MARCH ON ATLANTA

ADAPT Meets Gov. in Home of Olmstead

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By Beth Guarino

ADAPT members from 30 states descended on Atlanta, Ga. for a week of activism to call attention to the state’s continued involuntary institutional warehousing of people who are elderly and those who are disabled.

According to a Tennessee organizer, Randy Alexander, ADAPT went to Atlanta “to demand freedom from nursing homes and institutions for people with disabilities and [those] who are older…. Hundreds of thousands of older and disabled Americans have lost their homes and their freedom, and have been virtually locked up for the crime of disability or age.” Atlanta is also where the Olmstead fight began, when people with disabilities sued the state for their freedom from institutionalization.

ADAPT marched from the CNN Center past Ebenezer Baptist Church to the King Center and entered the Rose Garden to kick off the week of action. They then demonstrated after honoring the memory of Martin Luther King, Jr., who is considered to be the father of the civil rights movement in this country.

ADAPT observed the 10 year anniversary of the Olmstead decision and reminded that people with disabilities still lack full civil rights.

Georgia was chosen by ADAPT partly because of its record of noncompliance with the Olmstead decision. According to Mark Johnson of Georgia ADAPT, “The state has never adequately funded community service and is now cutting them, despite the promises made by Gov. Sonny Perdue when he first took office.” According to figures furnished by ADAPT, there are over 62,000 elderly and disabled Georgians living in nursing facilities; about 6,000 of them want to live in the community.

ADAPT members drummed, chanted, sang, made speeches and occupied buildings to call attention to their demands. Through occupying the state capitol building, ADAPTers were able to leverage a meeting with the governor’s chief of staff and present their list of demands which were aimed to bringing the state into full compliance with Olmstead.

Among the speakers was Sue Jamieson, an attorney from the Olmstead litigation team. People who had been freed from institutionalization under the state’s Money Follows the Person program were in attendance. One woman had spent 43 of her 60 years in institutions. Surviving Olmstead litigant, Lois Curtis, attended also. Through its activism, ADAPT secured a meeting with Roosevelt Freeman, Office of Civil Rights regional director. They also controlled the lobby of the CNN building to secure coverage of correct information.

ADAPT said passage of the Community Choice Act will remove the institutional bias in Medicaid by allowing Americans the choice of staying in their own homes and getting the services and supports they need in the community. Because there is no federal law mandating this, each state makes its own decision. Many states are coping with the depressed economy by eliminating items like home- and communitybased services.

In a week that was filled with non-violent acts of civil disobedience, poignancy was highlighted in a videotape of ADAPT activity in Atlanta. When ADAPTers passed in front of the Parkview Manor Nursing and Rehab Center near the King Center, residents who are wheelchair users were visible through the building’s front window.

A few of the women raised their hands high and waved at the activists on the other side of the glass.