ILRU ON-LINE PRESENTS

From Liberty Bell to Capitol Hill: The MiCASSA Free Our People Rally

Washington, D.C. September 17, 2003

This is the transcript of the Free Our People rally which was audio streamed live over the ILRU Web site. You will note that speakers were not always identified and that portions of the audio were inaudible. The audio was captured by a cellular telephone held close to the primary microphone on stage, transmitted to the ILRU studio, and played over our Web site with captioning. For the audio, go to: www.ilru.org/on-line/archive/2003/0917micassa.html.

[NOTE: This Webcast was sponsored by staff of the ILRU Program in memory of Earl Walden and Lea Marek, beloved co-workers who believed in and worked for the rights of people with disabilities to live independently in their communities and to participate fully in society.]

Index of Speakers:

Text only version of the ILRU webcast transcript. 
Lex Freidan – Introduction of the ILRU webcast.
Bob Kafka – Bob Kafka acts as Master of Ceremonies and introduces most speakers.
Bob Liston - Free Our People March Co-chair.
Cecil Walker – Kansas Free Our People Marcher and Organizer.
Attendants – Marvin Little.
Frank Lozano – Marcher from El Paso, Texas. ADAPT member for 20 years.
John Gladstone – Marcher from Austin, Texas.
Barbara Toomer – Marcher from Salt Lake City, Utah. ADAPT member for 20 years.
Elaine Kolb – Singer.
Rep. John Shimkus - U.S. House.
Rep. Danny Davis - U.S. House.
Rep. Dennis Moore - U.S. House.
Sen. Tom Harkin - U.S. Senate.
Cheryl Hampson – Singer.
Sen. Arlen Spector - U.S. Senate.
Sen. Tom Harkin - U.S. Senate.
Johnny Crescendo – Singer.
Yoshiko Dart - Featured Advocate.
Stephanie Thomas – Speaks for ADAPT.
Lex Freidan – End of audio connection and webcast.

LEX: Hi, everybody, this is Lex Frieden from ILRU and we are looking forward to the arrival of the marchers in Washington at the Capitol. They are a few minutes away, so this program will come to you live as soon as we have folks on the stage, and we'll be back on line here shortly as soon as the introductions begin. Please stay tuned.

LEX: Good afternoon. This is Lex Frieden from ILRU and I want to welcome everyone to this Webcast of the Capitol Hill rally for attendant services for people with disabilities.

We will be bringing you this live webcast with the cooperation of our colleagues in Houston and in Washington D. C. The program in Washington will begin shortly, as soon as the marchers arrive. They have been marching for the last two weeks and covered many miles in their journey to Washington.

This afternoon there will be approximately a one and one-half hour program which will include speeches by a number of members of Congress, from the Senate and the House of Representatives, as well as representatives of public and private organizations.

Some of the marchers will be speaking to the crowd. The objective obviously is to raise the public's attention to the issues pertaining to personal assistant services for people with disabilities, and many people will be talking about a particularly important legislative proposal that is currently on the congressional agenda, that is MiCASSA. 

MiCASSA is a legislative proposal that aims to insure improvements in the Medicaid system. If passed, it would help to provide additional personal assistance to people with disabilities, and mainly to ensure that alternatives exist for people to have personal assistant services in their own homes as opposed to strictly being required to stay in nursing homes if they do need public assistance with attendant services.

There are many other ramifications of the legislation and we would encourage you to study it, as well as additional legislation that may be introduced.

I understand that the marchers are approaching Capitol Hill now. We will begin the live broadcast shortly. Bob Kafka is already in front of the podium, somewhat ahead of the other marchers that are making their way through Washington D. C. They started in Philadelphia two weeks ago. Please stay tuned.

LEX: We are connected now, live to the podium in Washington. The marchers are arriving now. ILRU is very happy to provide this live connection. We apologize for any difficulty caused by the technical nature of our connection.

We are currently on line live at the podium in Washington at the MiCASSA Free Our People rally. You may hear the music from the stage in the background. We understand that Bob Kafka will be addressing the crowd momentarily.

Return to the Index of Speakers.

(Cheers and Applause)

(Music playing)

(Cheers and Applause)

BOB KAFKA: The Liberty Bell March. There are 300 people (Inaudible) up on the stage. (Inaudible).

The free our people march up here on the stage. These are our people. Free our people. Free our people.

(Crowd Chanting)

Free our people! Free our people! Free our people! Free our people march rally, co-chaired by two people. 

(Inaudible).

Bob is originally from Montana though he didn't march from Montana. Anybody from Michigan here? Wyoming? Okay, here is Bob, the co-chair of the free our people march.

Return to the Index of Speakers.

BOB LISTON: Welcome to D. C. 215 brave people put their lives on the line to march from Philadelphia, the Liberty Bell to Capitol Hill to set our people free.

(Cheers and Applause)

We have made it to D. C. to set our people free. (Inaudible) I didn't know I would know 215 people. I love each and every one of them. As Bob said, I come from Montana. We have a community of over 200 people. In Montana, that's a metropolitan area. This metropolitan area flew (Inaudible) miles a day for 144 miles to free our people.

(Cheers and Applause)

We traveled with cots. We traveled with tents. We traveled with porta-johns. It wasn't an easy march. A lot of us went through stuff that we've never gone through before. Some of us probably went through things that we have gone through before in nursing homes and institutions. And the reason we made this march is that we know that no matter what we did, no matter what we had to put up with, there is 1.7 million people living in nursing homes in squalor, in hell holes that deserve to be in their own home with their own supports and services.

(Cheers and Applause).

No matter what we put up with, no matter what the trials and tribulations, the bickering that every family goes through, it's nothing compared to the people who live in institutions. The 300,000 people who live in institutions on a daily basis go through. We must help MiCASSA to free our people.

I just want to thank, Bob said I was the co-chair of this march committee. I was also the co-chair of brothers and sisters, the 215 beautiful people. And it was an incredible journey. The journey is not over. It's not over until the capitol and this administration pass MiCASSA. Thank you.

(Cheers and Applause)

Return to the Index of Speakers.

Thank you, Bob. You know, traveling (Inaudible) with 215 people, we had to move a city every day, and one of the key people of tearing down and setting up that city is Cecil Walker from Kansas.

(Cheers and Applause)

I just want to say you guys need to pass MiCASSA. Because I had an accident back in 1996 and I ended up in a hospital for many, many, many days and then they put me in a rehabilitation hospital, but all it was a damn nursing home. So we need people out of nursing homes to live in the community. Pass MiCASSA to free our people!

Return to the Index of Speakers.

Thank you, Cecil. You know, they say an Army travels on its stomach. Not this Army, we need personal attendants and we have people who really (Inaudible).

(Cheers and Applause)

We had a good time getting here. It was hard and (Inaudible) with the attendant services, the cooking, the breaking down and setting up (Inaudible).

We enjoyed it and we also (Inaudible) and they don't have to wonder where their next meal is coming from. So we're here and we're glad to be here.

I'd like to give thanks to one person who has been a trooper all the way. And (Inaudible) from Atlanta.

(Cheers and Applause)

Return to the Index of Speakers.

Thank you, guys. And Nancy was the spirit behind this whole thing and really helped all of us with that. 

You know, MiCASSA is a bill that sometimes doesn't only help people in wheelchairs, but one of the things that holds true as many of you in the crowd knows, that this is of course a disability cooperative effort. From El Paso, Texas, Frank (Inaudible).

Frank: (Inaudible). (Cheers and Applause) Our demonstration was designed to change first the self-image of people with disabilities from that of helpless cripple. (Inaudible) all the way to powerful, important participants in our community. Besides experience and knowledge of I was to bring about social change, we designed access (Inaudible) but also believing, and today we are there. (Inaudible). We're breaking the chains of fear. (Inaudible).

Return to the Index of Speakers.

Thank you. I've been involved for almost 20 years with ADAPT, and you know, one of the first persons I met who really kind of really taught me about being a person with a disability, but not growing up with a disability and not being warehoused myself, somebody that really, I think, really represented the spirit I think many people have been in institutions, many people have but somebody who I think has a lot of grit, guts and I think represents our whole movement is John Gladstone.

We made it. (Inaudible). We're going to pass MiCASSA and I love a ADAPT. (Inaudible). We're going to pass MiCASSA. (Inaudible). He's been a good friend of mine for years. I love him like a brother, and (Inaudible). We have to march on now to pass MiCASSA and we will fight until we get it! (Inaudible). 

(Cheers and Applause)

We will we will do whatever it takes and I'm going to be with you. (Inaudible).

Return to the Index of Speakers.

The last speaker representing the Free Our People Marchers is somebody all of us calls grandma. (Inaudible) also she's a community organizer for most of her life. She really represents what I call the true cross disability but (Inaudible) the movement we are all a part of. Here is Barb Toomer from Salt Lake City.

Wade Blank invited me to come to Denver to work with the public Transit Authority on account of the fact that they were resisting lifts on buses. There were about 15 of us that spoke at their convention. We had 15 minutes. And we talked about the fact that ADAPT had one goal and that was transportation for people with disabilities.

We wanted lifts on those buses. We won that in 1990 with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

And then it dawned on us then it dawned on us that in 1990, we had to get people out to use that transportation that we had fought so hard for, and since then we have appealed to two presidents, Housing and Urban Development, Health and Human Services, the Department of Justice, and Congress to pass MiCASSA.

They still haven't done it.

In desperation, we went on this march of 144 miles from the city of Liberty to the Congress who can give us our Liberty, and we march for several reasons. Each individual has their own reasons.

Mine is I'm over 70. I'm getting closer to that nursing home day by day. But I'm not only marching for myself. I march for all my brothers and sisters and all my grandchildren, since you seem to all call me sergeant grandma. So everybody I march for them because they need to close the doors of those institutions.

(Cheers and Applause)

If we pass MiCASSA, it means that we will no longer have fear. We will not have to make promises to our mothers that the children will have to break that the mothers will never go into a nursing home. We will rid ourselves of that fear. We will rid ourselves of the fear that if a child has a disability, it will be thrown into an institution, because that's the only place that he can be taken care of, and boy, do they take care of them. They make a mess out of them just because of the lack of support.

We will have no more families split you up because either a husband or wife becomes disabled and there is no one there in the home to give them the supports they need because somebody needs to work. We want what everyone else has. We want the right to live our lives and live our lives in freedom.

Pass MiCASSA now!

(Cheers and Applause)

Return to the Index of Speakers.

You hear us over there in the capitol? (Inaudible). Pass MiCASSA now! Pass MiCASSA now! One of the things that (Inaudible) is the music. (Inaudible) the new movement music was Elaine from Georgia.

You know, Bob, when we met I was from Georgia. That's a fact. Way back in 1987 when I went to my first ADAPT demonstration in San Francisco, I met a woman, fell in love and moved to Connecticut. We're here because we are the people, too. 

(singing) We are the people. Some call us disabled, while some call us (Inaudible), sometimes we are cursed. Some don't want to feel, but we won't go away. We know that our (Inaudible), deep down inside. Because we are the people. (Inaudible).

We fight for our rights now, we make our own way. And, yes, we're disabled and we're abled to grow. We are willing to live (Inaudible) the best way we know. For ages we've suffered all over this (Inaudible), and many have questions what our lives are worth. Well, now we have the answers to what we're about. We're silent no more, don't lock the door, we're coming out. (Cheers and Applause) Because we are the people, we (Inaudible) each day. We fight for our rights now, we make our own way.

Oh, yes, we're disabled, (Inaudible). We are determined to live the best way we know. (Cheers and Applause) We fight segregation in our cities and schools. We resist (Inaudible) and we're changing our rules. We look to the future as we build our (Inaudible). We won't compromise until we're free at last. Because we are the people. We struggle each day. We fight for our rights now, we make our own way. Oh, yes, we're disabled. We're able to grow. (Inaudible) we're determined to live the best way we know.

(Cheers and Applause) Let's hear it for Elaine. (Cheers and Applause)

Return to the Index of Speakers.

MiCASSA (Inaudible) representative Danny Davis from Illinois, representative (Inaudible) from Illinois, the Democrats and Republicans working together. (Inaudible).

We're coming up together because we're a team. (Inaudible). From the Liberty Bell to what we call the statue of freedom which is on top of the dome. Now, from the Liberty Bell which signifies freedom to the statue of freedom, the top of the dome, but we know that there is one community that is not free, right? And that's why we're here today. 

Now, 40 years ago I think we celebrated the great (Inaudible) Martin Luther King who spoke about his dreams. And all the country was touched by that, and we changed our goals. We changed our laws. 

We still have work to do, but we know that there are is another group that's not totally free because there is one simple premise, money is the (Inaudible). Only then only then will we have a totally free society from people to be all they can be, to be individuals, to be really additive to the strength and fiber of this community to be one and one nation under God. 

You may have to have this march now and you may need to have this march next year, but keep marching, keep marching, get the crowds bigger and we'll keep working on our colleagues to pass MiCASSA now. Now two years from now, but now (Inaudible). Here is my good buddy from the Chicago area, Danny Davis.

(Cheers and Applause)

Return to the Index of Speakers.

Thank you very much, and I can say it's a great day for a march, it's a great day for a rally, and it's a great day to see all of you in your capitol, Washington, the District of Columbia, coming to tell your government what it needs to do. (Cheers and Applause) (Inaudible).

We've also been joined by representative Dennis Moore who is not only going to talk, but he's also going to play. Not every Congressman can play a guitar and sing a song, too, but let me tell you, not every citizen is willing to do what you've done. 

There is not every citizen who is willing to put your body in the street, to put your feet and your chairs on the line to march all of the way from where you've come to where you are, but the marching is only a part of it. I want you also to march with us forward to the halls of the House and forward to the halls of the Senate and continue to talk to our colleagues to make them understand what John, Dennis and I understand, that there is nothing more important to people than the dignity of being able to live and care for them and to live self-sufficient. This program may be long, it may be hard, but don't worry about the struggle because as long as you are willing to struggle, you can guarantee that there will be a victory. Victory will be ours!

(Cheers and Applause) 

Return to the Index of Speakers.

Good afternoon. Good afternoon. Let's hear it for MiCASSA. (Cheers and Applause)

(Inaudible) are all here, we believe as you do that people should have choices and options and not be institutionalized. In terms of all proficiency, in terms of human dignity, this is the only way to go. 

If you can live at home and in your community, you're going to be much happier, more productive and you're going to be more cost efficient, your care will be more cost efficient and you should have those choices and those options. And we want to see that happen. 

We have 81 cosponsors in the House of Representatives right now. It takes 218 to pass a bill. I suspect a lot of this is not opposition to the bill, it's because people simply don't know. You contact your members of Congress, your House members and your senators. Tell them how important this is to you and we can make this happen. Let's make this happen together! (Cheers and Applause) 

I have one song I'd like to do. This is not a movement song, it's in a sense the ultimate movement song. This is a song about the greatest country in the whole world that we all live in. This is a song that all of you know. This is a song that some people say could be our National Anthem, but it's not. Please, please sing with me. If you don't know the words, clap your hands, stomp your feet or do whatever you can do but let's do this together.

(singing) This land is your land, this land is my land, from California to the New York Island, from the redwood forest, to the Gulf Stream waters, this land is made for you and me. (Inaudible) this land is made for you and me. This Land is your land, this land is my land, from California, to the New York Island, from the redwood forest, to the Gulf Stream waters, this land was made for you and me. As the sun was shining and I was strolling, the wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling, the fog was lifting, a voice was saying, this land was made for you and me. This land is your land, this land is my land, from California to the New York island, from the redwood forest to the Gulf Stream, this land was made for you and me. This land was made for you and me.

Good job. (Cheers and Applause)

Return to the Index of Speakers.

I've heard of singing cowboys, I've never heard of singing Congressmen. There is always a debate between the house and the Senate and we've asked (Inaudible) the biggest supporter of ADA and the biggest supporter of MiCASSA, (Inaudible). (Cheers and Applause)

Thank you very much. Congressman Davis, Congressman (Inaudible), as you can see we're multiplying and getting stronger all the time. Now, it's a beautiful day here today. I want to thank Bob. I want to thank all the people that really helped to put this together. I want to congratulate those who all traveled 144 miles.

(Cheers and Applause) 

The co-chairs of this, thank you very much. It's a beautiful day here, but they say there is a storm coming. You are way ahead of me. You are way ahead of me. There is a beautiful day, but they say there is a storm coming, but they're thinking about the weather, but I've got another storm in mind.

(Cheers and Applause) (Inaudible). That's the storm that has to hit that building.

(Cheers and Applause)

When the ADA passed in 1990, I remember standing on the Senate floor being the chief sponsor of the Americans with Disabilities Act. And I remember I took the floor and I said, okay, we've got it passed. And the president is going to sign it; but I said the first thing is that just opens the door. That just breaks down some of the barriers.

Now, the next step I said 13 years ago on the floor of the Senate, the next step that we have to take is we have to get community attendant support and services passed for everyone in this country.

(Cheers and Applause)

We've been waiting too long. We've been waiting way too long. We waited too long for the ADA, but we got it. We waited way too long for the MiCASSA, but bit by bit we're picking up our strength. 

You're here. You're in charge. We have to get this passed to put that next element in there to back up the ADA, to make sure that not only is the door open, but that every person has (Inaudible). How to get here, how to get there, that's the next step. (Cheers and Applause) I'm not on the committee, but I'll do everything I can to get the finance committee to begin having hearings the first of next year on the money follows the person and on MiCASSA. 

It's long past time. It's long past time for everyone to be able to live in their own home and not somebody else's nursing home. It's long past time that people ought to be able to live with their friends and their family and not strangers someplace. I said when I was a young man, (Inaudible) I said when I was a young man and they took my brother out of the home and they sent him halfway across the state to live with strangers because he was disabled and he couldn't live at home and couldn't live in his community, it was wrong then and it's wrong today and we have got to change that culture in America.

(Cheers and Applause)

So I'm in this fight with you. I have been for a long time. We've had setbacks. We've been told "no" a lot of times, but our numbers keep growing. We keep getting stronger. We keep getting more and more support from the house and the Senate on both sides of the aisle. I want to say with my colleagues here, the Americans with Disabilities Act was never a (Inaudible). It never should have been and it never was a partisan issue. 

MiCASSA is not a partisan issue. I want you to know, and I say publicly, you know who the first supporter in the House of Representatives was for MiCASSA. I bet you won't know the answer to this question. (Inaudible) was the first supporter of MiCASSA. We have disagreed on a lot of things, but we have agreed basically that an individual ought to have the right to decide his or her own fate and his or her own (Inaudible). (Cheers and Applause)

I'm here with my colleagues to let you know that we are going to push. We will not be turned back. We will not give up. We are going to get the bill passed so that you, your friends, my friends, my nephew can decide where that money ought to go and not have Washington D. C. say you've got to go to a nursing home. (Cheers and Applause) Keep up the pressure. Keep on congressmen and congresswomen. 

Keep on these senators on both sides of the aisle. I think once they know that this is about individual freedom and individual liberty and individual rights and individuals who want their own futures, not someone dictating to them what their future is going to be, once they know that, they're going to be on our side in this battle. So keep the pressure up. We'll let that Hurricane Isabel come here, but the big storm is us right here. This is the storm that we have to hit that capitol with. We've got to get that legislation passed. I'm tired, I'm tired of hearing next year and next year and some other time. We want it now and we will not be turned back! Thanks.

(Cheers and Applause)

Return to the Index of Speakers.

I was wondering if they were going to do a quartet as an ending. They all have to get back because they will be pushing to get MiCASSA passed. Now, not too long ago there was that blackout on the east coast and Congress is now addressing the energy bill. Well, ADAPT the other night had an energy crisis. We had a gully washer and our energy went down and I really want to give credit to our energy people who moved the generator and hooked it up every night. Alan and (Inaudible). (Cheers and Applause) (Inaudible) from ADAPT Delaware has a few choice words to say to you.

All right! What happens when (Inaudible) comes marching in? We get MiCASSA passed. Now, I've heard a lot of disability songs today. Let's show them what it's really like to march 144 miles.

(singing) Oh when ADAPT comes marching in. Oh when ADAPT comes marching in, from the bell to the capitol, we will pass MiCASSA now! Oh, when ADAPT, comes marching in, oh, when ADAPT comes marching in, from the bell to the capitol, we will free our people now! Now you've heard it. (Inaudible) When ADAPT comes rolling in, oh, when ADAPT comes rolling in, from the bell to the capitol, we will pass MiCASSA now! Oh, when ADAPT, comes marching in, oh, when ADAPT comes marching in, from the bell to the capitol, we will set our people free! From the bell to the capitol, we will set our people free!

(Cheers and Applause)

Return to the Index of Speakers.

Pass MiCASSA now.

(Inaudible) to my right and (Inaudible). When I was growing up, my grandmother was a Democrat so I used to think you could pass a bill with just the Democrats. I grew up and learned that not only do you need Democrats, but Republicans are essential, and we have one of the leader Republicans in the Senate from Pennsylvania, (Inaudible). (Cheers and Applause)

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I'm proud to be with you today. Senator Tom Harkin and I, as you know, have introduced the Harkin-Specter bill to give you the option of whether you live in your own homes as opposed to living in a hospital or nursing home. The approach of the federal government to put 70 percent of the money into nursing homes, I think, is fundamentally unfair.

(Cheers and Applause).

There is a Supreme Court decision which says that people ought to be in the least restrictive environment, and (Inaudible). You want to live in your own home as opposed to a nursing home, then that's what ought to be done. 

Tom Harkin and I worked hand in glove on the appropriations subcommittee for health and human services. Sometimes Tom's the chairman, sometimes I'm the chairman. I frankly like it better when I'm the chairman, but Tom and I, Tom and I talk about having a seamless transfer of the gavel. 

I learned a long time ago, if you want to get something done in Washington, you have to be willing to cross party lines. Tom and I have worked together on a bipartisan basis; and I hear that this movement started in Philadelphia. You came 144 miles (Cheers and Applause) and that's determination. So let's keep plugging and one day we'll win this thing. Thank you all very much. 

(Cheers and Applause)

Return to the Index of Speakers.

I just want you to know you are all my closest friends. We've been in the trenches together for a long time. I couldn't ask for a better partner and I couldn't ask for a better friend and neither could you. And make sure that we pass MiCASSA and you don't have a better friend on the Republican side than Arlen Specter.

(Cheers and Applause)

Return to the Index of Speakers.

There are a few people in the crowd that I just want to recognize real quickly. One of the biggest supporters of the ADA and the disability rights is Gini Thornberg. Let's hear it for Gini Thornberg. You have probably been wondering who this guy is running around. Let's make this an international march. This is being webcast all over the country, all over the world courtesy of ILRU. So let's give the people around the country a disability community welcome. (Cheers and Applause) (Inaudible).

I want to thank ADAPT (Inaudible) people in institutions (Inaudible). Don't worry, it's the same in the UK, too.

(singing) (Inaudible). Not me, said the social worker, she was our best customer (Inaudible). And I'm just an employee; I'll put my job on the line. Not me, said the (Inaudible). I can't be held to blame. If the politicians can make decisions, I'm just (Inaudible).

(Cheers and Applause)

Return to the Index of Speakers.

All right. That song and many others are on CD's, songs of freedom. They will be available at the ADAPT 20th anniversary party. Okay, its on the cover of that C. D. is a picture of the man that you all call the godfather of the ADA, but it's real clear that (Inaudible). It wasn't just Justin it was Justin and Yoshiko Dart. We are honored to have her say a few words today. (Cheers and Applause)

MRS. DART: (Inaudible). We love you! (Cheers and Applause) (Inaudible) and continue to love you. You are the real soldiers of the truth. You are the true patriots of Democracy. You are the loudest voices of empowerment. (Cheers and Applause) You are being revolutionaries of the 21st century. You are America the beautiful. You are the American dream. We thank you. We (Inaudible) you, we believe in you. We are so proud of you and we love you. Keep leading us on together, but only together (Inaudible). We shall continue to march and fight to the end of time to free our people! Free our people! Free our people! Free our people!

(Cheers and Applause)

Return to the Index of Speakers.

(Inaudible) I must admit I have a bias. (Inaudible) sometimes called a street organization, sometimes given marks of not working and playing well with others together, but I think personally it's one of the most powerful, national grassroots organization in the country, let's hear it for Stephanie Thomas speaking for ADAPT!

(Cheers and Applause)

Free our people! Pass MiCASSA now! We have been for the past two weeks, as you know, many of us have been on this march and I learned really many, many lessons from the march, but there were mainly two lessons that I learned and one is that the passion for MiCASSA, for the money following the person, and for freeing our people from nursing homes and other institutions is alive and well.

(Cheers and Applause) Mile after mile, as we rolled, you could hear people chanting, singing and talking. Through the dark of night and storms, through all kinds of difficulties, people just kept on keeping on for one goal, the goal to pass MiCASSA now!

(Cheers and Applause)

We could not and the oddest thing I learned and I learned this again and again, it's the importance that working together we can really achieve huge changes. That is true in the real sense of moving a city of 200 people day by day from one place to another, from taking care of all of the necessities of life for all those people, but also the larger community that supported us and helped us to make it happen.

If you look in that booklet, you'll see some of the sponsors that helped us in more than monetary ways and also as all of us who marched know, there were supporters from our local ADAPT groups and other ADAPT groups all across the country, without whose support and funding and without whose loaning of equipment, without some of them loaning wheelchairs, tents, cots, whatever, some of these things are pretty important, without all that support we would not have been able to do what we did.

It is only by working together that we were able to achieve that and I think that message goes also for passage of MiCASSA and the money following the person. There are still 2 million people locked away in nursing homes. 2 million people waiting to get out. We have been working on this issue for over a decade. How many have died waiting for their freedom? And how many lives have been stolen waiting for their freedom? Thousands and thousands too many, and it has got to stop now! (Cheers and Applause)

You know, (Inaudible) whether there should be MiCASSA or not in the disability community. There is only one organization that doesn't support this bill. There are over 700 organizations that have signed on as supporters.

(Cheers and Applause) Many of the organizations are represented here today and if yours is not, you can sign on and I urge you to do it today, but over 700 groups have signed on in support of this bill.We are in very dark times now. Many of us have recently been through legislative sessions that we wouldn't have believed possible even two years ago. In my state, just less than six months ago, they were planning to dump over 100,000 people off of community services because they said they had budget problems, these were tight times and everyone had to tighten their belt. Guess who was tightening their belt the most community services. 100,000 people.

Think about that. That's the size of a lot of cities in this country. (Inaudible) the only alternative for them. That is no way to go and that is being repeated in state after state across this land. We fought and won, but when we have federal mandates for nursing homes and we have federal mandates for other institutions and the only thing that supports community services is the left overs, you can well guess what the results are going to be.

And if you think that last legislative session was bad in your state, all the experts say just wait until next time around. It's only going to get worse. There is a very dark time coming in this country, and that only drives the urgency for passage of MiCASSA now!

(Cheers and Applause)

So I want to end on a challenge. I want to end on a challenge to the disability community in general, and to members of ADAPT as well. But when we were going mile after mile, when it was driving rain and the rain was ruining people's chargers, when the rain was running down people's next when we were driving along, and you couldn't even see if you wore glasses because they were filled with rain and fog and whatever all else, I don't know what all that stuff was, but anyway, when we were going through that and it was so hot that you would fall asleep at your joy stick, when you would see people start veering off into the traffic because they were just spaced from the heat but they just kept on keeping on.

(Cheers and Applause)

(Inaudible) keep on keeping on. They didn't stop. We didn't stop. We started in the morning, we stopped at lunch and we stopped at the end of the damn day. That's what we had to do to get this bill passed because it's not going to be easy. (Inaudible) we have a lazy attitude. It's like if we don't look at it, it will go away. Well, we ain't going away. And every day we get bigger and bigger as more and more people get older, more and more people with disabilities live on, and people realize they have a choice for the community if it was only open to them.

The people in the house behind you, those people are the people that have the key to that door and we have got to get through it and we have got to get them to get off their butts and start working on it.(Inaudible) we have all kinds of ways, and now we just have to do it again and again and again until they turn around and realize that this is the best way to go. You heard from a lot of experts today and you'll hear from some more about how this is the best way to go, but what I want to leave you with is a challenge. You tell your senators and representatives, if Newt Gingrich and Senator Kennedy can get behind this bill, there is no way you can't get behind this bill.

(Cheers and Applause)

So let's free our people! Free our people! free our people! Free our people! Pass MiCASSA now! Pass MiCASSA now! Pass MiCASSA now! Pass MiCASSA now!

Return to the Index of Speakers.

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(Unfortunately, our link to the rally has been lost. The audio feed was transmitted through their cell phones and all batteries have no life left, unlike our friends in D.C. who have plenty of life left. Thanks for tuning in, and good afternoon from your friends at ILRU.)

end.

FOR THE AUDIO, go to ILRU's Web 
site: www.ilru.org/on-line/archive/2003/0917micassa.html 

FOR MORE INFORMATION--

--The full title of MiCASSA: The Medicaid Community Attendant Services And Supports Act

--A copy of the MiCASSA legislation, go to www.freeourpeople.org/MiCASSA/mi-text.htm 

--A summary of the MiCASSA legislation, go to www.freeourpeople.org/MiCASSA/micassa-sum04.txt 

--A MiCASSA FAQ, go to www.freeourpeople.org/MiCASSA/mi-qanda.htm 

--President George W. Bush's executive order on Community-based Alternatives for Individuals with Disabilities, go to www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/06/20010619.html 


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