at the City Workhouse. We support ADAPT's policies on access 1,000 percent," said Max J. Starkloff. He is executive director here of Paraquad Inc., which advocates rights for the handicapped. "But we have not participated in the demonstrations." "Our methods are negotiation, public testimony and organized public rallies," Starkloff said. "Our goals ore the same" as ADAPT's. Both the local activists and ADAPT want the transit association to push for installing a wheelchair lift on every bus in the country. They see 100 percent accessibility as a civil right. Rut the transit association notes in a written statement that no such accessibility is required by the Constitution, the Congress or the courts. It says the number of lifts on buses has increased to 30 percent now from 11 percent in 1981. In that same period, the administration of President Ronald Reagan has slashed the federal transit program's budget by 47 percent, the association says. The association says each local transportation agency should be allowed to determine how it will provide access for the disabled. Special services — like the Call-A-Ride service operated by the Bi-State Development Agency — may work better than lift-equipped buses in some areas, the association says. Local groups' methods for effecting change include working within the system. Starkloff serves on Bi-State's committee on transit for the elderly and disabled. The chairman of that committee, Fred Cowell, is executive director of the Gateway chapter of Paralyzed Veterans of America. Bi-State has made a commitment to install wheelchair lifts on all its buses, Cowell said. But the committee wants the agency's board of directors to adopt a policy stating it will do so. "We know that the buses are here to stay," Cowell said. "If or when budget cuts come, special services such as Call-A-Ride would be the first to go." Cowell and Starkloff said they feared that between the bureaucracy and the protests, the primary point — the need for equal transportation — was being missed. "A disabled person is not unlike any other person," Cowell said. Disabled people need to get to their jobs, to medical care and to social engagements, be said. "There is absolutely no difference in their need to get around," he said. Starkloff noted that the cost of a van equipped for a wheelchair — a minimum of about $20,000 — was prohibitive for most people. But the disabled should not have to wait at a bus stop on the chance that the next bus may be equipped with a lift, be said. Nor should they have to plan their trips 24 hours in advance, as Call-A-Ride requires, he said. Cowell said, "The main thing the (BI-State) committee has been trying to do is develop a deepening concern for services for the disabled and elderly." The fact that the committee has been successful in persuading Bi-State to buy only buses with lifts prevented the agency from bearing the brunt of ADAPT's effort here, one of the protest leaders said. The Rev. Wade Blank, a Presbyterian minister from Denver, is a co-director of ADAPT. He has a daughter who is disabled. Two months ago, representatives of ADAPT met with State officials in preparation for their trip here and learned of the agency's commitment to lifts, Blank said. As a result, ADAPT aimed its protests at the transit association's meeting and Greyhound Bus Lines. Greyhound is bidding on local routes in some metropolitan areas — Dallas, for one, Blank said. But it does not equip its buses with lifts, he said. A spokesman for Greyhound said last week that, instead, it provided a free ticket for a companion for a disabled traveler. Regarding the transit meeting, Blank said: "Our whole intent is to go after people who are so much wrapped up in the system that they insulate themselves from the issue. They have to live and breathe (ADAPT's protests) when they go to these conventions." Demonstrators here represented some of ADAPTs 33 chapters across the country, Blank said. He said his headquarters was with a group in Denver called the Atlantis Community, which moves disabled people out of nursing homes into independent living arrangements. Funding comes primarily from church donations and foundation grants, he said. From 1978 to 1981, ADAPT protested — and "caused a major disruption" — in Denver every month, Blank said. In 1982, the buses there became 100 percent equipped with lifts, he noted. ADAPT has since protested in all the cities where the transit association has met and where it has been invited by other activists, for a total of about 15 cities, Blank said. [unreadable] ...only buses with lifts, he said. Blank said the failure of local groups to join ADAPT's protests did not weaken the cause. Another success that ADAPT points to is a ruling by a federal Judge in Philadelphia in January striking down a regulation of the US. Department of Transportation that allows transit authorities to spend only 3 percent of their budgets on the disabled. The Judge postponed the effect of the ruling while the Justice Department appeals it. Three percent of Bi-State's budget for the current fiscal year Is $2.6 million, said Rosemary Covington, an agency official who works with the advisory committee. But Bi-State will spend only $1 million because of delays in getting bids on new buses and in expanding the Call-A-Ride service. "We are having budget problems, but that wasn't the reason" the money wasn't spent, Covington said. The remaining $1.6 million does not roll over to the fiscal year that begins July 1, she said. She said that by early next year, Bi-State expected that 221 of its fleet of about 700 buses will be equipped with lifts, 12 of the more than 120 routes will be operated entirely with lift-equipped buses, the Call-A-Ride service will include all of St. Louis County and the city and a voucher system will be available for back-up cab service. Equipping all the agency's buses with lifts will take six to seven years, Covington said. Meanwhile the committee will help evaluate the services for the disabled, she said. "If ridership doesn't materialize" on the buses with lifts or "if it costs thousands or millions (of dollars) to maintain them, that will enter into the decision making," Covington said. Bi-State is training drivers how to use the lifts and plans to promote and advertise the service heavily, she said.
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THE PLAIN DEALER, THURSDAY, MAY 22; 1986 page 19-A PHOTO by AP: Four policemen in their fancy police hats are "rolling" a man (Rick James) up a 150 degree (ie. almost vertical) "ramp" into a van. Rick is sitting with his hands up by his chest. His hat is missing and his hair is flying out in all directions. His expression is a mix of amazement, disgust and resignation. Caption reads: Cincinnati policemen push Rick James of Salt Lake City, Utah, up a ramp into a van after he was arrested outside a downtown hotel as part of a demonstration by American Disabled for Accessible Public Transportation. Title: Cincy arrests disabled in protest of bus access By BILL SLOAT STAFF writer CINCINNATI — Police arrested l7 disabled people yesterday after they blockaded the entrance to a downtown hotel or chained themselves to the doorway of an adjoining office building that houses Queen City Metro, this city’s public bus service. Eleven of them refused to post bond and were in Hamilton County Justice Center under cash bonds ranging from $1,500 to $3,000. Five were released late yesterday on personal bonds. One pleaded no contest to disorderly conduct and was found guilty. Sixteen were in wheelchairs from polio, paralyzing spinal accidents, multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy and amputations. One was blind and walked carrying a white cane. The arrests were made during a non-violent, noon demonstration that challenged lack of access to city buses here and around the nation. Chants of “We will ride" and “Access now” came from about 52 demonstrators outside the Westin Hotel. Some removed footstands from their wheelchairs and banged on metal barricades. Police stood behind the barricades and refused to let the demonstrators into the hotel. All 17 taken to jail said they were members of a national handicapped rights organization called American Disabled for Accessible Public Transportation. “This is a civil disobedience action," said Wade Blank, 47, a Presbyterian minister who helped organize yesterday's protest. Blank, who now lives in Denver, was involved in anti-war demonstrations at Kent State University in the 1960s when he lived in Akron. Several of the people loaded onto vans and hauled away to the Hamilton County Justice Center on disorderly conduct charges compared Cincinnati to Selma and Montgomery, two Alabama cities where civil rights activists were jailed by authorities in the 1960s. “The message needs to be sent out that we can’t ride a bus because we're handicapped,” said Glenn Horton, 46, of El Paso, Texas. "It's discrimination it’s segregation and it’s appalling that it could still be happening in this country." Horton said he had been confined to a wheelchair since age 9, when he fell and broke his back. Bill Bolte, 54, of Los Angeles, said handicapped people needed mainline bus service to get to jobs, movies, dates, shopping, banks and anywhere else they might want to go. “We're already in prison," said Bolte, who had polio 51 years ago. “We're going to see that what few rights we have are not going to be taken away. Our rights to public transportation are being deprived, and we will not sit for it." Organizers of the protest said they took to the streets because about 600 executives of public and private transit companies in the eastern United States and Canada were attending a convention in the hotel that ends today. Protesters said the convention should adopt a resolution supporting the installation of wheelchair lifts on all public buses in the nation. Many came from Denver, which has such lifts in use on its bus fleet. The demonstration also came a day after the U.S. Department of Transportation announced in Washington, D.C., a new regulation that allows transit authorities to establish alternative services for the disabled instead of putting lifts on regularly scheduled buses. Demonstrators complained the rule meant that buses, subways and rail lines wouldn't be made accessible to people in wheelchairs. Police Chief Lawrence Whalen said the comparisons with Alabama in the 1960s were unfair when it came to the police. Police in the South during the civil rights era often brutalized protesters. Whalen yesterday said, “Our officers handled themselves very admirably. The group has had their chance to protest and get their point across." He said the police assigned to make arrests had attended special briefings on how to handle disabled people and were instructed to ask the people in custody the best way to lift them into vans. “We wanted to be sensitive to their special needs." Whalen said. Three of those arrested yesterday were out on $3,000 bond after incidents Monday when two climbed aboard city buses, paid fares and refused to leave when ordered off by Queen City Metro officials. The third interfered with a bus. The three, Robert A. Kafka, 40, of Austin, Texas; George Cooper, 58, of Irving, Texas; and Michael W. Auberger, 32, of Denver, were charged yesterday with Criminal trespassing when they chained themselves to the entranceway of Queen City Metro's offices. Police Capt. Dale Menkhaus told his men to use bolt cutters to get them out of the building. Kafka, Cooper and Auberger had been ordered Tuesday not to set foot in Cincinnati by a Municipal judge at the time they posted bond, but another Municipal judge lifted the banning order shortly before yesterday's protests started. Police Chief Lawrence Whalen said 14 others were charged with disorderly conduct for their activities outside the hotel. Bond was set at $3,000 each, a Hamilton County Municipal Court official said. Before the demonstration began, the group gathered in a Newport, Ky., motel for a strategy session on civil disobedience. They agreed not to carry anything but identification with them when they confronted police in downtown Cincinnati and they voted not to post bail. None of the people arrested were from Ohio. The 11 who refused to post bond and were in jail last night are: Bolte; Bob Conrad of Denver; Joe Carle of Denver; Auberger; Horton; Jim Parker of El Paso, Texas; Cooper; George Roberts of Denver; Earnest Taylor of Hartford, Conn.; Lonnie Smith of Denver; Kafka. Kelly Bates of Denver pleaded no contest to disorderly conduct, was found guilty and sentenced to 30 days in jail, which she is to start serving tomorrow. Those released on personal bond are Ken Heard of Denver; George Florman of Colorado Springs, Colo.; Frank Lozano of El Paso, Texas; Rick James of Salt Lake City, Utah; and Arthur Campbell of Louisville, Ky.