ADAPT Sets CNN Straight on CCA;
Moves Civil Rights Enforcement Forward in Southeast
This post is written in memory of and tribute to Illinois disability rights activist Lester Pritchard, who passed away on Monday, October 12. Lester supported and admired ADAPT, and attended our Chicago National Action in 2007. He fought to close state institutions that abused our brothers and sisters. For Lester Pritchard, and from all of us: FREE OUR PEOPLE!
All week, our action was covered by various media outlets around Atlanta and the nation, but the elephant in the room remained our building neighbor: CNN. Although our action has been taking place right in CNN’s backyard, we had not gotten one inch of coverage on our issues.
In fact, back on August 19, CNN medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta ran a report on health care reform and disability. He referred to the Community Choice Act (CCA) as a bill that would improve access to hospitals. As any disability activist knows, that’s dead wrong. CCA is about improving access to living in the community for people who receive Medicaid. ADAPTers wrote to Dr. Gupta to make an on-air correction, but he failed to respond.
We felt this was just part of the pattern of the major national media failing to cover what 700 supporting organizations know to be true: that we need a bill like the CCA to remove the institutional bias. It is clear that the media plays a significant role in shaping American politics and public policy. We understand that if we want to change public policy, we need the media to understand this issue and call for change. So, ADAPT decided it was time to make Dr. Gupta and CNN pay attention.
At just before 10 am this morning, hundreds of ADAPTers flowed out of our hotel and around the block to the CNN main entrance, where we dashed in and quickly took control of the CNN entrance. Once again, we surprised security, whose response was to shove back the flow of ADAPTers. One Philadelphia ADAPTer was pushed so hard by security that he fell out of his chair. However, CNN security’s efforts to turn us back were fruitless. Our chants could be heard throughout the complex.
A CNN cameraman immediately arrived upon the scene and began filming the action. A barricade was erected between the CNN lobby and the rest of the complex. A CNN staff woman came down to find out what we wanted and took the demands back up to the main office. Very quickly, David Vigilante, CNN VP for Legal and Turner Worldwide, the police, and other staff checked in with Bruce Darling to get a further update on what we wanted.
Here is what we asked:
- That Dr. Sanjay Gupta and his colleagues at CNN meet with ADAPT to learn about the institutional bias, the Community Choice Act (S683/HR1670), and consumer-directed/community-based alternatives to institutionalization;
- That Dr. Gupta correct his inaccurate report about the Community Choice Act;
- That Dr. Gupta and his colleagues at CNN acknowledge in their reporting that there are disability rights and civil rights issues embedded within healthcare issues;
- That Dr. Gupta and his colleagues at CNN report about the efforts of the disability community to eliminate the institutional bias and give people a REAL CHOICE in how and where they receive long term services and supports; and
- That Dr. Gupta and his colleagues at CNN report about community-based and consumer-directed models of assistance that are more cost-effective and give seniors and people with disabilities real control over their lives.
Soon afterwards, a team of ADAPTers went upstairs to meet with CNN about this list, because they were unfamiliar with the issue since Dr. Gupta had failed to talk about it. After about an hour, Vigilante came down to announce that CNN was airing footage about our action and that they would explore ways to do a story on our demands. CNN was particularly interested in our having framed community choice as a civil right and not just a health care issue. They were provided with a list of ADAPTers who could help them develop such a story. Winning the cooperation of CNN is a terrific success!
In addition, the Twitter stream called for people around the country to call and email Dr. Gupta to let him know how important community choice is. Thanks so much to folks who could help us do this!
Once we finished with CNN, we ALL went over to the Sam Nunn building for a meeting with the department of Health and Human Services, office of Civil Rights (HHS OCR) meeting. A team of about 10 people went up to meet with Roosevelt Freeman, regional director for HHS OCR in the Southeast. The team that met with Freeman included Georgians, ADAPTers, and a member of NCIL’s board from Alabama, Theresa Benefield. The other 300 or so of us waited outside in the drizzle, singing songs and passing the time till we could get a report back. A row of police blocked the front door of the Sam Nunn, just in case we got it in our heads to burst into the building again. Atlanta’s ABC channel came out to do a story on us to run later in the day.
The negotiating team finally returned with the good news that OCR was open to systemic improvements in reporting and investigating Olmstead compliance in the 8 states comprising the Southeast region, and that the work done in the Southeast would be shared with the other OCR offices for HHS across the country, to work to ensure Olmstead compliance everywhere. OCR was especially interested in investigating systemic complaints as opposed to individual complaints so as to benefit more people.
After the good news about the meeting, Mike Oxford asked us how to spell “power”…and we responded once again, so it bounced off the skyscraper walls: A-D-A-P-T! Then we headed back to our hotel to rest up and celebrate a terrific week of action in the South!