Chicago Defender, Monday, May I I, 1992

Title: Sullivan speaks, get heckled at UIC
by Dobie Holland

Screaming slogans such as “You're killing us," a group of physically-disabled persons disrupted the commencement speech of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Dr. Louis W. Sullivan Sunday at the University of Illinois-Chicago.

Security personnel removed the partially wheelchair-bound group
from the UIC Pavilion and escorted them outside, where they joined 500 other protesters from 25 states who picketed outside during the ceremonies.

John Gladstone, a Americans Disabled for Attendant Programs Today (ADAPT) member from Philadelphia, explained the group's militant tactics: “These are radical times. You can only write so many letters. l wrote so many letters to Mr. Sullivan that I had writer's cramp."

ADAPT, a national Civil Rights agency, is concerned with Bush
Administration policies that have resulted in widespread budget cuts
in state Medicaid funding. The reductions, ADAPT members say, will force disabled people to live in nursing homes.

The group is calling for 25 percent of Medicaid funds to be ear-marked for community-based nursing centers, which will enable
many disabled citizens to live independently from nursing homes.

“They're warehousing us (in nursing homes)," Gladstone said. “I've lived in nursing homes for 14 years and I have seen some of the
brutality that goes on there."

Gladstone said nursing homes are guilty of inhumane treatment and neglect of patients who are unable to defend themselves.

The environment in nursing homes, Gladstone added, is not conducive to leading a normal adult lifestyle.

"When you live in these nursing home facilities, they take your life
away. When I first went into a nursing home, I was in a walker but they wouldn't let me walk and they put me in a wheelchair — now
I can't walk," he said.

Sullivan, who was under tight security, was not available for comment after the ceremonies.

The HHS secretary delivered his address despite the nterruptions and emphasized a need for sensitivity and caring toward all humans.

Author

Chicago Defender / Dobie Holland

Created on

Friday 12 July 2013

Posted on

Thursday 29 November 2018

Tags

budget cuts, commencement, John Gladstone, letters, Medicaid, nursing home escapee perspective, nursing homes, redirect 25%, Secretary Louis Sullivan, University of Chicago, walking, wheelchair bound

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