FREE OUR PEOPLE

ADAPT Leads March for MiCASSA

Rep. Dennis Moore, center, plays Woody Guthries's "This Land is Your Land" while, left to right, Rep. John Shinkus, Sen. Tom Harkin and Rep. Danny Davis join in at ADAPT's MiCASSA rally.

More than two hundred people from more than 25 states and two from Switzerland, most using wheelchairs, traveled 144 miles from the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia, Pa. to Washington, D.C. in ADAPT's Free Our People March, Sept. 4 through 17 to emphasize to Congress the need to pass MiCASSA, the Medicaid Community-based Attendant Services and Supports Act (S971 and HR 2032).
Marchers endured thunderstorms and intense heat to emphasize the need to keep people out of nursing homes. Federal law guarantees funding for nursing homes, but does not guarantee that the same dollars are spent to help people stay in their own homes, which most feel would be a significant savings to taxpayers.
"We've been working for over ten years to get this legislation passed," said Eric von Schmetterling of Philadelphia ADAPT at the start of the march, "and Congress keeps refusing to act, despite the fact that there are 600 organizational supporters and despite the fact that every additional day they keep their heads in the sand, they are wasting the lives of older and disabled Americans who remain warehoused in this nation's nursing homes and institutions."
Marchers camped along the way, traveling with tents, portable bathrooms and a mobile physical plant to recharge and repair wheelchairs. Vans rode along the route to retrieve those with mechanical problems or dead batteries. The marchers who averaged about 10 miles per day were greeted and hosted along the way by volunteers who provided food and assistance. Some nights they camped out and other nights were spent in churches.
Additional marchers joined the procession along the way.
Marchers were elated en route when co-organizer Bob Kafka received a letter from an assistant to President George Bush inviting ADAPT "back to the White House to continue our discussion." Organizers planned to meet at the White House, as well as lobby in Congress, after the march.
Amtrak provided a special train for 300 people stopping in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania to pick up passengers. The train arrived in Washington in time to greet the marchers as they passed the station and then the 300 joined the march for the final leg to the rally on Capitol Hill.
"The marchers looked like they had survived a war as they came by," said Danny Robert who traveled from New York City. "They were so burned from the sun and some looked battered." Thousands of supporters cheered the marchers as they arrived at the rally.
MiCASSA co-sponsors, the first to speak, included Senators Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Arlen Spector (R-Pa.) and Representatives Danny Davis (D-Ill.) and John Shimkus (R-Ill.). A number of national disability groups were represented on the podium including the National Council on Aging, the National Council on Independent Living, ADA Watch, the American Association for People with Disabilities.
In a poignant moment Yoshiko Dart stood next to Justin Dart's wheelchair, hat and boots as she spoke to the crowd.