Saddle Up Partner

Saddle Up Partner

Today is the LCPD(Legislative Coalition for People With Disabilities) annual reception up on capitol hill. Essentially this is LCPD’s big stab at influencing local legislation for people with disabilities. This year one of the big agenda items is to try to get the legislature to allocate money to the DSPD waiting list. Another big agenda item is to try to get more money for the Independent Living program in the state. Really, what we, the advocates- would like to really do is get the damn legislature to spend some of their $1,ooo,000,000.00 aka billion dollar surplus!

So today is the roundup—LCPD puts on this big show up at the capitol cafeteria. It used to be over lunch. LCPD bought a kajillion box lunches and then they got the different reps and senators to sit at specific tabled. Then you as a constituent would search out your district and then have lunch with your elected official, all the while haranguing them on what ever agenda you were trying to achieve. The box lunches were terrible, it was always difficult to motivate true consumers to get up to the hill and then the elected guys stopped showing up—this is not good. The year I really stopped going to these I was sitting with my legislator. I had been there `sitting for the past three years and I guess he was thinking he was getting to know me. We are sitting there munching on turkey on wheat, potato chips and the one wrapped oatmeal cookie and Bob leans over to me and says. Hate these things! I don’t know why I even show up. You are the only one who comes my district. I swear, I nearly choked—did not this guy know who he was talking to? Then I realized it was all a joke just another free meal for the electorate. I could show this guy babies with disabilities, gimps like me and DD folk. Today, our advocate group—a group of blitzkrieg Advocates (BA’s), our little BA’s trained all morning with Talking to Your Senator and Overwhelming Your Representative. The are all wearing their cloaking devices: suites and ties, Sunday best. Those white American Male legislators will not know what hit them. The only thing which would have made this operation better would have been if these guys had parachuted into the capitol parking lot… as it were they arrives on public transit. Groups of consumer met at our office, downloaded from their vehicles here and jumped buses up to the State house.

Truth be told I don’t think this operation is going to make one hell of a lot of difference but I have to say there is something about seeing consumers empowered with “blood and guts and veins in their teeth”* that does a persons heart good.

*Alice’s Restaurant Arlo Guthrie