"Freedom is the oxygen of the soul" ~Moshe Dayan

I picked up my apartment building's July newsletter and discovered they had another column of Freedom Quotes this year as well. The quote above inspired this repost, originally from May 2010.

On Wednesday at OOO someone mentioned that they had seen this documentary on public television where someone interviewed people of various backgrounds about their personal definitions of freedom. I don't remember if they were famous people or not, although I imagine they weren't, or if they were from different countries or not, although I imagine they were. Anyone see this thing? All I remember from Wednesday night (I'm depressed, remember) is that this documentary made quite an impression on my friend, and she in turn made quite an impression on me. Nevermind I can't remember a single word she said.

I knew instantly what my definition of freedom is, although I did not bring it up because I would have gone off on a thing. Quite frankly, I can't remember a word I said either... Anyway, I'm choosing to share it here.

Freedom is...

The wind blowing through my hair.

[FYI this picture, left, is from this past June in Chicago at AYS, not from DC, but see, wind in my hair :D]

Freedom is the ability to get into my chair and GO! Whenever and wherever I feel like. Freedom is the ability to turn up my ipod so loud I'm going to lose hearing (an acceptable consequence) and the ability to sing at the top of my lungs while I'm whipping top speed down the sidewalk towards my destination. I've had my Jazzy for 7 years and I have never and will never lose that joy that comes with passing other people by, and the joy of how good it feels to create your own wind on a gorgeous spring day (we've had a lot of those lately).

I was going to write a Thankful Thursday a few weeks ago, because it was on a Thursday during that time where I was still barely "functionally non-functional" that I woke up super early and anxious and decided that I just wasn't going to school, because I just didn't want to. It took 2.5hrs and 3.5 episodes of Grey's Anatomy for me to be able to drum up enough sheer willpower to drag my butt out of bed, put some clothes on, and still get to class in plenty of time.

I remember I rolled just outside my building (I live about 1mi from school, or a 12-15min roll) and stopped to detangle my headphones and set myself up, as I always do, either just outside or in the lobby, flipped down my sunglasses, and TOOK OFF down the driveway. I'm not even sure I was all the way down the driveway when I smiled and thought

"Thank g-d for ipods. And thank g-d for old Grey's Anatomy DVDs (THAT was really what it took to be able to get to the point where I could reason myself out of bed). And thank g-d for my Jazzy, my freedom, my ability to get around."

I often think about -- especially on bright and sunny days -- the fact that in Maryland, Medicaid will not pay for a powerchair if you are in a nursing facility. 'Cause, you know, where are you going? If you're leaving on an HCBS waiver, they have this thing about not delivering it to you until the moment you're discharged. G-d forbid something goes awry and you're still there, can't have that.

I think about this because there are a ridiculous amount of nursing facilities surrounding me, one as close as 2 blocks, and I think about how every time I rolled into one, people would eye my chair and want to know how I got such a beautiful thing. Doesn't matter how much dirt is caked on, or how many scratches and dents there are (it's well worn). When I said I have private insurance the whole group would look forlorn.

So lately I think about this everyday, because everyday lately I've spent several hours willing myself out of bed, but everyday, eventually, I put on my headphones, flip down my sunglasses, and roll down the sidewalk to somewhere. I think about the freedom I have to roll down the street, and about how great it feels to have the wind blow through my hair, and I long for a time when people don't have to fight so hard to have these feelings too.

I Should Have Been Posting My Last Freedom Friday

Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves ~Abraham Lincoln

Please consider donating to the 6th Annual Fun*Run for Disability Rights. It's May 1st at Upper Senate Park in Washington DC, the first day of the spring action. Even if it is just $2, all of Maryland ADAPT will be forever grateful. Your money is tax deductible and is split 50/50 between Maryland and National ADAPT.

What does National ADAPT use the money for? Legal fees, hotel rooms, lunch during national actions, copying, bull horns etc. What does Maryland ADAPT use the money for? Pizza and soda, hotel rooms, lots and lots of stamps (surprisingly in 2011 we do a lot of snail mail). If we get enough $ we can apply for federal 501c3 status. The fee is STEEP!

Thanks in advance!

I Should Have Been Blogging About Freedom Fridays

In this possibly terminal phase of human existence, democracy and freedom are more than just ideals to be valued--they may be essential to survival ~Norm Chomsky

Please consider donating to the 6th Annual Fun*Run for Disability Rights. It's May 1st at Upper Senate Park in Washington DC, the first day of the spring action. Even if it is just $2, all of Maryland ADAPT will be forever grateful. Your money is tax deductible and is split 50/50 between Maryland and National ADAPT.

What does National ADAPT use the money for? Legal fees, hotel rooms, lunch during national actions, copying, bull horns etc. What does Maryland ADAPT use the money for? Pizza and soda, hotel rooms, lots and lots of stamps (surprisingly in 2011 we do a lot of snail mail). If we get enough $ we can apply for federal 501c3 status. The fee is STEEP!

Thanks in advance!

[If you know me IRL you know I of course have to post a photo of PONIES!]

I Should Have Been Blogging About Freedom Fridays

You can only protect your liberties in this world by protecting the other man's freedom. You can only be free if I am free. ~Clarence Darrow

Please consider donating to the 6th Annual Fun*Run for Disability Rights. It's May 1st at Upper Senate Park in Washington DC, the first day of the spring action. Even if it is just $2, all of Maryland ADAPT will be forever grateful. Your money is tax deductible and is split 50/50 between Maryland and National ADAPT.

What does National ADAPT use the money for? Legal fees, hotel rooms, lunch during national actions, copying, bull horns etc. What does Maryland ADAPT use the money for? Pizza and soda, hotel rooms, lots and lots of stamps (surprisingly in 2011 we do a lot of snail mail). If we get enough $ we can apply for federal 501c3 status. The fee is STEEP!

Thanks in advance.

I Should Have Been Blogging About Freedom Fridays

Freedom is, first of all, the chance to formulate the available choices, to argue over them -- and the opportunity to choose. ~C. Wright Mills

Please consider donating to the 6th Annual Fun*Run for Disability Rights. It's May 1st at Upper Senate Park in Washington DC, the first day of the spring action. Even if it is just $2, all of Maryland ADAPT will be forever grateful. Your money is tax deductible and is split 50/50 between Maryland and National ADAPT.

What does National ADAPT use the money for? Legal fees, hotel rooms, lunch during national actions, copying, bull horns etc. What does Maryland ADAPT use the money for? Pizza and soda, hotel rooms, lots and lots of stamps (surprisingly in 2011 we do a lot of snail mail). If we get enough $ we can apply for federal 501c3 status. The fee is STEEP!

Thanks in advance!

I Should Have Been Blogging About Freedom Fridays

There is no such thing as a little freedom. Either you are all free, or you are not free. ~Walter Cronkite

Please consider donating to the 6th Annual Fun*Run for Disability Rights. It's May 1st at Upper Senate Park in Washington DC, the first day of the spring action. Even if it is just $2, all of Maryland ADAPT will be forever grateful. Your money is tax deductible and is split 50/50 between Maryland and National ADAPT.

What does National ADAPT use the money for? Legal fees, hotel rooms, lunch during national actions, copying, bull horns etc. What does Maryland ADAPT use the money for? Pizza and soda, hotel rooms, lots and lots of stamps (surprisingly in 2011 we do a lot of snail mail). If we get enough $ we can apply for federal 501c3 status. The fee is STEEP!

Thanks in advance!

[photo credit Tom Olin]

I Should Have Been Blogging About Freedom Fridays

Here's some food for thought

Well, if crime fighters fight crime and fire fighters fight fires, what do freedom fighters fight? They never mention that part to us do they? ~George Carlin

Please consider donating to the 6th Annual Fun*Run for Disability Rights. It's May 1st at Upper Senate Park in Washington DC, the first day of the spring action. Even if it is just $2, all of Maryland ADAPT will be forever grateful. Your money is tax deductible and is split 50/50 between Maryland and National ADAPT.

What does National ADAPT use the money for? Legal fees, hotel rooms, lunch during national actions, copying, bull horns etc. What does Maryland ADAPT use the money for? Pizza and soda, hotel rooms, lots and lots of stamps (surprisingly in 2011 we do a lot of snail mail). If we get enough $ we can apply for federal 501c3 status. The fee is STEEP!

Thanks in advance. You can donate til June!

I Should Have Been Blogging About Freedom Fridays

My apartment building gives out cheesy prefabricated newsletters at the beginning of every month and since we're in America and our independence day is in July the newsletter from last July had a whole bunch of quotes about freedom. That'd be great to try to solicit Fun*Run donations, I thought. So here is the first of several weeks worth of Freedom Friday quotes.

The secret of happiness is freedom. The secret to freedom is courage. ~Thucydides

Please consider donating to the 6th Annual Fun*Run for Disability Rights. It's May 1st at Upper Senate Park in Washington DC, the first day of the spring action. Even if it is just $2, all of Maryland ADAPT will be forever grateful. Your money is tax deductible and is split 50/50 between Maryland and National ADAPT.

What does National ADAPT use the money for? Legal fees, hotel rooms, lunch during national actions, copying, bull horns etc. What does Maryland ADAPT use the money for? Pizza and soda, hotel rooms, lots and lots of stamps (surprisingly in 2011 we do a lot of snail mail). If we get enough $ we can apply for federal 501c3 status. The fee is STEEP!

Thanks in advance. You can donate til June!

ADAPT Activists Storm Wisconsin GOP Headquarters

A side of the Wisconsin Protests not many have heard

It is small as protests go these days in Madison. A line of advocates, activists, and people with disabilities, some in wheelchairs, maneuvers its way through the slush Thursday, past honking horns and over puddles, from Capitol Square to a squat, nondescript office building at 149 E. Johnson. "Our homes, not nursing homes!" the protesters shout. Bringing up the rear on crutches, his right leg amputated below his knee, is John Nousaine. He has driven down from Superior to join this mission.

The line of 25 or so protesters closes in on its target: the state Republican Party headquarters. While an advocate holds the door open, a stream of motorized wheelchairs twists, turns, bumps and backs its way through the building's narrow halls until it comes to a halt in a small lobby right outside the office of the party's startled executive director, Mark Jefferson. A few protesters and a service dog roll right on in to Jefferson's office, past several glass and brass elephants and an autographed Badgers football, and up to his desk.

"What's this about?" he asks.

"It is about our lives!" says Dane County Board Supervisor Barbara Vedder, who was paralyzed in a car crash years ago and gets around in a wheelchair.

It is around noon Thursday, the start to what will be a two-hour occupation of the state GOP headquarters, the latest salvo in a battle by advocacy groups to get word out about Medicaid provisions buried in Gov. Scott Walker's budget repair bill that would, they say, allow his administration to gut the public health programs many of them depend on.

It is also a kind of protest that Madison has not yet seen. Over the past two weeks there have been all kinds of demonstrations in the Capitol. Firefighters have marched with bagpipes. Family doctors have written medical excuses from street corners. Break dancers have slammed the marble in the Rotunda. Yoga instructors have greeted dawn with chants. Children have brought their stuffed animals and sleeping bags to the statehouse for sleepovers. But nobody had ever just marched right into the GOP headquarters and tried to take over, Jefferson says.

Activists tell him they are there because they are desperate.

They believe that changes to Medicaid programs in the bill, including provisions that will hand unprededented powers to the Walker administration to circumvent state laws and normal legislative processes in revamping the public health plans, could lead to cuts in their benefits that will force many of them back into the institutions that once housed most people with disabilities. And they don't intend to let that happen without a fight.

"Are you even aware of the MA provisions in the bill?" Vedder asks. "We are able to be in our home with jobs and be productive members of society because of Medicaid. We don't want to be put into nursing homes. This budget bill is not repairing us. It is destroying us!"

Jefferson asks what that has to do with him. "I'm just an operative," he says. Protesters explain they won't leave until he arranges a face-to-face meeting with Walker. Jefferson says that the Governor is too busy. "It's a very trying time up there," he explains to the crowd. "He's in the middle of a budget crisis."

"We're in the middle of a life crisis!" Vedder replies.

Organizers working for Wisconsin ADAPT and Southeastern Wisconsin ADAPT, twin activist organizations devoted to keeping people with disabilities out of institutions, had been secretly plotting the surprise takeover for several days in hopes that their action could finally grab the spotlight for people with disabilities and on Medicaid, whose plight has been largely overshadowed by debate over labor issues. "We're not leaving until we get something!" several in the group shout.

"What you've got is an ear," Jefferson says. "We haven't allowed folks to just come in and take over before without an appointment."

"Thank you. That's real sweet," mutters Roxan Perez of Milwaukee, who needs to use a motorized scooter to get around because she has multiple sclerosis.

Over the next hour or so, the two sides try to listen to each other. Several of the protesters tell Jefferson why they think cuts in Medicaid would hurt them. His response is to say that the bill, by getting rid of collective bargaining, would "free up local governments to prevent some of these cuts from happening." The crowd doesn't buy it. "Why are you pitting people against each other! That's crazy! That's bull----" says Jerome Holzbauer, a Milwaukee retired school teacher who has earned a Ph.D in rehab psychology and has cerebral palsy. "You're going after the most vulnerable!"

A woman asks how Jefferson and the Republicans and others with wealth are "sharing the pain."

"This has a lot of people on the public dime," he says, gesturing to the crowd in his office. On the other hand, he works in the private sector, he says, which is also hurt by the economy because "we have to rely on fundraising to keep our doors open."

Jackie Turner asks how he justifies policy changes in the bill that would hand the Walker administration the power to make unilateral decisions about Medicaid programs, eliminating lawmakers and people like her from the process. "How could you support something that doesn't require legislative and public input?" asks Turner, who lives in Monroe in Green County and has been a paraplegic since a car accident left her in a wheelchair decades ago. "How can you support that? Please answer that!"

Jefferson replies that he understands that "department bureaucrats making cuts gets people upset," but that the provision has precedent: the Department of Natural Resources has initiated similar rule changes. "DNR is animals, fish, squirrels. We are humans! Do you understand the difference? Yes or no?" says Joe Kunz of Madison, who has muscular dystrophy, from his wheelchair.

The protesters are determined to speak, though for several speech is difficult. John Donnelly has cerebral palsy, and his face twists with effort as he tells a reporter why he has come in his wheelchair to the protest. He depends on Medicaid benefits, his friends help explain, to participate in community based programs and to live in his own apartment, with home aides who help. It takes several seconds for Donnelly to get each word out, but he does not give up. "I'll ... die ... before... I go... into one of those facilities!" he finally says.

To read the rest of the article (this was only half of it), click here. 2 other articles here and here.

I went to my local MoveOn rally today in Annapolis with two other Maryland ADAPTers. Anyone else go to one?

I am Not a Freak

"Almost always, the creative dedicated minority has made the world better." ~MLK Jr

When I saw that this month's DBC was being held in conjunction with MLK Jr Day, something deep inside of me got mad. I wasn't upset that the carnival is Monday. In fact I thought that was a great idea. I don't have anything against MLK Jr at all. In fact, ADAPT has long considered his birthday (today) to be "Freedom Day." We're down with him. What angers me is why some people aren't down with us.

I don't know how people viewed Black Civil Rights leaders during the 1960's, when everything was going on. I wasn't around in the 60's, I'm 25. I imagine things were viewed differently depending on which geographic region of the country you resided in at the time. What I do know is that now, in 2011, and for at least the last 20 years, Malcom X, MLK, Nelson Mandela (yes, I know he's not American) have been regarded as national heros, while I am regarded by some people as a freak.

Please explain to me why blocking a bus with a powerchair is different then refusing to get up from the front of a bus. Please explain to me why yelling outside of an inaccessible McDonald's (that link is in Mandarin, use Google Translate) is different then refusing to get up from a lunch counter?

Did people tell MLK to just "be nice?" Not just people, but Black people. HIS people. I'm sure some did. I've been looked down upon by other PWDs, wheelchair users, been instructed to "be nice." I've gotten in arguments with certain PWDs (those old friends), who don't agree with how or why I do the things I do, so often that we no longer speak. Being nice in my experience rarely gets you what you need, your civil rights. IN YOUR FACE does.

MLK Jr said

We who in engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive.

I'd have to agree with this. People are scared of people with disabilities. Especially people with very visible physical disabilities and significant psychiatric disabilities -- people who cannot pass. People are scared, fearful of what is different; of what they do not know. By making our very visible selves even MORE visible we are intensifying this fear. I get that. That explains why TABs get nervous around ADAPTers, but that doesn't explain why some PWDs are put off by us. We're not any more different then they are.

I think PWDs are put off by me (us) because by hanging out with people who do things such as handcuff themselves to the White House fence, I challenge their reality, how they were raised, the ways they think are the "right" ways to be a PWD. Don't call attention to your disability. Don't ask for "special" treatment. Be nicer then other people. You should be grateful for what you do get. Etc.

My parents taught me not to settle. My parents taught me separate is not equal. My parents taught me that sometimes to get what you need you have to stop being nice and start being FORCEFUL. My parents taught me this when I was 5. And my mother wonders why I'm so into ADAPT... But that's another topic and story entirely...

The theme for this carnival is "let your freak flag fly." I'm different. I'm a radical. I challenge not just the "norm" but I also challenge the "atypical." ADAPTers call ourselves "wild and weird ones." I wear that label with pride. But I'm not a "freak" in the way that people who judge me intend that word to be meant.

Why are Malcolm X, MLK Jr, and Nelson Mandela national heros but not Ed Roberts and Justin Dart Jr? We are the same. We do the same. We're not freaks. We're also a very creative dedicated minority hell bent on making the world a better place.

Another Round Up

ETA: An old post of mine, an old research paper to be exact, Tiny Tims & Supercrips, was quoted here the other day, although in an effort to change the link to this blog from my old one, it no longer works. I still think it's cool, and almost missed it, except that I was reading The Goldfish.

First, I was cleaning out some very old email and found this:

The email said that this was done with a typewriter and that the artist has CP.

Next, I don't remember emailing this poem to someone, or even having read it 2 years ago, but apparently I did. It was recited at the disability pride parade, and is good.

Third, sorry Joe, you non-blogger you, you're off my blog roll because I've added Georgina Dollface (swapped one LP for another... huh... didn't notice that at first) She commented on this blog once, and I must have clicked on her blog then, but somehow I only just now, after doing so again 10mos later, noticed how great she is. You should blog more Joe.

If you want to take part in an amazing love story (I feel like a voyeur reading this blog) check out To the Other Side of Dreaming. I took the last of my disaboom blogs off of my blog roll when I added this amazing blog yesterday.

Fourth, Attila recently wrote about her collaborative craft studio, which employes disabled adults and caregivers / relatives. They make Christmas ornaments, that are the most gorgeous I have ever seen, and I think stuff for Easter too. If I wasn't Jewish I'd have ordered a bunch already.

Fifth, here's another great post from Therese. I'm sorry if you don't like dark humor, but I do.

Lastly, here's 2 more great stories from Joe Shapiro and NPR:

Click here for transcript
A separate story that ran earlier that same day, but wouldn't embed is A New Nursing Home Population: The Young

Have You Been to Jail For Justice?

Thanks for posting Cilla! Anyone want to transcribe for any hearing impaired activists out there?

ADAPT Took State Medicaid Budget Cuts Fight to the White House on Monday

Washington, DC---300 members of ADAPT, the national disability rights grassroots organization, are at the White House, demanding that the Obama administration exercise concrete leadership in his commitment to expand and support community-based long term care services for people with disabilities and seniors on Medicaid. ADAPT is demanding that Valerie Jarrett, Senior Advisor to the President, and Melody Barnes, Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy publicly address the ADAPT members assembled in front of the White House to answer specific proposals ADAPT is offering to work with the Administration.

“I want to know that the White House is actively working with consumers of community-based long term care services to create federal expansion of consumer controlled and non-medical model long term services and supports,” said Randy Alexander of ADAPT of Tennessee. “States should be accountable for saving money by directing Medicaid funds towards cost-saving community supports rather than costly institutionalization. In this fiscal crisis, that is the right thing to do.”

President Obama created the bipartisan National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform to address our nation's fiscal challenges. The Commission is charged with identifying policies to improve the fiscal situation in the medium term and to achieve fiscal sustainability over the long run.

“It is vital that the Commission evaluate the fiscal unsustainability of the Medicaid institutional bias by hearing testimony from people with disabilities who personally use community-based long term care services and have been victimized by or are at risk of having their community based service hours cut,” said Bruce Darling of Rochester ADAPT. “ADAPT has both grassroots and policy experience to offer the Commission to create a truly sustainable fiscal future for state long term care services.”

For more information about ADAPT, visit www.adapt.org and http://twitter.com/NationalADAPT

A Disabled Manifesto

I thought this would be appropriate to post on the first day of the latest national action. ENJOY! Photo is from the Fall 2008 DUH CITY action and is copyright ADAPT. It doesn't have much to do with the post other then I haven't found a reason to post it yet & I liken the kids in the DUH CITY jail to us crips being imprisoned in TAB imposed limitations.

A DISABLED MANIFESTO

By John R. Woodward, M.S.W. Center for Independent Living of North Florida, Inc

We proclaim that we are born free and equal human beings; that our disabilities are limitations only, and that our identity does not derive from being disabled.

We proclaim that we have the same value as people who are not disabled, and we reject any scheme of labeling or classifying us that encourages people to think of us as having diminished value.

We reject the idea that institutions must be created to"care" for us, and proclaim that these institutions have been used to "manage" us in ways that non-disabled people are not expected to accept. We particularly denounce institutions whose purpose is to punish us for being disabled, or to confine us for the convenience of others.

We reject the notion that we need "experts," to tell ushow to live, especially experts from the able-bodied world. We are not diagnoses in need of a cure or cases to be closed. We are human, with human dreams and ambitions.

We deny that images of disability are appropriatemetaphors for incompetence, stupidity, ugliness or weakness.

We are aware that as people with disabilities, we have been considered objects of charity and we have been considered commodities. We are neither. We reject charitable enterprises that exploit our lifestyle to titillate others, and which propose to establish the rules by which we must live without our participation. We also reject businesses that use us as "warm bodies" to provide a passive market for their services, again laying down rules by which we must live for their profit. We recognize that the lines between charities and businesses are blurred in the disability industry, and we do not accept services from either if their essential function is to exploit us.

We assert our rights of self-determination in the face ofrules, eligibility criteria, regulations, customs, laws or other barriers, and we pledge not to allow any authority or institution to deprive us of our freedom of choice.

Finally, we assert that any service we need, from specialized teaching to personal care, can be provided to us in the community among our non-disabled peers. Segregated institutions are not necessary to serve us, and they have been the greatest source of our oppression, especially when they have been run by able-bodied people without our participation.

All human beings are more alike than we are different. We recognize that when we assert this belief we will find ourselves in conflict with regressive institutions and their supporters, some of whom may be disabled themselves. We do not expect thousands of years of stereotyping to dissipate quickly. We commit ourselves and those who come after us to challenge our oppression on every level until we are allowed to be fully human and assert our individuality ahead of our disability.

ADAPT Activists to Storm, Washington, DC

For immediate release

Contact:

Cheryl Gottlieb (Maryland ADAPT), (301) 758-4473

www.adapt.org

ADAPT activists to Storm Washington DC; Vow to Fight State Cuts to Medicaid Home Services

Fighting dangerous state Medicaid budget cuts across the country, the national grassroots disability rights action group ADAPT is planning direct actions at several venues in Washington, DC between September 19 to 22 to demand that states save Medicaid-funded home and community based services. These services support low income people with disabilities and who are aging to stay in their own homes instead of being forced into nursing facilities to obtain services. During this critical election season, ADAPT plans to make it clear that saving Medicaid services is key to winning the disability vote.

"During this time of fiscal panic, governors are looking for ways to save dollars," notes William Fields, a Baltimore City Resident. "Hundreds of us are coming to Washington because Congress and the White House need to step up efforts to protect Medicaid community services in the states. I use home services and without someone to assist me, I'd be waiting on some nursing home aide to change me or feed me whenever she was done with the other fifty people living in the same facility. With home services, I am in charge of my life."

Current Medicaid law mandates that states use their Medicaid programs to pay for nursing homes, but the law does not equally mandate that states pay for the same services in a person's own home. Today, most states recognize that providing home and community based services (HCBS) is a less expensive solution than institutions. However, in these tight fiscal times, Medicaid dollars funding "optional" services like HCBS are first on the budget chopping block, while the mandatory institutional budgets are rarely touched. ADAPT's current "Defending Our Freedom" campaign is a direct response to states' attacks against HCBS, services that allow people with disabilities to take care of themselves, raise their families and be part of society.

"Without the home services funded by Medicaid, hundreds, if not thousands, of people with disabilities in my state would be forced to live in nursing homes or institutions," said Joe Stramondo of Michigan ADAPT. "Some states are virtually on the edge of bankruptcy. It makes no sense to spend extra dollars on institutions when those same dollars could fund more people with disabilities to live in the communities of our choice."

To learn more about Defending Our Freedom, please visit http://www.adapt.org/adapt-campaign.php

Wordless Wednesday

I've been meaning to get this up--it's too bad you can't read my shirt. This is me and part of the anchor of the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor. I'm wearing my Defending Our Freedom shirt from this past spring's national action. GET IT???

4th of July Repost

We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness... ~The US Declaration of Independance

On this 4th of July when you are reflecting on all of the freedoms you have as a citizen of the USA, remember also that there are MANY people that are stripped of their rights every day, imprisioned against their will without ever comitting a single crime. All men, means all men (and women too of course).

All photos were taken from adapt.org and are from the spring 2009 national action.

Someone I know is in this picture. From the Fun Run 4/26/09

A very patriotic picture. From the Fun Run 4/26/09

Banner says:

"COMMUNITY CHOICE ACT OUR HOMES NOT NURSING HOMES CHANGE AMERICA NEEDS!"

all in yellow and CCA orange w/the free our people dude on each side. From 4/27/09

Teddy's sign says "COMMUNITY CHOICE ACT NOW!" in CCA orange. Outside the White House on 4/27/09

A sea of CCA orange crawling up the capitol steps. Who was the orange color leader? From 4/28/09

Ain't No POWER Like the POWER of ADAPT...

My friend Scott [left, wearing a lot of flair] just created one of the most AWESOME ADAPT videos I have ever seen. You KICK ASS Scott! It's even CAPTIONED, and it embeds right, unlike the other one. I ♡ U, but you forgot to say who's speaking

Larry Biondi from Chicago

Mike from Memphis

German Parodi from Philly

Diane Colman of NOT DEAD YET from Rochester

Mike Oxford from Kansas

Larry again

Freedom is...

On Wednesday at OOO someone mentioned that they had seen this documentary on public television where someone interviewed people of various backgrounds about their personal definitions of freedom. I don't remember if they were famous people or not, although I imagine they weren't, or if they were from different countries or not, although I imagine they were. Anyone see this thing? All I remember from Wednesday night (I'm depressed, remember) is that this documentary made quite an impression on my friend, and she in turn made quite an impression on me. Nevermind I can't remember a single word she said.

I knew instantly what my definition of freedom is, although I did not bring it up because I would have gone off on a thing. Quite frankly, I can't remember a word I said either... Anyway, I'm choosing to share it here.

Freedom is...

The wind blowing through my hair.

[FYI this picture, left, is from this past June in Chicago at AYS, not from DC, but see, wind in my hair :D]

Freedom is the ability to get into my chair and GO! Whenever and wherever I feel like. Freedom is the ability to turn up my ipod so loud I'm going to lose hearing (an acceptable consequence) and the ability to sing at the top of my lungs while I'm whipping top speed down the sidewalk towards my destination. I've had my Jazzy for 7 years and I have never and will never lose that joy that comes with passing other people by, and the joy of how good it feels to create your own wind on a gorgeous spring day (we've had a lot of those lately).

I was going to write a Thankful Thursday a few weeks ago, because it was on a Thursday during that time where I was still barely "functionally non-functional" that I woke up super early and anxious and decided that I just wasn't going to school, because I just didn't want to. It took 2.5hrs and 3.5 episodes of Grey's Anatomy for me to be able to drum up enough sheer willpower to drag my butt out of bed, put some clothes on, and still get to class in plenty of time.

I remember I rolled just outside my building (I live about 1mi from school, or a 12-15min roll) and stopped to detangle my headphones and set myself up, as I always do, either just outside or in the lobby, flipped down my sunglasses, and TOOK OFF down the driveway. I'm not even sure I was all the way down the driveway when I smiled and thought

"Thank g-d for ipods. And thank g-d for old Grey's Anatomy DVDs (THAT was really what it took to be able to get to the point where I could reason myself out of bed). And thank g-d for my Jazzy, my freedom, my ability to get around."

I often think about -- especially on bright and sunny days -- the fact that in Maryland, Medicaid will not pay for a powerchair if you are in a nursing facility. 'Cause, you know, where are you going? If you're leaving on an HCBS waiver, they have this thing about not delivering it to you until the moment you're discharged. G-d forbid something goes awry and you're still there, can't have that.

I think about this because there are a ridiculous amount of nursing facilities surrounding me, one as close as 2 blocks, and I think about how every time I rolled into one, people would eye my chair and want to know how I got such a beautiful thing. Doesn't matter how much dirt is caked on, or how many scratches and dents there are (it's well worn). When I said I have private insurance the whole group would look forlorn.

So lately I think about this everyday, because everyday lately I've spent several hours willing myself out of bed, but everyday, eventually, I put on my headphones, flip down my sunglasses, and roll down the sidewalk to somewhere. I think about the freedom I have to roll down the street, and about how great it feels to have the wind blow through my hair, and I long for a time when people don't have to fight so hard to have these feelings too.

You Know You're a Life Long ADAPTer When...

In your WRAP you're supposed to have a page where you write down what you're like when you're doing GREAT and another where you write down what you're like when you feel like crap. This way when I just feel ok I can go look at 'crappy Cheryl' (not official WRAP terminology) list and go, "WOW! I'm actually doing way better then I thought I was!" On the other side, when I do feel like crap I can go look at 'wonderful Cheryl' list and go "Cheryl you idiot! That is so much cooler then this. Dude, get off the couch..." (I don't really talk like that in real life... I'm going with humor...)

"So what are you like when you are well?" The facilitator asks the group 2 weeks ago

"This is going to sound odd, but the intent behind it makes sense. I'm a pain in the ass!"

I can't figure out how else to FREE OUR PEOPLE without being a pain in the ass, and let me tell you, I do an awful job of it when I'm depressed.

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