Rocky Mountain News
Mon., Aud. 3, 1992

[Headline] Ex-minister gets radical for disabled

Wade Blank was talking to George Roberts, remembering the days before Roberts got arrested.

Blank is co-director of Atlantis Community, which fights for rights for the handicapped. Roberts has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair-and is an inspector for Atlantis. The two met 21 years ago, when Blank was an orderly in the nursing home where Roberts thought he would spend the rest of his life.

"I remember back when I first met you, I didn't think I'd ever get in trouble. I've been arrested 32 times in protests since then," Roberts said.

"George," Blank said, "I always did have faith in you."

Last week, Denver installed a plaque on the 14th anniversary of a demonstration by Atlantis members, demanding wheelchair access on all RTD buses.

It also marked the day the second stage of the American Disabilities Act went into effect, prohibiting employers from discriminating against the handicapped.

Blank, 51, grew up in Canton, Ohio, went to an all-white high school and college, and supported Barry Goldwater and Richard Nixon. A black college roommate dared him to go to Selma, Ala., to march with Martin Luther King Jr.

Blank became pastor of a church in Kent, Ohio, which became an underground meeting place for the Students for a Democratic Society. After he Kent State killings, he went back to McCormick Theological Seminary and got a masters degree. He moved to Denver and worked as an orderly in a nursing house

Roberts had a job counting fish hooks for 10 [cents] an hour. Someone was stealing televisions, so Blank asked him to be a night watchman. A couple of nights later, Roberts pinned the burglar against a wall with his wheelchair.

Blank helped residents of nursing homes find apartments and co-founded Atlantis to help them.

Atlantis helped fight for the disabilities act. It also has organized sit-ins around the country, disrupting meetings and closing down government buildings.

"You'll find that my bitterest enemies are disabled people, because I'm able-bodied and I'm so radical," he said. "I fight the notion they should just be Jerry's kids. I want them to have control."

Roberts is married and owns a home. "I couldn't have done it without Wade and Atlantis," he said.

"Yes," Blank said. "You could have. You just might not have known it."

[image]
[image caption] Blank

Created on

बुधवार 24 जुलाय 2013

Posted on

बुधवार 9 ऑक्टोबर 2019

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• Wade Blank - Founder of Atlantis Co-Founder of ADAPT

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