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The Memphis Center for
Independent Living Journal

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5/17/99, 9:07 pmcdt

Saturday May 8, 1999

Everyone from Memphis got to the Crystal City Hilton via the METRO. I saw many people that I knew and several people asked me about my letter in the Ragged Edge. Steve Gold asked if we missed Dawn in Tennessee.

Sunday May 9,

Notes from "The Big Meeting"

Justin Dart: "I would rather be dead than be locked up in an institution."

Stephanie Thomas:

1. HUD, if we cannot teach them in the court, we will teach them in the streets.

2. MiCASSA, Olmstead has slowed MiCASSA, but there are many grass-roots sponsors. It will be introduced this summer. Bob adds: Get co-sponsors back!

3. Olmstead, 26 states supported Georgia, all but 7 changed their support. But other groups are supporting Olmstead which is contrary and harmful to the ADA. An anti-ADA movement.

"We do what we do because we know their are really shitty situations out there. We are chipping away at the cover-up we are exposing the ugly reality." Stephanie Thomas

Linda Anthony told about having 50 people sleep out in front of the Supreme Court on April 20, before the court heard the case, and 100 people at the rally the next day.

Mike Auberger said that ADAPT has forced the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Justice into saying aloud that people should have the right to choose. "I've had enough meeting, I'm ready to kick some butt."

Monday May 10,

I drive the "danger van" shutting people to the National Airport METRO station. There are about 10 vans making runs to National.

12:55 ADAPT has split into two groups for the assault today. Word comes that the other group, about 175 ADAPT activists, is already blocking the headquarters of the U.S. Council of Mayors. Our group is assembling at a Capitol area park. At 1:02 we hear the other group controls the Council of Mayors Office Building.

1:55 Weasel says to "go in as you get there!" The target is the Hall of States, headquarters of three Olmstead supports. By 2pm we have the doors, elevators and stairs.

2:49 I watch as an officer attempts to move Melvin away from one of the doors to the front lobby. The officer shortly gives up and we pack the door with another powerchair.

2:59 Word comes down that we are negotiating. The story is that the main player in charge for the National Governor's Association is out until tomorrow. Our response is: "We'll wait."

4:32 Earlier in the day we organized a quick exit of our people out of the door that I was blocking. We let them through the door to block the garage and did not let any non-ADAPT people in. Now word comes that those at the garage are chaining themselves together to block cars exit.

5:25 Bob Kafka circulates the news that the Conference of Mayors group are on their way to reinforce us.

5:57 Word comes around that there have been 31 arrests of those who blocked the parking garage.

6:17 Governor Pataki of New York joined the negotiations.

7:29 Announcement that we are now under arrest.

I was carried out and placed on a bus while 54 of my comrades are similarly arrested and put on METRO buses. Wearing plastic handcuffs I could not record anything for the journal. When everyone was boarded, the buses were escorted across the city with motorcycles stopping traffic for several miles across town.

9:39 I get my cuffs off. In a stuffy room we all file in to be processed individually by 6 cops. At around 11pme Steve Gold gives everyone an update on what happened at the garage and what we are charged with. I think we were charged with unlawful entry. As soon as we are processed the entire group will go back on 2 METRO buses. I get back to the hotel at 3:25 ame.

Tuesday May 11

8:10 ame I go to have coffee with Sen. Bill Frist. David Larson meets me and we talk about MiCASSA and disability related issues. I tell him that I got out of jail just 5 hours ago and many people there ask me about civil disobedience. Everyone is in suits, except me. I have on my "Nothing about us without us" shirt. Frist is kind and we have our picture made together. I may have made him sneeze.

10:09 ADAPT has our big meeting. I find out what happened at the Mayor's Conference with the second group. They negotiate to a stand-still with the office staff, and head off to reinforce us. They get lost on the way to the Hall of States.

2:48 I drive the danger van again and roughly half of the group gathers at L`Enfant Plaza.

3:09 The other half storms past us at the Plaza and we all head for the offices of HUD. I don't think that anyone made it in the building, but about 10 leaders got in, either to negotiate or because they were up front. When I got to the south entrance there was a police car parked on the sidewalk in front of the door. We surrounded the car and blocked access to the door.

4:50 The cuffs come out.

5:30 Barb Tomer gives us the order to "pull back." ADAPT has a letter from the director's staff that guarantees a meeting in June with 504 enforcement on the agenda. Chico reads the letter to everyone assembled in the court-yard of HUD.

Wednesday May 12

12:00 Again I drive the danger van all morning and get to the rally site just in time for the start. Johnny sings a couple of songs including "Proud, Angry and Strong"

Janine Kemp tells us that Evan is still with us in the struggle to keep the ADA and its bi-partisan commitment Then Governor Dick Thornburg told everyone that "Peter Thornburg is a name and not a number." He categorized Olmstead as the preeminent civil rights issue we will face."

Senator Tom Harkin was great! He really got the crowd going with some chants including "My control not state control." Then Justin Dart said again that he would rather die "than live in a nursing home."

Wade Henderson from the National Civil Rights Committee said "Civil rights must be measured by a single yardstick, ...if there is no Justice there will be no peace." Steve Gold told us the secrete that "We will win Olmstead," but like Brown v. Board, the states are not going to voluntarily integrate. "You are going to win it on the streets."

Cassie James read MiCASSA supports from Tom Harkin to Arlen Spector. Then Stephanie Thomas gave what I thought was the best speech of the rally. She looked out at the crowd and said that "we are a beautiful and powerful force. We are talking about great and high ideals, as well as the basic human issues."

Gena McDonand told everyone that the state system depended on ignorance and preferred people to die rather than live in a nursing home. Liz Stoddelmeyer, Elane Kolb, Paul Masshion, John Kemp, and Chris Griffith spoke or sang and Bob Kafka talked Jonny into singing "Tear down the walls."

Kyle Glosure spoke and let slip that he was running for president. I hope I am around another 25 years to vote for Kyle. Jill Jacobs, Lenord Roscoe, Sybel Spellman, John Gladstone, and "Kathy" all spoke about the clear need for people to live in the community. Than Jonny sang "Changes."

Mike Auberger finished the rally up and pointed everyone toward the Supreme Court. He said that "MiCASSA will end the forced exodus of people with disabilities from their families. Choice will shift the bias away from institutions."

At the Supreme Court I did not get to see the street theater that was going on. I was holding an ADAPT banner in the back. Everyone was given copies of MiCASSA to take to their Representatives. The Memphis gang got together and marched off to see Harold Ford Jr. with MiCASSA. We met his chief of staff Jarvis Stewart and talked with him a short time.

The party started about 9 and is the most unique event known to man. ADAPT is a cross-section of human diversity. Dehydrated and exhausted I was drunk in seconds. My memory fades at this point and my journal entry is indecipherable.

Thursday May 13

I visited the Holocaust museum display and the partially completed Korean War Memorial. I was back in Memphis about 7pmc.

The Memphis Center for Independent Living
1633 Madison Avenue, Memphis, TN 38104
(901) 726-6404 v/tty (901) 726-6521 fax
mcil@mcil.org 

MCIL is a United Way of the Mid-South member Agency

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