The central message of project 2020 is that the Societal Norm and the Laws of our country governing life of Disabled person must change. A statute that people of certain group [specifically Disabled] must be subject to “the least restrictive setting appropriate to [their] individual needs and abilities” is a gross violation of fundamental principles of our Constitution and has no place in our society. The application of this rule has rendered generations of Autistic and other divergent and disabled people handily institutionalized and de-facto enslaved.
The Coronavirus pandemic has raised a red flag on disintegration of the structures of institutionalized care which unfolded with desertions, abandonment, contagions, and widespread fatalities. The post effects of pandemic will have profound implications for our society, as it rebuilds itself. The rebuilding will include the infrastructure that would permit the country comfortable functioning in all spheres of life in time of similar aerially transmitted outbreaks.
The 6-foot rule would have to become a governing principle in redesigning our spaces; these would include safe places of leisure, redesigned places of work, and the educational grounds that include both the Nature, the Makers spaces with conventional and ancient arts, as well as the innovative science and state of the art technology. This rebuilding would affect many social norms and it is essential that our society abolishes the entire structure of involuntary institutionalization and the tools that promote it.
In line with Divergent Labs mission Project 2020 explores various avenues for progress – from paths to activism – to solutions addressing integration of our people into society – to solutions for rebuilding our country – to solutions for humanity.
The important message of today is that this is within our reach, but we must all mobilize and stand together in this decisive times. We call on all the volunteers [advocates, activists, supporters, professionals, and idealists] to join our project in the areas of your interest and your personal sense of importance. Join us in this work – join Rhizome Core!
Project 2020 continues the mission outlined by Project 2019. We have defined this mission as Emancipation of our people, all of ‘Our people’. Emancipation implies many things but it must begin with Freedom. Justice, Dignity, Rights, and Equality are meaningless words unless you are Free. Remember – Slavery had to be ABOLISHED before all else. FREEDOM must come first!
The legal institution of Slavery in our country was undone by the Civil War in 1865 and the 13th Amendment of our Constitution had written it into law – “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction”.
Yet just 50 years later a mutated form of slavery has re-emerged and people were convicted not as a punishment for crime but a punishment for being different. The involuntary institutionalization of the innocent had become “a new game in town”, and while today [100 years later] we celebrate our society as the freest society – we [our society] are still harboring this heinous strain of Slavery.
People formerly labeled as Mentally Retarded and currently referred to as people with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD) continue to be enslaved by way of institutionalization [the IDD classification includes us – Autistic people]. But IDD are not the only people who are institutionalized. Similarly are the so called ‘Mentally Ill’, and the Elderly.
Incredulously our society has accepted it as a way of life. We see two reasons for this: one is because the ‘Special interests’ who perpetuate and profit from institutionalizations had been tirelessly evolving this lucrative machinery of the modern day Slavery. The naked ugliness of the last century had been hidden under the guise of HELP, the war on our people is called ‘CARE‘, and politically correct language keeps relabeling and splintering the enslaved as we try to come together to fight for our Human rights. The second reason lies with us, we’ve failed to become One, we are not standing together.
We have exposed it in Project 2019 for all of you to see it clearly, and we have uncovered the tools of enslavement that permeate every aspect of our life; the eugenics, segregation, stigma, diminishment, discrimination, and the outright captivity that begins in childhood and never ends. We have revealed the tools that ‘Special Interests’ of our society employ to perpetuate it: the Law that is prejudiced against us, the pimping profiteering Industry that exploits us, and the Stigma that perverts and sickens our society.
We have exposed it all and we’ve called on All the People to Abolish it. We have called on Our People to come together and fight.
Our People – are all the outcasts of our society – the disenfranchised, the disabled, and the divergent. We are all of them and we are a part of them.
We however are not a uniform population. Some of us fare better than others, and while the life of Disabled is universally hard, and while there is a never ending assault on the rights of disabled and divergent – most of us are free, and most of us are able to fight. The Disability Rights Movement has broken many barriers and won many rights but it so happens that the most vulnerable had been left behind. The most vulnerable of our people [and there are multitudes of them] had been abandoned – they are still in bondage and their numbers are growing.
The leadership of Disability Movement have compromised away their freedom in exchange for empty words and promises. This is a grave mistake and a betrayal of all of our people, and it is becoming the undoing of the entire movement!
Let it be known by all that Not Until We ALL ARE FREE will ‘we’ find ourselves to be recognized and accepted in our society as equals. Let it be known that just like the abolition of Slavery this must be done before all else.
There could be no compromise that leaves some of us enslaved – and to those among us [sitting high] who have signed on it and are seeking honors – we say – You have learned nothing from our long and troubled history of Slavery and Serfdom, you are not worthy of representing the Disability Rights movement, you do not represent Our People. First and Foremost YOU must become an ABOLITIONIST! Do that or step down!
OUR GOAL MUST BE CRYSTAL CLEAR –
Return Our Freedom, Return Our Rights!