Abstract
This chapter is an autobiographical essay written by activist, writer and artist Nick Dupree. Dependent on mechanical ventilation for survival, Dupree worked to change Alabama Medicaid policy to allow him to live at home after he turned 21. Up until that time, ventilator-users in Alabama were routinely forced to move to out-of-state institutions once they reached adulthood. Dupree describes his experiences in higher education at Spring Hill College, and his decision to move to New York City in hopes of a more open, connected, loving existence. He moved into an institution in order to establish New York State residency and to qualify for community-based housing. Dupree concludes by recounting his experiences with the Occupy Wall Street Movement and how we can go further.
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Notes
- 1.
The 1963 Letter from Birmingham Jail, a defense of direct action and confrontational nonviolence or the cause of civil rights, catalogued the ideas behind the Birmingham march and subsequent demonstrations, many of which were met with police brutality, including the use of fire hoses and attack dogs, infamously deployed by Birmingham Commissioner of Public Safety Eugene “Bull” Connor. Written by Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. on April 16, it preceded the “I Have A Dream” speech delivered on the National Mall on August 28 later that year.
- 2.
“Never get involved in a land war in Asia”—the most famous of the “classic blunders” mentioned by Vizzini in the film The Princess Bride.
- 3.
Olmstead v. L.C., 527 U.S. 581 is a landmark Supreme Court decision, issued June 22, 1999. In a majority opinion written by Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the court held that under the Americans with Disabilities Act, individuals with disabilities have the right to live in the community rather than in institutions if, “the State’s treatment professionals have determined that community placement is appropriate, the transfer from institutional care to a less restrictive setting is not opposed by the affected individual, and the placement can be reasonably accommodated, taking into account the resources available to the State and the needs of others with mental disabilities.”
- 4.
Independent Living Center of Mobile (Mobile, Alabama).
- 5.
An international disability advocacy organization, see http://tash.org/about/
- 6.
This Gandhi quote, “Be the change you wish to see in the world,” turns out to have been massaged for bumper stickers. What Gandhi really said “If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him. … We need not wait to see what others do.” http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/30/opinion/falser-words-were-never-spoken.html
- 7.
Rolling Stone’s Matt Taibbi once famously described Goldman Sachs as “a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money.” Taibbi’s description inspired Occupy to pioneer a new form of creative protest—“Squidding,” the act of protesting Goldman Sachs HQ with giant squid props or squid costumes.
- 8.
Tillich. “Christian Faith and Social Action: A Symposium.” The Person in a Technical Society, Edited by John A. Hutchinson, 137. Scribner, 1953.
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Editors’ Postscript
If you liked this chapter by Nick Dupree, and are interested in reading more about disability, protest and activism we recommend Chap. 2 “Krips, Cops and Occupy: Reflections from Oscar Grant Plaza” by Sunaura Taylor with Marg Hall, Jessica Lehman, Rachel Liebert, Akemi Nishida, and Jean Stewart; Chap. 4 “Movements at War? Disability and Anti-Occupation Activism in Israel” by Liat Ben-Moshe, and Chap. 21 “Black & Blue: Policing Disability & Poverty Beyond Occupy” by Leroy Franklin Moore Jr., Lisa ‘Tiny’ Garcia, and Emmitt Thrower.
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Dupree, N. (2016). My World, My Experiences with Occupy Wall Street and How We Can Go Further. In: Block, P., Kasnitz, D., Nishida, A., Pollard, N. (eds) Occupying Disability: Critical Approaches to Community, Justice, and Decolonizing Disability. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9984-3_15
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