We're Disabled and We're Proud

I have always hated hypocrisy, especially when it comes to politicians who ask the poor to sacrifice, but who go on collecting benefits and back-pocket-money from special interest groups. So I was perturbed to learn that the taxpayers are footing the bill for Arnold Schwarzenegger's security detail to the tune of $40 Million a year! I am no math wiz, but I know that the money could fund so many other things more critical to the survival of poor elderly and disabled people in the state of California.

The Governor has come out with a TV ad that shows the ugliness of his heart by vilifying California's In-Home Support Services program, by making the outrageous claim that people are ripping taxpayers off by as much as 25%. He has NO proof that IHSS is "rampantly" ripping the people of California off! His numbers constantly shift. It's been reported in the Sacramento Bee that the number 25% came from a report in 2007 that due to inconsistencies in the various counties, that social workers in some counties were assigning more hours than the client really needed, but that is not fraud on the workers or the clients' part! When Social Services adopted a unified plan, many people were reassessed with fewer hours, and some with more hours. So the charges of 25% fraud and waste are simply untrue. I have read some reports at various newspapers that fraud makes up less than one percent of the IHSS budget.

How dare he needlessly and recklessly endanger our elders and younger people with disabilities lives. Do you think I am exaggerating? For many people who don't have use of their hands, preparing even a simple meal or opening a microwave dinner is impossible. The Governor has proposed eliminating meal preparation and feeding. I don't know about you, but if I don't eat, I can't live. So, most certainly the elimination of that service will lead to certain death for many. Most people take it for granted that they can urinate whenever they need to. However, some people with severe disabilities need assistance, and as with feeding, need somebody to help with that activity several times a day,. It takes a few minutes to assist people to use the toilet, or change a woman's menstruation pad, or to empty a pee bag. Just because people need help in these areas, it does not mean that people need hospital-level care.

Schwarzenegger wants to take us back forty years. He calls us "patients!At first I thought he was just plain ignorant that disabilities are no longer considered strictly medical problems. But as I listened to how he was presenting the issue, I became angry. He is deliberately portraying us as PATIENTS, so he can justify putting us into nursing homes. We are not patients, we are human beings; men, women and children. We don't need to be in a medical setting. We just need a helping hand. Nursing homes are the current institutions that the Governor wants to put thousands of my neighbors, friends, and my sisters and brothers in. WHY? He told us he knows it WILL COST MORE! Yet, he is dead set on it. Again, I ask why? In-Home Support Services SAVES the state money. It costs an average of $12,300 a year to support one IHSS client in the community. It would cost the state $60,000 a year to keep that same person in a nursing home. For each person he puts a nursing home, he could pay for five or six people to be supported in their own apartments and homes! You do the math.

I don't know if you have ever been in a nursing home, or have visited one, but they are not nice places! They are understaffed, overworked, and have a very, very bad record for unnecessary deaths. In addition a person loses his freedom - it's like being in jail, only you have committed no crime.

I have a friend in such a place. In the mid 1970s, she was one of the first people with a severe disability to attend UC Berkeley. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science. She became active in a woman's writing and performance group, and volunteered at a grammar school helping kids learn to read and do math. She lived in an apartment and had attendant care, and her roommate helped with emergencies at night. Her mother helped her too. I was not aware how much her mom was helping her, until her mom died. That was the beginning of a terrible downward spiral for my friend.

Schwarzenegger has also said that everybody is suffering. But I don't see Chevron suffering; in fact they've made a profit three times over! I think we all know that an oil extraction tax will NEVER stop companies from drilling for oil! Even his fellow conservatives in Alaska, Texas and other states have realized this, and they went for an oil extraction tax.

What is the Governor sacrificing? I was really pissed off when I read how Schwarzenegger proudly declared that he goes home and enjoys his Jacuzzi and a cigar, and he doesn't feel bad about what he and his cronies are doing to Human Services or education.

How can he possibly justify putting thousands of seniors and people with disabilities into nursing homes? This makes little sense unless he has a back-room deal with the multi-trillion dollar nursing home industry! It's just not logical or right in any sense! I believe this tough-guy attitude is due to political ambition. So he can say, "Look how I handled the budget!"

His idea of a cuts-only budget can't possibly be realistic. We still need revenue sources. Why is he trying to make the poor bear the brunt of the cuts? Perhaps IHSS and other social service departments should NOT be funded by the general fund?!

Since 2003 he has sought to destroy the Lanterman Act that created the Regional Centers, which provide services to people with developmental disabilities such as Autism, Down Syndrome, and cerebral palsy, so he can't use this rotten economy as an excuse to undo Ronald Reagan's legacy and promise. Perhaps he has not seen the film; Christmas in Purgatory. I urge him and all legislators to do so. We need more sources of revenue, otherwise the elderly and people with disabilities and our children will not be the only ones hurt by this penny-wise, dollar-foolish cuts-only budget.

We know many people are truly suffering due to the financial system bottoming out, but to recklessly put 340,000 elderly and people with disabilities in danger of actually dying is simply inhumane, and hearkens back to another time and another man who exterminated half a million people with disabilities.

Last week fifteen of us were arrested for occupying the hallway to the Governor's offices after hours. In response to our action, the Governor ordered metal poles installed in his hallway so that people in wheelchairs can't block his office again. But we echo the words of the Terminator; WE'LL BE BACK! Come on Arnold, talk with us! Don't be such a wimp. We will NOT go away! We will not be steamrolled or railroaded into nursing homes!