Beyond the Devastation

Stop Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's new line-item veto budget cuts. Contact Speaker Karen Bass and Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg and urge them to call legislators back to Sacramento to override the cuts

Download this Program 26 min
Evan LeVang and John B. Kelly talk about
what California's people with disabilities
can do to stop the slide toward death and
nursing homes.

Disability rights activists regroup after passage of a criminal California budget that devastated IHSS, Medi-Cal, Cal-Works, cities, regional centers, AIDS programs and more.

John Kelly works with Neighborhood
Access Group (NAG), a grass-roots
organization dedicated to improving
street-level access in Boston. His
writing has appeared in the Boston
Globe, Counter Punch, and the Ragged Edge.



Evan LeVang is Executive Director of Independent Living
Services of Northern California. He is also the founder
of DOGFITE, Disability Organizing Group for Initiating
Total Equality, ”an advocacy group which includes universal
health care, tax justice, immigrant rights and no offensive
military spending among it's goals.

Hosted by Adrienne Lauby and Eddie Ytuarte

photo by John B. Kelly
No Room on this Sidewalk for You!
Neighborhood Access Group

dog cartoon courtesy of D.O.G.F.I.T.E.

What I've Witnessed

photo by Joy Taylor


Robert E. Miller [speaking through a sign-language interpreter]

Download audio 2:43
On July 7, more than 250 protestors blocked the front entrance to the governor’s office in Sacramento for six hours in an attempt to force Schwarzenegger to speak with them. When he left the building by another door at the end of the day, twelve people, most of them with severe disabilities, refused to leave. Several were part of a similar civil disobedience action in San Francisco in June. The twelve were arrested, cited and released. Robert E. Miller was among them.

The People’s Day of Reckoning Coalition, which often includes unionized in-home health care workers, has been targeting the Governor’s many offices around the state for over a month. Among their demands is shared sacrifices by the wealthy -- that is, new taxes. Next week, Thursday, July 23, they plan to take their growing frustration to elected assembly members and senators at their local offices.

To find out more about the People’s Day of Reckoning Coalition, call Jessica Lehman at 510-881-5743. She’ll put you in touch with the group closest to you.

We're Here, We're Proud, Together and Loud

photo by Joy Taylor

More than 200 people with disabilities and their friends demanded to speak directly with Governor Schwarzenegger, Tuesday, July 7.

They blocked the front of his Sacramento office for more than six hours. Twelve protesters refused to leave the building at the end of the day. Each was arrested, cited and released.

Download Interview 2:24

I depend on my Aids.

(Unidentified protester)

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The protesters were there to support In Home Support Services, full funding of Medi-Cal, and other state programs which enables people with disabilities to survive and thrive. They demanded that the Governor sign a budget with increased tax revenue.

"We are calling for a budget solution that is based upon shared responsibility and shared sacrifice -- not a solution that falls squarely upon on the shoulders of children, people with disabilities, elders, the chronically ill, the unemployed and the impoverished," they said in a written statement.

Inter-Dependence Day

Painting by Patricia Waters

Listen to entire program, 28 min.

Listen to Patricia Waters, 5 min
Listen to Concetta DeLuca, 5 min.

As the nation heads into the
Fourth of July weekend,
Pushing Limits interviews
people pushing for
independence
for people with disabilities.
Blane Beckwith, local
representative of ADAPT,
is in the studio.

Blaine Beckwith

Plus, Patricia Waters and
Concetta DeLuca tell personal
stories of passionate lives
in these difficult times.
Interviews by Adrienne Lauby.

ADAPT fights "so people with disabilities can live in the community with real supports instead of being locked away in nursing homes and other institutions."

Eddie Ytuarte & John Healy host.