PhilosopherCrip

This weekend, I’ll be going to Atlanta with the grassroots, non-violent, direct action group ADAPT to work toward ending the institutional bias in the United States long term care system.  “Institutional bias” is a term developed by disability activists to describe the unchallenged, irrational preference given by the federal government for funding the care of people with disabilities of all ages in institutions like nursing homes rather in the community with their families.

I will be blogging live from the action every day, so check philosophercrip.com often for my personal stories and reflections.  This will be part of a larger blogswarm effort being organized by my friend Nick Dupree over at http://www.nickscrusade.org.  For a preview of why we are headed to Georgia specifically, read http://www.adapt.org/atlanta2009.php.  Finally, for real time updates about the action as it unfolds, check out MIADAPT and NationalADAPT on Twitter.

Let’s FREE OUR PEOPLE NOW!!!!

Orange is the color of Community Choice!

So, anyone who follows this blog must be curious about my MIA status.  Basically, my commitments to school, work, and activism have put this blog on the back burner.  I’ve still been thinking, but have had a hard time getting around to the part where I log in and type it all up.  I don’t have time to write an original essay right now (but will in a few days I do hope).  I think the words I pasted in below are more compelling than anything I could write anyway. They are the words of my brothers and sisters who were arrested at the U.S. Capitol at the end of April.  They were arrested for performing acts of non-violent civil disobedience to raise public awareness of the incarceration of thousands of people with disabilities in institutions against their will.  They are the stories of personal motivation and public defiance.  Please read these stories and, if you can, donate whatever you can to the ADAPT legal defense fund, so we can continue to speak truth to power.  FREE OUR PEOPLE!!!!   http://www.adapt.org/donate.htm

Sentencing Statements by 38 ADAPT defendants, in front of Judge Keary, DC Superior Court, Washington, DC on May 20, 2009, in the case of United States of America v. Pamela Aver, et. al., Docket #2009-CDC-10565, et. al., following a guilty plea to unlawful assembly, and failure to obey a lawful order, for a protest at the United States Capitol on April 28, 2009:

Lantonya Reeves says: My physical disability is cerebral palsy & legal blindness. I had to move from Tennessee to Colorado because I needed attendant services & support. I had to leave my family & friends so I didn’t end up in a nursing home. I was at the Action at the Capitol because I was advocating for the COMMUNITY CHOICE ACT. This legislation will cover all the states so that disabled people will not have to be institutionalized in nursing homes. …Over a hundred ADAPT members [were] arrested. This is because we, ADAPT strongly believe that people in nursing homes should have the right to choose where they live. –

My name is Shelly Perrin and I have Cerebral Palsy and can’t walk. I live in Rochester, New York. I was in an institution from the age of 7 to 13. My parents finally got me out when I was 13 years old. When my parents passed away I was forced into a group home for about 12 years. Thanks to Cerebral Palsy Rochester I learned a lot of independent living skills. After learning these skills I no longer wanted or needed people to control my life. I moved out of the group home in 1997 and have been on my own; in my own apartment since that time. I have lived in an institution and I know how terrible the conditions are; I feel that it is my duty to help people get out of nursing and group homes. We must have the Community Choice Act signed into law. I was in the street with ADAPT to get our point across since the regular ways to show the government that an issue is important to us and society have not been successful. I am very disappointed that President Obama does not support the Community Choice Act. We must get this law passed to end the institutional bias in Medicaid and allow people to live independently in the community. I will not sit quietly watching people with disabilities to be put in nursing homes against their will.

Pam Auer is a 39 year old native of Kersey, Pennsylvania. She has had a physical disability, spina bifida since birth. Pam has been married for 12 years to Michael Auer, also a person with a disability, and has a 10 year old daughter Kristin. She and her family reside in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.The media’s attention was brought to the need for the Community Choice Act and the Obama Administration’s pre-election promise for implementation. It is a civil rights issue, not an additional service requested to be implemented. My convictions on the seriousness of the issue led me to group advocacy and up to committing civil disobedience.

My name is Louis Patrick. I was born in Memphis in 1947. I had polio in 1950; as a result I have paraplegia and currently use a wheelchair full-time to get around.
I came to Washington in April in hopes of helping to get the Community Choice Act enacted into law. I grew up and went to school with a number of youngsters with disabilities who were funneled into a local nursing home very early in life. In the course of working at my local center for independent living, and serving on its board, I’ve met, worked with and heard of many, many more persons with disabilities who’ve gotten trapped in nursing homes because of the lack of services available in our state. The Medicaid law needs to be changed to end the bias of putting people in nursing homes. I hope the presence of all of us with ADAPT helped to make the President and Congress more aware of the needs of a group of people whose voices are not usually heard and whose interests are usually misrepresented. It is long past time when people should have the choice of remaining in their own homes.

My name is Melanie Boyte, I have Cerebral Palsy (CP) in my life I have been told I can not do a lot of things. They were wrong!!!!!!!! I was told I was not able to live when I got cp, but now I’m a 33 year old, single mom of a great son and he already makes me so proud, nobody is different to him…. The Community Choice act will help in so many ways, and help so many people. I know things in politics do not happen over night, but we have been asking for 12 years…!!!!!!! I do believe that by all of us being there at the Capitol made a lot of people notice.

My name is Bob Kafka. I am a 63 year old spinal cord injured Vietnam veteran that uses a motorized wheelchair for mobility. I was born in NYC but have lived in Texas for 41 years.
I came to DC excited that a new Administration might finally commit to ending the institutional bias in Medicaid that has resulted in forcing people into nursing homes and other institutions. Lives of children, young adults and older people have been ruined because of the policies of this country. Something needed to be done to bring about change. I needed to be part of that change.Though we didn’t get the Administration or Congress to definitely say YES to eliminate the institutional bias- we did send a message that the community wants them to act and we will keep them accountable. If our efforts keep one person out of an institution it begins/continues the changes that must occur.

Julie Maury in handcuffs, driven by the memory of her lost love.

My name is Julie Maury. I am 27 years old and from New York City. I have Cerebral Palsy. In 2006, my boyfriend, Michael, of six years died of a bedsore that caused Sepsis, which then caused organ failure. He was in a Nursing Home. It was preventable – he did not have to die. But, it is very hard to prove Nursing Home neglect when one already suffers from Paralysis and other chronic health issues, as Michael did. He was hospitalized for a health issue, and while there, the staff, like bad car salesmen, convinced him to go into a Nursing Home. They “sold” the living in a Nursing Home idea to him like it was going to be Heaven. However, the nursing home was a nightmare from Hell. Michael would say in the Nursing Home: “Why is everyone telling me: It’s ok to ‘let go?’ I love life. I love the trees; I love the birds….”
I came to Washington DC to give a ‘voice’ and some kind of justice to those who have died from Nursing Home abuse and neglect. I came to Washington DC because I want people to have a choice as to where they want to live. I also came to DC for people who are not disabled and poor. I want people, in every State, to have the option to be cared for in their own homes, not Nursing Homes. And, that is exactly what the Community Choice Act will accomplish if it is passed. I was in DC fighting, with hundreds of my peers, to pass The Community Choice Act. I think that, for anyone, to have the ability to choose where you want to live, is an inalienable Human Right. I am proud to fight for the passing of The Community Choice Act.
I know, for a fact, that many people in Nursing Homes were comforted, and empowered, by our actions in DC. I think that we let President Obama know that it is not alright to break a promise to any of his constituencies; disabled or not. I think that we let the world know that we want people freed from nursing homes and other institutions now. We reminded able-bodied people that we exist and we want to work, have homes, get married and have children, just like others. People with disabilities want the American Dream too and we are capable of having it. Living the American Dream is not possible from a nursing home. Some people don’t want The American Dream. They just want to choose simple things like what to eat and when to go to bed-those things are not even possible in a nursing home. We let people know those facts. We helped raise consciousness.

My name is Jeremiah O’Dell. I live in Topeka, Kansas, and I am 25 years old. I started having seizures seemingly out of the blue when I was 22 years old. My health insurance was almost immediately terminated. I lost my maintenance job at the mall, and haven’t been able to go back to work since. I had to move back in with my parents at 22 years of age because I cannot afford to get my medications every month, and pay rent, so I had to give up my apartment. This has put my parents in a huge bind financially and emotionally. I am unable to work, and my Social Security case is still pending- now in year three. I receive a little bit of money from the State of Kansas- this assistance, though greatly appreciated is not nearly enough to survive, but it helps. I live in Kansas; I don’t get the opportunity to come to D.C. that often so when I do I make the best of it. Because of the ADAPT events that occurred on April 27th and 28th, to bring the issue out and in to the forefront, Representative Lynn Jenkins (KS), signed on to the Community Choice Act as a Co-Sponsor a couple of weeks after we left. I also believe because of the attention that our actions received, around D.C. in particular, people can clearly see that this issue is more than just politics for a whole lot of people it is real life!

My name is Damon Martin I have Cerebral Palsy and I am from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and I am one of the many ADAPTers that were arrested in Washington, D.C. I was arrested I believe, because I fought for “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness…” As it states in the ‘Declaration of Independence. How can any person Disabled or otherwise, attain any of these essentials living in a nursing home? A long time family friend of mine died literally kicking and screaming in a nursing home.
Hopefully with this new administration now in the White House they will see with the passage of the Community Choice Act (CCA) as we ADAPTers do that health care reform must include CCA to truly be reformed health care. Sadly, this act has not been passed into law. If my show of civil disobedience can bring light to the ongoing struggle that The Disabled Community has fought for several years then I say loud and clear: I’D RATHER DIE IN JAIL, THAN LIVE IN A NURSING HOME!!

My name is Barbara Marlnee from El Dorado, Kansas. I am employed by the Resource Center for Independent Living (RCIL) as a targeted case manager for the Home and Community Based Services Program for the Physically Disabled. My job is to assist these people to remain in their own homes in the community …. I have worked for RCIL for 10 1/2 years in this capacity and strongly believe in the Deinstitutionalization philosophy. The programs that exist that allow people to remain in their own homes and receive their care are amazing. I feel a great sense of obligation and passion to do whatever I can to keep these programs alive. I do this for the people who need the services now; but also for all of us who may at any time find ourselves in similar circumstances. Our homes, not nursing homes. I came to the Capitol in order to specifically take part in the Adapt Action and support Disability Rights. Our goal … was focused on getting the Community Choice Act included in the National Health Care Reform thus allowing people to have a true choice of where they receive services.
I believe that we were able to once again send the message loud and proud that we will not go away.

Ruben Fernandez, born May 30, 1966, and life-long resident of El Paso , TX . His condition is Severe Cerebral Palsy requiring assistance with basic hygiene and body functions. He has worked for several companies and volunteers for many disability organizations, including ADAPT. Ruben insisted on appearing in the Washington, D.C Action to assert “My Rights.” As a result, he believes we achieved “La Lucha” (The Fight).

Hello, my name is Robert D. Liston. I live in Missoula, Montana and for the most part, I have been a lifelong resident of Montana. I was born and raised in Helena, and at the end of my junior year in high school, I was in a car accident, damaging my spinal cord at the high chest level, resulting in the use of a wheelchair for mobility for the past 38 years.
Following two and a half months in the hospital, I spent almost three months in a nursing home for “rehabilitation.” What I came away from that experience with was not rehabilitation, but the knowledge that nursing homes are where people go to die.
That is how I came to know about the nursing home experience, and I observed many things that are unfit for humans to endure—people sitting/lying in their own waste, sometimes for hours; staff stealing from people; staff handling people roughly because they didn’t like being there anymore than the residents; or some actually trying to do the right thing, but too many people to take care of for the number of people working.
The Great Fallacy about nursing homes is that they provide 24 hour care. In reality, people are lucky to get 2-3 hours a day of direct contact with a staff person, usually an aide.
Personally, I was in D.C. because one of my Senators (Baucus) is the chair of the Finance Committee and is the “leader” of any potential Health Care Reform. I wanted to impress on him, and the Administration, the essential need to include Long Term Services and Supports in any Health Care Reform, and to ensure that the Community Choice Act (our bill) is taken up by Congress and not forgotten because they are already dealing with Health Care Reform.
I firmly believe that if our government does not enforce the civil rights of a large segment of its society, then we, the people, must do what we have done—bring greater attention to the issue, by means of civil disobedience if necessary, to ensure that we continue to be part of the dialogue. We must keep momentum moving forward so that more people who are aging and/or with disabilities are not forced to lie in soiled sheets, and are not exposed naked to the world with no concern for our privacy or personal dignity, in nursing homes or ICF-MR’s (Intermediate Care Facility for persons with Mental Retardation). As an aging baby-boomer whose disability has progressed with age, I live in terror at the prospect of history repeating itself by being forced into a nursing home due to the current institutional bias in the nation’s Medicaid program.

My name is Patricia Ann Taggart. I am from Rochester, NY. I have Cerebral Palsy. I came to ADAPT because my sister and I are twins, and the system is so messed up that one of us can get long term support services and the other can’t. When we were arrested, suddenly the TV and newspaper reporters and cameras showed up and interviewed people, so a lot more people heard about the problems we are dealing with and about the Community Choice Act.

While we were ultimately successful at Senator Debbie Stabenow’s Lansing office this week, we definitely rocked the boat quite a bit, thus really upsetting some of the crew.  In fact, the Lansing contingent of MI-ADAPT’s bad behavior even earned us a phone call the next day to our state organizer from one of the senior staffers.  It felt something like when you get in trouble at school and get a phone call to your parents that evening.  Except, in this case, we could count on the recipient of the call to be in on the act instead of ready to send us to our rooms with no dinner.  For the moment, I’m going to put aside how absurd it is for a government official to call and chastise a direct action activism group (she works for the people and should be the one afraid of displeasing us).  Rather, I’m going to write a few quick words about why it is non-violent, direct action, civil disobedience is necessary in American politics and how it is so very effective.  That is, this blog will be aimed at readers who are confused or upset by the notion that someone might use civil disobedience to “strong arm” others in negotiations amidst a democratic society.  I will do this in the context of other struggles for liberation, partially as a tribute to Black History Month.

Let’s start by pointing out some big differences between the context of our use of civil disobedience and the more familiar and more widely accepted usages of it by 1960s era civil rights leaders.  At the most obvious level, there is a difference in who is committing the civil disobedience. This is nothing more than the simple observation that crips are not a racial minority.  Moreover, we do not have the same history as black Americans and the nature of our oppression, while sharing some structural similarities, is not the same.  While we are also fighting for the end to institutionalized segregation (in nursing homes) and violence (physical and emotional abuse, and killing, that happens in these places), there are many differences between these experiences, most of which I can not even fully see or understand as a white male.

Black activists are met with violence in Birmingham, AL 1963

There is also a substantive difference in how the civil disobedience is carried out.  The famous actions of MLK highlighted the injustice of segregationist laws by breaking those very same laws.  The idea was, if it’s illegal for people of color to sit at the same lunch counter as everyone else, we are going to clog the lunch counters and make them lose business or have us arrested so that the world sees how wrong this is.  In the case of ADAPT’s actions, the laws we are resisting are not as straightforward and not as easily broken.  Medicaid regulations aren’t the type of things you can directly flout en mass to raise public outcry at their injustice.  I can’t even imagine what this would even look like.  How might we break the unjust laws of the institutional bias that incarcerates our people in nursing homes in a way that would be public and raise the tension around this issue to the surface of public consciousness where it can be seen by everyone and not just those that are suffering and dominated?

I don’t think that because we can not directly break the unjust laws with our actions it means that our civil disobedience is somehow unjustified.  It seems that the balance of power between the powerful and the marginalized is as scewed as ever and non-violent, civil disobedience is a viable tactic.

First, and most obviously, it raises the issue to public consciousness.  The drama of sit ins and arrests makes people talk.  What are these people doing?  What issue is so important to them that they are willing to sacrifice their bodies in this way?  Even the most negative response of “that’s not the way democracy works” at least gets people to acknowledge the issue at hand, which is difficult for a marginalized group that is so often swept aside for “sexier” political issues.

This week, MI-ADAPT’s action didn’t get to the point of police and TV crews, but it functioned as a negotiation tactic.  No one explains how civil disobedience is PART of the negotiation process better than the man himself, MLK, in “Letter From a Birmingham Jail” after he was imprisoned during the Birmingham lunch counter sit ins, “You may well ask: ‘Why direct action? Why sit-ins, marches and so forth? Isn’t negotiation a better path?’  You are quite right in calling for negotiation. Indeed, this is the very purpose of direct action. Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue.”  When there is such an imbalance of power that a marginalized group is not even allowed the common courtesy of serious consideration and negotiation, that is when non-violence must come in to play to put the negotiations back into balance.

This is exactly what happened at the Senator’s office last Tuesday.  Let me back up.  Over the past 2 years, MI-ADAPT had sent emails requesting co-sponsorship of the CCA that were responded to with form letters.  We had requested formal meetings to talk about our issue with the Senator and were told to wait and that they would “get back to us.” Once, some of our members showed up in the Senator’s DC office to see if she was there and might at least say a quick hello.  He caught her in the hall and was told she had already intended to sign on to the CCA and it must have been a staff oversight.  Clearly, this is a pattern of people with disabilities being swept aside and told to wait.  It was not an outright hostility, but it was a clear message that we are not a priority and our lives and liberty don’t matter as much as the issues she was dealing with.  This message came through loud and clear in Stabenow’s Lansing office this week.  Again, we were told they would pass along the message, but we would have to wait.  They could not guarantee support, they could not even guarantee a meeting about the substance of the issue.  That is, we were being told that THEY have the power and were not letting go of it.  THEY controlled if negotiations even would happen and were not about to give any ground.

ADAPTers getting arrested at national action in Nashville, TN 2006 (photo by Tom Olin)

It was only after we realized that we were not being negotiated with in a serious way because we were perceived as powerless that we moved to take back the power we needed in order to get the attention our brothers and sisters dieing in institutions deserve.  The chanting and blocking of the office exits was not a move at coercion, but a move to get their attention and become an urgent priority rather than a marginalized group that could be ignored.

This is the state of American politics.  It is built around a system in which big campaign contributors have access to the law makers and the rest of us are told to stand in line indefinitely.  When we do not have deep pockets, we need to find other ways of becoming a priority for our “public servants.”  Even those who are not directly hostile to our cause, like Debbie Stabenow who HAS supported de-institutionalization in the past, serve the whims of the already powerful.  The issues that have her attention — and the attention of every other legislator — are those that serve the interests of the wealthy and the connected.  To become a priority and to get her attention as a group deserving negotiation, we could not use our bank accounts, so, in the tradition of other marginalized groups, we used our bodies and our voices.

the familiar, yet always inspiring ADAPT logo!

Of course, for strategic reasons I can’t give too many details, but MI ADAPT is planning a significant non-violent direct action for early this week.  I thought others, both across MI and in other states, who cannot be with us physically, may be interested in sharing the energy and collective power that is ADAPT.

So, to get us at least part of the way there, I set up a Twitter.com account for MI ADAPT.  Twitter is an internet service that allows groups of people to communicate via status updates made by cell phone text message.  I plan to be twitting a full account of the MI ADAPT action, updating our “status” as events unfold.

To follow along, simply set up an account at http://twitter.com/ and then begin following http://twitter.com/MIADAPT.  You can follow from your PC or you can set up a modile device (cell phone, blackberry, etc) to receive twits.

To be sure, a full account will be sent out to the ADAPT listserves afterwards and I am sure I will offer personal reflection on the day’s events on this blog, but Twitter will allow for real time updates and, hopefully, a stronger feeling of solidarity.  Also, we may call on your help through twitter messages.

FREE OUR PEOPLE NOW!!!

My last post highlighted the idea that we, as human beings, belong to certain communities and play certain roles that limit or determine the possibilities of how we can respond to certain issues. That is, our social position and the relationships we have with others shapes how we think and act. However, I don’t want readers to think that I am some kind of moral relativist who believes that one way of thinking and acting is no better or worse than another. Philosophers may sometimes hold this view, but activists, surely, do not.

So, I’d invite you to watch the above youtube video that outlines McCain’s response to the Community Choice Act, which is perhaps the most important crip legislation to face the nation since the Americans with Disabilities Act. It calls into question Palin’s claims about her knowledge of and loyalty to disability politics by linking her to McCain’s hard line stance against this bill. I thought it was well made and summarizes a lot of what has happened with disability politics in recent history.

Also, look for my friend Amber being arrested at McCain’s office last spring (whose blog called this video to my attention at http://ambertracker.blogspot.com/) .

Both presidential candidates seem to have suddenly become populists with the closing of a few investment banks.  We are hearing about the tensions between Main Street and Wall Street and the tax squeeze on the middle class, who also wants to be bailed out.

Now, no doubt folks will suffer as our economy begins a tail spin and I certainly don’t want to come off as insensitive to that in any way.  As long as my grades stay up and I don’t have an affair with any of my students, my income is pretty much secure for the next few years, but this news terrifies me when I think of what it could mean for some of my family members.  I am not going to go into any of those details because it is their personal business, but the possibilities of a second great depression really make my stomach tighten into knots when i think about what it could do to some of those i love most.

With that said, I’m wondering if this economic crisis may not be ENTIRELY bad for everyone.  The logic of these situations usually means that when the economy is squeezed, the poorest class suffers most.  Tax payers earn less and pay less.  Trickle down economics ideology means that taxes are cut for the point of the socio-economic pyramid, so that the pump of investment will be primed.  This also means that social programs are cut back and public entitlement systems start trying everything they can to exclude folks from them.

This is what happens in a recession when times are tough.  Now, I wonder what would happen in a true economic meltdown?  I am not an economist by ANY stretch of the imagination, but I wonder if it may actually HELP the poorest of the poor, by giving them some company.  Wasn’t it the Great Depression that birthed the New Deal?  Couldn’t a NewER Deal eventually result from a second crisis, when the government is (hypotheically) forced to face the fact that millions (more) of folks are living in poverty and doing favors for the ultra-rich isn’t going to ever “trickle down” as investment is shipped over seas?  Would this result in a truly progressive tax code like exists in Europe?  Could this be how we get universal health care and solide retirement benefits?  What about more low income housing of better quality?

Of course, a disproportionate number of crips live in extreme poverty and lack housing.  If these sweeping changes do start to happen, it is going to be essential that we jump on this opportunity to be sure that universal health care includes choice in how/where long term care is delivered and that new low income housing is accessible and integrated in the community.

I don’t HOPE for a true economic crisis, because it may turn out to be a very dark chapter in history (remember, in the 30s we got FDR’s new deal as the solution to economic crisis, but the Germans got Hitler’s holocaust).  However, I wonder if there may be a small kernel of hope amidst the fear, for those who are most marginalized by the systems we have in place right now.

A fellow ADAPTer and I spent all of yesterday traveling.  Fortunately, our chairs made the flight without severe damage, which is pretty common and one of the many ways ableism plays out in a tangible way, as baggage handlers are not well trained or well equipped to deal with the equipent used by folks with disabilities.  However, because our chairs took so long to load, thus slightly delaying the flight, one of the crew felt the need to announce on the loud speaker as we were roaling up to our gate at our destination: “we ask that the handicapped passengers remain in there seats and wait for the rest of the plane to unload.”  Annoyed and already fired up from preparing for the ADAPT action, I said very loudly in response, “Stay in our seats? Oh darn, we were planning to run a footrace up and down the aisle!”  I’m not sure this was heard by the man with the speaker mic, but it definitely earned a few chuckles from those sitting nearest to me.

Now, clearly he was saying this for the benefit of the able bodied passengers who had to wait back in Detroit as our chairs were loaded by people who had no concept of what they were doing and took much longer than they should.  Of course, I understand that it is easiest for us to offload last, so that there is more space to manuever the isle chairs and the many do not have to wait for the few.  That is the typical procedure.  However, I was annoyed that the crew member had to announce this to the rest of flight, implying that somehow the time of the able bodied passengers was so very valuable and they needed to be soothed. 

Today, I have spent most of my time in trainings and meetings, semi-randomly meeting folks in the lobby and passages of the hotel during the down times.  I love this city and I love my people.  My biological family could never be replaced in how deeply I love them and the thankfulness I have for the sacrifices they have made for my benefit.  At the same time, when I spending time with other crip activists, I feel an almost familial relationship to them that is unlike other gatherings.  I certainly haven’t ever felt this unconditionally loved and accepted at a philosophy conference.  Crip culture and community is never as real to me as it is when I am in the physical presence of large numbers of my people.  This has a lot to do with my passion for this work.  I feel a connection to the other activists and know that same connection exists between me and the unseen and the unheard that are the most marginalized.  They are the reason we are here.  To bring them justice and welcome them to the beautiful world we know and love.

FREE OUR PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.adapt.org/

I’ve been kind of vague with most of my teachers and colleagues about how I am spending next week. I’m never exactly sure how folks will react to the idea of non-violent direct action civil disobedience. Sometimes, I get an amused chuckle when I explain to someone what ADAPT does. Other times, I get a reaction of disbelief, people thinking that oppression and the non-violent resistance that opposes it are historic relics. Another common response is condescending advice like “You can’t expect to get anywhere if you’re so angry like that. Why don’t you just ask them nicely for what you want?” Some of the people that are closest to me understand my motivations, but worry that my history of direct action activities may harm me or my career later down the line. The best explanation I know of what non-violent direct action is, how it works, and why marginalized groups use it is MLK’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.”

Of course our situations are not exactly analogous, but there are many similarities in the systems of our oppression and how they are sustained by privaleged classes. One similarity is that we are often - condescendingly - told that we should tolerate our marginalization with a pleasant disposition and not rock the boat. The fact is, ADAPT is trying to address the fact that thousands upon thousands of people with disabilities are incarcerated in nursing homes against there will across the US because of the way benefit programs are set up. This situation is sustained by the deep pockets of the nursing home lobby, combined with the cultural bigotry and social ignorance of our country that says people with disabilities are not capable of integration and are better off segregated out of view. This combination means that negotiation with the power structure controlling this issue is an impossibility.

Martin Luther King's Mug Shot

The full text of MLK’s illuminating letter can be found at: http://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html

In the meantime, this will get you started with an understanding of the reasoning behind why non-violent direct action is an essential tool: “You may well ask: “Why direct action? Why sit ins, marches and so forth? Isn’t negotiation a better path?” You are quite right in calling for negotiation. Indeed, this is the very purpose of direct action. Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored. My citing the creation of tension as part of the work of the nonviolent resister may sound rather shocking. But I must confess that I am not afraid of the word “tension.” I have earnestly opposed violent tension, but there is a type of constructive, nonviolent tension which is necessary for growth. Just as Socrates felt that it was necessary to create a tension in the mind so that individuals could rise from the bondage of myths and half truths to the unfettered realm of creative analysis and objective appraisal, so must we see the need for nonviolent gadflies to create the kind of tension in society that will help men rise from the dark depths of prejudice and racism to the majestic heights of understanding and brotherhood. The purpose of our direct action program is to create a situation so crisis packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation. I therefore concur with you in your call for negotiation. Too long has our beloved Southland been bogged down in a tragic effort to live in monologue rather than dialogue.”

With the fierce primary battle between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton and today’s announcement of McCain’s running mate Sarah Palin, this presidential election has been and will continue to be thick with identity politics. That is, individual members of historically marginalized groups are finally at the point of sharing real power in our country and other members of those same groups are taking notice and often voting according to that shared identity. Being a member of a marginalized group, I can appreciate the desire to vote according to that identity.

I absolutely believe that other folks with highly visible physical differences (like my dwarfism) and mobility disabilities (like my use of a power chair) understand a part of “what it’s like to be me” in ways that an able bodied person never could. Close friends and family have a strong sense of empathy and do feel my outrage or pain when they are present as I am being marginalized or ridiculed, but they do not know what it’s like to live every moment of your life with such marginalization or ridicule right around the corner. For those that are close to me, their empathetic suffering is a temporary condition.

So it is that I understand that even complete strangers who are genuine members of a marginalized group can profoundly and uniquely understand each other’s lived experience in some ways (but CERTAINLY not all ways). Because of this feeling that other members of our group “get it” just because they share this identity, it’s easy to want to support them in their political ambitions. We trust people like ourselves more easily and we see their success as intimately bound up with our success. That is why people of color and women came out in droves this year to support Barack and Hillary, respectively.

However, if we were to practice identity politics in a completely uncritical way, we run the risk of tokenizing ourselves. In fact, I believe this trap is what John McCain is betting on in choosing a female Veep today.

When someone is tokenized, they are deliberately placed in a social or political position that gives the appearance of inclusiveness. In other words, it is a dominant group’s attempt to satiate a subjugated group by throwing them a bone. A tokenized person with a disability in a mainstream classroom provides ammunition for a school board to claim that they are not discriminatory by segregating everyone else in a “special” education back room, “But look! We are inclusive where that kind of thing is appropriate!”

As voters, if we vote for someone just because they superficially share our marginalized identity, even if they support policies that strike directly against our interests, we tokenize that candidate. Sarah Palin has the biology of a woman, but the troubling brand of fiercely conservative politics that she shares with John McCain does nothing to help the ordinary working class American woman, who is trying to make good amidst a foreign and domestic crisis. Conservatism does nothing but preserve the status quo, which is largely a system of oppression for everyday women.

It’s curious that MCain is not willing to tokenize himself by talking publically about his disability. Perhaps the stigma of disability is too strong and too internalized for him to come to terms with the idea that he himself is disabled – he sustained permanent injuries from his time as a prisoner of war and collects a disability pension from the Navy. Or, it’s likely that he (rightly) believes that disability is not as unified an identity as gender or race and so most people with a disability would not vote for him based on that identity. One thing is certain, as long as John McCain opposes policies that would free our people (like the Community Choice Act or universal health care), I won’t vote for him no matter how cripped out he is.