I’m supposed to be a Combat Reporter …
SUNDAY-I came dressed Combat Ready… as it was 1998. I wasn’t even using my chair yet. We were in Memphis, with reactionaries in control. I forget the name of the hotel, but as a radical Civil Rights Protester down in the Deep South. The first day was orientation, a new people’ meeting, a legal meeting, etc…
ADAPT visited the worse nursing home in the worst state. We were there to say we care and left flowers for people trapped inside. The nursing home administration was afraid of us; they had surrounded the nursing home with a bright orange construction fence. Although the fence was to keep us out, it stood for how much the nursing home industry wanted to keep people in.
MANIC MONDAY-we really did our thing. What I remember is we had a typical “Berkeley sit-in” at the Tennessee governor’s office with the “Ten Worse States for Community Service.” Pennsylvania, I’m sad to say, got a Dishonorable Mention. We took over the building and all the elevators. I made it all the way up to the governor’s office and I sat in the CEO’s desk with the “report card.” Then we blasted the room and halls with our famous chants, like: “BUSSINESS AS USUAL, IT AIN’T GONNA’ HAPPEN!” I of course had to do a “HELL NO! WE WON’T GO!” and “6, 5, 4, 3, THIS AIN’T NAZI GERMANY!”
When the Fuzz came, the chant “WE’D RATHER GO TO JAIL THAN TO DIE IN A NURSING HOME” rang out, and I gave my wildcat “NOW” at the end just to irritate them. The bureaucrats were really insulted because we wouldn’t MOVE AN INCH.
We did have a lot of media, which embarrassed them greatly. “I’D RATHER GO TO JAIL THAN DIE IN A NURSING HOME”- YOU MEAN DEATH CAMP! – I’m Jewish – I QUALIFY!
TUESDAY-Here’s the main report – we were in the plaza waiting for negotiations all day, while we were strung along – the one thing I clearly remember, is that we were exhausted, though we got A LOT of press this day.
WEDNESDAY – We marched to the Federal Building. We blocked them all in because Tennessee is bad, but other places like Pennsylvania need to get the message.
I think that the “bomb scare” at the end in the early evening was just a ploy to make us leave, as we couldn’t be sure if it was real or not. We left, BUT WE EMBARRASSED THE SHIT OUT OF THEM!
I GOT TO MORTIFY MY SISTER-have you ever heard of a Jew working at Auschwitz? MY SISTER WORKS AT A NURSING HOME-AND THEY FIRED HER BECAUSE SHE HAS A RELATIVE IN ADAPT!
NEVER SURRENDER, NEVER AGAIN!