INCLUSION DAILY EXPRESS

http://www.InclusionDaily.com

Your quick, once-a-day look at disability rights, self-determination
and the movement toward full community inclusion around the world.

Tuesday, September 16, 2003
Year IV, Edition 143

This front page features 8 news and information items, each preceded by a number (#) symbol.
Click on the"Below the Fold" link at the bottom of this page for the rest of today's news.

QUOTES OF THE DAY:
"We need MiCASSA because it will benefit people who have severe disabilities, who desire to participate in and contribute to their communities, and take part in American life to the fullest of their abilities."

--Brewster Thackeray, Vice President of the National Organization on Disability, on the eve of the "Free Our People" rally in Washington, DC (First story)

"I'm proud of myself."
--Jack Dobrecki, 52, who is moving into the house he owns after spending several years in a Michigan institution (Fifth story)

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# ADVOCACY / COMMUNITY LIVING

Demonstrators Readied For "Free Our People" Rally

By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
September 16, 2003

WASHINGTON, DC--Thousands of disability rights advocates converged on the nation's capital Tuesday getting ready for the "Free Our People" rally scheduled for Wednesday afternoon. The event is organized by the national grassroots advocacy group ADAPT.

About 160 of those advocates have spent the last 14 days on a 144-mile march from Philadelphia to bring attention to the need to make Medicaid more flexible in allowing people to choose in-home supports over nursing homes or other institutions.

"Everybody is a little tired at this point," said Jim Etzel, an information and referral counselor at the Ability Center of Greater Toledo who has been a part of the "Free Our People" march. "But we realize we're here for a very specific reason."

That reason is MiCASSA, the Medicaid Community-Based Attendant Services and Supports Act, introduced into Congress this year as S 971 and HR 2032. Medicaid regulations currently force thousands of people with disabilities -- regardless of their age -- to be housed in nursing facilities in order to receive long-term care services. MiCASSA would loosen up the regulations to allow Medicaid recipients to purchase supports to remain in their own homes or with family members -- at a substantially lower cost.

MiCASSA was first introduced into Congress in 1997 by then Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. In the years since then, the measure has been effectively stalled, primarily by the powerful nursing home lobby. The advocates are in Washington to pressure Congress to pass it during this term. Dozens of groups support the measure, including the National Council on Aging, National Council on Independent Living, ADA Watch, American Association of People with Disabilities, National Organization on Disability and the Service Employees International Union. MiCASSA has supporters in both major political parties.

ADAPT organizers have a meeting scheduled with the Bush Administration and plan to lobby Congress on Thursday.

Related:
"Area disabled trek to D.C. to back long-term home care" (Toledo Blade)
http://www.InclusionDaily.com/news/03/red/0916a.htm
"National Organization on Disability Calls for MiCASSA, Disability Rights at 'Free Our People' Rally Wednesday" (U.S. Newswire) http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=136-09162003
Free Our People
http://www.freeourpeople.org
Medicaid Community-Based Attendant Services and Supports Act of 2003
http://www.freeourpeople.org/MiCASSA/default.htm

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# EUGENICS

Connecticut Figured Prominently In American Eugenics Schemes;
Sterilization & Institutions Were To Be Just The Beginning, Book Reveals

By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
September 16, 2003

HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT--"I have studied with great interest the laws of several American states concerning prevention of reproduction by people whose progeny would, in all probability, be of no value or be injurious to the racial stock."

That quote was taken from a letter Adolph Hitler wrote to a Nazi friend several years before he started systematically sterilizing Europeans with mental disabilities in the 1930s.

"The Germans are beating us at our own game."

That quote came from Joseph DeJarnette, superintendent of Virginia's Western State Hospital, just a few years later, after he learned that Germany had developed laws and systems to sterilize 5,000 "undesirables" each month. Eventually, an estimated 300,000 to 400,000 Germans with disabilities were surgically sterilized --with the intention of "cleansing the Aryan race" -- most of them before the Nazis targeted Jewish, Gypsy and other populations.

These exchanges are documented in investigative reporter Edwin Black's newly-released "War Against The Weak". The cover story in the September 11, 2003 Hartford Advocate is adapted from Black's book.

Eugenics was a racist, false science based on the idea that society could be improved if people considered physically, socially and mentally "weak" were not allowed to pass their "defects" on to the next generation. During the early and mid-20th century, sterilization laws forced more than 60,000 people in the U.S. to be operated upon so they could not have children. Most, but not all, had mental illnesses or mental retardation, and most lived in state-operated institutions.

While the reader may not be surprised to learn that "selective breeding" was a popular notion in the U.S. decades before Nazi Germany made a science of surgical sterilization, one may be stunned to realize how far mainstream American institutions, charities and governments were willing to go to exterminate persons considered "inferior". Black reveals that such prestigious groups as the Carnegie Institution and the Rockefeller Foundation funded eugenics research in the U.S. and helped start such programs in Germany.

One Carnegie plan called for doctors to sterilize 175,000 "unfit" Connecticut residents -- about 10 percent of the state's population.

Plans not only called for mandatory sterilizations on people with any form of disability -- even the slightest vision problem -- but also on their family members. In fact, Black points out, national ophthalmologist organizations pushed for legislation to identify everyone related to people with vision problems, then register them, prohibit or annul their marriages, place them in U.S. concentration camps, and seize their properties. "Ultimately those related to anyone with a vision problem would be forcibly sterilized," Black writes.

One 1911 Carnegie-supported report called for euthanasia -- outright killing of people considered "unfit". It was rejected by the American Breeder's Association which believed it was "too early" to implement such a plan in the states.

Black suggests that the eugenics movement has not disappeared but has simply gone underground with a new name: human genetics.

Related resources:
"Ethnic Cleansing in Connecticut Our state's role in the Nazi eugenics movement" (Hartford Advocate)

http://hartfordadvocate.com/gbase/News/content?oid=oid:32556
"War Against The Weak" By Edwin Black
http://www.waragainsttheweak.com/
"Image Archive of the American Eugenics Movement" (Dolan DNA Learning Center, Cold Springs Harbor Laboratory)
http://www.eugenicsarchive.org/eugenics/
"The Mentally and Physically Handicapped: Victims of the Nazi Era"(United States Holocaust Memorial Museum)
http://www.holocaust-trc.org/hndcp.htm

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# CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM

Johnnie Cochran Joins Legal Team To Prepare Civil Rights Suit Against Denver Police

By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
September 16, 2003

DENVER, COLORADO--The shooting death of Paul Childs III by a Denver Police officer has drawn the attention of well-known attorney Johnnie L. Cochran Jr. along with a local attorney who specializes in police misconduct cases.

According to the Rocky Mountain News, Cochran is teaming up with Boulder attorney Timothy Rastello to prepare a civil rights suit against the Denver Police Department on behalf of Childs' family. Cochran is famous for his defense of O.J. Simpson, Rodney King Jr., and other high-profile cases. Rastello specializes in police misconduct and won a $2.25 million jury verdict against the Denver Police Department in 2001.

On July 5 of this year, Childs' family called police in the hopes that they could help calm him down after a series of outbursts in his home. Officer James Turney shot to death the 15-year-old, who had epilepsy and mental retardation, when Childs failed to follow police instructions to drop a kitchen knife he was clutching to his chest. A fellow officer standing next to Turney was armed with a non-lethal Taser, but claimed he was not in a position to use it.

A neurologist later suggested that Childs' behavior prior to the shooting may have been caused by the after-effects of a massive seizure he had experienced a few days earlier.

"There was absolutely no need to use that type of force when they had stun guns right on the premises," Rastello said last week. "As far as I know, there is no evidence he was about to attack anyone. They knew this young man was mentally unstable."

The incident has prompted legislators to consider "Paul's Law", a measure that would require all law enforcement officers and dispatchers in Colorado to undergo crisis-intervention training, along with specific instruction on dealing with suspects who have mental illness or developmental disabilities. It also has prompted the family to prepare the federal civil rights suit against the police department.

"The family definitely wants policy changes," Rastello said. "We think there are some policy deficits that led to Paul's death."

The Denver District Attorney's Office has started reviewing the police department's internal investigation into Childs' shooting. Rastello said the family will not file its suit until the criminal investigation has ended.

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# EDUCATION / FAMILIES

Soldier And Teacher Find They Have Family Interests In Common

September 16, 2003

BAGHDAD, IRAQ--Monday's Detroit Free Press ran a story about what may at first appear to be an unlikely alliance, between the director of the only Iraqi school for children with Down syndrome and the commander of a U.S. heavy artillery battalion stationed in Baghdad.

What Sahira Mustafa and Lt. Col. Richard Bowyer have in common is that they both are parents of children who have Down syndrome.

"Iraqis feel ashamed of these kids," said Mustafa who founded the school and named it after her daughter, Hiba. The school has a dozen teachers and more than 150 students.

"I understand the issues she has, simply because I've dealt with them myself," said Bowyer, the father of 7-year-old Sam Bowyer.

President George W. Bush spoke of the connection between Bowyer and Mustafa during a speech to military families in Georgia last Friday.

Related article:
"Iraqi kids with Down syndrome: Making a connection" (Detroit Free Press)

http://www.freep.com/news/nw/down15_20030915.htm

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# HOUSING / COMMUNITY LIVING

"A Home At Last: Housing Network Comes To Aid Of Developmentally Disabled"

September 16, 2003

DETROIT, MICHIGAN--The following three paragraphs are excerpts from a story found in the Detroit Free Press:

Jack Dobrecki grew up in a world where many people like him were shuttered away -- out of society and out of sight and mind.

In his isolated life at a state institution, Dobrecki couldn't have the living room that he decorates with Red Wings posters, the bathroom he keeps neatly scrubbed, the grill he sizzles steaks on or the yard he mows and scatters with mums, cucumber plants and U.S. flags.

Once confined to an institution, Dobrecki, 52, now owns a home and takes pride in defying everyone's expectations.

Entire article:
"A HOME AT LAST: Housing network comes to aid of developmentally disabled" (Detroit Free Press)

http://www.freep.com/news/metro/home12_20030912.htm

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# TODAY'S FEATURED FAMILIES WEBSITE

The Fathers Network

Greetings and a warm welcome to the Fathers Network web page. Our mission is to celebrate and support fathers and families raising children with special health care needs and developmental disabilities.

http://www.fathersnetwork.org/

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# EXPRESS EXTRA!!!
Quote worth noting:
"Without your wounds where would your power be? The very angels themselves cannot persuade the wretched and blundering children on earth as can one human being broken in the wheels of living. In love's service, only the wounded soldiers can serve."

--Thornton Wilder, American author and playwright (1897 - 1975)

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http://members5.boardhost.com/InclusionDaily

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# BELOW THE FOLD
Click here for the rest of today's disability-related news:
http://www.InclusionDaily.com/news/03/btf/091603_50.htm

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