/* Written 7:57 pm Mar 8, 1993 by cyano
...@igc.apc.org in igc:gen.diffable */
/* ---------- "Wade Blank - Memorium" ---------- */
From:
JUSTIN DART, CHAIRMAN
THE PRESIDENT'S COMMITTEE ON EMPLOYMENT OF PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES
1331 F Street NW, Washington, D.C. 20004-1107
(202) 376-6200 VOICE (202) 376-6205 TDD (202) 376-6219 FAX
THE REVEREND WADE BLANK, 1940-1993
Disability rights leader Wade Blank died on February 15 in rough
seas off of a beach at Todos Santos, Mexico. He was trying,
unsuccessfully, to save his drowning eight year old son, Lincoln.
It is always a tragedy when great lives are cut short by apparently
preventable events. But to dwell on the tragedy of Wade Blank's
death would be a very large disservice to the future. Wade's life
is the message. His existence was a towering triumph that demands
to be shouted, to be heard, to be acted on.
Unlike others who participated in the sixties revolution for a
rational society, Wade did not give up the struggle when it became
unfashionable. In 1974 he founded the Atlantis Community in Denver
-- a radical program to enable people with severe disabilities to
leave the isolation of nursing homes and live in the mainstream.
Atlantis was a success. But it soon became apparent that the
mainstream itself was polluted by devastating discrimination which
prevented people with disabilities from fulfilling their humanity.
In the tradition of Martin Luther King, Wade made equal access to
bus transport the symbol of full equality: "Rosa Parks protested
the indignity of being forced to sit in the back of the bus. We
can't get on the bus at all." On July 5th and 6th, 1978, he and
nineteen people with disabilities illegally detained an
inaccessible public bus at the intersection of Broadway and Colfax
in Denver. ADAPT was born -- American Disabled for Accessible
Public Transit. During the next 12 years hundreds of ADAPT
activists blocked buses, streets, hotels and government buildings
across North America. They filled the police records and jails of
Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, San Francisco, Los
Angeles, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Little Rock, Philadelphia, Phoenix,
Reno, Montreal and Washington, D.C. Wade, Mike Auberger, Bob
Kafka, Mark Johnson, George Roberts, Larry Ruiz, Rick James,
Stephanie Thomas and Anita Cameron were arrested 15-30 times each.
Molly Blank, Babs Auberger, Frank McComb, Lori Eastwood, Bobby
Simpson, Melvin Conrady, Beverly Furnice, Joe Carle, Karen Tarnley,
Ann Sawtel, Sue Davis, Diane Coleman and many others were co-heroes
in the long struggle.
In March of 1990, with the fate of the ADA hanging in the balance,
Wade organized the historic march of disability rights leaders from
the White House to the U.S. Capitol to demand a law that would
provide full equality, "with no weakening amendments." People with
severe disabilities crawled up the Capitol steps and were arrested
demonstrating in the rotunda. ADA passed in July -- with no
weakening amendments. Without the courage and inspiration of Wade
Blank and his colleagues, the world would not have its first
comprehensive civil rights law for people with disabilities.
After passage of ADA, knowing that the job of justice was far from
completed, Wade and the members of ADAPT refocused their advocacy.
They demanded that the federal government provide funds for
personal assistance services that would enable persons with
disabilities now trapped in nursing homes to live free in their
communities. The demonstrations -- and the arrests -- continue.
Progress is being made. President Clinton has promised to form a
task force that will create a national program of personal
assistance services.
Some -- mostly those that didn't know him -- have said that Wade's
methods were "extreme." They said that civil disobedience in the
eighties and nineties is "passe," "obsolete," "inappropriate." The
same kinds of things were said about Washington, Jefferson, Gandhi
and Martin Luther King. What is extreme, what is inappropriate is
millions of human beings living with less dignity than we accord to
our pet dogs and cats. What is inappropriate is American citizens
imprisoned without due process of law in oppressive institutions
and rat infested back rooms. What is inappropriate is people with
disabilities living and begging in the streets. What is
inappropriate, what is unspeakably immoral, is a society that
cannot be bothered to make the simple changes necessary to give its
own children the opportunity of full humanity.
It has been my privilege to work closely with Wade Blank during the
last several years. He demonstrated against a meeting I chaired --
when HHS Secretary Louis Sullivan spoke at the 1991 PCEPD annual
conference in Dallas. We counseled together by telephone at all
hours of the day and night. We served together on the ADA
Congressional Task Force and in negotiating ADA with the President
of Greyhound. We marched together for equality in San Francisco,
Philadelphia and Washington. We were together in the freezing
midnight outside the barricaded Department of Transportation in
Washington. I never put myself in a position to be arrested. Wade
said that was alright, because I could play a positive role within
the system. I was never sure in my heart that I was on the right
side of the bars. I knew he was.
Wade Blank was a sensitive philosopher of democracy. He was a
superb organizer. He was a mature, sophisticated politician. He
had total honesty and total follow through. You could take his
promises to the bank.
These are rare and good qualities, but they alone would not have
enabled him to use an unfashionable method to lead an unfashionable
cause to an historic victory.
Wade had a magic sword. It was love. Unlike many with religious
labels, he understood and lived the central commandment of his God,
"that ye love one another as I have loved you." He understood that
love is not just smiling at nice people, but passionate, lifelong
action to preserve and enlarge the joy, the dignity, the quality of
every human life. He understood that love does not smother with
criticism, care and control; it encourages, emancipates and
empowers. He understood that love for all means justice for all.
Wade's leadership of love made ADAPT the family for those who had
no family, the family with justice, with hope, with transcending
fulfillment. Wade's love warmed and empowered us all. It breached
the defenses and won the respect of Congresspersons, business
persons, jailers, judges and mayors. Again and again, it lifted my
heart and my mind from the self-centered desperation of Washington
politics to the dream.
Before he died, Wade planned a series of demonstrations for
personal assistance services to be held in Washington, D.C., on May
9th, 10th and 11th. These will go forward in his honor. There
will be a tribute to him on Sunday, May 9th, at the Lincoln
Memorial.
Let us join together in memory of Wade -- on May 9th, today,
tomorrow, as long as life remains -- to continue his struggle for
a truly human society. Let us pick up his sword of love and truth
and courage, and use it -- each in our own way -- to cut the chains
of all who are slaves to pity, prejudice and paternalism. Let us
join in one voice to shout his shout: "Free our people." Let us
embrace his golden heritage of responsible action for life, enlarge
it in our own lives, and invest it in the lives of all who will
come.
Wade, we love you. That's easy. We will try our best to love each
other as you loved us.
//signed//
Justin Dart
