My Mom Taught Me – Subvert The Dominant Paradigm
remember to turn the subtitles on.
[my shirt says: FREE OUR PEOPLE BIG APPLE ADAPT]
When Alejandra mentioned to me that even Raul, like me one of two brothers with an uber rare muscle mitochondrial thing, on a ventilator full time and an awesome advocate too, went ahead with the Ice Bucket Challenge, I replied “if only ADAPT had a meme like that!” So together, Alejandra and I brainstormed a new, ADAPTed version of the challenge, and here it is.
I offer a different focus for the ice bucketed masses on social media, and try to give voice to the views of many like me in disability rights circles: we don’t want “eradicating neuromuscular diseases” to be the only agenda… quality of life is the key, and every day we’re fighting uphill against systems that hold us back from living the best lives we can.
Yes, awareness is great. Yes, medical research is super important, for quality of life too. Politicians who ham it up with an ice bucket after voting to sequester cut the NIH budget so severely that ALS research and all NIH programs had to regroup even more barebones than before shouldn’t be re-elected! Democrats voted for that sequester en masse while the Republicans held out for even more harsh cuts; nominating the lot of ’em for a bucket o’ scorpions challenge would be more like it.
Neuromuscular research funding should be auto-approved and Raytheon, Northrupp Grummond, KBR and their ilk should have to pass the hat on social media.
Medicaid long-term care still mandates antiquated nursing home care but in-home supports are “optional,” meaning most states offer only spotty or barely-existing home care, and even that is increasingly threatened. Private “major medical” health insurance like Blue Cross phased out coverage of long-term care nationwide in the early ’90s excepting a handful of examples, so unless you’ve purchased a special long-term care plan in your working years to cover full-time care in your senior years, Medicaid is the only place you can turn. Private long-term care plans aren’t available to ALS diagnosed people, preexisting condition y’know, much less sold for the Nicks and Rauls with inborn genetic muscle diseases.
This means the most severely affected by neuromuscular diseases like ALS, the Americans who need full-time care the most, have only the dilapidated 50 states/different Medicaid programs for the long-term care that is so essential for both survival and a life worth living. RIGHT NOW these vulnerable groups are unable to get the needed services and supports for the quality of life that they deserve, with their loved ones in their homes, and face worse conditions than they should because of our insane political system. That fight is RIGHT NOW, not four, five generations hence like the potential cures we seek.
Standing up for the people in the trenches now is important, awareness of our lives, our struggles, our dignity, is crucial oxygen for us as we face daily battles… Visit www.adapt.org to learn more and to donate.
Nick