Hi Everyone,

The FDR Memorial hearings went very well.  All of the e-mail letters were of
tremendous help.  All told, there were 300plus e-mail comments sent to the
FDR Memorial Committee in the past 9 days!  Great work, grassroots!  YOU
have POWER! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Approximately 30 people spoke at the hearings, including Senator Harkin and
Justin Dart (who was too ill to come in person, but who spoke via a letter
read by Jim Dickson).  Representatives from several states testified, and a
number of disability organizations sent spokespersons.  These included
United Cerebral Palsy Association, The End Dependence Center of Northern
Virginia, Justice for All, The National Organization on Disability, Disabled
Sports, USA, Americans with Disabilities Vote, The Association of
Independent Living Centers in New York, Inc., The National Council on
Disability, and more.  I promise to write a more detailed synopsis of the
FDR Memorial hearings tomorrow.  I should have a better list of those who
testified, possibly the text of the testimony, and hopefully some thoughts
from FDR Memorial Committee members.  Right now, I hope this will suffice.

You will find, posted below, an AP report.  More to come.  (By the way, if
you catch any photos in the news of *really* cute kids testifying.... those
are MINE! :D )

Jill Jacobs
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Disabled Ask for Statue of Roosevelt in Wheelchair

By Lawrence L. Knutson
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The government should honor Franklin D. Roosevelt anew,
this time
with a statue in the wheelchair he used for all his years in office,
representatives of the disabled said Monday.

Armed with a new law requiring that the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial
near the Potomac River recognize the president's disability, witnesses made
their wishes known at a public hearing called by the National Park Service.

The park service will attempt to reach a consensus on just how the law
should be carried out.

But the witnesses repeatedly said a statue to "Roosevelt-in-a-wheelchair"
should be central to the memorial and not a throwaway gesture that could be
ignored at will.

Witnesses, rolling on wheelchairs, using guidedogs and canes, or testifying
through sign language interpreters, also stressed that a new statue would
serve as an inspiration to a legion of disabled Americans.

"It should be a reminder to all that disability is a natural part of the
human experience and that it in no way diminishes a person's ability to
contribute to all parts of American life," said Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa.

"I think a statue portraying Franklin Roosevelt using his wheelchair would
not be a statue to disability in any way," said Harkin who helped write the
new law and who is a co-sponsor of the Americans with Disabilities Act. "It
would be a statue to the indomitable human spirit that never gives up, that
is always optimistic."

Harkin said he envisions a wheelchair-riding Roosevelt statue "at eye level,
with that great smile on his face and with the chin thrust up."

In a letter read for him by another disabled person, Justin Dart, a leader
of the "Roosevelt-in-a-wheelchair" movement said that a decision to depict
the 32nd president's disability in a mural or base relief instead of a
free-standing central statue would be "neither sufficient or acceptable."

"A statue will make an impression, it will inspire the able bodied and the
disabled alike," said Dart, who uses a wheelchair but who was unable to be
present in person because of illness. Dart led a group of disabled people at
the Roosevelt memorial when it was dedicated last May.

Lawrence Halprin, the designer of the memorial as it stands, told a reporter
he is not opposed to inserting a recognition of Roosevelt's disability.

"The word `statue' is not determined yet. But I'm not opposed to doing
something," he said.

Roosevelt, who never again walked unaided after contracting polio in 1921,
did not allow himself to be photographed in a wheelchair and few such
photographs exist.

The seven-acre memorial at the Tidal Basin is in the form of four outdoor
rooms, each portraying an aspect of the Roosevelt presidency.