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Jun. 24th, 2009 10:20 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stonebenderYesterday was interesting, a bit frustrating, and punctuated with a little bit of fear. Not that you'd know from the news, even the local news, but there have been a series of protests against the California governor's proposed budget. A few months ago he sponsored some ballot measures that were put on the ballot. They were put there as a condition of getting one Republican to switch his vote in order to pass the budget. As you may not know California is one of the few states that requires two thirds vote in order to pass the budget every year. So even though the vast majority of our state legislators are Democrats, Republicans hold a disproportionate amount of power because it is necessary that some of them vote along with Democrats to get to the budget passed. So anyway, there were several ballot measures related to the budget. All of them failed except one. It will not allow legislators to vote themselves a pay raise when there is a budget deficit. It doesn't require that they actually cut their wages, just not give themselves raises.
So once most of those measures failed, the governor has chosen to characterize that election as "the people" telling him we wanted to balance the budget only through budget cuts. Also, the Republican who forced the ballot measures, and ultimately helped pass last year's budget (which included some tax increases), has been punished for his "treachery" by his party. So now the Republican Party will not entertain any kind of tax in this year's budget.
Anyway, I'll stop going into details, but we're in a deficit situation again this year. Because of the governor and his fellow Republicans, we are looking at some very serious budget cuts. Not just to programs I depend on but lots of our so-called safety net is in danger. I'm genuinely concerned for a lot of my friends and some for myself. The cuts the governor is proposing will kick 90% of the people who depend on In-Home Support Services completely out of the program. Those that remain will get their wages cut to minimum minimum wage. There will be no cost-of-living increase for those getting Social Security and there will be an additional cut, many health benefits will disappear for examples no dental for adults, no optometric services etc. etc. It too long a list of cuts to go into here but we are in dire circumstances.
I'm frustrated and angry and needed to do something. So yesterday I went to the demonstration in San Francisco to protest the cuts. There was another demonstration in Sacramento the day before yesterday and one in Los Angeles at the same time. I've seen virtually no coverage by the press on any of these demonstrations, but yesterday I was protesting in San Francisco along with 300+ people with disabilities, their personal attendante, and other concerned citizens.
We marched to the governor's office in San Francisco after going around the block a few times. After a bit of a rally most of us moved into the street in front of the building. After a while we were informed that were required to get off the street or be arrested. I hadn't decided whether I was going to be arrested. Mainly because I'm still recovering from cellulitis and wasn't sure I had it in me. However I was already in the street and all I really had to do was stay there. So I chose to stick with others who had decided to be arrested.
It was fairly anti-climactic. The police came to each protester informed us we were breaking the law and asked us to accompany them to be ticketed. The lawyers with us had already negotiated with the police that we would cooperate with the arrests. So as they asked us each of us to follow the officer to a designated area where we were ticketed. Then I was done. As far as the arrest the worst that happened was a pretty mean sunburn.
On the way home (or rather on the way to meetloracs at work to catch a ride home with) I noticed my 'chair seemed to be slowing down. By the time I got to Powell Street station, my wheelchair was slowing down significantly when I went up any curb cuts. I was pretty sure I could make it to Oakland, but on the chance that the wheelchair died completely I called loracs to let her know about the situation. I also called serene to let her know that I was okay and heading home. I did manage to ever so slowly get to 12th St. station, up the elevator to the street level. Once loracs got out of work she had to push me most of the way the car. She managed it and I got home. We picked up sushi on the way and that was pretty much the end of it all.
At the protest I did hear from folks who had gone to Sacramento the day before to protest the budget cuts. He said a contingent of four of them had been allowed to come to Schwarzenegger's office. Of course he wasn't there but staff heard our complaints. According to those who went to Sacramento, Schwarzenegger's staff admitted that the governor understood that the cuts would probably result in a lot of people with disabilities going to nursing homes. He also understood that keeping people in nursing homes costs the state significantly more money but apparently he doesn't care. He is adamant about not passing any more taxes. So we are facing massive cuts in most programs that the poor, the disabled and seniors depend on to live independently. How the governor rationalizes this to himself is beyond me. I doubt that my arrest did anything to change the situation, but I feel like I've done what I could and will do as much more as I can to minimize these cuts to essential services.
So once most of those measures failed, the governor has chosen to characterize that election as "the people" telling him we wanted to balance the budget only through budget cuts. Also, the Republican who forced the ballot measures, and ultimately helped pass last year's budget (which included some tax increases), has been punished for his "treachery" by his party. So now the Republican Party will not entertain any kind of tax in this year's budget.
Anyway, I'll stop going into details, but we're in a deficit situation again this year. Because of the governor and his fellow Republicans, we are looking at some very serious budget cuts. Not just to programs I depend on but lots of our so-called safety net is in danger. I'm genuinely concerned for a lot of my friends and some for myself. The cuts the governor is proposing will kick 90% of the people who depend on In-Home Support Services completely out of the program. Those that remain will get their wages cut to minimum minimum wage. There will be no cost-of-living increase for those getting Social Security and there will be an additional cut, many health benefits will disappear for examples no dental for adults, no optometric services etc. etc. It too long a list of cuts to go into here but we are in dire circumstances.
I'm frustrated and angry and needed to do something. So yesterday I went to the demonstration in San Francisco to protest the cuts. There was another demonstration in Sacramento the day before yesterday and one in Los Angeles at the same time. I've seen virtually no coverage by the press on any of these demonstrations, but yesterday I was protesting in San Francisco along with 300+ people with disabilities, their personal attendante, and other concerned citizens.
We marched to the governor's office in San Francisco after going around the block a few times. After a bit of a rally most of us moved into the street in front of the building. After a while we were informed that were required to get off the street or be arrested. I hadn't decided whether I was going to be arrested. Mainly because I'm still recovering from cellulitis and wasn't sure I had it in me. However I was already in the street and all I really had to do was stay there. So I chose to stick with others who had decided to be arrested.
It was fairly anti-climactic. The police came to each protester informed us we were breaking the law and asked us to accompany them to be ticketed. The lawyers with us had already negotiated with the police that we would cooperate with the arrests. So as they asked us each of us to follow the officer to a designated area where we were ticketed. Then I was done. As far as the arrest the worst that happened was a pretty mean sunburn.
On the way home (or rather on the way to meet
loracs at work to catch a ride home with) I noticed my 'chair seemed to be slowing down. By the time I got to Powell Street station, my wheelchair was slowing down significantly when I went up any curb cuts. I was pretty sure I could make it to Oakland, but on the chance that the wheelchair died completely I called loracs to let her know about the situation. I also called serene to let her know that I was okay and heading home. I did manage to ever so slowly get to 12th St. station, up the elevator to the street level. Once loracs got out of work she had to push me most of the way the car. She managed it and I got home. We picked up sushi on the way and that was pretty much the end of it all.At the protest I did hear from folks who had gone to Sacramento the day before to protest the budget cuts. He said a contingent of four of them had been allowed to come to Schwarzenegger's office. Of course he wasn't there but staff heard our complaints. According to those who went to Sacramento, Schwarzenegger's staff admitted that the governor understood that the cuts would probably result in a lot of people with disabilities going to nursing homes. He also understood that keeping people in nursing homes costs the state significantly more money but apparently he doesn't care. He is adamant about not passing any more taxes. So we are facing massive cuts in most programs that the poor, the disabled and seniors depend on to live independently. How the governor rationalizes this to himself is beyond me. I doubt that my arrest did anything to change the situation, but I feel like I've done what I could and will do as much more as I can to minimize these cuts to essential services.
