From Hoovervile To Arnievile?

For the past six days, members of the East Bay disability community have been camped out on a street divider in Berkeley. We are trying to garner support and wake people up to the ugly things going on in Sacramento. Please think hard before saying, "Well there are two million people who are unemployed in California, times are hard for everybody." I'm saying WAIT, because there have been continued cut-backs for the past decade. 

Our lives now hang in the balance, with almost NO Medi-cal services for adults! With severely disabled people who have successfully been living independently in their own homes or apartments, with the support of their in-home support service providers, do you think it's right to say, "Well, you have to go live in a nursing home?" You know it would not be right. 

The politicians also know it is not right. They have proven they do not care. The Nursing Home Industry has already benefited, our Stinking asinine governor, made a move last summer that filled me with rage. He gave them millions of dollars to make more beds available for the thousands of people that are going to undoubtedly lose their In-Home Support Services due to the cuts!!! 

This, after stating that IHSS takes so much of the budget in California. Yet he gives millions to the Nursing Home Industry. But even those millions would not come close to preparing the massive numbers of beds that would be needed. The IHSS budget is 1.5% of the entire California budget.

It has been things like this that make me despise the Governor more than any other politician in recent times. BUT let me be very clear! It isn't just this governor, it is the legislators on both sides who voted for this budget. Last summer when we demonstrated in the hallway to the governor's offices, many Democrats came to talk with us, and said, "We are behind you; keep up the good fight!" Many of those, had photo ops with the demonstrators, but all but one went and voted against us. I was so angry, that I didn't feel like our demonstrations were getting through. Yes, I also spoke while the budget committee was hearing testimony, in addition to getting arrested twice, and taking part in other protests. I had to stop protesting and gather my energy. And I have spent 5 hours on that strip in the cold wind, holding signs and waving. But I cannot gather the energy to spend the night or sit in the rain when what we are doing, doesn't seem to be getting through to the folks that can sign our lives away!

What many people refuse to think about, is that we are you; we could be your mother, father, grandmother, brother sister, aunt, uncle, or your children and friends. Disability does not discriminate! It comes to us all. I have a friend in a nursing home, the only things she can do is watch TV and listen to books on CD or tape. I hate seeing her in that place! This is a UC Berkeley Grad who for seven years volunteered at a school and helped second graders learn to read and do math. She was also a writer and performer. Does she belong in that place? No. She has a severe disability, and could not get enough support after her mother died. She lost her job and then her mom, and then lost her roommate after the roommate graduated. Her Regional Center and Supported Living agency failed her. She was sent first to live in a group home, and I'm not sure why she ended up in a nursing home, but as you might guess, it made her already severe depression much worse.  I know there are thousands of people like my friend, who COULD contribute SO MUCH to society if they had the physical support in place.

I have noticed the deafening silence on the Berkeley Disabled listserv, I think, like me, many of my comrades are depressed and terrified and that leads us to inaction, and just worrying a lot about who is going to get us out of bed in the morning, who will bathe us, dress us, cook for us, and feed us, and who will help us go to the bathroom throughout the day. How can we make plans when we are the poor? Many will have no options. 

And yet Arnold Schwarzenegger wants to treat us like criminals! He wants to spend 5 BILLION dollars on high tech cameras that are used by the military and on the U.S. borders. He could provide over 500 people on IHSS with services for a year. I DO NOT UNDERSTAND his logic. One can get a full background check on a person receiving services, or a worker for a lot less. There are places on the Internet that allows people to get as many reports as they want for $40.00 a month. But that is not the point. The point is that the governor, wants to cut 90 percent from the IHSS! Ninety percent! He wants social workers to grade our disabilities on a scale that is highly inadequate, and many, like me have mixed needs that the scale simply can't grade or take into account. Please ask your legislators to cancel this grading system! If anybody grades us, it should be qualified Occupational Therapists!

One last point and I will get off the soapbox! In-Home Supportive Services, accounts for ONLY 1.5 percent of the entire budget! Read that again! ONE point Five percent! Yet it's always been the first thing that this governor wants to cut! The poor the elderly, the disabled are seen as fat to be trimmed EVERY STINKING YEAR! I AM SICK OF IT! Please help! Stop THIS GENOCIDE! FOR IT Will BE GENOCIDE IF ALL THESE CUTS GO THROUGH! Even though the state is in dire straits, Arnold has refused to raise taxes of any kind. The wealthy are not losing medical benefits, they go on living like kings, they own four houses and four cars. THEY SHOULD PAY THEIR FAIR SHARE!!! They get so many tax breaks it makes me sick. They are not "sharing the pain". Besides, 35 million people live in this State, and it makes me wonder how many ARE Employed?

Tamar Raine