Incitement
Incitement
Incitement

Volume 17 No, 2

A Publication of ADAPT

Summer 2001

[headline] ADAPT Ensures Promises Kept

The Spring action was perhaps the text book example of the power of direct action and how the people united never be defeated. Three days of action accomplished what we set out to do: laying a foundation for the new Administration. Health and Human Services, HHS; Housing and Urban Development, HUD, and the White House gang all got a taste of ADAPT, and came to see negotiation is the way to go! Even the American Health Care Association, AHCA, agreed to come to the table. Our message was heard as far off as Aruba And it was definitely heard by the new Bush Administration.

The meetings with HHS, HUD and AHCA were demanded and arranged. United action overcame resistance in all cases. The Executive Order on implementing Olmstead is out and is stronger than many of us thought it would be. That would never have happened if not for our little home visits!

There can be no question direct action works. Sure we don't win all in the first round, but advances are moving us forward at a smart pace. It is hard to re-member an action where ADAPT worked better together, and that is no easy claim to make as we have had some beautiful actions!

[subheading] "INSURANCE" ADAPT STYLE As Monday morning broke, ADAPT's troops gathered in the drive-way of our hotel. Working with patience and determination, each team worked to get all down and ready to roll for our first day of actions with the new Administration.

Eight years of

[boxed text]
ADAPT/Incitement
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(512) 442-0252 V/TTY
(512) 442-0522 FAX

Incitement is produced from the offices of Topeka Independent Living Resource Center (T1LRC). Articles, letters, compositions, displays and photos are encouraged. Please contact Tessa Goupil for deadlines for submission of materials. The Editor reserves the right to edit or omit any material that is submitted. For more information, contact Tessa Goupil at T1LRC or. Stephanie Thomas at ADAPT.

Topeka Independent Living Resource Center, Inc. 501 SW Jackson St., Suite 100
Topeka, KS 66603-3300
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[text continues] work on the Clinton Administration had eventually yielded some great results. But this was a whole new ball game. And it was time to test the new playing field. ADAPT had sent repeated letters to the Bush Administration requesting meetings to see where they stood and what they were planning to free people with disabilities from institutions. But our letters had gone unanswered, except for some vague, last minute calls trying to divert us. It was time to get serious.

A team of 20 folks left early to meet with staff from the Health and Human Services Administration, HRS. No one in HIS employ seemed able to schedule a Incitement meeting with the new Secretary Tommy Thompson, so these 20 were going to schedule that meeting and get a sense of the department's new leadership. But that was not the whole plan. Too often we have been jerked around and patted on the head. Our eight Clinton years had taught us: tithe slips by too fast to waste it.

Instead insurance would be provided, in the form of 480 other interested • individuals who headed over to HHS 20 minutes after the first group to just wait and see what happened. Upon arrival we arranged ourselves around the building, not blocking, not chanting, just waiting. Being neighborly you might say. Inside the meeting however, the yellow sticky notes began to be delivered to the HHS officials heading up the meeting.

Discussion progressed, but when the 141-IS folks claimed to be unable to set up a meeting with their boss Secretary Thompson, word was sent down the insurance group. Our ADAPT folks were in good hands at least, and the crowd below moved in toward the building and began chanting.

[Subheading] "HELLO GENEVA?"
"The invitation they sent us for this meeting said we would schedule a meeting with the Secretary" Wisconsin ADAPT Organizer Steve Verriden said, "and then

[image]
[image caption] photo by Tim Wheat

[text continues] we got stonewalled Seven of the 20 of us were formerly warehoused in nursing homes, and took the stonewalling very personally, as did the rest of us."

Inside the HHS folks were getting huffy and stomped out of the meeting room, but our 20 folks refused to leave. Having come for one thing, we were not leaving till we got it. As word came down about the standoff, those outside chanting moved in to block the doors. The discipline of the group was great. Step by step pressure mounted.

Quickly the HI IS folks realized the time for games had passed, and lo and behold, they returned to the meeting, full of lectures and recriminations, but with a commitment for a meeting. Thompson had confirmed it from Geneva, Switzerland. Outside we released the doors and our inside team came down to join us. It was before noon and we had accomplished our first goal.

A quick recap and we were on our way. A lengthy march through the streets took us to target number two, AHCA, the American Health Care Association lobbyist for the nursing home industry. This lovely little group still held over 2 million of our people captive for their profit making value and ADAPT had a few items to discuss with them.

Before we even arrived the doors were locked and the lights turned out on the first floor. But ADAPT is not that easily 9 fooled. Again we surrounded the building.

[subheading] OUR HOMES, NOT NURSING HOMES

It seems the police had not known ADAPT was conking to town. By the time we got to AHCA however, they had found out we were there. In fact they were escorting us, uninvited. So when AHCA finally allowed our negotiators inside and said they/ were going to call the police if we did not :i-co away; we were able to say, go ahead, here's their business card. That took a little wind out of the AHCA's sails, and it was quickly agreed that their new CEO Dr. Chip Roadman would meet with ADAPT before July 15. With a solid days work under our belts, we headed back to recharge for to-morrow!

[subheading] BUSH'S DISABILITY 100 DAY REPORT CARD: F
One thing that seems consistent about the Bush. Administration is that they were unable to respond. to keep up with, their paperwork in a timely fashion. Back in February, President Bush had created a little media event, coincidentally on the same day as Ashcroft was being nominated, where he invited a bunch of folk from the disability community on up to his new house, the White House, for a little get together (can you say photo op?) to announce his "New Freedom Initiative." This initiative included plans for efforts in several areas for people with disabilities, one of which was regarding the Olmstead decision. At the February First event Bush committed to publishing, on that day, an Executive Order to implement this Supreme Court decision. Well here it was four months later and no Order in sight. Bupkis! Zippo! Ziltch! Nada! Not good enough. After all, while Governor of Texas Bush had been one of only seven states which stood staunchly in opposition to the disability rights position the Supreme Court eventually supported in

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[text continues] this case.

So Tuesday brought ADAPT across town again„ police escort in tow, to see a man about his word. We were expecting law and order crack down, with a 2 minute stay on the sidewalk and then off to who knew where for how long... Much to our surprise we lined up along the White House fence, covering the entire facade. We took out our Presidential 100 day report card and shared it with the crowds. "The ADAPT Report Card had to give the President Failing grades on disability issues for his first 100 days" said. UT ADAPT Organizer Barb Toomer. "It's been over 100 days since he committed to issue the Olmstead Executive Order. Without the Order and some funding to help the states achieve the swift implementation he wrote about, President Bush's New Freedom Initiative remains a NO Freedom Initiative."

It was hot and it looked to be a long day. But within a half an hour the Director of President's Policy Council John Bridgeland came out and agreed to set up a meeting with 20 representatives of ADAPT that very afternoon. 480 more of us waited outside, again in the "insurance role," as the meeting was set up, and finally the 20 were brought inside.

[Subheading] WEST WING EAT YOUR HEART OUT!

The group was ushered in and then in smaller groups was taken upstairs. Somehow Mike Auberger and Chauncey Bailey of Denver and Delaware respectively, were left to find their own way through the long empty corridors. With few options available they knocked on doors and began opening them. Bailey, waiting to get out of a nursing home, still wore his sign "Nursing homes = Jail." Suddenly they found themselves alone in Vice President Cheney's office. They could have taken the name plate from his desk, but instead left him Bailey's sign and continued on their search., eventually joining up with the rest of the group.

Crammed in a tiny office with Presidential staffers the group quickly got an apology and a commitment that the Executive Order would be out within 30, days. Though the staffers tried to get away with the old and tired, "my word is my bond," ADAPT's representatives were not satisfied until the Special Assistant to the President for Justice Policy Diane Schacht came outside and announced the commitment to the whole 500. It had been a long and fruitful day.

[Subheading] WE HUFFED AND WE PUFFED...

The third day brought the final piece of the picture into focus. With the antics of CCD (Consortium of Citizens with Disabilities) the Department of Housing and Urban Development, HUD, had found an excuse to grind to a halt on the housing vouchers to help folks transition out of nursing homes. They had been steadily backsliding on this since the 2001 budget. Letters for a meeting with Secretary Mel Martinez had gone ignored by the Secretary, even despite the efforts of some of his staff to call them to his attention. So Wednesday ADAPT went down to set up a meeting, the only way Washington seems to understand, with a show of power!

We took a back route, and despite

[image]
[image caption] photo by Tim Wheat

[text continues] our seemingly ever present escorts, we surrounded the building blocking all en-trances till they agreed to negotiate. We held them firm, and even managed, eventually, to get a group into the lobby and block some of their elevators. HUD, as ever slow to learn, dragged their heels, but in the end agreed to meet with our people in the cafeteria. Negotiations ensued and after an hour of negotiations between 6 ADAPT representatives and about 30 HUD staffers, Daniel Murphy, the Secretary's Chief of Staff announced to the crowd in front of their building that Secretary Martinez would meet with ADAPT within 30 days.

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It was a solid three days work. We had gone in planning to lay some ground work, and to let the new administration know we were not about to fade away, or let our brothers and sisters fade away. The urgency of the call to FREE OUR PEOPLE has only grown stronger. The Bush administration seemed actually quicker to meet than previous administrations. Of course a meeting is only a meeting, and we must see what comes out of them, but the disciplined commitment of the ADAPTers from around the nation is obviously not something that wilt be turned around. And if meetings come to nothing we will be back for another round. For a first round however, it was victory for all concerned.

[boxed text]
S. 1298
New Bill Number for MiCASSA

Senators Harkin, Kennedy, Clinton, Widen and Specter are the cosponsors. The bill contains all the old parts of Mi.CASSA plus a pilot project to improve services for people eligible for both Medic-aid and Medicare. The new bill has a 5 year phase in during which time the states can get an enhanced match, in other words a higher percent of federal Medic-aid dollars, if they provide Community Attendant Services and Supports; at the end of 5 years all states must provide Community Attendant Services and Supports.

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• Washington DC, Spring 2001

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