ADAPT 144 Mile "Free Our People" March
Demands Congressional Action, Not
Rhetoric
We're beginning to see results of the March, including:
- more and more hits on the web site
- more and
more public support
- a statement from Christopher Reeve
- an op-ed in Sun-Times
scheduled for 9/17
- more and more media inquiries and interviews
(most
recently, 60 minutes on Pacifica)
- meetings after the Rally
with Senator Frist and other
leadership are being scheduled
- inquiries from Presidential candidates
For a list of co-sponsors click here About
Free Our People
Washington, DC -- The Free Our People March rolled into the
nation's capitol on September 17th, the final day of a 2
week march on Congress, which began on September 4th at the
Liberty Bell in Philadelphia. The Free Our People March is
coordinated by the national disability rights group ADAPT,
and draw attention to a Medicaid policy
which requires states to provide long term care services to
people with disabilities and the elderly in nursing homes,
but does not require states to provide services, known to
be both more cost-effective as well as what people prefer,
in a person's home.
At a 1:00 PM Rally and Press Conference on September 17, at
Upper Senate Park, speakers including were describe the
fight of many of the marchers to stay out of nursing homes
and explained why they want a change in the federal law that
will currently pay for them to be in nursing homes, but not
pay for much cheaper services that would keep them in their
own homes.
More than two hundred people from more than 25 states, most
of whom are wheelchair users, have traveled the 144 miles,
camping along they way, to demand that the 108th Congress
pass legislation known as MiCASSA, the Medicaid Community-
based Attendant Services and Supports Act (S 971 and HR
2032). The Act would amend Medicaid, to require that
states provide services to people who need support in the
community, rather than the current mandate, which only
requires states to provide care in nursing homes and other
institutions.
This is the first time people in wheelchairs have staged
such a grueling and difficult march - one reminiscent of
the shorter marches undertaken by civil rights activists in
the 1960s for the Voting Rights Act. "We are marching for
our lives, our freedom," activist Daniese McMullin-Powell
told the crowd in Wilmington as it paused in its march
through Delaware. "I lost my whole 30's,"40-year-old
Marlene Turon of Philadelphia told fellow marchers. "I was
31 when I went in and I just got out." Marcher Ursula
Manley of Scranton, who turned 72 on Sunday, said, "I have
no respect for any nursing home." Manley had been in a
nursing home for 7 years. |
Press Room
