arrests will be made and they will start at this spot. As I look around I don't see anyone that is new to arrest. I take a position where I can video the event.

The arrest is a statement that we will not move. I think it is to say that, despite the talk, ADAPT believes strongly in our right to live in the community and that in this we are stronger than AFSCME. I stand with those who are about to get busted, but I doubt I am in much danger of being arrested. Cassie will certainly be arrested. Sue, Frank and Toni, who I just met, are going to jail. My friend and roommate, Mike, is out there to get busted.

[subheading] 1:04 pm
The arrests are being made. I have to stop with this journal and start with the video and photos.

[subheading] 1:18 pm

The arrests are made quickly in the back. Everyone cooperated and moved away. I head around to the lobby to see if there will be arrests there. I see Marsha and tell her that I think about 30 people have been arrested. Right after I said that that I see Tim, who got stepped on yesterday at the transit entrance of the Thompson building. He writes on my notepad that he counted 15 arrested. My guesswork and speculation are off today.

[subheading] 2:19 pm The arrests are completed and ADAPT is on the Chicago Streets again. I spoke with Randy, who led the march back to the hotel. He said AFSCME does not respect people with disabilities nor its workers. Randy, from Memphis, wore a piece of paper on his chest that read: "I am a man," in reference to the 1968 garbage workers strike. He said that MLK would likely stand with us against AFSCME because of ADAPT's struggle for equality. Indeed, Martin Luther King III spoke at the ADAPT March for Justice in October 2000 where he said: "Our destinies are tied together." The group is festive. People are joking and disorganized. Already, people are telling their "war stories" from the action.

[subheading] 2:37 pm
On the way back we mingle with the police one applauds us. The single-file cannot even be imagined from the meandering group headed back. We get close to the hotel and the final "big meeting." I miss Bob Kafka. He is not at this action and no one can frame our issues like he can. I feel very strongly about today's action, and I am proud of how ADAPT did not back down. Being out here in the street with everyone I am more certain that we will overcome.

Created on

Tuesday 23 July 2013

Posted on

Friday 18 December 2020

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• Chicago, Fall 2007

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