ADAPT Meets Governors
Disability rights not even a blip on their radar screen
by Jennifer Burnett
From the May issue of Mouth magazine:
ADAPT's long-planned meeting with the executive committee of the National Governors Association (NGA) demonstrated one thing: the civil rights of people with disabilities don't rate even a blip on gubernatorial radar screens.
Delaware's Governor Thomas Carper and Utah's Governor Mike Leavitt, chair and vice-chair of the NGA, clearly knew nothing of the Olmstead case when they met with Bob Kafka, Linda Anthony, and 16 other ADAPT organizers on Saturday, February 20, opening day of the semiannual NGA conference. This meeting came about only after pressure from ADAPT at the NGA's Milwaukee meeting in August. But even people pressure hadn't moved the governors to take a look at disability nation demands.
ADAPTers arrived, escorted by NGA security staffers, at the NGA boardroom where the guvs made an imperial entrance, sweeping the room with handshakes. (Guess they never know when they'll need your vote.) ADAPT cut to the chase, demanding that the NGA get off the amicus brief supporting the Olmstead petition at the Supreme Court.
The two top governors passed the buck, explaining that three other governors, the Legal Affairs Committee, made the decision to join that suit. They asked ADAPT to explain why our community opposes their position.
Kafka and the others spent the remaining 45 minutes of the meeting attempting to educate the guvs, who were in a hurry to get on to their next meeting. They left ADAPT with NGA staffers, saying they'd get back in touch by phone after a noon meeting with their Legal Affairs people. The governors did not make that call.
At the meeting's conclusion, Matt Salo, NGA's senior Health Policy Analyst stayed behind to say a good word for the Olmstead petition. "This is not a civil rights issue," he said. "It's a fiscal issue."
Later that afternoon, 60 ADAPTers attempted to enter the hotel where the NGA conference was going forward. Both hotel entrances were barricaded. Justin Dart, attempting to enter the hotel to meet with his friend, Governor Bush of Texas, was barred. Dart then joined the two-hour protest outside.
TALKING POINTS FOR ACTIVISTS
OLMSTEAD'S PETITION TO THE COURT
OUR OPPONENTS
FROM THE BRIEF
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