Living in coronavirusworld 6:..and sometimes we might just win

3/28

Yes. Cherry blossoms...

I check in with the Presbyterian Aids Network to see how they are doing.  They would like to change their name to the HIV Network since so many people are now living with AIDS.  The emphasis is moving from fighting AIDS per se to harm reduction for those living with it.  On the national and international level, organizations are changing their names as well, e.g. US Conference on AIDS (now HIV) and AIDS.Gov to HIV.Gov. That was of course was the conversation before….This coronavirustime is fraught with anxiety an da sense of deja vu. On the one hand, people with compromised immune systems are among the most vulnerable. And as friends begin to die, it brings back haunting memories. It’s a mental health issue as much as the physical threat. There is a desperate need to hear a voice  say, “We see you, we hear you…”

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After mild days, it’s back to cold and damp. Still it’s good to be out. For the first time, there is a line to get into the grocery store. Neatly spaced by at least six feet, overseen by security. Inside, I'm interested in where shortages are. And that the in-house hickory barbecue is shut down, as well as the sushi bar. When I go to check out, there’s a strange bag experience. Over the last several years, I’ve been committed to bringing my own grocery bags to the store with me. And New York City has recently enforced a plastic bag ban. But when I present my bag, the masked check out woman shakes her head and says they are no longer allowed to use our bags. We have to use their paper bags, for $.25 a bag.  So I awkwardly walk home with two full paper grocery bags.

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When I hear the sirens, see the ambulance, it feels different now…

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For tonight’s cultural offerings, I begin with the “Third Coast Percussion Ensemble.”  My planned follow-up event, like about half of these streaming performances, just doesn’t work. So I turn to the just released “Crip Camp,” the second in the Obamas “Higher Ground”productions, it was their first to be entered in the 2020 Sundance Festival. (https://www.netflix.com/title/81001496)  It is a beautiful, powerful and even revolutionary film. It tells the story of how a summer camp in the Catskills became the seedbed for a truly revolutionary movement. Camp Jened was a camp for people with disabilities staffed by “hippies” in the 1970’s. Which simply meant the staff members believed that all people have inherent worth and value just as they are and are worthy of acceptance and love. For many of the campers, this was the first time in the life they could feel like just people, just as they are. With wants and needs and even sexuality. And to have their voices heard. And to be able to have control over  their own lives. 

Former camper Jim Lebrecht (along with Nicole Newnham) directs and thanks to the Peoples Video Theatre, has lots of black and white footage from the 1970s to work with.  The political part of the film begins with the passage of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.  Unfortunately, the Section 504 of that Act, intended to prevent discrimination, was slow to be enforced. So in 1977,  movement began led by Jened vet, Judy Heumann, and some of her closest Jened friends, began an occupation of the Bay Area Health Education and Welfare Office. As food began to run low, the Black Panther Party stepped in to supply daily food, including hot dinners. (“We believe in working to make a better world. You are making a better world,” they said.) When no response was forthcoming from Secretary Joseph Califano, they took their struggle to DC, even to his front lawn. Ultimately, after much resistance, Califano signed the order declaring enactment of 504 mandatory for any institution receiving federal funds. An end to “separate but equal.”  Finally, the 1990 American Disability Act ended both public and private discrimination.  Of course we still have a long way to go. “If I still have to be happy just to have an accessible bathroom, we’re not there yet,” says Judy Heumann.

The film helps to underscore that the hope and optimism of the 60s - 70’s did have some real victories. The underlying story of course, is how life changing camp experiences, with dignity and respect and acceptance, could  lead to a belief that changing the world was possible and worth trying. And also a reminder that in the ongoing struggle for a more just, humane, inclusive and sustainable world, the struggle itself has beauty and meaning and sometimes we might just win. We need to remember that.