SearchDear Community Members, Friends, Families, Partners and Advocates,
Since last week’s election, our team at The Arc of California has comforted families, connected with stakeholders, and begun developing contingency plans for likely proposals from the Trump administration, all while navigating our individual path of emotions. We know we are not alone during this complex time, and I am especially grateful that as a team we’ve been able to support each other through sadness, anger, and eventually determination.
To our community of Californians with developmental disabilities, their caregivers and family members, providers of services and supports, and fighters for civil and human rights, your feelings are valid. No matter where you land on the scale of emotions you have a right to feel that way. Let’s be on guard, however, of our actions. Watch that our anger doesn’t make us mean, but instead let’s double down on kindness. Let’s not allow our sadness to become despair, but instead activate hope by serving those in our circle during this time. Let’s not blame but be buoyed by the long arc of justice and equity.
To our 20 chapters across the state, you are the ground floor for grace during this time. Your daily support of many of our most vulnerable citizens will be the certainty they will need during the uncertain months ahead. I commit that our team will be relentless in our pursuit to protect your ability to continue those supports.
To our members of Congress, we need you to be a leader of the people and not a follower of a political party. As the Trump administration undoubtedly pursues policies to gut Medicaid funding and deport our immigrant brothers and sisters in the disability community, we will look to you to protect the individuals and families in your districts whose lives will be destroyed by such policies. We no longer have Senator John McCain to give a thumbs-down vote, but we have you.
To the leaders of El Arc de California, our Latino families need bold voices and that means you. You have trained for a moment like this and your proven ability to organize and activate is inspiring. The families in your networks will be tested and tried, figuratively and literally, and they will reach for your steady hand. Our Board of Directors and our team are committed to you as you reach back.
To our partner organizations in advocacy, our coalition-building efforts will once again be critical as we all build our trenches and dig in for a resistance. We are ready.
To those who do not understand, let me offer a quick historical explanation. In January 2017 Donald Trump began his first term as President with a Republican-controlled Senate and House of Representatives. Two months later a bill was introduced and passed in the House that would have gutted federal spending on Medicaid and created deep cuts in California services such as nursing facilities, regional center services, In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS), Medi-Cal, k-12 school therapy services, early intervention services, home nursing for children with complex medical needs, and more. The Senate then took up a similar bill but Senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski would not vote for the bill, bringing the fate of the bill to Senator John McCain, who dramatically voted it down, essentially saving Medicaid funding services from deep cuts. As one of our community leaders recently lamented, without Social Security Insurance and Medicaid funding she and her daughter will be instantly homeless.
Similarly, starting in 2017 we saw a drastic reduction in services and supports being utilized by Latino families, including services that were critical to the development and health of their child with a disability. Even if those services were entitled to Californians regardless of their legal status, families were terrified of seeking public services or even driving to therapies for fear of being identified and deported. As we saw with the historic legal case of Isabel Bueso, a Concord resident with disabilities who was facing the threat of deportation, these policies can be life-threatening.
To all advocates, The Arc of California’s long-tenured civil rights advocate, Tim Hornbecker, shared this old quote with our team last week and I will end the same way, “But, what if they lose? Then we keep fighting for the rights of all people. And if they win? Oh, dear girl, it’s the same answer.”
In Solidarity,
By Jordan Lindsey,
Executive Director, The Arc of California