Last week I was visiting with an old friend actually the old friend was Lori Brock and she was interviewing me about my history with the direct confrontation group in Salt Lake ADAPT American Disabled for Accessible Public Transportation). In those days ( 20 years ago) accessible public transportation was something devoutly to be wished . I was working for the local independent living center who actually sponsored the local ADAPT group. In fact I was the Transportation Coordinator. I made it my business to in the front of anything about public transportation. I cannot say I was the leader of the charge for accessible public transportation but I can say in front ranks.

Truth is: I was never really comfortable with civil disobedience, non-violent confrontation (NVC). I can do NVC and I think I can do NVC well , but confrontation just does not come naturally to me. As I spoke with Lori and relived these tense moments in my mind I released that what I was doing, and maybe what civil demonstration is just Guerrilla Theater.

Lori and I later developed an acting company, again with the independent living center and I stuck with the company for a number of years even writing some and performing in an assortment of plays. These plays were tame but kinda of on the cutting edge of Crip Theater. I enjoyed my association to the program but for me this was just a program. I even got comp time for my after work time with this acting company. I honestly don’t know if I would have been as involved with the acting company as I was if I were not being paid for it. I thought of this as I visited wit Lori and I came to a realization that I probably would not have been at the “strike site” if it were not my job to be there. I have always believed in public transit—but this was a belief that people in wheelchair had a basic right to ride any and all forms of public transportation. At the same time I have always kept and maintained my own private transportation. My agitating on the strike-line was work at the end of the day I could just roll up to my beater hope inside and cruise home. I believe in public transportation but I do not have the fire in my belly like Rick, Barbara or Terry did. There was a time when I was totally without personal transportation due to divorce and poor choices. This time maws a dark period in my life. Luckily I just happen to live a half a block away from one of the first wheelchair accessible corridors in Salt Lake County. I was able to bus to work and home each day. The system worked for me and I used this system for about 14 months, I loved it. Luckily during that time there were no real interruptions in service. I wonder, now, if there had been would I have got the fire in my belly and chained my self to a bus because I needed THAT bus and not because it was my job?