ADAPT activists block McCain bus

From the Racine, Wis., Journal Times:

When John McCain visited Racine’s Memorial Hall Thursday, there was never a dull moment.

From protesters with masks and supporters in sequined hats to wheelchairs interrupting McCain’s motorcade, there was no shortage of noteworthy people and
events.

Two men in wheelchairs put themselves in front of McCain’s campaign bus as he tried to leave Memorial Hall.

The bus stopped as Secret Service and Racine police moved the men, separating them for questioning.

The men were Steve Verriden, a quadriplegic man from Madison, and John Donnelly, another Madison man with cerebral palsy. The men are members of ADAPT, a non-profit national direct action group working on disability rights for the last 20 years, said ADAPT organizer Jason Glozier.

Verriden and Donnelly blocked McCain’s bus as part of a national attempt to get McCain to meet with ADAPT and support the Community Choice Act, a bill that would allow communities to choose whether they fund nursing home facilities or community service facilities first. Under current law, funding first goes to nursing home facilities, Glozier said.

“What we’ve been doing is hitting him in every state we have membership in,” he said.

The men were let go a few minutes after the incident.

Jerry Hershberger, 62 of Caledonia, saw the event from a second floor window of the Racine Public Library, 75 Seventh St.

“It was a pretty gutsy move,” he said. “I respect their courage.”

Hershberger said it reminded him of the lone man standing in front of tanks in China’s Tiananmen Square.

He said Secret Service and police handled the situation very professionally and quickly.

.