The Washington Post
Tuesday May 3, 1994

Photo by Frank Johnston, the Washington Post: The picture is filled with a crowd of ADAPT marchers heading toward the camera. People are carrying Long Term Care flags, mouths are open with chants and determined looks on their faces. In the front are a blonde woman (Jennifer McPhail) in a wheelchair and an ADAPT T-shirt, a large man in a power chair (San Antonio Fuentes) with his left fist raised and a poster on his legs reading "Nur$ing Home$ suck", a man (Frank Krall) in an ADAPT shirt walking, and a gray haired and bearded man (Bob Kafka) in a wheelchair yelling and with a sign that reads Free Our People. Over his left shoulder you can see Justin Dart's cowboy hat.

Caption reads: Disabled people cross Memorial Bridge to the Lincoln Memorial alter meeting with the president.

Disabled Meet Clinton, Stage March
Aim Is to Guard Their Goals While Health Care Is Debated on Hill
By Liz Spayd, Washington Post Staff Writer

Advocates for disabled people met with President Clinton yesterday and later formed a wheelchair processional across the Memorial Bridge as part of a boisterous appeal to ensure their needs are met as Washington lawmakers begin shaping a national health care policy.

With the help of motorized wheelchairs, guide dogs and canes, about 1,000 people joined in the protest that began at Arlington National Cemetery and ended in a rally alongside the Lincoln Memorial.

Eastbound traffic across the Memorial Bridge was blocked for nearly an hour as protesters made their way toward the District. Carrying a red and white banner that read “Real Health Care for All," the group met with stares and an occasional pumped fist from joggers running by.

The group's chief goal is to get coverage of the cost of in-home attendants so that disabled people can live independently rather than in nursing homes. They also are pushing for mandatory coverage of prescription drugs and items such as listening devices to help the hearing-impaired.

“We need the kind of services that will allow us to live like a normal person can, so we can be productive members of society," said Clyde Carvey, a wheelchair user from Reno, Nev.

Though the Clinton proposal would cover much of what disabled people are fighting for, many competing plans on Capitol Hill would not. As the debate goes on, disability leaders are hoping to use what political muscle they have to get their needs addressed in any health care revisions passed by Congress.

ln a morning meeting at the White House, Clinton implored a group of about 125 activists to join in his efforts to lobby Congress for an overhaul of the nation's medical system.

“This is a battle that you may be able to lead for the rest of America. You can break through to those members of Congress. You can do it," Clinton said to applause.

For Clinton, yesterday's generally congenial meeting was a refreshing turnabout from past confrontations with disabled people. While he was governor of Arkansas, demonstrators chained themselves to gates outside his office until he agreed to restore cuts in a program that provided in-home care for disabled people.

While Clinton was running for president, his San Francisco campaign headquarters was blocked for hours by dozens of wheelchair users who successfully pressured Clinton into including long-term care in his health care platform.

Capitol Hill is the battleground now.

"We've got a long way to go to get what we want, and we've got to work on the legislators to get it,” said Larry Biondi, 35, a quadriplegic from Chicago.

Biondi, who has cerebral palsy, manages with the help of a personal assistant who performs the basic tasks that enable him to live on his own.

"That's the most important thing people need," he said.

Létrehozva

Kedd 16 Július 2013

Feltöltve

Szerda 7 Augusztus 2019

Albumok

• Washington DC, Spring 1994 - A Bridge to Freedom

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