Sept. 12, 2003 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
HUNDREDS "MARCHING" IN WHEELCHAIRS FROM PHILADELPHIA WILL HOLD BALTIMORE PRESS CONFERENCE; WANT "FREEDOM FROM NURSING HOMES"
Hundreds of activists who have been forced into nursing homes -- or just recently got out -- will mass in Baltimore on the 9th day of their 14-day, 144-mile march from the Liberty Bell to the U.S. Capitol.
At a noon press conference on Sat., Sept. 13 at the Inner Harbor, near the USS Constellation, marchers from over 20 states will describe their fight to stay out of nursing homes and explain why they want a change in the federal law that will currently pay for them to be in nursing homes, but not pay for much cheaper services that would keep them in their own homes.
The website www.freeourpeople.org is chronicling the entire 14-day march, with photos available to reporters for downloading, background and profiles of marchers.
This is the first time people in wheelchairs have staged such a grueling and difficult march -- one reminiscent of the shorter marches undertaken by civil rights activists in the 1960s for the Voting Rights Act. "We are marching for our lives, our freedom," activist Daniese McMullin-Powell told the crowd on Saturday as it paused in its march through Delaware. "I lost my whole 30's," 40-year-old Marlene Turon of Philadelphia told fellow marchers. "I was 31 when I went in and I just got out." Marcher Ursula Manley of Scranton, who turned 72 on Sunday, said, "I have no respect for any nursing home." Manley had been in a nursing home for 7 years.
Marchers want Congress to pass the Medicaid Community Attendant Services and Supports Act, or MiCASSA (S971 and HR2032), to require Medicaid to pay for services in one's own home -- assistance with bathing, dressing, meal preparation, etc. The bill was first introduced in 1997 by Rep. Newt Gingrich (R-GA).
At the press conference, members of Maryland's People On the Go, many of whom have been in state institutions, will speak against facilities like Rosewood in Baltimore County, says the group's chair, Phil Weintraub.
More marchers will join the ranks at Baltimore for the final push into Washington, culminating in a mass disability rights rally at Upper Senate Park on Thursday, Sept. 17. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <../attachments/20030912/93f97030/attachment.htm>