From: [log in to unmask] on behalf of [log in to unmask]
Sent: Friday, May 07, 1999 2:42 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Disabled Demand Integration and Real Choice
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
For more information, contact:
Bob Kafka: (703) 418-6800 (hotel in D.C.)
(512) 431-4085 (cell phone)
Jennifer Burnett: (717) 335-3235
(610) 781-4091 (cell phone)
Disabled Demand Integration and Real Choice
WASHINGTON, D.C.-- More than 2 million Americans are segregated from
mainstream society, not because they choose to be but because of federal
policy that sends 45 billion tax dollars through Medicaid to warehouse
them in nursing homes and other institutions.
More than one thousand disabled activists will roll into Washington D.C.
from Sunday May 9 to Thursday May 13, to change this institutional bias in
our nation's health care system. Many of them former inmates or escapees
of nursing homes, members of the national grassroots disability rights
group known as ADAPT are in Washington this week to send a message to
Congress, the White House, and the Justices of the Supreme Court that they
will no longer tolerate the institutional bias in the long term services
system.
The group is planning a series of demonstrations in the nation's capitol
starting May 10th, to demand reform of the federal Medicaid policy, and to
support the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) "integration mandate"
which has been challenged in the Supreme Court.
ADAPT is planning two days of protests, culminating in a rally on
Wednesday May 12, at which several thousand people with disabilities are
expected. The protests will center on ADAPT's legislation, known as
MiCASSA. The bill gained significant support in the 105th Congress and is
expected to be introduced in the near future.
The May 12th rally, "Don't Tread on the ADA", will be held at noon on
the grounds of the U.S. Capitol, north side at the Upper Senate Park,
followed by a march to the steps of the US Supreme Court. "The rally and
march are in support of a recently argued Georgia lawsuit heard by the
Supreme Court in April, known as Olmstead v. LC & EW," ADAPT organizer Bob
Kafka said. "We were here in April, and we are here now to continue our
battle to form a national policy which will allow people to choose where
and how they receive services."
In December, when the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case, ADAPT vowed
to mount a campaign to protect the ADA and the fundamental right of people
with disabilities to live in the community. While the Georgia lawsuit
involves people with mental disabilities, ADAPT points out that the
Supreme Court decision will have a far reaching impact on the lives of all
people with disabilities.
"This will be the defining moment for the ADA," explained Philadelphia
attorney Steve Gold. "If the Supreme Court rules in favor of Georgia, the
ADA will become a mere shell of what it is intended to be, stripping away
its major civil rights provision--integration." The high court's decision
is expected in June.
Georgia's appeal to the Supreme Court has outraged ADAPT and the entire
disability community. While 26 states have signed onto an Amicus Brief in
support of Georgia's position, pressure from the disability community has
forced all but 7 states to remove their names from the brief: Colorado,
Texas, Hawaii, Montana, Nevada, Tennessee, Wyoming.
###
--
FOR MORE INFORMATION on American Disabled for Attendant Programs Today
(ADAPT)
Please visit our website at http://www.adapt.org/
For direct inquiries regarding this press release please use the contact
information at the beginning of this message or Email [log in to unmask]
NATIONAL ADAPT MAILING LIST - Adapt MiCASA List of Adapt Organizers.
From: [log in to unmask] on behalf of [log in to unmask]
Sent: Monday, May 10, 1999 10:42 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Integration NOT Segregation!
CONTACT
Bob Liston/Marsha Katz at
(703) 418-6800, Room 226
Or (406) 239-7490 cell at site
Jennifer Burnett (717) 335-3235
Disabled Activists Say: "Integration, NOT Segregation"
Not since the days of former Alabama Governor George Wallace have states
fought so hard to prevent integration. What is different in 1999 is the
target group the states are trying to segregate is disabled and older
Americans.
Beginning today more than one thousand disability rights activists are in
Washington, D.C., this week to tell the states, Congress and the Supreme
Court, loud and clear, Integration, not Segregation!
Members of ADAPT, a national grassroots disability rights group will
engage in a series of demonstrations demanding reform of federal Medicaid
policy, and supporting the recently challenged "integration mandate" of
the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
At the center of ADAPT's civil rights campaign are one lawsuit and one
major piece of legislation. The lawsuit, Olmstead v L.C. & E.W., was
initiated by Georgia and is now awaiting a decision by the U. S. Supreme
Court. L.C. & E.W. are 2 Georgia women who sued the state to gain their
freedom from being warehoused in a state institution and won in two lower
courts. After Georgia filed its appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, it was
joined by 26 other states in an amicus brief. ADAPT efforts at the
grassroots level resulted in 19 of those states withdrawing from the
amicus, an action unprecedented in Supreme Court history. "We were
outraged by this attack on the ADA" said ADAPT organizer Stephanie Thomas,
"In this day and age no other group would be subject to the states'
efforts to remove our civil rights and deny us the freedoms enjoyed by
other Americans."
On the legislative front, ADAPT's MiCASSA, the Medicaid Community
Attendant Services & Supports Act gained significant support in the 105th
Congress and is expected to be introduced in the near future with
bipartisan sponsorship. MiCASSA would reform Medicaid long term care
policy by assuring that persons with disabilities and older Americans
could choose where and how they receive services, thus preventing their
forced segregation in institutions and nursing homes.
ADAPT will be joined on Wednesday, May 12, by several thousand people with
disabilities and supporters at a noon rally at the U. S. Capitol, followed
by a march to the U. S. Supreme Court. The rally "Don't Tread on the ADA"
is expected to draw people from all 50 states in support of the ADA,
MiCASSA, and the fundamental right of people with disabilities to live in
the community. "We'll do whatever it takes to gain and keep our freedom
and our rights," said former nursing home prisoner Leonard Roscoe. "No
state is going to tell me I have to live in a nursing home. I have as much
right as anyone to live in the community."
--
FOR MORE INFORMATION on American Disabled for Attendant Programs Today
(ADAPT)
Please visit our website at http://www.adapt.org/
For direct inquiries regarding this press release please use the contact
information at the beginning of this message or Email [log in to unmask]
NATIONAL ADAPT MAILING LIST - Adapt MiCASA List of Adapt Organizers.
From: [log in to unmask] on behalf of [log in to unmask]
Sent: Tuesday, May 11, 1999 3:08 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Disabled Activists Continue To Fight for Lives Outside Institutions
For more information, contact:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Bob Liston/Marsha Katz at
May 11, 1999 (703) 418-6800, Room 226
Or (406) 239-7490 cell at site
Jennifer Burnett (610) 781-4091
Disabled Activists Continue To Fight for Lives Outside Institutions
Changing the longstanding institutional bias in federal Medicaid policy that
currently segregates more than 2 million Americans from mainstream society
is
not an easy task. ADAPT's target today is HUD headquarters at 7th and D
Streets
SW. HUD is the key to assuring there is safe, affordable, accessible housing
so
people are not forced to remain in institutions for lack of housing in the
community. "Our first option in housing should always be in our own
community,'" said Cassie James, ADAPT organizer from Philadelphia, "Other
Americans are not being told where they can and can't live." In two separate
actions Monday, 650 members of ADAPT, a national grassroots disability
rights
organization, told the nation's state and local governments that segregation
is
not acceptable. At the National Governor's Association (NGA), 444 N.
Capitol,
85 ADAPT members were arrested by police when they occupied the NGA offices
in
protest of the NGA's siding with the state of Georgia in a lawsuit currently
being decided by the U. S. Supreme Court. The case, known as Olmstead v L.C.
&
E. W., will determine whether persons with disabilities and older persons
have
the right to receive long term care services in their community, or whether
the
states can force people into nursing homes and institutions in order to
receive
services. "This is a civil rights issue, not a states rights issue" said Bob
Kafka, an ADAPT organizer from Texas, "The Governors can't hold us hostage
and
warehouse us in state institutions and nursing homes and not expect us to
fight
back." Across town, 250 members of ADAPT took over the offices of the U.S.
Conference of Mayors, 1620 I St. NW, another governmental supporter of
Georgia's position in the Olmstead Case. Protesters left after arranging a
conference call meeting with Executive Director Tom Cochran who is out of
the
country visiting Senegal, Africa. "We don't think the mayors of America's
cities know that their organization has signed an amicus supporting
Georgia's
efforts to incarcerate people with disabilities in institutions," said
Barbara
Toomer, ADAPT organizer from Utah. "In fact, a number of ADAPT members
across
the country brought resolutions from their cities opposing Georgia's
segregation position."
###
--
FOR MORE INFORMATION on American Disabled for Attendant Programs Today
(ADAPT)
Please visit our website at http://www.adapt.org/
For direct inquiries regarding this press release please use the contact
information at the beginning of this message or Email [log in to unmask]
NATIONAL ADAPT MAILING LIST - Adapt MiCASA List of Adapt Organizers.
From: [log in to unmask] on behalf of [log in to unmask]
Sent: Thursday, May 13, 1999 4:22 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Thousands at Rally
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE For more information, contact:
May 13, 1999 Janine Bertram-Kemp:(202)342-9439
Jennifer Burnett: (717) 238-0172
Marsha Katz: (406) 829-9495
Four Thousand March with ADAPT to Supreme Court
WASHINGTON,D.C.-- Solidarity prevailed yesterday as several thousand
disability advocates joined with nearly 800 ADAPT activists on the U.S.
Capitol grounds, rallying in support of the "integration mandate" of the
Americans with Disabilities Act(ADA). Over 100 organizations co-sponsored
the
rally which was organized by ADAPT, a national disability rights group with
chapters in 39 states.
Chanting "Our homes, not nursing homes" with Senator Tom
Harkin(D--Iowa), and listening to Governor Dick Thornburgh describe the
signing of the ADA in 1990, the crowd was united in its passion to
preserve the "most integrated setting" regulation. Thirteen year old Kyle
Glozier, a longtime ADAPT activist, told the crowd, "I don't know why the
Olmstead decision has even gone to the Supreme Court".
The rally finished as disability advocates and activists took their
outrage to the steps of the Supreme Court. Marchers filed into the street
to wheel and walk the four blocks, and a magnificent wave of people, 4000
strong according to the Supreme Court police, gathered before the Supreme
Court to send a message to the justices that will decide the fate of the
ADA integration mandate.
The statement, "Integration, not Segregation", was everywhere. It was
written on t-shirts, buttons, flags, banners, signs, hats, and stickers.
The crowd became a chorus stepping up the volume, and sending a powerful
message to Congress and the Court. "Our liberty, our freedom, our right to
choice, these are fundamental rights," said national ADAPT organizer
Stephanie Thomas."If the court can't recognize these basic human rights,
we must continue the fight. Victory will be ours."
The disability community considers the lawsuit before the Supreme
Court, formally known as Olmstead v. L.C.& E.W. to be the "Brown v. Board
of Education" for people with disabilities. Far from being an alarmist
viewpoint, the fact that the Supreme Court even agreed to hear the oral
arguments brings into question the intent of Congress in passing the law.
Nearly ten years after its passage, the ADA is now being tested in
the highest court in the land, despite two U.S. Circuit Court decisions
supporting the right to services in the "most integrated setting".
Without a strong "integration mandate", the ADA will no longer be a civil
rights law. ADAPT vows to continue the "Don't Tread on the ADA" campaign,
supporting integration, not segregation and civil rights not state's
rights.
--
FOR MORE INFORMATION on American Disabled for Attendant Programs Today
(ADAPT)
Please visit our website at http://www.adapt.org/
For direct inquiries regarding this press release please use the contact
information at the beginning of this message or Email [log in to unmask]
NATIONAL ADAPT MAILING LIST - Adapt MiCASA List of Adapt Organizers.
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