Read about Kyle at the Convention from Access Life.
See photo of Kyle on the stage at the DNC from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Hello, my name is Kyle Glozier. I am 14 and a freshman at West Greene High
School in Greene County, Pennsylvania. I've been advocating for disability
rights with ADAPT since I was 8 years old. ADAPT is a national grassroots
disability rights organization that wants to change the institutional bias
in the long term care system so no person young or old is forced into a
nursing home or other institution.
ADAPT is working towards legislation
that will create a national attendant care program called the Medicaid
Community Attendant Services and Supports Act or MiCASSA. MiCASSA,
S 1935, was introduced into the Senate by Senator Tom Harkin, Democrat from
Iowa, and Senator Arlen Specter, Republican from Pennsylvania. This bill,
when passed, will give Americans with disabilities a real choice of where we
live and receive attendant services.
Right now the Medicaid long term care
system guarantees care in a nursing home or other institution, but there are
no guaranteed services in the community. This is wrong! They say God Bless
America to make us feel free, but really we are not free because the walls
of the hospitals, institutions, and nursing homes keep us locked up in the
name of care. Children, young adults, and older people are being forced
into nursing homes and other institutions because of a failed 35 year old
policy. MiCASSA will reform the system and FREE OUR PEOPLE. You need to
support this goal.
John F. Kennedy said these lines in a speech to West Berlin in June of
1963:
"Freedom has many difficulties and democracy is not perfect, but we have
never had to put a wall up to keep our people in, to prevent them from
leaving us. While the wall is the most obvious and vivid demonstration of
the failures of the Communist system, for all the world to see, we take no
satisfaction in it, for it is, as your Mayor has said, an offense not only
against history but an offense against humanity, separating families,
dividing husbands and wives and brothers and sisters, and dividing a
people who wish to be joined together. Freedom is indivisible, and when
one man is enslaved, all are not free."
Now 37 years later, why do the political leaders of the United States feel
that a Nursing Home or Institution is any different than that system in
Germany? Putting people in Nursing Homes or other institutions without
giving them any other choices, is an offense against history and an offense
against humanity. The Berlin wall as since been torn down and now is the
time to Tear down the Walls of the Nursing homes and other Institutions that
keep us separated from family, divided from husbands and wives, brothers and
sisters, and people who wish to be in the community. It is time for the
Democratic Party to reform the long term care system, pass MiCASSA and FREE
OUR PEOPLE!
The Supreme Court ruled last year in the Olmstead case that people should be
in the most integrated setting if that was their choice and that unnecessary
institutionalization was discrimination. Now another case will be heard in
October that questions the constitutionality of the ADA. If the States get
the right to implement the ADA any way they choose to, the civil rights of
people with disabilities will be abolished, and all the hard work that ADAPT
and other disability rights groups have been doing for the past 10 years
will have to begin all over again! The States are not allowed to rule the
civil rights of other minority groups in America and it's not fair to even
consider letting them rule the civil rights of people with disabilities.
Make no mistake discrimination is alive and well.
Let's talk about some of the federal laws that help people with
disabilities. The Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and section 504 have allowed
me and other kids like me to attend public schools, and adults to work.
IDEA has allowed me to be taught in the "Most integrated setting." I am in
regular education with supports, all written in my Individual Education
Program, or IEP, and I'm getting the same education as my peers that have
no disability. IDEA still has a long way to go in that it still segregates
kids in "special ed" classrooms where they learn about 10% of what they need
to know to live.
It is my opinion that IDEA needs to take the Special out
of Education and teach ALL kids! Because of the ADA people with
disabilities can exercise their civil rights. They can contribute to
society, by living and working in the community, instead of taking from it,
but again, there is still a lot of work to be done.
Buildings are still
being built that people who use wheelchairs cannot get into. Movie stars,
like Clint Eastwood are testifying to congress because they are being sued
for not having accessible hotels.
Businesses are discriminating against
people who become ill, by not holding their jobs, demoting them, and even
firing them.
Too often people with more severe disabilities like myself are
at a much greater risk of institutionalization because we need a higher
level of care to remain independent. I'm lucky right now because my parents
have learned about the federal legislation that will help me through life.
They made sure, after a doctor recommended that when I cease to be cost
effective, both emotionally and financially he would make arrangements to
have me placed in a hospital for crippled children, that I would have the
same opportunities that my brothers, Jason and Nigel have.
My parents
learned very early that none of the professionals had very high expectations
for me and they decided that high expectations were the only way I would get
anywhere in this world. Thank you mom and dad for working so hard. I'm
not safe though, when I turn 18 and my parents aren't there to fight for my
civil rights I will be at a much greater risk of going into a nursing home
or other institution.
I dream of going to collage to be a writer and
lawyer, and eventually becoming the first person with Cerebral Palsy to be
the President of the United States. Who knows, in the year 2024, I may be
up here again giving my acceptance speech for your nomination. I need to
have a good job and lot's of money to make sure I can pay for the community
attendant services I need. Without money or federal legislation that
guarantees services in the community I may not be able to make my dreams
come true. At the present time, people with money are more likely to stay
out of Nursing Home if they don't want to be in one. If a person doesn't
have money, they get forced into a nursing home.
My future will either be
living the American Dream just like anyone else, or it could be my
nightmare. What are the Democrats going to do for my future and what will
you do to reform the long term care system ? I challenge the Democratic
Party to work with people with disabilities, and future leaders like myself
to reform the long term care system, pass MiCASSA, and FREE OUR PEOPLE.
