Help fund the Matthew Shepard/Laura Hershey Memorial Book Project

Dear Fellow activists, Writers, and Whoever may read this:

I am a poet from Western Mass who happens to also be a women with a disability. My friend and mentor Laura Hershey died suddenly (at least to me) the Friday after Thanksgiving. Laura was living in Colorado at the time. Her memorial service is scheduled for the 20th.

I, of course, planned on going. I also figured while I'm there I could visit the headquarters of ADAPT, an awesome organization dedicated to ending the institutional bias that plagues and threatens the daily lives of so many people with disabilities.

Then I heard fellow, queer woman, poet Leslea Newman speak about her visit to the Matthew Shepard fence. Upon looking at a map, I discovered that Laramie, WY is only 2 hours away from Denver.

Being a poet by trade myself, it seemed to me that there was a universal deep reason that the spot Matthew made infamous was located so close to my dear friend's memorial service. Laura, it seemed to me, was telling me to do something more with my visit than mourn her. I planned to visit ADAPT as scheduled and also to visit the Matthew Shepard fence as Leslea had done.

The loss of these two openly queer lights in world affected my world in ways to were unforgettable. Laura’s battle to live independently with her partner and daughter, her bringing of her entire queer, disabled, poet self to all events at all times, and her success at getting off SSI (a task I’m still working on), deeply influenced my life. When people asked me who I wanted to be like when I got older, I’d point at Laura and say, “her!”

When Matthew Shepard died, I was a 22-year-old who had recently graduated college. I was also a little, queer, chick in a wheelchair who lived in a somewhat backward area of Pennsylvania. I didn’t leave the house for 6 weeks. Until I realized that this was a disservice to the young martyr I’d never met.

What I need to make this project happen:

2 Airline tickets (one for me, one for my personal care assistant- the person who helps me use the bathroom, get dressed and undressed, get in and out of my wheelchair)- approx $300
1 wheelchair van for use in Laramie WY- $100 per day
1 place to sleep in Laramie, WY- have a no step house and are welling to have me stay, or want to feed me, or lend me your van, please e-mail. The Project will be in your debt!
approx- $200
Total budget: $1200 (approx)

I am committed to seeing this book happen. I will have the whole manuscript edited by the Phillbrick Poetry Prize deadline of October 15th 2011. If Phillbrick doesn’t want it, someone will. If not, I’ll self-publish. If you give $10, you'll get a free book when this project publishes.

Thanks so much!

Sincerely,
Martina Robinson

The Housing Blues

I live in a crummy apartment complex. It's subsidized, allows me to have separate sleeping quarters from my assistant (always important when one might recreate- blush, blush, wink, wink), and has all my stuff on the wall.

Bur I live on a bad bus route and must be home by 10:30 weeknights and 10pm on Saturday, the only day I can stay out late is Sunday,when the buses run until 11:30pm.

I keep trying to move, but nowhere is available and wheelchair accessible. This very morning, someone called and said an apartment was available. But then thety called back and said I didn't have the needed voucher. So the apartment vanished in a poof!

I realize I'm lucky to have house and be living free and not in some Godforsaken nursing home! I'm lucky to live in state with good personal assistance services, but is it too much to ask that I be allowed to go out until midnight maybe? Is it too ask that I not have spend all my hard earned writing money on van service, because getting around on the bus is impossible. If I lived on a good bus route I'd pay $18 to travel the whole month.

This day of dashed hopes that I didn't know I had has put me a bad mood!

PWD in Taipei take on McDonalds!

As many of you know, I'm one proud ADAPT member. Today, I'm especially proud of these folks; members of the Taipei, Taiwan ADAPT chapter. According to the reports I'm getting on the NationalAdapt Freeourpeople facebook page ADAPTers refused food and assistance and were covered by 8 media outlets. Here is a google translated
article about the action. It sounds a little funny, but you can get the idea!

ADAPT's Sandie Yi and Rahnee Patrick did a training with the Taipei chapter before Christmas. Ms. Yi, who is a native of Taiwan, finished the second part of the training today which resulted in today's action, held at a local McDonald's, in which members demanded increased access. One disgruntled customer yelled "idiot" as he tried to push a wheelchair user out of the way. "When one of our people tried to protect the wheelchair user (papa), the man got pissed off and grabbed our people. Then, it was quite a push and pull. Gladly, no one was hurt." Ms. Yi, added in an e-mail account.

What can American PWD's and allies do to support their colleagues overseas? Spend a moment tomorrow contacting McDonalds. You can reach James Skinner by Phone at 630.623.3000 or fax: 630.623.5004 at US McDonalds and demand Taipei McD's be made wheelchair accessible!

The Red Pill

I'm still convinced that The Matrix was one of the best movies ever made.Think about it, every time we know something the powers that be would rather us not know. We take the red pill. I take the red pill a lot. Including times I'd rather not.

For example, Cherry Coke is my favorite soft drink in the world, but when I found out that Coke was actually hiring death squads to murder union organizers I had to give it up because I simply couldn't handle the idea that I was helping to pay for such people. How about you? What has taking red pill caused you to give up?

Joey is free and Other News from Tuesday

This picture made me happy. We took over and took on HUD. Two people were arrested, both walking. Apparently, the DC police think that disabled people can't make decisions by themselves. Does the word "DUH" (which is HUD backwards) mean anything to them?

We parked in front of the doors as per usual, but the blocked the street and garages, too. I blockaded a garage ramp. Then they got HUD rent-a-cops to stand between us and the on ramp. You see, the knew we wouldn't hurt actual flesh and blood beings, even if they were cops. But plenty of us, me included, was still pissed about the deceit from yesterday and therefore, absolutely willing to make them drag us and our heavy power chairs away. I think they may have hurt themselves, but as my assistant says "Idiocy should hurt." I'm quite sure some of those men are going to have sore places where they never knew they had muscles.

Eventually they pulled me away, but I give it a good try. Then I held up a sign and chanted for awhile. Then Secretary Donovan give us a meeting and we left, as promised.

Onward and upward, a new Wednesday activity looms. We usually go to the Hill on Wednesdays, but not apparently tomorrow. Exciting! Exciting!

ADAPT, scenes from a Monday

I meant to write yesterday when I got in, but I was just to exhausted. I had to write my examiner column first. They are the people paying me to be here after all. HHowever, If I actually used the words I wanted to (and probably will slightly use) this in entry, Examiner would fire me tomorrow. I spent part of my day blockading a white house gate with about 40 adapters, mostly women. I think there were only two men present on that gate.

In case you don't realize it, arresting women in wheelchairs is a big pain for the DC police, because if they have to help us go to the bathroom, which they legally do, it's not just "a point and click operation", as my assistant calls it, as it is with men. You can't just grab it, put into a cup, dispose of said full cup, put it back and be done. So I'm sure they were not thrilled at the idea of arresting 38 women. So they bribed us.

One of the Texas PCAs. whose name is Joey, got himself arrested when he was running in the front of a group of stampeding wheelchair users running for the White House gate. he crashed with a bicycle and they threw him to the ground and beat him up slightly. Happily. it was mostly minor injuries (bruises and scraps) but he was charged with assaulting an officer, which makes no sense to me. At least, they said he was going to be charged with that.

However, they said that if we let them have the middle gate where we were located, they would only charge joey with a misdemeanor and release him tonight. I'm not making this up, I actually heard them say it. as the dc police have been pretty much straight up with ADAPT over the years, we backed off in Joey's best interest. we got tot he hotel tonight, all the while I'm expecting to see Joey at some point, as is everyone else. Imagine my surprise when I run into my color leader friends Anita and Dawn in the lobby after sign making and discover that not only is Joey not with us, he's in jail with regular criminals in the Washington DC lockup.

What was that thing Ricky Ricardo used to say? "Lucy, you got some splainin to do!" as far as i'm concerned, the DC police have some splainin to do tomorrow. And ADAPT doesn't tend to be as nice as Ricky Ricardo.

i think that they'll be really unhappy when they discover that ADAPTERers don't take them at their word anymore. Anyone who's dealt with us realizes this is just a bad move on our opponents' part. if you lie to my face, I'm likely to never speak to you again, never believe a word you say, and or plot vengeance against you. If you lie to a bunch of adapt women, we're going to spend hours plotting ways to make your life difficult. as my assistant said, who agreed to help put stranded Texans to bed after i accidentally volunteered her for it, "someone just screwed up really badly".

Before this event, my opinion of the DC police was, "they're cops but they're not assholes!" After today, remove the not. When will bureaucracy learn that if you lie to ADAPT, especially if you lie to ADAPT women, we'll find a way to get you. I hope that whatever they promise tomorrow comes in writing with a bunch of signatures. I don't intend to believe it otherwise.

Word of warning to bureaucrats, ADAPT women may not be able to move in ways you consider normal. Some of us can't even clean ourselves post bathroom usage. But we remember real good for a real long time.

Either/Or: an activist ponders

Today, I'm a crossroads. I'm stuck in the middle between saying "Yay!" to Google for paying the unfair tax to LGBT employees who must pay a tax on domestic partner benefits. Here is the link.

At the same time I'm upset that Google has not opted to create a special doodle, drawing of it's logo, in honor of the Americans with Disabilities Act anniversary on July 26th. If you want to object read my Examiner article or join this Facebook group.

So this activist, who both bisexual and disabled proudly is caught between saying "Yay!" and "Boo!" I have decided that this is okay. I'm still hoping that Google does the right thing and honor the Americans with Disabilities Act. Come on Google! Honor your progressive values.