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Article Title: ADDRESS BY MIKE AUBERGER
D.C. -- MAY 9, 1993

We have gathered here today to honor a leader a friend, a father, and a brother in the struggle for liberty, equality, and justice for people with disabilities. We have gathered here today to remember our fallen sisters and brothers who have not seen the end of our struggle.

On this Mother's Day we must not forget our mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers and friends who have died in nursing homes and institutions across America. On this day we shall honor the mothers, fathers, families and friends who are incarcerated and warehoused in nursing homes and institutions in the land of the not so free. We must never forget as the struggle continues more of our sisters and brothers will die before victory is ours.

Martin Luther King had a dream. We have a destiny, not a dream, a destiny, to realize. We shall have the right to choose how we live, and where we live. That destiny will include a national attendant service program for people with disabilities. That destiny will be realized. We have come from the shores, the mountains, and the plains of America to Washington, DC to pave the road to realizing our destiny. We are here to make our voices and demands heard by the Clinton Administration, the lO3rd Congress, the American Health Care Association, and the public.

America's business can not go on as usual as long as younger and elderly Americans with disabilities are incarcerated in nursing homes to die. Our brothers and sisters must be freed from the bondage of the nursing home industry and government inability to provide a moral and economical solution. We must not permit the nursing home industry to continue to profit from our enslavement and oppression. Government must redirect the funds that pay for our enslavement. We shall not permit the nursing home industry to continue to use our bodies and our lives as commodities. We are not cattle. We are people. We must be free people.

As the Clinton Administration finalizes its plan to reform health care in America it is imperative that a mandatory National Attendant Service Program be an integral pa.rt of that reform. We must make it very clear to the powers that be that no matter what form health care takes, it must include a mandatory National Attendant Service Program. We will not accept any health care package that excludes or limits mandatory attendant services. We will not permit government to continue to fund our incarceration in nursing homes at the expense of our lives.

In the last 28 years 9.520.000 young and elderly people with disabilities have died in nursing homes. How many more of our sisters and brothers must die before true health care reform takes place? How much longer will government bow to the pressures of the American Health Care Association and its cronies within the nursing home industry?

We must seize our destiny from the hands of the nursing home industry and governments oppressive regulations. We must and shall be the masters of our destiny. We must make our presence in Washington not just known, but more importantly felt — by the Administration, the Senate, the House of Representatives. the American Health Care Association, and the public. We must present one unified voice with the same message: Attendant Services Now. We shall not accept less than what is rightfully ours. We shall not permit anyone to accept less on our behalf. We shall not permit any organization to mortgage our future for empty promises and self gain.

The Clinton Administration speaks the right rhetoric and is attempting to open a dialog as well as meeting with ADAPT. However, rhetoric, dialog and meetings do not necessarily mean change. ADAPT will continue its struggle in the streets until real change occurs.

As the struggle continues, we must never forget our sisters and brothers held hostages in nursing homes across America. We must never forget that a sixty billion dollar industry has been created by incarcerating young and elderly Americans with disabilities. Remember in a different time and a different country people with disabilities were incarcerated in camps with other "undesirable" people. That was Germany this is America. Freedom was deprived then and freedom is deprived now - from people with disabilities. As long as one person with a disability is still incarcerated in a nursing home, we as a people will never be free. Every person with a disability must commit themselves today to the struggle to liberate our sisters and brothers from the profiteers who enslave them.

We must free our people. We will free our people.

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Tuesday 16 July 2013

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Thursday 12 September 2019

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