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From: Joe.Chamberlain@f140.n150.z1.fidonet.org (Joe Chamberlain)
Newsgroups: misc.handicap
Subject: Re: ADAPT- Baltimore- p2
Message-ID: <15620@handicap.news>
Date: 14 May 91 14:06:33 GMT
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[This is from the Spinal Injury Conference]

BS> If only by Vulcan logic and Betazoid intuition, humans responded
BS> to the heartfelt needs of people with disabilities to be liberated.

        I spent six months in a nursing home.  Six months of
plotting and devising, and saving to get out.  I succeeded.

 BS>      However, good ideas (such as independent living,) have a way
 BS> of being sent to the staid and proper committees to die.  And many
 BS> good people have been sent to the correct and staid and proper
 BS> institutions to die.

        Inglis House in Philadelphia didn't die in committee.
Many other similar places didn't die in committee.  In fact, most
of them were born in committee.  Committees were where plans for
thier birth were formulated.  Committees were where the funding
was secured.  Committees are what keeps them running and growing.

 BS> There may be mistakes in tactics.  But the basic need to maintain
 BS> revolutionary struggle is not a mistake.

        I'll repeat what I said in the disabled echo.

        The system has a way of working when you work the system.
I have been involved with disability issues and legislations
since the mid 60s.  Check out my credits in WHO WHO'S IN THE EAST
1980.

        Lobby each and every Senator and Congressman.  Repeat the
process.  Repeat the process.  Get on every TV show.  Keep
creating ways to bring public attention to your cause.  Get the
mayor, councilwomen, government offical, or TV personality to
spend part of their working day confined to a wheelchair.

        I have a live in attendent.  We trade talents for
services.  He has a place to live and I have the help I need.  He
has my talents as an educator and I have his assistance.  He has
his food provided and I have someone to fix my meals.

        I think that jumping out of your wheelchair and crawling
is demeaning and portrays the disabled in a subserviant role.  I
suggest you stay chairbound and face your antagonist across the
meeting table or in the media like a capable adult.  Shed the pat
on the head role of Jerry's kids and sit tall as an adult who
deserves the same rights every able bodied individual takes for
granted.

        The disable community does not need further enemies, but
rather we need intelligent advocacy.  We don't need beggars, but
rather individuals and groups who will use the existing laws to
demand the equal rights granted under such laws.  We don't need
misguided militancy, but rather individuals who recognize gaps in
the existing laws and who will find congressmen who will pass
laws to close those gaps.

--
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