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First Up is one for New Humanist Magazine. WE WANT WHAT YOU'VE GOT Since the late '80s disabled people have used tactics of non-violent civil disobedience in their fight for basic human rights. Once the politics of disability were established. Once we stopped blaming ourselves or more particularly our impairments for what was happening to us and focused on how society discriminated against us it was inevitable that we would use such tactics. Every other movement has. Democracy and the right to vote in this country were obtained through such actions. It has always been the role of the oppressor to label such actions as undemocratic or sinister. Martin Luther King was a "Communist" Mandela a "Murderer." Ghandi was a "terrorist." DAN the disabled people's Direct Action Network has been called violent, unrepresentative, fanatic, etc. I want to stress that in over 150 actions only two people have been hurt both DAN members. Direct Action is feared because it is not controllable by the establishment. It cannot be managed, it comes as a surprise. DAN is trying to change the way society thinks about disabled people. We want you to stop feeling sorry and get angry that whole parts of your community have their human rights abused everyday. We want to dismantle the way that disabled people receive care through Social Services and Health Authorities and create new structures that enable everyone to fully participate in their communities. We want to ensure that everyone has the right to live where they want and how they want. We want to close down all institutions for disabled people by offering a real choice to live in the community. How many of your readers would choose to live in residential care or nursing homes if there was full support in the community? Through our actions and protests we challenge the government to ensure that all citizens have basic human rights and at the same time create the public debate about an issue that is not at the forefront of public consciousness. Through our actions we grow stronger in our commitment and purpose. We channel our anger into creating positive solutions. The democratic process in this country has been slowly dismantled over many years. Politicians and the media tell us in subtle and not so subtle ways to not be "political" as if it’s a dirty word. They should know! Consultation has become a complete farce and a waste of time. Consultation is now just an exercise to find someone/ anyone who agrees with you. The Thatcher and Regan eras have left a legacy of selfishness in politics and society that is still prevalent today. No political party who aspires to power wants to raise taxes to help people in dire need. Instead they continue to give out small handouts saying, "Rome wasn't built in a day." We've tried the proper channels and the traditional ways but they haven't delivered, we've been reasonable only to be patronised, if someone knows a better way that we haven't tried please tell us. Until that time we will continue to go to jail and use tactics of non violent civil disobedience to accelerate the change process just to defend what we do have. Second up is an article on Equalities written for Birmingham City Council followed by the last letter from the late great Justin Dart. MANAGING INEQUALITY I went to a conference about 3 months ago. The speaker talked about managing inequality. She was right! We promote equality but we know that the electors will not vote for the money to implement it. If the electors don't vote for it the politicians are elected to ensure that we never have the resources to get there. A skilful trick has been played on the British public, fashioned in the US in the late '70s and exported over here in the '80s which is to create a selfish society which is only interested in handing out scraps to the growing underclass in which disabled people find themselves. The mantra is that "if you can't look after yourself tough." "They are your kids you raise them and pay for it". "Why should I pay my hard earned cash to help you?" "It's not my problem." This is the socio political landscape that Equalities work resides in. Whilst radicals call for a complete reform of the state countless bureaucrats spend their lives nudging their way towards a more just society only to be dragged backwards into merely managing inequality. What I am beginning to realise is that no Councillor no high paid officer probably no political party on its own is going to get there. The consequences of failure however are far more expensive in the long run ……and infinitely more painful to our selves and our children and our children's children. What we need is a major sea change in this country and leaders that will inspire altruism not selfishness. We need to begin this by feeding resources to grass roots activists who are trying to change things. Grass roots activists are the diamonds of democracy because they believe that things can change for the better and for the greater good. We have to move from managing inequality to developing community around these activists and inspiring our communities with an altruistic vision. Only then will we be safe from the institutions and personal prisons that await us all. I wish you all the best of health. Johnny Crescendo A renowned world leader from the USA Justin Dart Died on 22 June 2002. Justin was as close to a disabled Martin Luther King as you can get. Two days before he died he drafted his final letter to his family and his army of activists. If this doesn't inspire us nothing will…… "I AM WITH YOU. I LOVE YOU. LEAD ON."
Dearly Beloved:
Listen to the heart of this old soldier. As with all of us
the time comes when body and mind are battered and weary.
But I do not go quietly into the night. I do not give up
struggling to be a responsible contributor to the sacred
continuum of human life. I do not give up struggling to
overcome my weakness, to conform my life - and that part of
my life called death - to the great values of the human
dream.
Death is not a tragedy. It is not an evil from which we
must escape. Death is as natural as birth. Like
childbirth, death is often a time of fear and pain, but
also of profound beauty, of celebration of the mystery and
majesty which is life pushing its horizons toward oneness
with the truth of mother universe. The days of dying carry
a special responsibility. There is a great potential to
communicate values in a uniquely powerful way - the person who dies demonstrating for civil rights.
Let my final actions thunder of love, solidarity, protest -
of empowerment.
I adamantly protest the richest culture in the history of
the world, a culture which has the obvious potential to
create a golden age of science and democracy dedicated to
maximizing the quality of life of every person, but which
still squanders the majority of its human and physical
capital on modern versions of primitive symbols of power
and prestige.
I adamantly protest the richest culture in the history of
the world which still incarcerates millions of humans with
and without disabilities in barbaric institutions,
backrooms and worse, windowless cells of oppressive
perceptions, for the lack of the most elementary
empowerment supports.
I call for solidarity among all who love justice, all who
love life, to create a revolution that will empower every
single human being to govern his or her life, to govern the
society and to be fully productive of life quality for self
and for all.
I do so love all the patriots of this and every nation who
have fought and sacrificed to bring us to the threshold of
this beautiful human dream. I do so love America the
beautiful and our wild, creative, beautiful people. I do
so love you, my beautiful colleagues in the disability and
civil rights movement.
My relationship with Yoshiko Dart includes, but also
transcends, love as the word is normally defined. She is
my wife, my partner, my mentor, my leader and my
inspiration to believe that the human dream can live. She
is the greatest human being I ever known.
Yoshiko, beloved colleagues, I am the luckiest man in the world to have been associated with you. Thanks to you, I
die free. Thanks to you, I die in the joy of struggle.
Thanks to you, I die in the beautiful belief that the
revolution of empowerment will go on. I love you so much.
I'm with you always. Lead on! Lead on!
Justin Dart LETTER FROM AMERICA Letter From America, My Daughter Danielle was born with a genetical heart defect. (Nothing to do whatsoever with myself or my wife’s respective impairments before you ask!). When she was a week old she had major heart surgery 4 days later her heart stopped for 45 minutes but thank god the skill and commitment of the doctors in the National Health Service saved her. We met the doctor later in a restaurant where many parents and staff wrapped up in the Children’s Hospital in Birmingham UK hang out for some respite from the dramas of the day, the week, the year. The doctor said it was "a good result." From Ireland he earns about 18,000 pounds 30,000 dollars. He held my daughters heart in his hand for 45 minutes and saved her life. We’ve just moved to the USA, my wife is American and Danielle, my younger daughter is 3 and a typical diabolical 3 year old. One day she will need major
surgery again. She may even god forbid need someone to hold her heart. Danielle needed a special milk to aid her recovery which helped her put on the calories but affected her teeth. Now they are all decaying. Tooth decay and not dealing with it is a dangerous state for a person with a heart condition like Danielle’s. So what? go to the dentist and sort it. If we were living in England it would be simple. Our cardiologist would arrange to have her teeth out at the hospital and monitor closely the operation in case anything went wrong. It would be done speedily at no cost except our contributions to National Insurance. But we’re in the USA, the richest country in the world, who want to teach the world according to President Bush about freedom. We go to the hospital where Danielle’s cardiologists are and the best doctors. These are paid for by Cassie’s my wife health insurance which includes Danielle. However the dentist at the hospital is not on the same insurance plan. They get a social worker to try and help us get on the plan. That was 5 months ago and we still can’t get her teeth out. We can pay 4000 dollars 2200 quid or we can change insurance or we can fill in or apply for all sorts of things and still the teeth don’t come out..In the end I suspect we will just pay any way we can, after all isn’t that how capitalism really works? Insurance companies don’t pay out and doctors/dentists on 80,000 pounds a year get paid. The big issue over here coming up to the election of a new president this year is health care reform. Boy does this country need it. Millions of Americans have no insurance, people are dying because they can’t afford the drugs to save them, millions of dollars are wasted on so called social workers who are basically fund managers. Older people are going on 1000 mile coach trips to Canada to buy cheaper drugs on prescription. The slogan is health care is not a "privilege but a right." However for disabled people like my daughter Danielle and many other its more than that. It’s a matter of life and death. When my wife lived in England for three years she came away with the impression that the health service was not working she watched the news and programmes like Kilroy and believed the negative aspects that would come out. As an American in the UK she never really got the underlying message that we criticise it because we are so proud of universal health care and the overwhelming majority of people want to protect it. God I sound like Tony Blair! Maybe we just expect it when we go to the doctor to the dentist with our children, when we go emergency or when we fall ill that it will be there and usually it is free with no person standing in the background or foreground saying how are you going to pay for this?. Well I got to tell you in the great rich and powerful USA it isn’t. It isn’t expected and the nice accountants are right behind you. All democratic nominees are committed to :heath care reform some like Dean, Kerry and Edwards are calling for an American version of the NHS but can they deliver"...Clinton promised this and didn’t deliver. Being unfaithful to your loyal wife can have wider consequences which hurt many people. I hope the democrats win and keep their promises this time or go down with such a fight that it leaves ordinary Americans brought up on the selfishness of Reaganomics embarrassed. Most of all I want Danielle to stay alive and find out what freedom is really about. This is Johnny Crescendo Have a nice day. Have a nice day ...how are you going to pay? 6 TIPS ON HOW TO MAKE SURE YOU LOSE Since coming to the US and working in ADAPT I have noticed the difference in the way disabled people in the US campaign and how we do it in Britain. ADAPT is a very focused network of people who have got billions of dollars into disabled led organisations and I just don’t see it on this side of the Pond. ADAPT gets meetings with the top politicians whilst in the UK we leave it to Charities. I am sure there are organisations in the US who know how to lose but it seems in the UK the organisations we pin our hopes for change on BCODP and recently DAN are becoming masters at losing. Before the Disability Movement (if there is one) in the UK sinks into the sunset I would like to suggest 6 tips for armchair activists on how to lose and lose again. Personally I like winning. 1. NEVER FOCUS ON AN ISSUE If you want to ensure total ineffectiveness you should be concerned about every issue under the sun. Don’t just do disability but everything else. The internet has made this really easy. You can join an ever increasing number of chat rooms and sit back and send your support without leaving your seat. Focusing on an issue may mean you might have to work, meet people and actually do something. You should be concerned about everything and focused on nothing. 2. BE THE CHAMPION OF DEMOCRACY AND ACCOUNTABILITY Be careful not to take up the time of the people who can give you what you want otherwise you might win. Instead identify disabled people who are perceived as leaders and call for democracy and accountability. Soon the direct action will stop as more and more meetings points of order, constitutional affairs etc. take place and more and more issues emerge to divide the group. Demand that every variation of a disabled person is represented get out your medical dictionary there’s thousands of variables in there. Never talk on issues that people agree on. Always find issues which people are divided on. Refuse to move forward until everyone agrees on everything. Slow up the organisations ability to respond quickly and ensure that only someone who is seriously into masochism would ever want to try lead the organisation or work for it. Best of all call for no leaders and quickly there will be no leadership only frustrated individuals. 3. AVOID SPECIFIC DEMANDS Specific demands mean that you might get something. The best way to avoid this is to surround yourself with nice homilies like "A community who excludes one of its members is not a community" or injustice somewhere is injustice everywhere" or " we want full Civil Rights for all." Spread these inspirational sayings throughout the organisation to confuse it and keep it unfocused. 4. MAKE SURE YOU INTELLECTUALISE. The worst thing you can do is to listen to people who are on the sharp end of discrimination as they might persuade you to do something. The way to avoid this is to intellectualise and be clever. That way you already know the answers and you can create a strategy that keeps you in the comfort you have been accustomed to whilst being able to show that you are concerned and knowledgeable. 5. SANITISE DON’T ORGANISE In order to stay comfortable and lose you have to be able to sleep at night. Sanitising the issues keeps you at a distance. For instance a disabled person in residential care who is put to bed with drugs at 4pm becomes human rights abuse and the person is forgotten, a disabled woman who is constantly beaten and raped in an institution becomes a victim of inappropriate staff behavior. Other ways to sanitise are those old favourite words racism and sexism etc. There catch all isms will keep people guilt tripped for years. Be careful not to explain what you mean by these words. 6. TRY TO MAKE A POINT NOT A DIFFERENCE Finally losing can be a bit disappointing. Console yourself that at least you made a point. Flatter yourself that at least you did something. Make a don’t blame me badge. Learning how to lose can be fun once you get used to it especially when you see that through your actions others come to love it too. After all what’s it all about? Being comfortable and feeling good about yourself right? Have a nice day Sleep tight. Johnny Crescendo
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