------------------------------------------------------------------------------ NewsBank, inc. - The Commercial Appeal - 1998 - Article with Citation ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Headline: WRONG WAY TO REDRESS Date: May 13, 1998 Section: Viewpoint Page: A8 Edition: Final Length: 508 words Text: TACTICS such as those used by a protest group that blocked Gov. Don Sundquist's Memphis office this week are effective at drawing attention to a perceived wrong. What they fail to do, though, is make a persuasive argument for the cause at hand. The Denver-based group ADAPT (American Disabled for Attendant Programs Today) led a disruptive protest that included blocking a garage exit at the Shelby County office building. Departing workers were delayed for about 90 minutes Monday. The activists shut down the same building on Tuesday before voluntarily withdrawing. About 100 protesters spent the night in Sundquist's office. There was some damage to carpets. The idea is to put presssure on those in authority and create enough of a ruckus to attract media attention. It helps immensely when the biggest, meanest-looking officers available are called on to restore order. Presto: immediate sympathy for disabled demonstrators who are moved or removed. Success is measured in the number of minutes on the evening news. Real success, however, should be measured in the education and persuasion of appropriate administrators and lawmakers to the point that they gather all the facts, chart the most effective course and adopt whatever new laws, rules or procedures are needed to bring improvement. The goal of this ADAPT venture is expanded state funding and easier qualification for home and community health services, as alternatives to nursing home care. The idea is to help people avoid nursing homes for as long as possible. That's not a bad idea in principle: If future Medicaid funding increases can be committed to home care services, that could help a lot of people. But the way to achieve this laudable objective is to build a persuasive case with effective lobbying in legislative offices and meeting rooms, not to park wheelchairs in the doorways of public office building garages and jam waiting rooms of public officials to force public attention. ADAPT, like other, more radical, protest groups, cruises the nation with its entourage of demonstrators, who are bent on being put upon by authorities in places such as Memphis and Nashville. Last year ADAPT members blockaded the governor's residence in Michigan during a crusade similar to the one here. ADAPT seeks national legislation to get around disappointments such as the Tennessee legislature's failure this year to expand Medicaid funding for home and community services. Lawmakers did create an advisory council to develop a comprehensive state plan for long-term care before the General Assembly meets again next January. Much can be achieved through such deliberations. But members of these study panels need education and enlightenment much more than media-targeted disruptions full of noise and confrontation but short on substance. Memo: editorial Copyright 1998 The Commercial Appeal, Memphis, TN Accession Number: 9805130115 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------