From Mark_Johnson at shepherd.org Fri Jan 15 14:33:22 2010 From: Mark_Johnson at shepherd.org (Mark_Johnson at shepherd.org) Date: Fri, 15 Jan 2010 14:33:22 -0500 Subject: [LGT-National] Commemorating the Legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. Message-ID: Please take action and distribute widely, it's Freedom Day! As Americans remember Martin Luther King Jr. for his work to make his dream of equality a reality for African Americans, we realize that there is still a long road ahead for people with disabilities, particularly those who are locked away in nursing facilities and other institutions. The Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (HHS/OCR) is charged with enforcing the Olmstead decision which states that people with disabilities have the right to live and receive services in the most integrated setting. Since the Supreme Court's decision, we have made little progress on this issue and the energies of HHS/OCR have been primarily directed toward addressing privacy rights while Americans with disabilities are denied their freedom. Instead of affirmatively enforcing the Olmstead decision and tackling systemic complaints, HHS/OCR has focused on very limited enforcement on some individual complaints. ADAPT groups across the country are telling HHS/OCR that they need to affirmatively enforce the Olmstead decision. Please take the time to send a message directly to key decision-makers at the Department of Health and Human Services and in their Office for Civil Rights. You can use this link: http://capwiz.com/rochestercdr/issues/alert/?alertid=14561181 Take action now and FREE OUR PEOPLE! On behalf of the ADAPT Community, Bruce Darling ------------------------------------------ This message and accompanying documents are covered by the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, 18 U.S.C. 2510-2521, and contain information intended for the specified individual(s) only. This information is Confidential, Protected by the Ga Peer Review Code and may be privileged. If you are not the intended recipient or an agent responsible for delivering it to the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that you have received this document in error and that any review, dissemination, copying, or the taking of any action based on the contents of this information is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please notify us immediately by returning this email to the sender at shepherd.org and then delete the original message and attachments. This email has been scanned and found to be virus free. If this message contains a virus please contact postmaster at shepherd.org.