Linda Anthony

Monday, September 19, 2005

Every once in a while in this lifetime you get to be part of something that you know is great, especially when it is happening, but when you think about it later you realize it is actually phenomenal. 

Like 400 other people last week I was preparing, once again for a trip to Washington DC to be a soldier for justice. ADAPT has stalked the bureaucracy that holds us prisoners for seven years in pursuit of passage of legislation that will give every American the right to live and thrive in their own homes and communities. We come to DC because the presence of 400 to 500 people some with disabilities, some without, but all with the same resolve has proven to be the best lobby for change.

The legislation is MiCASSA and Money Follows the Person. The last seven years has been an ongoing push for passage of this legislation because the people that can make it happen are here. Key leadership in Congress have long ignored requests to co-sponsor MiCASSA and so ADAPT has come to DC on this day to let them know that they can either help our struggle or live with the consequences. ADAPT will make the bureaucrats face the people they are ignoring. The people have come to them.

Today ADAPT members went to the offices of Representatives Joe Barton, Nancy Polsi, Tom Delay and Dennis Hastert. Other ADAPT members went simultaneously to the offices of Senators Bill Frist, Chuck Grassley and Harry Reid. ADAPT was not there for another meeting and they weren’t there for more empty statements about how these legislative members support our cause but just cannot cosponsor the legislation. Enough is enough. 

Every day MiCASSA and Money Follows the Person are not in place, more and more people will be sentenced to a nursing home. Without the legislation more and more will not live free but will die in an isolated, lonely place, surrounded by strangers in a nursing home. ADAPT members won’t tolerate these injustices and they are here to say sign on, or we won’t go.

All seven said once again that they would not sign on and 104 members of ADAPT were arrested.

I was at Rep. Joe Barton’s office and within minutes after stating he would not cosponsor MiCASSA, his staff told police they wanted “these people” arrested and that is what they did.

As they so often do, they first arrested those who were not in wheelchairs. I guess they think that those in wheelchairs would then give up the fight; only they couldn’t have been farther from the truth. After hauling away 19 of our brothers and sisters, those of us who remained in the hallway went to the third floor of the Rayburn Building where we joined about 30 other brothers and sisters outside the office of Rep. Nancy Pelosi.

Very soon after we arrived, the police began bringing out those who were inside Nancy’s office. As they hauled activists out of the room, they all passed a gauntlet of reassuring ADAPT members, which now lined the entire hallway all were singing the song, “We who believe in freedom will not rest till MiCASSA’s passed.”

Those who were not arrested moved outside the Rayburn building onto the horseshoe driveway that encases the accessible entrance. We settled in for word of when our people would be set free. After an hour or so, we learned that the processing of arrestees could take as long as 6 – 12 hours, we decided to return to the hotel because we had a whole three days to continue our fight.

Back at the hotel, people began the wait for arrestees but none were released until after 3:00 am the next morning. Those who were able, remained awake and waited for the arrestees to be released and transported back by ADAPT. Those at the hotel cheered, chanted and sang as members who were arrested disembarked from vehicles.

As they continued to trickle back from 3 to 6 am when the last were finally released, they grabbed a quick bite of what soon became cold pizza in the courtyard of the hotel.

It was 6:30 am and a leadership meeting was scheduled for 8:00 am. Arrestees and those who were able to say awake to greet them remained in the courtyard and lobby to await the 8:00 meeting. Congressional members might think of the disabled as weak, needing to be cared for, but they could not be more wrong. Police may think that keeping us awake all night long would stop us from doing anything the next day, but it only serves to strengthen our resolve.

And so, at 10:00 am the next day, a day that had begun at 6:00 am the day before, 400 ADAPT members were in line in front of the hotel, ready to march to the next target that refuses to “Free Our People!”

- Linda Anthony