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SAYS
are Mouth's interviews with leaders and front-line advocates in
the disability rights movement who say what they think, right out
loud. We print them here in full. They're listed in no particular
order. Click on the name of the someone you want to hear from. We
guarantee they'll have something to say that's worth a listen.
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VELVETA
SAYS - Velveta
Golightly-Howell is acting regional manager of the Region VIII
U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Office of Civil
Rights. (We call it OCR for short.) She is actively involved in
implementing the Supreme Court's Olmstead decision where the Court
ruled that 'placing' people with disabilities in nursing homes
and institutions makes a public assumption that they "are incapable
or unworthy of participating in community life." The Court called
that discrimination.
"The OCR believes
in civil rights. The ADA is a civil rights law."
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JUDY
SAYS - Judith Gran
is another Philadelphia attorney who has devoted her working life
to freeing people with disabilities from institutions. And she wins.
"The movement
to close institutions, to assert the rights of people with disabilities
to live in their homes and communities, has been the most successful
civil rights movement in our country. This is the cutting edge
of civil rights work."
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JOHN
SAYS - Professor John
McKnight of Northwestern University is famous for his research on
poverty where he discovered that, after all the programs our government
has designed and implemented, the trouble with poor people is that
they still don't have money. In this brief interview, he talks about
the disability system and its "consumers."
"The money
doesn't go to the people who are pitied. It's a bait and switch
tactic. People who are labeled are the bait. The switch is that
the money goes to pay professionals."
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MAJOR
SAYS - Representative
Major Owen, one of the sponsors of the ADA, says something you'll
want to hear about hostility among the haves for the have-nots.
"What is our
greatest enemy? Segregation. Segregation and the attitude that
fosters segregation."
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DOHN
SAYS - Dohn Hoyle
directs the Washtenaw Association for Community Advocacy, formerly
an Arc, in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He's also been on the team to close
every DD institution in the state of Michigan. And the last one
will shut down any minute now.
"With guardianship...
it's not like you're just a few rights short of full citizenship.
Somebody else controls your life, as if you're a child. But they
do things with you that we wouldn't do to kids."
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