Road to Freedom Bus Tour Update

Road to Freedom Bus Tour Update

The Road to Freedom Bus Tour is rolling for another year.  We have driven over 23,000 miles and visited 33 states.  The Disability Rights Center is managing the tour. The RTF Bus draws your focus and is a stellar photo op.  It is an extraordinary media magnet, facilitating many disability coalitions and groups to garner mainstream and social media coverage of their issues. The Bus has been to schools, universities, city halls, state houses,  and museums, including the Smithsonian.

We need your help.  Here are ways YOU can support Tom Olin and the RTF Tour.

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      Donate donate donate to the Disability Rights Center. All tax-deductible donations are earmarked for the Road to Freedom Bus Tour.  https://disabilityrightscenter.wordpress.com/donations/

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      Support the ADA Bus and ADAPT by donating to Tom Olin, this year’s official Fun Runner at the  Fun Run in April, Washington, DC.   http://www.adaptfunrun.net  

·        Order your copy of the Signing Photo by Tom Olin.  In commemoration of the 25^th anniversary of ADA, we have issued a limited edition of the photo with a quote from Justin Dart and letter of provenance signed by the photographer. Yoshiko Dart and Janine Kemp signed the photo. They are the widows of Justin Dart and Evan Kemp, the ADA movers and shakers pictured in the photo. http://roadtofreedomtour.blogspot.com/2015/10/signing-photo-fundraiser.html

·      When the ADA Bus stops in your community buy Road to Freedom T-shirts from Tom Olin

·      Fill the tank when the bus has a quick photo op and “pit stop” at your project or CIL. 

·      When the Road to Freedom Bus Tour is coming to your community, organize in-kind repair service or equipment donations.  Tom Olin, ADA Bus Captain, always has a list. Review your RTF Tour form carefully and answer well before the date of your Tour stop. To arrange a stop in your community, contact Dave Fulton or Janine Bertram 503-915-5247, Davefulton@me.com.

·      Like us on Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/roadtofreedomtour/?fref=ts

            As I write this, Tom Olin is driving the ADA Bus towards a brief stop at Florida’s Independent Living Resource Center for NE Florida. Florida, where his parents live, is the ADA Bus's winter grounds, although Tom rejects the term “Snowbird.”

After Jacksonville, we have a December 11 stop at the CIL South Florida Miami.   This year, we continue to work for full societal inclusion and disability rights and disaster preparedness 2015-2016 priorities.  These are critical issues in the coming 2 years.

Support the bus, join the Road to Freedom Bus Team and keep the ADA Bus on the road!

Photos by Tom Olin. Above photo: RTF Bus on the Edmund Pettis Bridge in Selma, AL. Josh Whitmire, Janine Bertram, Dave Fulton. May 22, 2015.

Photo Below: Justin Dart puppet in Chicago July 17,  2015, Disability Pride. Janet Fialka 

Who are the People in the Signing Photo?

Who are the People in the Signing Photo?

On July 26, 1990 at the signing of the ADA, President and Mrs. Bush, VP Dan Quayle, and four members of the disability rights community were on the platform.

After the opening prayer, two speeches were given.  The first by Evan Kemp to introduce the President and the other was the President’s speech.  After the speeches and to the right of the podium was a table where President Bush signed the ADA.  The actual pens used to sign the ADA were shared with the four attendees from the disability rights community who are in this photo taken by Tom Olin.

On the left side are:

Evan Kemp, the chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, a lawyer and a wheelchair user, had counseled President Bush on disability issues for the greater part of a decade and urged him to become an advocate of disability rights.

Reverend Harold Wilkie, who gave the opening prayer using the metaphor of breaking the chains of slavery.  Born without hands, Reverend Wilkie brought disability consciousness into the religious community.

On the right side are:

            Justin Dart, the son of one of President Reagan’s closest friends, a former businessman, and a wheelchair user, had served in both the Reagan and Bush administrations and had convened special hearings to gather support for the ADA from coast to coast.        

           Sandra Parrino, the mother of a disabled child, chaired the National Council on Disability, the federal agency that made significant disability policy recommendations to the President