My prepared statement for tomorrow

Statement for Press Conference, 25 February 2010
Prairie Independent Living Resource Center
Hutchinson, Kansas

I've spent several days trying to figure out what I was going to say to you today. You've heard from the staff here at PILR about how these state budget cuts have and will affect the nuts and bolts of running this organization. You've heard from other people with disabilities about how these changes directly affect them. What can I tell you that you haven't heard already? Well, I can tell you one thing which cannot be mentioned enough.

I'm angry. Very, very angry.

Yes, I understand that our country and our state are experiencing some tough economic times. I understand that a lot of state-funded organizations and schools and such are getting less money all across the board. Isn't it interesting, though, that people with disabilities always take one of the biggest hits? We're in the 21st century. Humans are supposed to be more enlightened than they were 20, 50, 100 years ago. So why are people with disabilities still marginalized? Why are we made to feel shameful because the system has been set up to favor us being shut away in a nursing or group home? Why should we have to be dying or abused in order to get assistance with our most basic needs in our own homes? Why must our freedom be so curtailed? The system as it stands is unacceptable, and further cuts will only make everything worse -- for the people needing care, for the people receiving care, and for the people providing care.

There's a sentence that has bearing here. It's probably one of the most famous sentences in the United States. Unfortunately, because of this sentence's notoriety, I think the words are taken for granted. As I read it, please try to remember that we should hold these words as special in our hearts, because when we forget the true spirit of these words, people as individuals and as groups can be treated unfairly and without due respect, and we dishonor the legacy that our founding fathers laid down for us.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

When the state forces us by severe budget cuts into nursing or group homes, it takes away our unalienable rights. Certainly our right to liberty, our right to come and go as we please at any time of day or night, is revoked. Our lives and our happiness are clearly not held in the same regard as people without disabilities. This cannot be allowed and still call ourselves citizens of the United States of America. Kansas, do the right thing, both in an economic sense and in a good citizen sense -- do not cut money further, make better use of your money by allowing us to receive personal attendant care in our homes. Don't marginalize us, liberate us. Let us live our lives and pursue our happiness within our communities. Do not ignore our unalienable rights.

Thank you.