Transcript Welcome! Sara Moussavian, Emerging Leader Silicon Valley Independent Living Center YO! Disabled & Proud Volunteer Sarah Triano, Executive Director Silicon Valley Independent Living Center Christina Mills, Deputy Director California Foundation.

Welcome!
Sara Moussavian,
Emerging Leader
Silicon Valley Independent Living Center
YO! Disabled & Proud Volunteer
Sarah Triano,
Executive Director
Silicon Valley Independent Living Center
Christina Mills,
Deputy Director
California Foundation for Independent Living Centers
Overview
Opening Statement by Yoshiko Dart
About Justin Dart
Justin’s Vision for a Revolution of Individualized
Empowerment
The Connection between Justin’s Vision & Olmstead
The Olmstead Decision
Why youth should care
Questions & Answers
Poster Contest Announcement
Opening Statement by Yoshiko Dart, on the
13th Anniversary of the Olmstead Decision
“I am with you always. I love you. Lead on. Lead on.”
Beloved colleagues in the struggle, I love you! Justin loved you and continues
to love you! Thank you for your dedication to justice everyday!
Thank you to everyone across the country for participating in the webinar
today! My heartfelt and special thanks go to Sarah, Christina and their
magnificent youth team - Nellie DeMeerleer, Kirk Aranda, Jonny Vallin,
Rosie McDonnell-Horita, Ron Lopez, Jamie Caron, Danielle Fellguth, Alex
Bland and Addy Hermmerla from the YO! Disabled and Proud; and Kelli
Lee, Derek Lee, Monica Turrey, Priyana Nookala, Justin Steinberg, Jerry
Alvarez, Sabrina Clarke, Joyce Yin and Sara Moussavian from SVILC for
their magnificent work in assisting, planning and hosting this important
webinar on the 13th Anniversary of Olmstead Decision by the US Supreme
Court.
Opening Statement by Yoshiko Dart, Cont.
In 1990 following the passage of the ADA, Justin wrote in
part:
“…The Declaration of July 4, 1776 gave eloquent voice to
the American dream: ‘that all men are created equal….’
Representatives of traditional cultures first yawned, and
then laughed at what they saw as an outrageous
combination of shameless demagoguery and childish
naiveté. But we Americans took this glorious, impossible
vision seriously and began a long tortuous effort to make it
live. Our spectacular partial successes have influenced an
international cultural revolution.
Opening Statement by Yoshiko Dart, Cont.
On July 26, 1990, the dream lived again. With a power that could have been
achieved in no other way, the message of ADA went forth through TV and
print to every American community and most foreign nations: PEOPLE
WITH DISABILITIES HAVE THE SAME INALIENABLE RIGHTS AS
OTHER PEOPLE TO PARTICIPATE IN THE MAINSTREAM OF
SOCIETY.
The world will never be the same. Mr. Jefferson and Reverend King must have
been smiling.”
Justin soon made a plan to go global promoting the rights and empowerment of
persons with disabilities. Indeed he did make several visits to foreign
countries; but upon returning from our trip to UK and Ireland in late 1997,
severe heart attacks prevented him from traveling any longer. It’s been 10
years today since his passing at our own home.
Opening Statement by Yoshiko Dart, Cont.
Today he would be so proud of you from California and the USA to the world. Thanks to our fearless
trailblazing leaders past and present, you are now able to move forward to take the next step. Justin
said many times, “I cry out to you from the depth of my being. Your lives, the quality of humanity
hangs in the balance! You do have the power; you do have the right; you do have the responsibility
to revolutionize your life and the lives of others for the better. You don’t need any title, permission
or membership card, act today! Lead! Lead! Lead the revolution of empowerment!”
Yes, indeed! I believe in you! I love you!
Together, but only together united in love and truth, we shall overcome!
YO! POWER! SVILC POWER! YOUTH POWER! POWER OF DISABILITY PRIDE! WE POWER!
POWER OF SOLIDARITY!
Lead On!
Thank you!
About Justin Dart
• Personal Information
• His accomplishments
• Presidential Recognitions
Thank You
Photos of Sarah Triano,
Jackie Tatum, and Christina
Mills
Photos of Sarah Triano, Yoshiko Dart, and Marca Bristo
Justin Dart’s Vision for a Revolution of
Individualized Empowerment
TOWARD A CULTURE OF INDIVIDUALIZED EMPOWERMENT
1998 National Council on Disability’s Youth
Leadership Development Conference
Photos of Marca Bristo and Justin
Dart
Photo of Sarah Triano and
Justin Dart at the 1998 NCD
Youth Leadership Conference
Justin Dart’s Vision for a Revolution of
Individualized Empowerment
Love For All
“Love is the magic ingredient of empowerment. Every
human being is empowered by an environment of love.
Every human being is entitled to an environment of love.
Every human being is responsible to contribute to an
environment of love.”
-From Justin Dart’s Political Platform for the 21st Century
Love For All
“Power is of two kinds. One is obtained by fear of
punishment and the other by acts of love. Power
based on love is a thousand times more effective
and permanent than the one derived from fear of
punishment.”
- Gandhi
Love For All
Love For All
“Destroy the injustice. Love the unjust.” - Justin Dart
• What would our movement look like if we lived Justin’s vision of love
for all and practiced advocacy through love?
• What would our movement look like if we recognized the humanity
in others, including our perceived opponents, and saw within them
the possibility for change?
• What would our movement look like if we truly valued people who
don’t agree with us and approached them with love and genuine
desire for understanding?
• And what would our movement look like if our aim was not to win
arguments, but to create community?
Justin Dart’s Vision for a Revolution of
Individualized Empowerment
1. Love For All
2. Government for All
Government for All
http://www.worksupport.com/Real/dart.ram
“People with disabilities are the poorest of the poor, the oppressed of
the oppressed. This does not have to be. Today science and free
enterprise democracy give us the potential to enable every person
to live the human dream.
Will we do it? Or will we like great cultures past, relax in the status
quo and go down the road to the land of what might have been? Our
present systems of society and government, magnificent as they are,
have reached their useful limits. We need a clarified vision.
Colleagues we have that vision -- a revolution of empowerment!”
- Justin Dart
Government for All
“During the last decade, incomes of the poorest fifth of the population have
increased 0.7 percent, less than one percent; the top fifth 15.6 percent -- 22
times as much. Incomes for the top twentieth increased 26.3 percent -- 37
times the increase of the lower fifth.”
-From Justin Dart’s Political Platform for the 21st Century
“I adamantly protest the richest culture in the history of the world…which has
the obvious potential to create a golden age of science and democracy
dedicated to maximizing the quality of life of every person, but which still
squanders the majority of its human and physical capital on modern versions
of primitive symbols of power and prestige.”
- From -From Justin Dart’s Final Statement
Government for All
“WE MUST PROVIDE VIGOROUS LEADERSHIP FOR A WORLD CULTURE THAT
REMOVES THE CAUSES OF TERRORISM by empowering all to live their Godgiven potential. This must be done, not by attempting to support and police
the world but by USA becoming a dramatic model of universal
empowerment.
We start by eliminating the poverty gap and the prejudice and violence here at
home, by creating America as a sparkling, irresistible advertisement of the
good life for all. And we must develop a much stronger, more consistent and
more passionately democratic foreign policy supporting the oppressed
people of the world. We must cease to subsidize regimes that systematically
abuse human rights, practice violence and acquiesce in poverty. We must use
military action only as an extreme last resort… [We] could bring more quality
of life and democracy to the oppressed people of Afghanistan than a hundred
bombers and a regiment of Marines.”
-From Justin Dart’s Political Platform for the 21st Century
Government for All
“The war in Vietnam is but a symptom of a far
deeper malady within the American spirit. We are
on the wrong side of a world revolution because
we refuse to give up the privileges and the
pleasures that come from the immense profits of
overseas investment.”
- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Government for All
“Our dream of all inclusive democracy is barricaded by our own self-indulgence.”
“Success must no longer be defined in terms of gaining symbols of prestige that make you
feel superior to other people. Responsibility must no longer be defined in terms that
permit lifestyles with major investments in conspicuous consumption, spectatorism,
elitism and escapism - investments in pushing people down rather than lifting them
up. Productivity must no longer be defined in terms of raw dollars only.”
“The real goals in life should not be big diamonds, gold, an expensive car, and expensive
yacht, or $120 tennis shoes. The real goal and true real happiness is in doing the job of
a human being. This means to make the best out of your own life, and at the same
time make the best out of everybody’s life, present and future. A human being is
interdependent, and you cannot maximize your own life without maximizing
everybody’s life…You have the power to make life better for yourself and for
everybody. And I’m not just talking about people with disabilities.”
- From Justin Dart’s interview in Caring Magazine in 1998
Justin Dart’s Vision for a Revolution of
Individualized Empowerment
1. Love For All
2. Government for All
3. Responsibility for All
Responsibility for All
We must “strengthen and enforce the ADA and all civil rights laws. Gays and lesbians
and others must receive full protection.”
- From Justin Dart’s 1998 speech at the NCD Youth conference
“CIVIL RIGHTS IN AN AMERICA OF INDIVIDUALIZED EMPOWERMENT WILL REQUIRE
PROTECTION OF INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS FOR ALL. No one will be left behind. Women,
men, children, older Americans, people of color and diverse languages, ethnic and
religious minorities, people with disabilities, consumers, patients, workers, gays and
lesbians, aliens, prisoners and literally all who might need protection from
discrimination and abuse will have it.”
-From Justin Dart’s Political Platform for the 21st Century
Responsibility for All
Justin called “for solidarity among all
who love justice, all who love life,
to create a revolution that will
empower every single human
being to govern his or her life, to
govern the society and to be fully
productive of life quality for self
and for all.”
Responsibility for All
The revolution of empowerment “WILL NOT OCCUR THROUGH ADVOCACY AS
USUAL.”
- Justin Dart
“Rebellion is a stage in the development of revolution but it is not revolution. It
is an important stage because it represents the standing up of the
oppressed… A rebellion disrupts the society but it does not provide what is
necessary to make a revolution and establish a new social order. To make a
revolution, people must not only struggle against existing institutions. They
must make a philosophical/spiritual leap and become more human human
beings. In order to change/transform the world, they must
change/transform themselves.”
- From Grace Lee Boggs, The Next American Revolution
“Only when I change will society and government change. The responsibility is
mine.”
- Justin Dart
Responsibility for All
“We are all waiting for some magical person to come
riding out of the sunset, you know, like in the
cowboy movies, and save us. Well, it ain’t gonna
happen.”
- Justin Dart
“We are the leaders we’ve been waiting for.”
- Grace Lee Boggs
Justin Dart’s Vision for a Revolution of
Individualized Empowerment
“A society based on the value that every human life
is equally sacred and equally worthy of optimal
personalized empowerment to achieve his or her
best possible quality of life. An America for all. A
world for all.”
- Justin Dart
Justin Dart’s Vision for a Revolution of
Individualized Empowerment
Justin Dart’s Political Platform for the 21st Century:
1. Love For All
2. Government For All
3. Responsibility For All
4. Simple Taxes For All Who Prosper
5. Education For All
6. Employment For All
7. Civil Rights For All
8. Technology For All
9. Healthcare For All
10. Food and Housing For All
11. Public Transportation For All
12. Social Security For All
13. Environment For All
14. Foreign Policy For All
•
www.mouthmag.com/justin/empower_2.htm
Justin Dart’s Vision for a Revolution of
Individualized Empowerment
LOVE FOR ALL:
• Am I contributing to an environment of love within our movement? Do I “love
the unjust” and see the possibility for change within my perceived
opponents?
GOVERNMENT FOR ALL:
• Am I, in the words of Grace Lee Boggs, “living simply so that others may
simply live”? Have I publicly questioned the billions of dollars being spent on
an illegal and immoral war instead of on things like home and communitybased services?
RESPONSIBILITY FOR ALL:
• Have I done my own work to confront injustices, and the role of privilege, in
my own life? Am I prioritizing solidarity work with other communities and
taking on the tremendous responsibility of revolutionary leadership for ALL?
Justin’s Vision & Olmstead:
The Connection
“I adamantly protest the richest culture in
the history of the world which still
incarcerates millions of humans with and
without disabilities in barbaric
institutions, backrooms and worse,
windowless cells of oppressive
perceptions, for the lack of the most
elementary empowerment supports.”
- Justin Dart’s Final Statement
The Women Behind Olmstead
Photo by: Tom Olin
Supreme Court Case
On June 22, 1999, in response to a lawsuit filed by two
Georgia women residing in a state hospital, the U.S. Supreme
Court ruled in Olmstead v. L.C. that unnecessary segregation and
institutionalization of people with disabilities is a type of
discrimination that violates the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The Olmstead Decision
In the ruling, the Court wrote,
“Confinement in an institution severely diminishes the everyday life
activities of individuals, including family relations, social contacts, work
options, economic independence, educational advancement and
cultural enrichment.”
- Olmstead V.L.C. (98-536) U.S. 581 (1999)
Institution or Community
Caption: Photo of Norwich State
Hospital behind a barbwire fence
Caption: Photo of an accessible home
with ramp coming off the front porch
Lois Curtis Today
Photo by: Scott Smith
Olmstead for All
“Yearly federal nursing home data shows that there are more than 6,000
young people up to the age of 21 living in American nursing homes.
And there are thousands more who are in their early 20s.”
- John Poole, National Public Radio
Olmstead Gives Us…
• The opportunity to choose where we want to live
• Access services that we need in our own homes rather than a nursing
home or hospital
• The freedom to come and go as we wish
• The ability to go to school or work, have a family and be a part of our
community
• Opens the doors to individual choice
NPR Series - Home or Nursing Home
America’s Empty Promise To Give The Elderly and Disabled A Choice
http://www.npr.org/series/131105200/home-or-nursing-home
Katie Beckett
Before there was an
Olmstead Decision
there was the Katie
Beckett Waiver
Youth in Nursing Homes
NPR Audio Clip
Mathew Harp, 21 years old
Poster Contest
What is your vision of the Disability Rights Movement?
California Disability History Week
(October 8 – 12, 2012)
Contest Guidelines
• Youth with disabilities between the ages of 14 – 28
may enter their art
• Art ranging in size from 8x11 – 11x17
• Entries should be scanned and/or saved as a jpg file
and emailed to _______
• The winner will work in collaboration with our
graphic designer to design the final Disability
History Week poster
• Contest questions should be directed to Christina
Mills at [email protected]
• Submission deadline Friday, August 31, 2012