The Baffling Case of the Vanishing Civil Rights

by Dora Raymaker · 2009-05-12 10:14:00 UTC
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cover of a pulp mystery novel: the top says 'WEIRD! FANTASTIC! ASTOUNDING!' and below in very large print 'BAFFLING' and smaller 'JULY'. beneath that it says '10 (cents symbol),' 'No.21,' 'MYSTERIES.' below that its a cartoon drawing of a tyrannosaurus coming out of a circular opening filled with steam and flames. in the mid-ground a man in a bowler and jacket says 'WOW! THEY WERE RIGHT! NOBODY WILL BET THE NEOLITHIC TREASURE WITH THAT PREHISTORIC MONSTER ON GUARD!' in the foreground the is top of a second man's head in a miner's hat just one eye and ear is visibleBack during the Obama transition, to the cheers and tears of the millions who it currently impacts and the millions it will impact in the future, the following text was included under the President-Elect's Disabilities Agenda on change.gov:

And fourth, support independent, community-based living for Americans with disabilities by enforcing the Community Choice Act, which would allow Americans with significant disabilities the choice of living in their community rather than having to live in a nursing home or other institution, creating a voluntary, budget-neutral national insurance program to help adults who have or develop functional disabilities to remain independent and in their communities, and streamline the Social Security approval process.

After the Obama transition, that same text remained under the President's Disabilities Agenda on whitehouse.gov, a reassurance that our civil rights, our legal protections, and our personness was finally being seen, noted, and addressed. We would not be forgotten or ignored, not this time.

Flash-Forward to last week. That text has been removed and replaced with,

Too many people who need assistance with activities of every day life are faced with a difficult choice. They can move into a nursing home and face safety and quality of care problems or risk injury or death by staying in the community without adequate services to take care of personal needs. The President believes that more can be done to encourage states to shift more of their services away from institutions and into the community, which is both cost effective and humane.

Um...the responsibility is now on the (already-making-horrific-cuts-to-services-for-people-with-disabilities) states???

Disability rights activist Nick Dupree has created the following (captioned) video blog (original post, includes transcript of video).

Nick's Crusade Blog - May 7, 2009 from Alejandra Ospina on Vimeo.

Petition the federal government here and also here. Read the Universal Health Care Cause's take on it here.

Also, here is CCA information and action from the National Council on Independent Living, and (see especially the links at the bottom) from ADAPT.

Take action. Don't let our rights vanish.

Dora Raymaker
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