[LGT-National] Disability Activists Need Your Support

[Mark_Johnson at shepherd.org]

 Dear Friends of ADAPT:                                            
                                                                   
 We write to you because we know you want a better world.  We know 
 you believe in the right for people with disabilities to live on  
 their own terms. During this Labor Day weekend, people across the 
 United States will celebrate the important victories gained by    
 the workers’ rights movement. Let us remember all the movements   
 that call for social change. Let us celebrate all the protests,   
 the sit-ins, the strikes, the marches, the leafleting and other   
 actions led by groups of people who believed our world and its    
 inhabitants deserve better!  These organizers used their hearts,  
 their minds, their very bodies and life so that change was made   
 in our country.                                                   
                                                                   
 The spirit of these organizers continues today through the hard   
 work and labor of ADAPT activists.  In April, the Obama           
 administration arrested 99 protesters with disabilities. These    
 protesters believed that President Obama’s campaign for change    
 included a change in Medicaid policy so that Americans with       
 disabilities will live in their own homes with publicly funded    
 in-home supports. In this same vein, across the United States,    
 ADAPT activists protested in sweltering July heat and rain at the 
 Democratic National Committee. ADAPT activists are very           
 low-income folks with all types of disabilities who believe that  
 our world and its inhabitants deserve better. For this reason,    
 they put their lives on the line by committing civil              
 disobedience.  Civil disobedience, with its physical and          
 emotional sacrifice comes also at a financial cost.               
                                                                   
 This Labor Day weekend, fight back against pity.  Fight back      
 against the shrinkage of public programs.  Fight back against     
 appeals from charities like the Muscular Dystrophy Association by 
 giving to ADAPT’s Legal Defense Fund.  Your contribution          
 continues the struggle to achieve a better world. Arrests like    
 the ones in Washington, DC will certainly continue. We need your  
 assistance to offset what we project to be at least $30,000 of    
 fines and legal fees that we will be assessed for our disability  
 rights activism.  All contributions will be used for fines and    
 legal fees and are tax deductible.                                
                                                                   
 We ask that during this Labor Day weekend, that you support the   
 struggle for people with disabilities to determine the direction  
 of their own lives. Your dollars will support the labor of ADAPT  
 activists who carry on the good fight to end the institutional    
 bias in Medicaid and pass the Community Choice Act.               
                                                                   
 Would you please send your contributions to:                      
                                                                   
 ADAPT Community                                                   
 Legal Defense Fund                                                
 1640A East 2nd St                                                 
 Austin, Texas 78702?                                              
                                                                   
 Thank you.                                                        
                                                                   
 Calling for an institution-free America,                          
                                                                   
 Rahnee K. Patrick                                                 
 ADAPT