NCIL: letter from Exec Director
Dear Advocates and Friends,
We are facing monumental change – a new Congress, a
new president, and new leadership for NCIL. We have the opportunity to bring
our movement out of the shadow of others. We have allowed others to tell our
story. We have allowed government to control our services and lives. We have
allowed them to marginalize independent living by reinterpreting our law,
diminishing our funding and failing to properly measure and report our
accomplishments.
We must not sit and wait for change. We must focus on
effectively promoting independent living to policy-makers and appropriators. We
must communicate the value of our movement and our people.
The independent living program belongs to the people, not
to bureaucrats and bean counters! It is time for us to take it back. This
year’s annual conference, Believe: We Are Better. Re-energize,
Reorganize, Reauthorize! (June 5th to 8th at the
Grand Hyatt in Washington, D.C.), is designed to give us the tools to do just
that. It is an acknowledgement that our time has come. It is a proclamation
that we will no longer allow narrow-minded “professionals” to impede
independent living. It provides individuals with disabilities, centers and
SILCs across the country a unifying opportunity to confront our common enemies:
complacency, cynicism and resignation.
In 1986, Justin Dart testified before Congress that the
Rehabilitation Services Administration’s vocational rehabilitation system
was “a vast, inflexible federal system which, like the society it
represents, still contains a significant portion of individuals who have not
yet overcome obsolete, paternalistic attitudes about disability.” We have
made inroads, but we have yet to seize control and turn it in a progressive
direction.
As a community, we will insist that decisions be made with
us and by us. We will re-energize our efforts to reauthorize the Rehabilitation
Act, and we will insist on reforms that reflect the values of our community. No
longer will “rehabilitation” programs exclude people with
disabilities from deciding how our lives ought to be lived. We will design,
implement and monitor programs that will be focused on the principles of
independent living: civil rights, consumer control, and social, economic and
political equality.
The doors of opportunity do not slam open; our common
commitment and effort must make it so. We must believe in our ability to create
change, to do that which has seemed impossible. We have little to lose and much
more to gain in this time of critical change. We cannot stand in our own way.
We need to put aside our internal differences, skepticism, and pessimism to
re-energize, reorganize, and reauthorize, for our common goals and our shared
vision. (You may register at: www.ncil.org.)
It is my sincerest hope that you will join us for this
weeklong event, especially during this crucial time for our community. The 2009
NCIL Annual Conference will be an opportunity to reinforce the resolve that
will be needed during the coming years. In addition, it's June in our nation's
Capitol - great weather, great times and great friends. I can’t wait to
see you there!
Sincerely,
John A. Lancaster, Executive Director |
