This article was written before activists attended the September 2003 "Free Our People" march. As a result of energetic grassroots organizing, the activists were successful in convincing Washington State Senator Maria Cantwell to vote yes for the critical MiCassa legislation and Washington State Representative Jim McDermott to co-sponsor the bill. Thank you for all of the local financial and critical support that was key in the success!

Most of us take for granted that we can choose where and with whom we live. But for many this is far from true. People with a spectrum of disabilities have long been denied these basic choices.

For too long the prevailing wisdom has been that it is safer and more convenient to keep people with disabilities behind closed doors. It's best for the people with disabilities, and it's best for the larger "community," the thinking goes. Instead of being raised by family and growing old with friends and partners, people with disabilities are too often left to teams of professionals who document everything from how many milligrams of which wonder drug it took to render them obedient to when they last went to the toilet.

At every turn, community-based alternatives to institutions and other restrictive settings have been undercut by those ill-equipped to directly address the reality of disability, and by those whose livelihoods depend on sustaining the arcane model. It's time to tear down the walls. There's a place in the community for all of us, or there could be, if we made the personal and political commitment. And that would be a better place for everyone.

ADAPT (American Disabled for Attendant Programs Today), a national grassroots group of activists founded in 1983, is pushing for change. After two decades of direct action, legislative advocacy and litigation, ADAPT is leading the most ambitious direct action in the history of the disability rights movement in the United States.

The "Free Our People" march is a 144-mile trek from the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia to the Washington Monument in DC. At the end of the march some 20,000 activists are expected to rally, including a small contingent from Washington State, where, sadly, ADAPT does not have an active chapter. Also, our Washington is across the vast continent from the other Washington, and spanning that gap poses significant challenges to many people with disabilities.

But we will be represented. CARA's Disability Pride Project has led the effort to send Joelle Brouner, Kim Clark, Brian Dahl and Sara Magyar to the historic action. This is all thanks to the generosity of the many individuals and organizations that funded this expedition.

Sara Magyar is an activist with the Disability Pride Project. She is relatively new to disability, but not to efforts to end oppression. Sara, who was homeless for many years, is a passionate advocate for homeless youth. As she prepares for her first ADAPT action Magyar says, "Because I've been homeless and became disabled when I was homeless, this issue really speaks to me. It makes me think about where I'm going to spend the rest of my days. I don't want my disability to define what my home will be. I had my dreams of what home would be when I was sleeping under bridges and in doorways. It would be a travesty if my disability alone determined what that home will be and not me."

The march is the crowning achievement of the "Stolen Lives" campaign, an effort to call attention to the pro-institutional bias within Medicaid regulations. This bias keeps people with disabilities in restrictive settings such as nursing homes and state institutions. It feeds segregation, oppression and abuse.

As matters stand, people with disabilities are entitled to reside in institutions and nursing homes; the state is not obligated to fund Medicaid services that would make it possible for us to live in our own homes. Never mind that institutions and nursing homes are often more expensive; the Feds consider these services optional, which means that many people with disabilities are forced to beg the state for an exception to policy to live in a place where a person can decide when it's time for dinner or to turn in for the night, or what company she can receive, and when.

Presently, three-fourths of Medicaid funding allocated for services and support is spent in nursing homes and institutions. Only a quarter goes to community-based services. ADAPT is pushing for passage of the Medicaid Community Attendant Supports and Services Act (Senate Bill 971, House Bill 2032), otherwise known as MiCASSA. Should this legislation become law, Medicaid recipients would gain greater choice in where they receive services and supports. It would place living at home on a more equal footing with nursing homes.

As the contingent prepares to go to DC we are both excited and humbled‹excited to be contributing to change and humbled by how many people can't be there. Too many remain behind locked doors.

More information and photos about the Free Our People march: www.freeourpeople.org

More information about ADAPT: www.adapt.org