A A News 10/27/95
[Headline] Protest outrages Michelle Engler

FROM the Associated Press

LANSING --- First Lady Michelle Engler says her support for free speech and the right to assemble gave way to fear and outrage when handicapped protesters demonstrated outside the governor's residence.

"It was frightening. I felt totally helpless," she said Thursday of the protest two days earlier. "And I am still outraged and appalled by these tactics."

Neither Gov. John Engler nor his wife was home when about 200 pro-testers gathered outside the governor's residence. But a nanny was there with the Englers' 11-month-old triplet daughters when nearly 70 of the protesters pushed through the outside gate and mussed on the front porch, shouting and chanting slogans and briefly pounding on the doors and windows.

Six were cited for trespassing.

"When they called me and told me what was happening, I was terrified...frightened," said Michelle Engler, who at the time was in Detroit, attending a luncheon where she was honored for her promotion of breast cancer awareness. "All I could think about was my 11-month-old babies."

Michelle Engler, an attorney, described herself as "an avid advocate" of First Amendment rights of free speech and peaceably assembly. But Tuesday's demonstration was "over the line" she said.

"It they want to picket, they should stay outside the gate. They can picket me, they can picket him," she said, referring to the governor. "But just stay away from my family."

[Pulled quote]
"It was frightening. I felt totally helpless." — Michelle Engler

[article continues] The demonstration was organized by American Disabled for Atm:, tendant Programs Today, a Denver-based group that opposes Republican-backed changes in the federal Medicaid program. Those changes might deny home care for disabled persons and force them into nursing homes.

The Medicaid changes are pending in Congress. But ADAPT officials said demonstrations were held in Lansing because of Republicans Gov. Eaglet's high-profile role in advising GOP lawmakers on welfare and Medicaid changes.

The triplets were in the back of the house and were not directly exposed to the protesters. But Michelle Engler said they had sensed: the tension and anxiety.

Michigan ADAPT organizer Bob Liston of Ypsilanti: "This is a nonviolent organization. We have not hurt anyone and do not intend to hurt anyone. But if Gov. Engler is going to get into national politics, he has to answer to folks nationally. We were doing what we felt was necessary to call attention to this critical issue."

נוצר ב

שלישי 16 יולי 2013

פורסם ב

שני 23 ספטמבר 2019

אלבומים

• Lansing, fall 1995

ביקורים

139

ציון דירוג

ללא דירוג

דרג תמונה זאת

EXIF Metadata

Make

Canon

Model

Canon EOS 40D

DateTimeOriginal

2013:07:16 14:38:10

ApertureFNumber

f/11.0