Chuck Grimes wrote: Marta Russell
> This medical versus social versus civil right versus economic modeling
> of disability is a tough one.
>
> ...This takes a minute to figure out. If you can not get to
> the public realm, then none of the other rights you may have,
> unalienable or not, can be made manifest in a public space, in a
> public life.
Yes, this is systemic oppression which keeps disabled people out of the social political sphere. Yet, I've had many experiences trying to attend "leftie" meetings here in LA. that are held in spaces not accessible to a wheelchar. Why do you think it is that after 8 years of the ADA, access is not given credibility by so many of these groups???
> BTW, Marta, do know Mary Lou Breslin, Pat Wright, and the DREDF crowd?
I know about DREDF and who Mary Lou and Pat are, but I only know Marilyn Golden personally.
> But there is good local news. A group of yet other disabled politicos
> put together a measure for the City of Berkeley to add a property tax
> increase to pay for a City funded emergency van transportation service
> (can you hear the faint tinkle of Federal matching money?). The idea
> is if you break down in your chair or get stuck somewhere, you call up
> and get a ride home and your chair gets fixed or dropped off at a shop
> around town. I am fairly sure it passed, although I haven't seen the
> local papers. (The outfit that runs this service is more like a coop,
> run by at least one or two other disabled people--cool, huh?)
Yes it passed and it is a great idea. Makes me want to move to Berkeley.
> There is a point here I'd like to make about voting.
>
> Carrol Cox I think, and Christopher Niles, for various reasons said
> they don't vote. I won't claim it makes a big difference. But voting
> is just one part of a spectrum of political action. For
> example, this obviously needed city measure is another part of that
> spectrum, which is also a small part of building up a sense of
> community. Since I know most of the people who put together this city
> measure, and of course one of places that transportation service will
> drop off chairs is in my lap, of course I took every opportunity to
> encourage people to vote. It wasn't much of a job, since nobody in the
> shop with a broken chair put up much resistance! (This shop is in a
> big warehouse and shares space with other companies)
>
> But the point is to engage all the forms available, from pointless
> boycotts to meaningless voting, to getting self-serving, last minute,
> mid-night measures on the local ballot. All that pointlessness,
> meaninglessness and those self-serving measures add up, after
> awhile. Like they say, a billion here and billion there and pretty
> soon we are talking real money. Everything helps a little bit. Sure, I
> am ready to become Citoyen Grimes, and sit on the Committee for Public
> Security with Saint Just, David and Robbespierre, but in the meantime,
> there is this other business to get done.
The fact that so many of these "reforms" affect people's lives directly is the reason to act when there is something in the process. I did vote for the reasons you expressed and because my ass is on the line. If Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid get pounded even more than already, I will pay the price. So while I deeply understand that the problem is capitalism itself, I do want the health care I need and can't wait for the much hoped for but very distant revolution for that.
> Locally, everybody was dancing in the street this morning. That damned
> big money from LA better start flowing around here like water pretty
> soon.
>
> We should have a direct funnel straight to the State coffers with
> Willie Brown in SF, Jerry Brown in Oakland, and Gray Davis as
> Governor. For those who don't know--these guys represent the former
> democratic power elite in California and they are all right here
> running the local city governments. With Barbara Boxer, Diane
> Feinstein, in the Senate and Barbara Lee, Tuscher(?), Lantos in the
> House, I want to see some of that Federal money start coming back in
> here too.
Well we still have Dick Riordin, our republican multimillionaire mayor, to deal with down here. Do you know that he has bottle necked millions of federal dollars designated to build housing for homeless, especially people with AIDS who end up on the streets because the social safety net is so lousy. This is in the face of a rather large funded activist AIDS community here.Public housing here has been so bad people sometimes have to wait 16 years to get a section 8 voucher - then try to find a landlord that has an accessible apartment. This place is the den of developer corruption. Now many public housing units are going private, raising rents, kicking people out who can't come up with the extra cash. Since the feds passed that senior-only low income housing rule, disabled people are being turned out of these complexes too. Our ILCs down here are useless. They are composed of yuppie fundraisers who oppress disabled people who cannot work. They look down their noses at disabled people who are not able to compete as workers, keep up with their able bodied staffs. ITS TRUE!!!!! The independent living movement has in many ways become the status quo run by survival of the fittest types, the inverse of what was intended by Ed Roberts and the Rolling Quads.
> And there is more. Since the demos control both state senate and
> assembly, guess who gets to re-district California? I wanna see those
> gerrymandering plans to make sure we never hear from another rightwing
> jerk in public office around here again--not ever. Even Ball lost as
> far as I know. And the Indians get to set-up their own casinos. (Larry
> G, called in sick today--I'll bet he was out too late celebrating)
Celebration IS in order on this one!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I hope the effect trickles down South.
Marta Russell