Author: National ADAPT

I started to get involved in the disability rights movement (DRM) back in January of 1989.

Before joining the DRM, I was involved in the Labor movement. I spent three years as a full time volunteer with Cesar Chavez and his United Farm Workers Movement (UFW). Being with the UFW opened my eyes to the many social injustices that poor people face. I was able to witness the oppression, classism and racism that people suffer just because they are poor and have different skin colors. I spent 14 years working at a General Motors stamping plant in Chicago and was very active with the United Auto Workers. Within the autoworkers I witness racism and discrimination against women and other minorities. It was a painful struggle to have to fight not only General Motors (a giant U. S. Corporation) but also the UAW union that was supposed to be there to protect me instead of persecuting me.

Jim Charlton, a quad friend of mine that I met during my labor movement days, recruited me into the DRM. Soon after I joined the DRM in Chicago I met Rene David Luna, Mike Ervin, Larry Biondi, Ana Stonum, Paulette Patterson and Chicago ADAPT. I immediately fell in love with Chicago ADAPT. This was an ACTION group like no other! Before going to Atlanta in 1989 for my first national action, I was involved in several local actions with Chicago ADAPT; we took over several federal and local transportation offices including Greyhound, the most popular over the road bus line.

I was very excited when we first got to Atlanta; it blew my mind when I first saw hundreds of disabled folks gather at one common place to fight for one common cause: The choice and freedom to ride the bus.

I don’t remember where all of us met before the action, but what I clearly remember is people yelling and chanting when their cities or states were mentioned during roll call. I thought the roof was going to tear off its walls when ALL of us chanted in unison after the roll call. My heart beat so rapidly that I thought it was going to burst out of my chest. And with all our strength and loudest voice Rene and I led everyone in chanting: “El Pueblo Unido Jamas Sera Vencido!” I remember a young woman joining our chant with all her passion and mighty voice, she was Anita Cameron.

I remember meeting some local leaders that I continue to respect and admire very much, Eleanor Smith, Mark Johnson, Bernard Baker, Pat Puckett…I also met Wade Blank for the first time. We spent the whole day educating ourselves on the issue, which was “Accessible transportation for all! Pass the ADA now!

Our action at the Federal Building has been one of my most memorable events. I remember it was a cloudy and rainy day, security had blocked all doors but a few of us managed to get in and we immediately spread our selves out and about the building, we went around trying to open doors from the inside so that others would get inside the building, in less than an hour later more then 200 of us were inside the federal building chanting and blocking the doors with chains and chairs, trapping federal workers inside. Security tried in vain to keep the doors open by placing little wooden doorstoppers to keep the doors open. However that was a joke (we brought them home as souvenirs). When the doorstopper didn’t work, they tried to stop chair users by nailing 2x4s on front of doors that was another joke. I remember Bernard from Atlanta flying over the 2x4s in his chair.

When the wood stoppers and the 2×4 didn’t work, I remember security folks placing huge concrete planters to block us from going to other floors and hallways but our scooter and motorized chair users easily cleared them out of our way.

I remember one very angry civilian telling Rene Luna that he should be gassed, and another civilian told a policeman that he wanted to make a citizen’s arrest, and wanted Mike Ervin arrested.

Security immediately shut down elevators and shut off any access to all the upper floors trapping some of our people on different floors. Thanks to security cameras we were able to spot some of our people and got them out from other floors. The last person we found was Rene Luna, he was hiding from security on the 7th floor unaware that the feds had surrendered the building to us.

After hours of the take over, we heard that the White House (Bush Senior) had sent word not to arrest us and to let us stay the night. Federal police brought green army blankets to more then 200 of us that chose to stay the night.

Early the next day we heard the blades and the motor of a helicopter that landed near “our” building. Some suits came out to negotiate with our leaders.

Word got back to us from our leaders that the president was committed to support passage of the ADA. On July 26, 1990, now a historical date President, old man Bush signed The Americans with Disabilities Act and Title II of the ADA covers accessible transportation.

It was October 1, 1990 and the first National Action on our new issue: FREE OUR PEOPLE. No longer would activists with disabilities hold back the anger felt about our brothers and sisters being locked up in institutions, used as cash cows and forgotten. We were determined to change all that and I was there in Atlanta Georgia where we let the federal government know that there was a battle going on to redirect 1/4th of the Medicaid funding to assist people to live in there own homes. And us ADAPT Activists were the foot soldiers.

The Target was Dr. Louis Sullivan, Secretary of HHS, we were forced to take extreme measures since he ignored our phone calls and letters. Two Hundred activists, many in wheelchairs, headed to Morehouse College historically known to support civil rights of all people. Also it was where Dr. Louis Sullivan had founded a medical school when he was the College President.

ADAPT wanted President Leroy Keith to support ADAPT’s redirection demand. We explained that we need Attendants’ in the community not incarceration in Nursing homes. Oddly enough, he didn’t seem to take us seriously and all he offered was a referral to meet with the regional Director of Medicaid. This did nothing to support our position. So with 60 ADAPT members inside and about 140 surrounding the outside of the administration building, we decided not to leave. The ADAPT members on the outside sent food, battery chargers and other stuff that was needed to the people inside the building and we remained strong for 42 hours. The college staff left while we were there and were quite shocked to find us there in the morning. Now the problem really was how we get out of here!

What we decided was to try and get the students to support our position and many of us took off to the cafeteria where we could freely talk to the students. Meanwhile the ADAPT people on the outside had left early Tuesday morning to hit the Georgia Health Care Association (GHCA), which was the local nursing home lobby; pretty much making the same demands and not getting very far. In fact, they were locked out of the building, but took control by surrounding it and shouting: “Just like a nursing home, you can’t get out.” At Morehouse College some of us were working hard to convince the students to support us so we could come together again with all our folks.

Finally, after a lot of us working to convince those students that we didn’t want to destroy their college or damage its reputation. That we just want to be free to live in the community, just like most of them already did and that this could only happen if we got attendant care services into the community. A decent number of Students decided to support our position and we joined a press conference together. And off we went to join the other action.

Well, The GHCA Director Mr. Watsen refused to discuss are demands, he tried to escape with the police. As the police accompanied him to his van he found we already had it surrounded. He was forced to take a ride home with the police and ADAPT decided to withdraw.

Luckily Dr. Louis Sullivan was on a talk show. Some of our members called in with our position on what needed to happen so disabled people could get attendant services. Sullivan made it quite clear he supported states rights. I guess it was okay for us to continue as cash cows.

The last day we marched in Unity down Martin Luther King Drive to the B Russell Federal building. People Honked in support of ADAPT. Once again we found locked doors so we blocked off entrances. We were warned to get off or face arrest. It took three hours to arrest 60 of us. They brought in MARTA buses and filled them with us. The Judge did arraignments right on the bus and dropped us off at the hotel. I partied all night with my new friends.

It is amazing when you look back because we have already won a quarter of the Medicaid funding. Now all we have to do to get more then we dreamed of in the beginning: to get the Community Choice Act passed. Many people are already free because of our push. The people United cannot be defeated.

Will you be there when we win this one?

FREE OUR PEOPLE.

During the late ’80s and early ’90s, I was working on a grant project that involved posting information on an electronic bulletin board (the old BBS you may remember, pre-internet). My area on the BBS, you’ll be surprised to hear, involved information about self-directed attendant services.

Robin Stevens from Atlantis called me one day in the Winter of 1990 and said she had been reading some of my postings on the BBS and that ADAPT was focusing on this issue and that I should come to their next gathering in Baltimore. I swear she didn’t say “action”, “protest”, or “demonstration” or anything like that. Anyway, Robin and I talked for a bit and she said that the folks of ADAPT were like-minded with me and that I would like meeting everyone at the event or gathering. I agreed to come in the spring.

So in the spring, Atlantis vans came down I-70 on the way to Baltimore. We put up a banner in the hotel where they were staying and generally welcomed ADAPT with Budweiser and fellowship in Lawrence, KS. I was familiar with ADAPT and the transit actions, but I still didn’t connect that with what I would shortly be attending.

I got to Baltimore in my jeans and sport coat; I still thought it would be some sort of training or workshop. As soon as I arrived at the motel, I knew things would be different.

The motel where we were staying was set up where the doors opened out directly into the parking lot. People had their doors opened, music was boom-boxing; I think there might have been a keg…. This is where I also first met Lucy Guin.

When supper time rolled around I was in Babs and Mike’s room visiting, when I asked what would be the deal with eats, everyone through down money on the bed and we figured out communal food. It felt so warm and sharing and welcoming to a new, shy guy who didn’t know anyone.

The morning of the first day rolls out and we lined up to march…very cool, this was no conference. We get to Social Security headquarters and Wade talks with us a bit and then hands me a radio. I ask, “what do I do with this?”.

He answers, “push the button and talk when something happens.”

I was assigned to stay by the front entrance of the building. You’ve probably seen a picture of the “jail” we built there. The police marched up in parade dress uniforms, snapped on their blue gloves and came up and with their tough cop glare threatened to arrest us!

I really freaked, got on the radio: “Wade, Wade, the police are here with these weird blue gloves and they are going to arrest us.”

He said, “Great, hang in there”.

Since I was brand new, the old timers that were there kept things cool and really shared their solidarity! The police gave me two more warnings, told me we were under arrest and then preceded to turn around and march away down the hill.

During this action, they brought in bulldozers to build a road (ADAPT WAY) out of the parking lots we blocked; we “sat-in” in the middle of a major road blocking off the interstate highway and so on…Incredible!

When I got home from the action, I told my friends that this had been the greatest and coolest experience of my life and that “we have got to do this here at home”. Kansas ADAPT was born and I never looked back.

My early years with ADAPT, probably my third arrest, was in Orlando. Since AHCA (American Health Care Association) was our target and they were staying in the beautiful new Peabody hotel, that’s where ADAPT landed. I remember getting into a little push and shoving incident with one of the hotel security guards who was making sure that none of us were getting anywhere near the front door of the hotel. The pushing and shoving was definitely not a principal of “passive resistance” and I felt guilty about it even though I actually enjoyed the confrontation.

I remember a judge who appeared on a video monitor who sentenced us to five days in jail. He was obviously pissed off and knew enough about ADAPT to know that keeping us in jail might mean fewer of us to bother the Peabody’s AHCA guests. The same judge later reduced our sentence to three days, which everyone believed was influenced by the number and significant disabilities of the arrestees.

Their justice system was not equipped to handle five days with us as their guests.

I believe that there was over 100 of us arrested that day and I remember that they took us to a very large cell after we were arraigned and sentenced to five days in jail. I remember thinking at the time that this was going to be quite an experience for me since my previous arrests had rarely been longer than a few hours. I don’t remember how many cellmates that I had, probably six or eight other women. I think that all of us were wheelchair users.

Little bunk-beds with thin little mattresses lined the walls. We looked at those beds and realized that there was significant risk that we might actually leave this cell with a pressure sore. We told our officers (COs) that we would not and could not sleep on those little thin mattresses. I don’t think that they believed us at first. We figured that they must have consulted the medical staff because before bedtime that evening, a sea of egg-crate mattresses flooded the hallway as we watched from our cell.

Something that had bothered me before during other actions became even more apparent during those three days: The tendency that we have to demonize officers that are obligated to arrest us, and in this case, to provide our personal assistance. Some of my cellmates gave the officers a pretty bad time of it. I remember feeling that it was unfair to the officers who were there to do their job and most of them told us that they had not been adequately trained, and others said that they had no training for the job that they were expected to take on such tasks as: bowel and bladder care, transferring from bed to wheelchair and back again, turning and positioning us in our chairs and in those lousy little beds. I remember talking to some of my cellmates about their interaction and behavior with the officers. Some of them agreed with me; others didn’t.

One thing is for certain, it was a very stressful and harsh experience for all of us and yet it is one that I would not trade.

After awhile we were able to talk with the officers and explain about why we were protesting the American Health Care Association’s convention. We had some good conversations and gave them a crash course in ADAPT and Disability Rights. Many of them got it and promised to support our work. I know that we all learned a lot about ourselves from that experience and I am certain that the officers learned and experienced life-changing insights into our world.

Ah, Chicago! I remember that action well. Chicago is my hometown, and it was the first time in four years that I had been back since moving to Colorado.

On Sunday, a Mother’s Day action was planned, but ADAPT learned that Louis Sullivan, Secretary of Health and Human Services, was in town. We certainly weren’t going to snub the gift that the ADAPT gods had placed before us! Sullivan was in Chicago to give the commencement address to two graduating classes at the University of Illinois at Chicago Circle – which happens to be my alma mater! I was excited to be one of the 30 or so ADAPTers who made it into the UIC Pavilion. We went in undercover, which for us, meant not showing our ADAPT T-shirts. The rest of us were outside leafleting the folks who were going in for the ceremonies.

Once inside, we unfurled our huge banner that read “State Schools/Nursing Homes: Hell No We Won’t Go”. That banner hung across the stage for a while – maybe twenty-minutes or more that I can remember. Of course, the majority of us got kicked out immediately, but a few – Bob Kafka, myself, and a couple of others managed to stay inside. When Sullivan began speaking, we began chanting and disrupting his speech. I remember Bob Kafka and me scooting on our butts down the steps to try to get onto the stage, but we were picked up and booted out.

Later, when it came time for Sullivan to leave, it got tense because we were getting around the barricades that the police had set up. Every time the cops thought they had security set up, there were ADAPTers popping up around and behind their barricades. I thought Spitfire was a goner when she dove under one of those barricades and between an officer’s legs; that cop was SO mad! Eventually, Sullivan had no choice but to dash through a courtyard to his limousine. It had to have been the longest dash of his life!

The next day, we visited the regional office of HHS. Our procession was over two blocks long; it was amazing to see! Once we got there, we were met with the ubiquitous, infamous police barricades. The office part of the building was shut down, but the mall part was open. Since we couldn’t get into the office area of the building, we didn’t allow anyone else to get in either! Finally, about 20 ADAPTers got into the office area of the building and demanded a meeting with the Regional Director of Health and Human Services. Meanwhile, it was getting tense outside at the barricades, and we took a couple of street intersections.

At last, the Regional Director met with ADAPT right in the street, and heard from many of us why attendant services is so important, and why we didn’t want to be in nursing homes. After much go-around, she agreed to call Louis Sullivan to set up a meeting, but of course, he refused, as he doesn’t meet with “militants and radicals.” We then took over the entire area for the rest of the day, declaring it a nursing home; no one could come or go without ADAPT’s permission.

Tuesday, we headed over to the American Medical Association’s national headquarters. We marched down State Street, chanting loud and proud. I noticed people in the small apartments along the way leaning off their balconies, chanting with us. ADAPT hit the AMA because they wouldn’t do anything concrete to support ending the institutional bias in long-term care. When we got there, the building was closed (hmmm, I wonder why?), so ADAPT surrounded the building and declared it a nursing home.

As I was helping a new guy to block the intersection, an officer came over to stop us. The young man was spastic, and accidentally kicked the cop, who decided that since I could walk (at that time, I wasn’t using a wheelchair) and talk, that I would be arrested, instead. There were four of us busted: Rona Schnall, Arthur Campbell, Mike Auberger, and me. We were taken to jail, where we spent most of the day.

Wednesday, ADAPT went over to the State of Illinois Building. Illinois folks were facing a crisis in community-based services, which, due to budget issues, were being cut and capped. One of our demands was to meet with Gov. Edgar to urge him to expand, rather than cut services. We held a press conference outside, where local folks told their stories. We then went inside to get to the Governors office, but Security hindered us, so we took over the first floor elevators, escalators, and entrances, effectively shutting down the building. Eventually, about 20 ADAPTers made it up to the Governor’s office, some climbing 16 flights of stairs! Though Gov. Edgar was out of town, he definitely learned about what happened, and felt the power of ADAPT!

ADAPT had come to San Francisco, CA following the American Health Care Association (AHCA) on their convention schedule. They were staying at The Marriott Hotel in Downtown San Francisco. We had marched there the evening of our arrival to give them a warm reception and demanded that they meet with ADAPT and support our cause. We wanted to speak at their convention, telling them that Nursing Homes had to go. We were also chasing after Louis Sullivan, then Secretary of Health and Human Services under the administration of George HW Bush, to redirect money from nursing homes to Community Attendant Services.

They weren’t the only targets that year. 1992 was an election year. Bill Clinton and George HW Bush were running for President of the United States. With the election a mere two weeks or so away, we were trying to get both candidates to commit to working towards redirecting funds to Attendant Services. Both the Democratic and Republican headquarters were targets that week.

I was in the group outside of Republican Headquarters, which of course would not let us in. We surrounded the place, chanting and blocking the entrance to the building. People from a nearby bakery, which baked San Francisco’s signature Sour Dough Bread, not only showed their support by cheering for us but also brought us loaves of warm bread for lunch!

Not too far away, another group of ADAPTers were inside the Democratic Headquarters being served non-committal double speak and cake. Meanwhile, while fêting the ADAPTers inside, one member of the Democratic Party had scrawled HELP US-CALL THE POLICE on a sign and hung it in the window. After getting nowhere with the lip service from the Democrats, ADAPT Chanted, “Cut the cake-cut the crap! Now it’s time to face ADAPT!” I can no longer recall if we really got anything of substance that day from either party.

The following day had us paying a visit to Health and Human Services headquarters trying to get the ever-elusive Secretary Sullivan to speak with us and commit to meeting with us over the issue of redirection. It was a long siege outside of the building. The answer always seemed to be “No” and people were arrested. The police were very rough.

The last day of the Fall Action took place outside of the Marriott where AHCA was staying. We had blocked entrances and made a gauntlet for some of the conventioneers. It became evident that they would not meet with us that day and had asked the police to remove us from their sight. The San Francisco police, who had a reputation for being rough, lived up to their reputation, overturning wheelchairs and dragging folks.

I had decided that day to be arrested. I was sitting in the middle of the street and a particularly nasty officer grabbed me, dragged me up and arrested me. We were taken to a pier alongside the Bay, not far from a toppled highway overpass that had fallen during an earthquake. It looked surreal. I had the honor of being arrested with J. Quinn Brisben, the Socialist Candidate for President that year.

Now, this was the day that Erik and I had decided that we would marry each other at the end of the Action. Somehow, the word had spread to the police that Erik was getting married and one officer had asked him if he was going to be out of jail in time for the wedding.

“I hope to,” he said with a smile. Since I was in this makeshift jail with him, I joked we could have a chaplain come in and marry us. Luckily, we were out of jail in plenty of time.

A few months before the Action, we had asked Wade Blank if he would perform our wedding for us in San Francisco. We had decided on San Francisco since it was the Gay version of Mecca to all Les/Gay People. He had said, “Yes” and we were excited to be married among our community of activists.

Barbara Toomer had seen me earlier and had given me a lovely corsage of yellow roses and white baby’s breath for the wedding. She had to fly home to Utah and I was very touched.

Deciding I was not thrilled with what I brought to wear for the wedding, my best friend Su Ream from Philly and I had concocted a quick plan and fashioned a Wedding Dress (a Grecian Toga Style) out of a bed sheet, complete with veil and an ADAPT headband. Fussing and making sure that the single safety pin that we had was going to hold the dress together, we got ready and waited at the top of the Mezzanine in the Ballroom of the Ramada.

As Disability and Feminist Singer Songwriter Elaine Kolb played a song she had written for the occasion, based on the pun of gender confusion and Queer love, I descended to the shocked and gentle laughter of our people. Wade married Erik and I and along with the assistance of Cassie James, who did an old Irish Handfasting Ceremony, we were wed!

It was such a wonderful wedding to celebrate our love with our friends! Thanks to ADAPT, we had three wedding cakes and enjoyed the night, receiving congratulations from our Community!

Sadly, this was the last wedding Wade would ever perform and the last time Erik and I would see him. Still, our love endures even after 16 years of marriage, this upcoming October 21st.

The May 1993 Wheels of Freedom Action is notable for the memorial program for ADAPT co-founder Wade Blank and his young son Lincoln, who had drowned the previous February; the meeting with Donna Shalala, Secretary of Health and Human Services under President Bill Clinton; and the ongoing actions and arrests for “our homes, not nursing homes.”

Memorial Program for Wade Blank

ADAPT gathered in front of the capitol to remember Wade. Before being tapped by a nursing home administrator to recruit residents for a new youth wing, Wade had been a minister, a War on Poverty organizer, and a student of the work of Martin Luther King, Jr. At the nursing home he soon realized the young people were living under extreme oppression, and his efforts to reform the system from within were fruitless. He began moving the young people back out into the community, so the nursing home fired him. But his commitment to disability rights became lifelong, and he founded the Atlantis Community and then ADAPT.

Among those speaking in his memory were Bob Kafka, Colorado Representative Pat Schroeder (who years before had brought coffee to the first ADAPT demonstrators blocking buses in Denver), Justin Dart, Laura Hershey, Evan Kemp, Stephanie Thomas and Mike Auberger. Messengers spoke from the offices of Congressmen Major Owen, Tom Harkin and President Clinton. Elaine Kolb and Johnnie Crescendo sang. The program ended with a march to the White House where ADAPT reached through the fence to plant crosses with the names of people who had died in nursing homes. For every formal tribute to Wade and his family, there were many personal ones throughout the week. I remember Carolyn laughing and crying at the same time while telling me a sweet, funny memory from her personal friendship with Lincoln.

Meeting with Secretary Donna Shalala

ADAPT leadership met with Shalala and secured promises to advance attendant services in the new national health plan being crafted by President Clinton, with much involvement from Hillary. Shalala then appeared before all of ADAPT, promising to rebalance power away from nursing homes toward support at home. She spoke of the President’s intention to unveil a health care plan for all Americans that would be available wherever and whether they worked and would not be denied for pre-existing conditions.

“Powerful interests don’t want us to do that,” she stated. Shalala also took many questions from the floor. I remember my pride in my usually quiet friend, Nancy Moulton (now deceased), as she spoke up publicly to sharply criticize the administration’s failure to confront Oregon’s system of rationing health care. Listening to many personal stories, Shalala pledged support and asked ADAPT’s help in lobbying our Congress people to support the national health plan (From the perspective of 2008, we know that Congress, the mega-industries, and their lobbyists completely defeated the health plan).

Actions and New Coverage

ADAPT demonstrated at the White House, at the nursing home lobby headquarters, and filled the halls of the Capitol, where many were arrested. The media coverage was excellent, including TV reports that correctly stated ADAPT’s intent to rebalance the federal funds so that 25% of the Medicaid money would go to home assistance instead of institutions. Beyond local stations, CNN and World News tonight covered the actions. Marca Bristo, Mike Auberger, Karen Tamley, Justin Dart, Laura Hershey, Mark Beckworth, and John Gladstone were among those giving eloquent statements to the media.

But far from the media lights, at another action, in another year, I remember John Gladstone in jail, at 4 a.m. in front of a judge. All of us arrested, questioned one by one by the judge, routinely answered, “yes” when asked if we would now stay away from the hotel where we had been arrested. All except John, who told the judge, “No. I cannot make that promise. I once lived in a nursing home, and I will go anywhere, any, time to keep other people out.”

In fact, we spent our honeymoon not too far from Opryland in separate-but-equal cells in the Nashville prison with 100 of our ADAPT brothers and sisters.

We honeymooned in Nashville because the American Health Care Association (AHCA), the nursing home lobby, was holding its annual conference at Opryland, and ADAPT was hot on AHCA’s trail.

We were married on September 10, 1993 in Michigan, asking our friends and families to forego presents and instead donate money to our ADAPT Nashville honeymoon fund. Little did we know what an exciting and exhilarating honeymoon it would be!

On Day One of the action, 300 of us marched down Music Valley Drive to the Opryland Hotel, crossing over a busy four-lane highway to reach the entrance. We were met by hotel security that informed us they had graciously cordoned off an “official protest area” in the north 40 of their huge parking lot, and if we chose not to use that area and come onto Opryland property, we would be arrested.

Underscoring that threat were the sounds of the police helicopter continuously circling overhead like something out of the “MASH” TV series. It turned out that the Nashville police had spent thousands of dollars researching how to deal with ADAPT, and how to arrest us “sensitively.” Their advanced “surveillance tactics” included observing us by air, hoping they could get a heads up on our next move and thwart it, and assigning several plain clothes cops to mingle with us to gather intelligence.

We decided against immediately entering the Opryland grounds and facing arrest before we had a chance to deliver our message to create a national personal assistance program that would Free Our People! from being warehoused in nursing homes where corporate owners (AHCA) profited greatly by keeping them there. The security personnel and police thought their threats and air surveillance had intimidated us into retreat.

As usual, law enforcement had greatly underestimated the power and ingenuity of ADAPT!

We quickly regrouped, filled all four crosswalks, and began to cross all the streets at the Opryland Hotel entrance, effectively cutting off all traffic in every direction, including traffic trying to exit the four-lane highway. We weren’t breaking any laws, so we couldn’t be arrested. Moreover, we had created a real traffic problem for the police, so they now “had a dog in our fight” and so they pushed AHCA to come out and negotiate with us! Within two hours AHCA agreed to a meeting two days later, thinking that they had now bought Nashville two days of respite from our activism.

How wrong they were! On Day Two we decided to pay a visit to the Tennessee Capitol to confront the Governor. The Governor and legislature had persistently chosen to ignore the civil rights and personal assistance needs of Tennessee citizens with disabilities, forcing many Tennesseans to leave the state and move elsewhere so they could live in the community with personal assistance instead of lying unattended for hours in their own waste in a nursing home.

Using the two tiny elevators accessed from the Capitol basement, we ferried people up to the Governor’s office, which we found blocked by state security personnel. Again regrouping, we kept ferrying people up the elevators until we filled the halls outside the Governor’s office, trapping the Governor’s staff and security, and creating our own version of a nursing home where no one got in or out without our permission. Our chants of “The People United Will Never Be Defeated” in both English and Spanish echoed through the Capitol.

We demanded that the staff call the Governor, who was in Germany, and arrange a meeting. When staff informed us that the Governor was in the midst of dinner and couldn’t talk, we decided we might as well eat, too, and promptly ordered pizza for 300. As we enjoyed lunch, Capitol staff members were climbing in and out of windows to come and go, and the police had blocked off the streets around the Capitol, again creating enough of a problem that the Governor finally committed to a meeting when he got back to the states. We quickly held a press conference announcing that the Governor had agreed to a meeting and marched back to our hotel in time for a late dinner and a celebration of two days of action with our demands met.

Day Three began with AHCA making excuse after excuse about the meeting they had agreed to on Day One. Not accepting these lame excuses, ADAPT went to the agreed upon meeting place, a Ramada Inn across from the Opryland Hotel, only to find out that AHCA hadn’t even tried to get a meeting room. They also didn’t tell us that Opryland had offered a 250-person meeting room. It was obvious that they had lied to us and the media, and had no intention of meeting with us.

In true ADAPT fashion, we decided that if they wouldn’t honor their commitment to meet, we’d take the meeting to them. With the police helicopter flying overhead, two lines started to move quickly down the two entry drives, opening the way for a third wave to fly through the flimsy barriers that Opryland security had constructed, thinking that a simple saw horse could keep ADAPT from its objective. They had even parked a school bus so it blocked the entrance lanes to the hotel, leaving the exit lanes open, and not realizing that ADAPT had no qualms about going in the “out lanes!”

Before the hotel security had time to lock the doors to keep us out, a small handful of ADAPT activists led by Bob, got into the meeting room and started chanting and handing out flyers.

While Bob and the others were now locked in, another hundred of us had made it to the front doors, and were eventually arrested by the police and kept in a roped off area until a fleet of yellow school buses arrived to transport us to jail. Since the local jail was not accessible, we were all carted off to the local prison behind a chain-link fence topped with three rows of concertina wire. Once inside, we were separated with Bob put in the male holding room and Marsha put in the female holding room. The prison Social Worker stayed and fed us sandwiches, and allowed us to watch all the coverage of our action on TV.

A magistrate came from town and spent the night processing and booking all of us, and we were served with a restraining order that said we could not go back on Opryland property.

Dawn of Day Four found us marching back to our hotel, where the Opryland lawyer met us with a very unusual offer. Fearing we might protest at the Country Music Awards that night, they offered us a press conference with several country music stars, and never ones to avoid the bizarre….we accepted! At 5 p.m., surrounded by a ton of media, the TV cameras rolled as Bob, and Paulette Patterson, Jennifer McPhail and Mark Johnson articulated ADAPT’s demand for a national attendant services program while flanked by Porter Wagoner, Bill Anderson and William Lee Golden of the Oak Ridge Boys. After our presentation, the country stars spoke in support of freedom and independence for people with disabilities, and wore ADAPT t-shirts when they performed later that night.

We left Tennessee the next morning, exhausted and exhilarated with honeymoon memories we will never forget, and with AHCA on notice that we would see them again in 1994 at their convention in Las Vegas!

The April 1994 ADAPT action in Washington, D.C. began with a march across Memorial Bridge to the Lincoln Memorial. The National Council on Independent Living, Consortium of Citizens with Disabilities and other groups joined ADAPT as we lead 2,500 in the march, which Bob Liston later called “incredible and breathtaking.” Speakers at the rally that followed included Senator Tom Harkin, Chair of the President’s Committee on the Employment of People with Disabilities Tony Coelho, Justin Dart, ADAPT leaders Stephanie Thomas and Mike Auberger, and others. I had the unforgettable privilege of singing “Free Our People” at the Lincoln Memorial.

The Clinton plan for universal health care was on the political table that spring, and ADAPT’s focus and mission was to ensure that the plan would include our civil right to consumer directed personal assistance services and a real choice in long term care. Fifty ADAPT members as well as representatives from other disability groups were invited to the East Room of the White House, where Bill Clinton told us: “Be an agent of change, an agent of empowerment, never forget that you are carrying on your shoulders now not only your own cause, but ours as well. . . . We cannot run away from this, because we cannot afford to have everybody forced into a nursing home or living in abject neglect . . .” He told us to take our message to Congress.

Early Tuesday morning, five hundred ADAPT members began the series of Metro elevator and train rides to Capitol South, to take our message to Congressional leaders. ADAPT’s strategy began with the unprecedented step of simultaneously taking over the party headquarters of the Democratic and Republican National Committees. Our demand was a meeting with the Chairs and Co-Chairs of the key Congressional Committees addressing health care reform.

While we were still arriving at the Metro station, before splitting off toward our as yet unannounced destinations, Bob Kafka was interviewed about our issues. Bob said, “Families and individuals are in crisis…. It’s really a human and civil rights issue.” After more explanation, he said, “If we don’t get support services, the Dr. Kevorkian’s of the world will start killing us.” Kevorkian had already been acquitted two or three times, but this was before the founding of Not Dead Yet, and I was impressed by Bob’s directness.

The DNC action began with blocked doors and meetings with security, but it wasn’t long before the admission of a few led to everyone streaming into the building. When we were told that the Chair was out of town, we said that we would wait. Numerous ADAPTers began crawling up the staircase, and some went up in the elevators, but then everything was closed off to us. We demanded a meeting with Kennedy, Dingell, Rostankowski and Moynihan, but were only offered meetings with staff.

At about 3:30 p.m., Stephanie Thomas and I each took an elevator. By that time, some people were desperate for restroom accommodations, or at least some privacy to use a urinal; so two people went into my elevator while I blocked the doorway.

After four hours occupying all three floors of the DNC, ADAPT negotiated a peaceful departure based on the DNC spokesperson’s acknowledgement that meetings with Congressional staffers would not be sufficient, along with her commitment to try to set up meetings with the specific Democratic leaders on our list.

Before we left the building, Cassie James spoke to the 250 adapters at the DNC. Among other powerful remarks, Cassie made a compelling statement about the “inconvenience” we had caused that day: “The inconvenience of incarceration, this is what we’ve been facing our whole life. We have been told that we are being protected from ourselves, we have been locked in, we have been drugged when we try to get out and see a simple movie or visit a friend. Our lives have been turned around. … This inconvenience is just one day of your life.”

Back at the hotel, we learned that things at the RNC were about the same.

At the Tuesday night meeting at the ADAPT hotel, we all sang “Happy Anniversary” to Bob and Stephanie. What a way to celebrate eight years of marriage!

Wednesday morning started at 8 a.m. as people donned rain ponchos and garbage bags. On this cold and rainy day, we were taking our message to the halls of Congress, specifically the Russell and Rayburn Buildings. Congressman Dingell, Chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, offered a meeting to the 250 ADAPTers in the Rayburn contingent.

The Congressman’s initial idea of a “meeting” was that he would speak to us about working to get votes for the President’s universal health care plan. At first, it was difficult to get him to listen to our concerns. He said that “long-term care” was included. Stephanie pushed, saying, that he needed to listen to us, that we would only be there one more day, that attendant services are not “generic long-term care.” Then others spoke up for the ADAPT plan too, like LaTonya Reeves, who said, “People would not have to move all over the United States because in their home town they don’t have attendant services … I would rather move than be locked up, mistreated and my dignity taken away.”

Bob said that we’re always told there’s no money for consumer directed in-home services, but they can always find an entitlement for hospitals, nursing homes and “home health.” Mark Johnson said that the President’s plan does not draw a line in the sand and say, “It’s about people, not profits.” The applause rose up as each member made our case for reversing the institutional bias.

Next, at the Russell Building, 250 ADAPTers met with top aides for Senators Kassebaum (R-KS), Kennedy (D-MA) and Moynihan (D-NY), and secured agreements for follow up meetings back home.

I was in the group that next went to the offices of then House Minority Whip Newt Gingrich. Along with several Georgia ADAPTers, I got into his inner office, where a drawing from the home health industry was on display. At first, Gingrich was reportedly not available at all that day, but we said we would wait. Before long, he “miraculously” appeared.

A Georgia ADAPTer named James spoke about having been in a diving accident and winding up in a nursing home for ten years. He said that “home health” would not come and get him up every morning. He waited years until a slot opened up on the Georgia attendant services program that then served only fifty people, but he had now been living independently for five years. Mark Johnson estimated that 6,000 more people in Georgia needed that program. Bob Kafka explained that our position is about redirecting the funding, the “dollars follow the individual.” What a concept!

Gingrich stated agreement with our goals, and offered to take three steps. He said he would write to Republicans to be active in drafting a bill for attendant services, have a task force write to the Governors to make attendant services “the alternative of choice,” and actively support putting attendant services in whatever health care bill comes up. He strongly recommended that we get a freestanding bill in the meantime, and get co-sponsors so that it would be easier to add our bill to the bigger health care bill when the time came.

Gingrich also acknowledged that if we had not come up to see him that day, “it might not have gotten my attention.” This ultimately led to his introduction of the first MiCASA, testimony to the power of ADAPT’s direct action strategies.