Before the holidays I wrote about two particular upcoming
events, one national and one local. The
national one, of course, is the inauguration of President Trump on January
20. In my latest blog post I encouraged
those who are eager to communicate a message of inclusion to the incoming president
to turn out on January 21 for the Women’s March on Washington - https://www.womensmarch.com. However,
in the meantime, D.C.’s self-advocates’ organization, Project Action!, has made
the decision to participate as a group
in the We Shall Not Be Moved rally - http://nationalactionnetwork.net
– on January 14. So - take your pick or
do both! If you’re interested in joining
on January 14, Phyllis Holton at Quality Trust - pholton@dcqualitytrust.org – can put
you in touch with the Project Action! group.
An event with more local potential is the formal closeout of
the 40-year-old Evans class action lawsuit tomorrow, January 10, at the U.S.
district court at 333 Constitution Avenue, NW (courtroom 23A). DDS will host a celebration later in the day,
5:00 to 7:00, at their offices at 250 E Street SW. It’s hard to overstate the significance of
this moment – what it means about the immense progress made by advocates and by
DDS itself, especially over the past decade, and also the opportunity it offers
us now to look ahead and focus on today’s new challenges. I understand that Martin Austermuhle of
WAMU-FM may do a follow-on to his well-received series broadcast back in the
spring (see my post, “So Much Accomplished, So Much More to Do,” March 21, 2016)
to mark this event, and I’ll let you know when I hear more about the timing.
I’d also like to take the opportunity to note that a number
of existing members of the Developmental Disabilities Council (http://ddc.dc.gov/), as well as a few new ones
including myself, were sworn in by the mayor on December 15. The DDC will be implementing its new
five-year plan and helping confront new challenges facing our city’s developmentally
disabled citizens. I look forward to
joining others in these tasks, but the views I express in these pages will
continue to be entirely my own.
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