I was there . . .
Babs Johnson
New Orleans, 2002
Babs Johnson reads her narrative.
THE VIRTUAL ACTION NEW ORLEANS OCT. 2002
The hotel was booked. It was the Radisson Hotel behind the Super Dome. It was a
funky old hotel on Canal St. The elevators had a mind of their own and would
take you where they wanted to go! The airline tickets were bought. The t-shirts,
the banner, the Mardi Gras beads, and the doubloons (wooden nickels) and the
umbrellas for a New Orleans style funeral march were all bought and ready to go.
The trailer was packed.
It was the week before and Bob and Stephanie were in New Orleans. They had
scoped out the possible targets. They were Senator’s offices, the Federal
Building, and the Convention Center where the American Health Care Association
was holding their convention was four to six blocks away. That was the huge
center that we saw on the news for the people from Katrina. Bob and Steph were
concerned about how close we would be to the French Quarter. The Protection and
Advocacy and AARP were ready to help us. They had already begun filing an
Olmstead suit.
The press was primed. The first article was in the newspaper. ADAPT to Confront
Health Care Lobby in New Orleans, “Our Homes Not Nursing Homes” -
What do you do if you are the “little guy,” a disabled or older American,
getting trampled by corporate greed and possible fiscal mismanagement? If your
name is ADAPT, you fight back!
ADAPT, the national grassroots, disability rights group, will be in New Orleans,
October 5 - 10, to confront the American Health Care Association (AHCA) the
nursing home lobby, on its continued opposition to “Community First” for
Americans with disabilities, young and old.
“Community First” is the rallying cry of 50 million Americans, old and young,
who don’t want to be forced into nursing homes and other institutions when they
could receive the same long term care services and supports in their own homes,
in their own communities …
“Once again, AHCA is asking Congress to throw money at a problem that begs a far
different solution. Did the nursing home industry make a bunch of bad
investments with our tax dollars?” Asks Stephanie Thomas, a National Organizer
for ADAPT. “Did owners pocket too much as profit? Are they now asking Congress
for a corporate bailout? We’d sure like to know why Congress would even think
about rewarding possible nursing home industry mismanagement by throwing good
money after bad. This is corporate welfare at work.”
While in New Orleans, in addition to holding AHCA accountable for its opposition
to “Community First”, ADAPT will be promoting MiCASSA, bi-partisan legislation
now in Congress (S.1298 and HR3612), which reforms federal Medicaid policy to
allow all Americans in need of long term care services to choose to receive
those services in their own homes. ADAPT will challenge AHCA to support MiCASSA
and give people with disabilities, older Americans and families a real choice in
long term services and supports.
There had already been one hurricane that had come. Now the weather forecast was
predicting a worse one for New Orleans. The hotel elevator cables are in the
basement. If it flooded the elevators would be the first to go. In fact that
could be why they had a mind of their own already! The heads of the hotel met
with Bob and Steph. They said that their own families were leaving town. They
did not think it was safe for ADAPT to come. They assured Bob and Steph that
none of us would lose any money. We had a national emergency conference call. It
was decided to cancel the action for the first time in our history.
Bob and Steph packed up immediately and began to drive out of town. All of the
roads coming into town were closed. Everyone was being routed out. All of the
exits were closed. It was just a good thing that they had enough gas. They drove
about 100 miles with seeing nothing but fields of water, but finally made it
back to Austin safe and sound.