ADAPT visits Attorney General Sessions home
By Allison Donald
Two hundred ADAPT activists marched and chanted through the heat and the streets of Washington DC to confront Attorney General Jefferson Beauregard Sessions. ADAPT members crowded onto the sidewalk in front of the steps leading up to his front door.
ADAPT came there to hold Jeff Sessions accountable for his failure to uphold the ADA and protect the life and liberty of Americans with disabilities. Sessions has also failed to recognize and support the Disability Integration Act (HR2472) Senate bill (S 910).
We were met by an elderly gentleman and a woman, two neighbors of Mr. Sessions’ both of whom had very different and strong reactions to our chant of “Our homes not nursing homes.”
The elderly gentleman was visibly upset and said “you will get nothing done by harassing this man (Sessions) at his home.” Soon after his objections were drowned out when ADAPTERS started chanting, “Free our siblings free our children now.” As I looked over to my left the woman was standing at the top of the steps clapping and nodding her head in agreement with ADAPT.
During his confirmation hearings Jeff Sessions said “the Justice Department must remain faithful to the Constitution’s promise that our government is one of laws, not of men.” It will be my unyielding commitment, if I am confirmed to see that the laws are enforced faithfully, effectively, and impartially.”
“We (ADAPT) are going to save Medicaid not only for ourselves," said Dawn Russell of Denver ADAPT, "but for our brothers and sisters locked away in nursing homes or buried on endless waiting lists.”
Disabled people deserve to live in the community with the proper long term supports and services which is our right as Americans.
ADAPT demands that Attorney General Jeff Sessions recognize the following:
- Acknowledge the unwanted institutionalization denies disabled Americans their constitutional right to liberty.
- Work with ADAPT and the disability rights community to pursue high profile Olmstead and ADA enforcement actions in every state to address the institutionalization of thousands of people with disabilities-of all ages-in nursing facilities.
- Work with ADAPT and the autistic advocates to stop the torture of disabled Americans in the Judge Rotenberg Center who are subjected to electric shock and other painful aversive treatment.
- Work with ADAPT and the National Council on Independent Living to devise enforcement and technical assistance strategies to assure that the civil rights and civil liberties of disabled Americans are protected across the disaster cycle of preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation.
This show of force by was to put Jeff Sessions on notice that we are not going to stand by or sit down while disability rights continue to be disregarded. If we have to ADAPT will come back. As people with disabilities we are not going to apologize for who we are, because disability rights are civil rights.
If you would like more information about ADAPT and our demands to Attorney General Jeff Sessions visit www.adapt.org. If you want more information about the Disability Integration Act (HR 2472) or Senate bill (S910) visit www.disabilityintegrationact.org. You can also follow Mid-South ADAPT on twitter @southadapt and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/midsouthadapt to keep with our journey this week just use the hashtag #ADAPTandResist to keep up with our journey this week on all social media platforms.
FREE OUR PEOPLE!
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