O P I N I O N
THE SOAPBOX
Stand up. Speak up. It’s your turn.
Sitting on the White House lawn on July 26, 1990, my husband, Jim Piet, witnessed a Republican make history. President George H.W. Bush proudly proclaimed, “I now lift my pen to sign this Americans with Disabilities Act and say: Let the shameful wall of exclusion finally come tumbling down. God bless you all.”
35 years later his Republican party is doing their best to rebuild that wall brick by brick. Nationally, Republicans passed a budget bill that guts Medicaid, a program many disabled folks depend on to stay healthy and access their communities. They’re dismantling the Protection and Advocacy system – the last line of defense for disabled folks who are discriminated against. They’re eliminating the University Systems of Excellence that study the disability community, quantify needs and provide the data to ensure resources are used wisely. They’re stripping disabled students of a free and appropriate education.
Not to be outdone, Republicans in the NH State House have passed several bills to ensure disabled Granite Staters can’t access the vote and protect our rights. HB 613 forces disabled voters to provide written notice 60 days in advance to access a machine that enables us to vote privately and independently. SB 287 makes disabled voters get absentee ballots notarized. Along with SB 213 and SB 218, state Republicans are making it clear they don’t want us participating in their government.
Governor Ayotte has proven she’s no ally. She signed 3 out of 4 of these voter suppression bills into law. Thanks to her, many disabled Granite Stater’s will now find it impossible to register and vote thanks to barriers erected in their way. The budget bill she just signed includes work requirements and premiums for Medicaid recipients. The lack of infrastructure in the NH Bureau of Health and Human Services will make these hoops impossible to jump through, forcing many eligible disabled Granite Staters off Medicaid and to an early death.
The silver lining on this dark cloud is the hordes of people who have gone out of their way to demonstrate allyship with the disability community. Many turn to organizations that support people with disabilities to learn about issues, volunteer and donate. This is an awesome instinct. All these organizations need your help now more than ever to keep providing basic services.
However, most of these organizations are not run by people who have disabilities. The stories they tell are told through a specific lens. Disabled folks rarely get to tell their own stories in their own voices. Usually, those stories are edited to fit the narrative of the organization sharing them. If you really want to understand the disability experience you must listen to disabled folks speaking for themselves.
For the last year I’ve been collecting stories told by people with disabilities in their own voices and made them available on our YouTube channel. A new one will be released every week on Tuesday for the next seven weeks. Please watch all the videos, comment and like each one. Let’s raise the voices and look for other stories you can amplify.
Patricia Vincent-Piet lives in Concord and is a person with a disability, family caregiver and advocate.
Beg to differ? Agree to disagree? Comment below using our DISQUS app. Got issues of your own? Send to publisher@inklink.news, subject line: The Soapbox
The My Story, My Voice series can be found here on Youtube.
The first installment is below: