----- Original Message -----
From: joe harcz Comcast
To: Sarah Gravetti MISILC DNM
Cc: Robin Bennett MSILC Member ; Tracy Brown MSILC Staff ; Jim Wheyland MSILC
Member
Sent: Wednesday, October 19, 2016 8:44 PM
Subject: Fw: gravetti violated the very ada she was promoting here by keeping
us out
Article V of the 14th Amendment goes to "equal protection and due process of
law" to all of its citizens; black, white,brown, able bodied, disabled, women,
men, religious, non-religious, those born here and those naturalized, those who
are lgbt, or those who are straight and so on and so forth. In other words what
applies to one is supposed to apply to all. This is so simple and so easy that
it drives me silly at times when people don't understand the simple, yet,
profound thing of it all. And the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 was
premised by this very Amendment to the United States Constitution, including we
people with disabilities, one-sixth of the population with these rights. But,
on September 17, 2015 the State of Michigan and its pawns arrested me and
deprived dozens of blind, developmentally disabled and others with known
disabilities from attending let alone protesting abuses of people with
disabilities on the state capitol grounds, in a free and open public event,
because we individually, and collectively carried signs and leaflets against
these self-same scofflaws against our rights; again on our most protected of
civil rights day and, indeed on the nominal civil rights day celebration.
Moreover, it is not only ironic but, ludicrous given the constitutional
violations that September 17 is "Constitution Day". (It is an irony of
injustice not lost on me for sure.)
And they even literally put out barriers on our barrier removal day. They
didn't like our message that people with state and federal funds were
oppressing us with below minimum wages and with segregated and highly
profitable "sheltered workshops" (profitable to the non-disabled slave masters)
and that the State Capitol and other state agencies violated the ADA in
numerous and documented fasions to this very day let alone on that day. And,
they didn't like the fact we pointed out that the non-disabled Lt. Governor,
Calley and other non-disabled state actors sucked our blood and violated our
civil rights on our civil rights day and continue to do so to this day. to that
day, twenty five years after the passage of the landmark Americans with
Disabilities Act and, indeed now Michigan continues to violate the ADA which is
a documented fact.
They claimed our voices, and leaflets, buttons and protest was "disruptive" and
I, was arrested and persecuted for months with great consternation, pain and
suffering for simply attempting to express my angst at the abuses of our
government against us and exposures of utter abuse against us with great pain
and suffering; all again on our civil rights day. It was like the State of
Michigan used federal funds and the State Capitol itself to hold a 1964 Civil
Rights celebration sponsored by the KKK and then it barred anyone from "Black
Lives Matter" and/or the NAACP from attending with force of arms and then
arrested anyone who disobeyed these extraordinary and illegal. One blind, gay,
and black friend upon reading what happened to me said sadly, "Joe you are
lucky the son-of-a-bitches didn't shoot your ass, because that is what these
folks are doing to anyone who disagrees with them --especially when they are
different."
But our Constitution and civil rights laws are supposed to protect us....All of
us....Black and white and able bodied and disabled and everything in between.
The past battles including our own civil war are prelude to all of this and
what should be today. But, the state argues state rights; Sovereign immunity in
so many cases even to this day.
In short the past has gone nowhere as ani difranco wrote
and. Simply, Sarah Gravetti, and other state actors and others acting on behalf
of the state did conspire, in demonstrable and documented, fashion to deprive
me, and my brothers and sisters, of known Constitutional rights on our ADA
Day September 17, 2015; amongst those included are the First, Fourth and
Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. And they also include those
under the Fourteenth as ascribed to the many, including me personally under the
ADA, Title II and those under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 as
amended which, by the way deprives Michigan of sovereign immunity as it is in
receipt of federal funds and thus, by this acceptance of same, waives its
sovereignty. If Michigan in regards to people with disabilities wishes to
exempt itself by virtue of the 11th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and to
separate itself as a scofflaw against other Constitutional rights for people
with disabilities upon these then I suggest to the State "sovereign" and to
the federal agencies that the former decries all funds for purposes of
implementing ADA, Rehabilitation Act and IDEA laws amongst others guaranteeing
and funding rights of the very people with disabilities that are violated by
the state with federal funds, including me on the day and subsequent days in
action. (Goes to the civil rights atrocity on the State Capitol grounds against
me/us and others which we were protesting.) I suggest that if Michigan wishes
to gain traction on these grounds then it waives all federal funding for any
and all programs for people with disabilities including, but not exclusive of
Medicaid, Vocational rehabilitation funding, including all funding under titles
I, , VI , VII and all federal funding under IDEA as but a few examples of the
80 to 100 percent funding for programs that this ludicrous state claims funding
for and then, wants to claim "sovereign immunity against" when it gets caught
in violations of the civil rights protections of these self-same laws.
I suggest now and did then, suggest de-funding, as prescribed under these laws
and other sanctions against these very state actors who suck the blood of
people with disabilities as pattern of practice and acts of discrimination,
subsidized by the federal government with impunity because the state claims
immunity while accepting the federal bucks. This is why and others like me
were clearly retaliated against and continue to be so. We demanded public
attention, action, and compliance. And the state actors including state
agencies all the way to the Governors office simply treated us like terrorists
and illegally, and with impunity until now attacked my reputation, deprived me
of liberty and falsely arrested me and then continued to maliciously prosecute
me for trying to exercise my known constitutional rights.
This is an absurd construct and totally unjust as only one with common sense
can understand. Congress and the executive and even the scotus realized in 1990
that people with disabilities where abused by state systems. It is a part of
the congressional record and, moreover it was a part of that record years prior
in other civil rights laws and in Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act as
dully noted. Yet, the same state actor scofflaws continue to violate the rights
of its citizens including those of us with disabilities with impunity and with
a shield of "immunity" in spite of hideous examples of outright perfidy,
perjury, and other overt violations against us....All citizens, but also
especially people with disabilities including myself. Now, I ask all this: Did
our founders and did those who wrote and fought for and died for the Bill of
Rights, let alone those bloody and secondary revolutionary Amendments including
the 13th and 14th exclude some or were these rights enumerated for all of us;
the many. And did they consider the rights of the states to conclude these
disparities with immunity and with sufferance to state agents over those of the
individual and collective civil rights. I, personally don't ascribe my notion
of liberty to state agents who engage in naked violations of my rights of
expression, political speech, assembly, association and on public property and
at a state and publicly funded event for my very own civil rights as just. And
no one can ascribe these things to the Governor of the State of Michigan or his
minions including the Lt. Governor, and the Michigan Department of Civil Rights
and the Michigan Statewide Independent Living Council and other agencies in
personnel in these regards, or act to immunize them for overt, malicious and
known perfidy against my person and those of my brothers and sisters with known
disabilities including NFB, ADAPT and my comrades with Peer Action Alliance.
Michigan has played "fast and loose" with federal civil rights laws for decades
and has only gotten worse under "Snyder the Nerd
".
Regardless, no one, let alone this Governor, or any other for that matter,
should have the "sovereign right" to violate federally protected claims against
waste, fraud and utter abuse; let alone abuse of known and documented
constitutional and subsequent civil rights by their simple dictatorial
dictates of absurd sovereignty Oh, yes grand masters we bow down before you!
The Flint Water crisis alone with all the state actors who poisoned a city of
onehundred thousand shows how out of line and how absurd and how incredible
this "sovereign" is indeed!
. We fought against a king in 1776. Should we crown one today because he can
use these battles in blood and equity and law over centuries to denigrate us as
slaves and peons, and "children of a lesser god and a lesser law"?
I think not. I think that the Article V alone, again upon which the ADA and 504
were premised and, indeed in which all equal protection and due process for all
citizens regardless as to race, color, gender, disability, national origin, and
so on and so forth were premised is the very core of this case.
----- Original Message -----
From: joe harcz Comcast
To: Sidhu,Mehgan
Sent: Thursday, September 24, 2015 10:47 AM
Subject: Fw: gravetti violated the very ada she was promoting here by keeping
us out
----- Original Message -----
From: joe harcz Comcast
To: David Robinson NFB MI
Cc: terry Eagle ; Eleanor Canter ; Darma Canter ; Laura Hall ; Egan, Paul ;
Mark Johnson ; Kelly Buckland ; Legal Observer Coordinator ; Sidhu,Mehgan
Sent: Thursday, September 24, 2015 10:45 AM
Subject: gravetti violated the very ada she was promoting here by keeping us out
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Sara Grivetti, MA, CRC Chief Executive Officer Disability Network\MI
989-430-1143
sara@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Statewide Celebration Honors 25th Anniversary of the Americans with
Disabilities Act (ADA) September 17th
In conjunction with the 25th anniversary of the signing of the federal
Americans with Disabilities Act, a statewide celebration will be held Sept. 17
from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the lawn of the Capitol Building in Lansing.
On July 26, 1990, President George H.W. Bush signed the Americans with
Disabilities Act into law. In that moment our nation committed itself to
eliminating discrimination against people with disabilities. The ADA is one of
America's most comprehensive pieces of civil rights legislation that prohibits
discrimination and guarantees that people with disabilities have the same
opportunities as everyone else to participate in the mainstream of American
life -- to enjoy employment opportunities, to purchase goods and services, and
to participate in State and local government programs and services.
Like the nationwide Disability Rights Movement, the campaign in Michigan had
its beginnings in white, middle class, college educated culture, according to
“Proud Voices: An Oral History of the Disability Rights Movement in Michigan
(1960 -1980)“ by Lauren J. Thomas, a project made possible by a grant from the
Michigan Humanities Council.
In some ways, Michigan was a forerunner among states in disability awareness,
according to the report.
Events that united the identity and power of the movement in Michigan, Thomas
wrote, are:
· The April 1976 March on Transportation -- The first time that people
with disabilities were visible in a public demonstration in front of the state
capitol. Participants in the “Public Means All People March” demanded access to
public transportation.
· Passage of the Handicapper Civil Rights Act, also in 1976 -- Michigan
Legislature passed revolutionary legislation that protected people with
disabilities from discrimination, particularly in areas of obtaining and
maintaining employment.
· State and national White House Conferences in 1976-77 – This is one of
the disability community's first efforts at community organizing, put into
motion by the President's Commission on the Employment of the Handicapped.
Regional meetings resulted in 24 delegates being chosen to represent Michigan
at the White House conference.
The public event will honor leaders and advocates of the Disability Rights
Movement, many of whom are people with disabilities or are family members of
people with disabilities.
Speakers will include Lieutenant Governor Brian Calley, father of daughter with
autism and leader of autism insurance reform. The keynote speaker is Mr. Kelly
Buckland, Executive Director of the National Council of Independent Living. Mr.
Buckland will be joined by Mr. Billy Altom, Executive Director of the
Association for Rural Independent Living Programs. Mr. Altom will deliver a
special message about youth leadership in the Disability Rights Movement.
Contributing partners of the event are Disability Network/Michigan, and
representatives from the network of fifteen Michigan Centers for Independent
Living the Statewide Independent Living Council, Michigan Disability Rights
Coalition, Michigan Developmental Disabilities Council, and the Michigan
Department of Civil Rights, Office of State ADA Compliance.
Platinum Sponsors are ADA Michigan, Statewide Independent Living Council,
Michigan Council for Rehabilitation Services, Peckham, Inc., Disability
Network/Michigan, Michigan State University Federal Credit Union.
Gold Sponsors are Michigan Developmental Disabilities Council, Area Agencies on
Aging Association of Michigan, and Physician's Health Plan/Sparrow Health
Systems.
The ADA Legacy Bus is in the process of completing a cross-country tour
commemorating the 25th anniversary of the passage of the Americans with
Disabilities Act and it will be at our event as well.
The ADA bus was originally procured for the 2006-2007 Road to Freedom, a tour
which promoted the importance of the 2008 amendments to the Americans with
Disabilities Act. This tour was inspired by the historic 50-state journey taken
in 1983 by Justin and Yoshiko Dart as a fact-finding mission for the National
Council on the Handicapped. The Darts toured again in 1988, that time to garner
grassroots support for the burgeoning Americans with Disabilities Act.
The present ADA Tour builds on these past efforts by paying tribute to the
cross-disability efforts that culminated in the passage of this historic civil
rights legislation. You can learn more
about the ADA Legacy Bus by visiting their website address below.
http://www.adalegacy.com/ada25 ;.
Organizers of the statewide event hope the September celebration will inspire
people to continue advocating for equal rights for people with disabilities.
### END ###