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capri0mniSo, a bit ago, posted an entry about comic book character Oracle, nee Batgirl, that merged into an post about disability rights and the importance of mainstream attitudes (basically, rewording the old saw that the biggest barrier isn't a steep flight of stairs, it's prejudice").
At the bottom of that post, as a footnote, I posted a link to this blog entry about how McCain, recently, completely and blatantly dismissed the issue of Community Choice. It was an attempt to show that the prejudice against the disabled is alive and well -- that the cultural attitude of locking the "poor cripples" away in a back room of the house, out of sight and out of mind did not, in fact, die out with the Victorians, but is alive and well.
... And then, it occured to me that this point might have whizzed right over people's heads, because they have no idea what "community choice" is, or why it matters. Well, here's a page that outlines a bit about it is.
The Readers' Digest version of the Readers' Digest Version (in case you don't feel like clicking through to a different bunch of links right now) is this:
The way it stands now, with Medicaid, is that if you're disabled, and need personal care (like help getting dressed in the morning, or help bathing yourself) the states will only give medicaid clients money to move out of your own house, and into a nursing home in order to receive that help. The Community Choice Act is a Senate bill that came up last year* that proposes to give grants to the states so patients can choose to continue living in their own homes and communities, and use that money to hire an aide to come help them out in the home, rather than being forced to move into an institution.
The thing is, this bill is not asking for a single cent of more money -- simply asking for medicaid to be more flexible so that the people who actually get the money (supposedly) get to choose how to spend it, and get to choose how and where they want to live. And the fact is, in-home care costs a good bit less than institutional care. So you'd think that a fiscal conservative like McCain would be in favor of it, but instead, he thought he could score more votes by saying, out loud and in public, during his first "Town Hall Meeting": "Sorry, no. This is just not an important issue, kthnxbai." (and the sad fact is, that stance probably will get him a bunch of supporters, especially in the Pro-Business sector of the Conservative Base -- maybe the nursing home lobby?).
I tried a Google News search for the event alluded to in the blog entry, where 40 ADAPT lobbyists were arrested outside his Washington Senate office, back in April, using the keyword combo: (McCain Lobbyists "Community Choice")** and got zero hits from the news media. It wasn't until I went to the Web in general that I got any information about what happened, with the exact same keywords (207 hits, to be exact, from Disability Activist and Democratic Party Blogs).
Gee, in April, right smack dab in the middle of the primary campaign, a nationally-organized, direct-action, civil rights group descends on McCain's Washington Senate office and gets arrested en masse after over an hour of intense negotiation, and none of the mainstream news media saw fit to cover it? (I tried to give the Media another chance, right now, by putting "McCain, April 28, 2008" in the search window [the day of the protest] just to see if any news people noticed anything unusual happening at his offices, that day. Again: nada). What really stings, for me, at least, isn't so much that he doesn't support "community choice," it's that he thinks so little of the disability community that he has no fear of losing our votes after blowing us off in public (or thought -- a recent reply to that blog entry I linked to suggests that he's changed his mind).
This is how marginalized the Disability Community is in our culture, folks. And this is why, in my ideal comic book with a Disabled Superhero, there would be at least signs that other, non-super, disabled people exist, without drawing special attention to the fact, away from the main action -- just as there are indications of multiple races in the background crowds, or a mix of men and women, or of adults and kids -- and how they seem to be able to indicate such diversity without a whole lot of fuss and thought.
One morning, a couple days ago, I dreamt I was walking (well, moving at pedestrian speed, using my chair) through a shopping mall parking lot with friends, and we were noting how many wheelchair-accessible parking spaces there were, and how many of them were being used and noting that this was evidence that I wasn't the only wheelchair user out and about that day, even if we didn't actually meet another wheelchair user in the throngs inside. That's an exercise you might want to try, sometime, the next time you go shopping, or to the movies... just a thought. We're not really that invisible.
*And it's still being batted around from committee to committee, rather than coming up for a vote.
**(that's what McCain was referring to when he said: "I will be glad -- as we did, when you came to my office, and many of your friends came, as well -- and I will continue to communicate with you, and I will continue to my commitment to all Americans with disabilities." What really happened was: he was not in his office that day. The cops were called. Cops and McCain staff and ADAPT lobbyists tried to work something out, and when those talks broke down after an hour, cops arrested the 40 lobbyists. McCain did not communicate with them)
At the bottom of that post, as a footnote, I posted a link to this blog entry about how McCain, recently, completely and blatantly dismissed the issue of Community Choice. It was an attempt to show that the prejudice against the disabled is alive and well -- that the cultural attitude of locking the "poor cripples" away in a back room of the house, out of sight and out of mind did not, in fact, die out with the Victorians, but is alive and well.
... And then, it occured to me that this point might have whizzed right over people's heads, because they have no idea what "community choice" is, or why it matters. Well, here's a page that outlines a bit about it is.
The Readers' Digest version of the Readers' Digest Version (in case you don't feel like clicking through to a different bunch of links right now) is this:
The way it stands now, with Medicaid, is that if you're disabled, and need personal care (like help getting dressed in the morning, or help bathing yourself) the states will only give medicaid clients money to move out of your own house, and into a nursing home in order to receive that help. The Community Choice Act is a Senate bill that came up last year* that proposes to give grants to the states so patients can choose to continue living in their own homes and communities, and use that money to hire an aide to come help them out in the home, rather than being forced to move into an institution.
The thing is, this bill is not asking for a single cent of more money -- simply asking for medicaid to be more flexible so that the people who actually get the money (supposedly) get to choose how to spend it, and get to choose how and where they want to live. And the fact is, in-home care costs a good bit less than institutional care. So you'd think that a fiscal conservative like McCain would be in favor of it, but instead, he thought he could score more votes by saying, out loud and in public, during his first "Town Hall Meeting": "Sorry, no. This is just not an important issue, kthnxbai." (and the sad fact is, that stance probably will get him a bunch of supporters, especially in the Pro-Business sector of the Conservative Base -- maybe the nursing home lobby?).
I tried a Google News search for the event alluded to in the blog entry, where 40 ADAPT lobbyists were arrested outside his Washington Senate office, back in April, using the keyword combo: (McCain Lobbyists "Community Choice")** and got zero hits from the news media. It wasn't until I went to the Web in general that I got any information about what happened, with the exact same keywords (207 hits, to be exact, from Disability Activist and Democratic Party Blogs).
Gee, in April, right smack dab in the middle of the primary campaign, a nationally-organized, direct-action, civil rights group descends on McCain's Washington Senate office and gets arrested en masse after over an hour of intense negotiation, and none of the mainstream news media saw fit to cover it? (I tried to give the Media another chance, right now, by putting "McCain, April 28, 2008" in the search window [the day of the protest] just to see if any news people noticed anything unusual happening at his offices, that day. Again: nada). What really stings, for me, at least, isn't so much that he doesn't support "community choice," it's that he thinks so little of the disability community that he has no fear of losing our votes after blowing us off in public (or thought -- a recent reply to that blog entry I linked to suggests that he's changed his mind).
This is how marginalized the Disability Community is in our culture, folks. And this is why, in my ideal comic book with a Disabled Superhero, there would be at least signs that other, non-super, disabled people exist, without drawing special attention to the fact, away from the main action -- just as there are indications of multiple races in the background crowds, or a mix of men and women, or of adults and kids -- and how they seem to be able to indicate such diversity without a whole lot of fuss and thought.
One morning, a couple days ago, I dreamt I was walking (well, moving at pedestrian speed, using my chair) through a shopping mall parking lot with friends, and we were noting how many wheelchair-accessible parking spaces there were, and how many of them were being used and noting that this was evidence that I wasn't the only wheelchair user out and about that day, even if we didn't actually meet another wheelchair user in the throngs inside. That's an exercise you might want to try, sometime, the next time you go shopping, or to the movies... just a thought. We're not really that invisible.
*And it's still being batted around from committee to committee, rather than coming up for a vote.
**(that's what McCain was referring to when he said: "I will be glad -- as we did, when you came to my office, and many of your friends came, as well -- and I will continue to communicate with you, and I will continue to my commitment to all Americans with disabilities." What really happened was: he was not in his office that day. The cops were called. Cops and McCain staff and ADAPT lobbyists tried to work something out, and when those talks broke down after an hour, cops arrested the 40 lobbyists. McCain did not communicate with them)
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no subject
Date: 2008-07-29 11:49 pm (UTC)I don't know if this will make you feel any better or not, but I ran a Google search using April 29, which is the date it would have been reported by most news outlets and therefore the date I suspected would show up in most searches, and came away with a few hits from legitimate news organizations (The Boston Globe, CBS News, and an AP story on a DC area news/talk radio station, which implies that the story was available, at least, via the AP). I used mccain "april 29 2008" medicaid disabled as my search terms in a regular Google search--Google News still brought up nothing, which is curious, given that all three hits should have come up, which makes me wonder if perhaps there's a limit on how far back GN searches can go.
In any case, thanks for explaining Community Choice. The change to the law does seem to be a no-brainer, but often things that are obvious to us mere mortals are not obvious to Congress--the whole thing makes me think of things like the occasional Republican campaigns to end PBS even though it costs virtually nothing per citizen. Perhaps Congress (or government in general) is the best proof of the idea that one should never underestimate the stupidity of people in large groups--though they do occasionally get it right, and remain our only hope of change...which is not always the most inspiring thought, is it? :-\
no subject
Date: 2008-07-30 12:16 am (UTC)Interesting. Because when I just put the date in, GN gave me extra links to previous years -- going as far back as 2002. .... Maybe it has something to do with News orgs. who buy sponsership space on Google?
But yeah. Issues like this, in general, seem to get less mainstream coverage than other issues (like Amy Wienhouse's rehab), presumably because "the Disabled" is considered to be such a small minority (even though it's the only minority group that anyone can become a member of, without choosing to). My personal belief is that we're not that small a minority, but because of barriers to public participation, we seem to be.
If that lobby group were representing a racial or religious organization, you can bet the event would be all over the news...
[eta: two points -- yeah, it does make me feel a little bit better (though this is tipping my internal debate over in favor of getting a new subscription to New Mobility mag) and why didn't I think to remember the search term "medicaid"?! *forehead slap*