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ADAPT Action Journal
March 23 and 24, 2004
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Linda Anthony
Keystone ADAPT
10 Years with ADAPT
This day started easy enough. We didn’t pull out of the hotel until 9:00 am and unlike any other ADAPT action I’ve been on, we headed for the hill to lobby! Armed with DVD’s of our 144 mile march to DC and our “STOLEN LIVES” testimonials, we lined up to enter our assigned House of Representatives building. One small glitch in the trip to the hill caused a huge back-up and one block ahead we watched as a sea of chairs untangled as quickly as the had formed.
Getting into the building through security took longer than it took to distribute a DVD and book to each and every house member. In short order, we finished and our people began to exit. As Cecil and I swept the building and began to leave, we were pushed back from the door and the doors were closed. Cecil and I were instructed to wait there in the hall and as anyone approached the door, they were told no one was allowed in or out. On my headset, I was hearing from ADAPT members outside that the found a suspicious package and the
haz-mat guys were being called to check it out. It wasn’t a bomb and we were released.
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A quick lunch in the park and we were off to the Senate. Getting into the building went quickly and soon we were under the building marching our way through the tunnel to the Dirksen, room 215. As the last of us headed up to the Senate Finance Room, the elevator opened and we were greeted with the chants of our brothers and sisters.
“Call the hearings now. Pass MiCASSA now.”
Driven by years of frustration and lie after lie, ADAPT members saturated the hearing room and halls outside the hearing room. Senator Grassley’s staff soon appeared but negotiations fell completely apart when Chief of Staff refused to put their offer in writing.
The chanting inside the hearing room never let up. Those of us that didn’t fit in the room could feel the energy through the walls. It fed our anger and our resolve.
“We’d rather go to jail than to die in a nursing home,” and that’s what we did. |
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Chris Hilderbrant
Tuesday began with a plan to march to Capitol Hill to distribute a booklet of STOLEN LIVES and a DVD of the “Free Our People March” to all Congressional and Senate Representatives.
This simple plan “became exciting very fast” in the words of Eli Thurman from Syracuse, New York when several motorcycle cops tired to cut off ADAPT’s long line. Our troops quickly flowed around the barrier and continued up Capitol Hill. Many hours later, our materials were distributed and all of ADAPT converged on 215 Dirksen – the Senate Finance Committee. |
A steady flow of ADAPTers soon filled the hearing room to capacity and ADAPT convened a people’s hearing on MiCASSA because Senator Grassley and the Committee had failed to. Powerful chants soon disrupted “business as usual” for that entire hallway of the Dirksen building.
The noisemakers and chanting inside and outside the hearing room was incredible! Chants demanding a MiCASSA hearing echoed throughout the halls. Negotiations with Sen. Grassley’s staff broke down when they refused to commit to anything in writing. With little hope for resolution, ADAPT was determined to stay.
Hours later around 7:30 pm, the Capitol Police began reading warnings completely drown out by ADAPT’s chants. More than an hour later, they finally began arresting us – nearly 150 of us! |
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Tim Wheat
Boulder ADAPT
8 years with ADAPT
I did not intend to get arrested. Two police officers said I could go.
As I was walking out with an officer, they ordered me to: “Stop, put your camera on the floor and face the wall.” |
Even though I had been through this procedure before in my life, my pulse raced as they cuffed me.
I didn’t see any sense in arguing; but it was very clear just how quickly ones freedom could be taken away. I gladly join my brothers and sisters who intent to make a point that we will not passively let our freedom slip away. |
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