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5/14/98, 7:11 pm
Tim Wheat in Memphis
I hope that I can keep y'all [you all] informed on what is happening in Memphis in addition to what you will find in the news releases. I plan to keep notes and quotes from the days events at the Memphis ADAPT action and post those daily on the web at:
http://home.net/~mcil/98log1a.htm
I am putting this information and the press releases on the web and then I have airport duty. For everyone that has been to an ADAPT action, you know that the airport is not a fun job.
I plan to update this journal tonight and tell some of the travel stories that I am going to hear at the airport.
Bob, Mike, Stephanie, Babs and Cassie have been here all week touring the city of Memphis. They have not been to the usual tourist traps, however, like Graceland and Mud Island.
Plans for the rally are going to press today. The "Rally for REAL Community Choices," will be at Court Square in downtown Memphis. Word is out now about the ten worst states in America, which answers the question "Why Memphis?"
More later....
Tim Wheat in Memphis
Of course the group with no flight information is the last one on the list to get in. We "lost" plenty of people, but everyone seems to have made it to the hotel. Strangely, we lost Mike Oxford. He never found the airport.
The Memphis paratransit system carried 102 people from the airport today, others rode in ADAPT vans and the Barbara Bounds Transit Service. There is not a final total at this action yet, but it is the largest ADAPT action yet.
After midnight we found the lost Rochester folks. They all have hours of delays and layovers in their travel stories.
I have to get some sleep. It is 2amc and I have to get up early to get a large donation of cookies.
more later.....
Tim Wheat in Memphis
Diane Coleman, who has a history of working to improve long-term care in Tennessee, started the rally off with a letter from Wynell Carson's mother. Wynell died attempting to get out of a Tennessee nursing home and her mother wrote to thank ADAPT and to tell of the important struggle that advocates are undertaking. Diane sang the song "Free Our People," that was originally written about Wynell.
Stephanie Thomas rallied the crowd by reminding everyone why ADAPT is in Memphis. "In Tennessee, it is easier to get into a nursing home," said Stephanie, "than attendant services." She told everyone that although Tennessee was the worst State, people are being locked away all over the U.S. "Tennessee and America," she shouted, "IT IS TIME TO ADAPT!"
Bob then told about ADAPT surveying to find the Ten Worst States for the first time. Mike Auberger, before he read through the list, told everyone that this was not a "tongue in cheek" list. "Everyday people die in nursing homes," he said; "it is a list of crimes against people with disabilities."
On this nice breezy and cool day, a somber mood came over the crowd of 500 as Mike listed states that have failed to provide reasonable care. As he read off the list and provided statistics of each states shortcomings, Bob passed out a certificate for ADAPT folks to take back to their governor. Each certificate was framed and presented in a bedpan.
LaTonya Reeve gave a story of personal experience of living in a Tennessee nursing home and having to leave the state to work and live independently. Deborah Cunningham, the Executive Director of the Memphis Center for Independent Living, introduced Willie Robinson who lives in a nursing home now.
Willie used to be a professor at Shelby State, but now cannot get out of the nursing home because he does not qualify for the Tennessee waiver. The waiver is so restrictive that only about 250 of the 550 potential slots are filled. "No one should live in a nursing home," stated Willie.
Benita Scott and Charley Hall of People First of Tennessee told of their personal experience in ICF/MR's in Tennessee. People first is made up of self-advocates that have moved people out of horrid conditions that exist in Tennessee's large facilities.
Benita asked Bob Kafka to read the People First "Declaration of Self-Determination" which outlines the power of people willing to work and struggle for their civil rights. Charley, who escaped from the Arlington Developmental Center outside Memphis, said that empowerment will lead to "a better country for all of us."
Bob reminded the crowd that Vice President Al Gore was from the worst state, and he cannot ignore people with disabilities from around the country like he has in Tennessee.
Mary Stockley of the Memphis AARP told us that she is with us with every breath, and pumped- up the crowd by stating we are all working for the same goal.
And finally Johnny sang "Tear Down the Walls," to set the stage for a vigil at a nursing home in Memphis. Following the song, about 60 folks loaded into vans to visit the King's Daughters and Sons Home for the Incurables. Many young people with disabilities are imprisoned at that nursing home.
The administrator of this particular hell-hole is openly hostel to that message of ADAPT. He has taken ADAPT to court about bringing a message of pride to the Incurables in his care. Some of the people in the vigil were actually former residents of the facility.
Tomorrow should be even better...
Tim Wheat in Memphis
I am spent.
I just spent 24 hours with the most powerful people in the world.
It is amazing to feeling. Over a hundred people that are fed up with the system that has sold-out people for profits and know that you are a part of, and add to that power.
I am too exhausted to write the events of the past two days, however, I have a quote from Diane Coleman that I think sums up the action.
People with disabilities will lead this nation in an issue that effects everyone in the country.
- Diane Coleman.
Tim Wheat in Memphis
May 15, 8:06amc
Except for the Baltimore folks, everyone has made it back to their hometowns.
The first thing I must admit is that I significantly overestimated my ability to journal an ADAPT action. For those of you that have had an ADAPT action in your city, I think you will be very forgiving. For everyone else, it is like a huge unstoppable whirl-wind that you get caught up in and cannot return to any normal existence for quite some time.
I still have not recovered.
The action was great! It will take me awhile to get back on my feet, but things in Tennessee will never be the same.
ADAPT showed the power and determination of people with disabilities. ADAPT went to the strong-hold of the nursing home industry to display the message that people will not be sacrificed for profits. Tens of thousands of Tennesseans are held captive for the greedy interests of the nursing home industry and their paid political lobby.
Although 63% of nursing home funding comes from Medicaid, Governor Sundquist is not ashamed of accepting $38,000.00 of the money that should be helping to support home and community-based options. Tennessee spends 95% of the Medicaid money on for-profit nursing homes and thus funds the large good-ol'-boy nursing home lobby that works to prevent choice in long-term care. They keep the funds from providing options and support the subsidized industry with no market incentives for improvement.
Although the people of Tennessee overwhelmingly support options and choice in long-term care, the people of Tennessee do not have real access to their government. The Governor is paid-off and the Federal Government will not take a stand to enforce the civil rights of the Americans with Disability Act. The Memphis Action demonstrated the critical need of MiCASA. As long as states like Tennessee can continue to place profits over the dignity and civil rights of its citizens, then money hungry businessmen and greedy politicians will continue to warehouse people in nursing homes for their own benefit.
Al Gore has seen the news from his home state and knows that he must take a stand. I wish he would gather his courage now, and explain why the state he has represented as a Senator and his home- state now he is Vice President, is the worst at providing options to nursing homes.
ADAPT is saving the plan we had for the Memphis Federal Building. The bomb threat came just 30 minutes before we were going to really shake things up in a non-violent way. Because we take lives and non-violence seriously we quickly complied with the police and fire marshall's request. I can tell you that Al Gore really dodged a bullet. "It is an historic end to an action," said Bob Kafka.
Those of us from Tennessee found what we certainly expected. Our current governor, a Republican, and our native-son Vice President, a Democrat, will only take a stand against the wealthy nursing home lobby, when the people unite against the indignity and injustice that is forced on people with disabilities. Everyone that ringed the Clifford Davis Federal Building could see that the Constitutional guarantees of equality do not trickle down to everyone. The Federal Building in Memphis was filled with bureaucracy and red-tape. The real object of the ADAPT action was Tennessee, Mississippi, and the other states that made up the ten worst at providing home and community-based services. Those states also have Federal Buildings that are stuffed full of bureaucracy and red-tape; they have governors that are more interested in the profits of the nursing home industry; and they ignore the essential resources that are locked away in nursing homes.
Remember the courageous stand taken at that Federal Building. It is people with disabilities that are leading this country in a coup against the inhuman "medical model" that has imprisoned Americans for too long. People with disabilities will command a reformation that will include and empower the full spectrum of life in America.
FREE OUR PEOPLE!
Tim Wheat in Memphis
Tim Wheat
Memphis Center for Independent Living
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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