sherri13
06-24-2002, 10:29 AM
> > Dear Friends, when President Bush signed the Americans with
Disabilities
> Act
> > in 1990, Justin Dart was on his left. On his right was Evan Kemp.
Evan's
> > wife, Janine Bertram, sent me the email below. The ADA also applies
to
> > prisoners and is beginning to bring about needed reforms in
American
> prisons
> > and jails. As we know, many, many prisoners have disabilities.
> > As you can see from his last letter, Justin was a prison reformer
too.
He
> > was a lifetime member of CURE, paid CURE's membership to belong to
the
> > disability coalition and spoke at National CURE Conventions. Paul
Kruger,
> our webmaster, has one of his speeches to CURE on our website at
> www.curenational.org .
> > Although Justin was a very kind person, he was like the Old
Testament
> > prophets. He said it like is!
> > Both he and Evan (who also didn't hold back) used wheel chairs. I
have
> thought when their biographies
> > are written, the book should be entitled "Hell On Wheels!"
> > CURE owes them a great deal on how to bring about reform. Charlie
> >
> > PS. Janine, a former prisoner and leader in CURE, has been our
bridge to
> the
> > disability world.
> >
> >
> >
> > > Many of you receiving this letter are not part of the civil
rights
> > movement
> > > for persons with disabilities. Justin Dart, one of our leaders,
loomed
> > large
> > > for many of us. He died this morning. His last letter moved
me
and
> I
> > > hope it touches you. Janine
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > > "I AM WITH YOU. I LOVE YOU. LEAD ON."
> > >
> > > >
> > >
> > > > Dearly Beloved:
> > >
> > > >
> > >
> > > > Listen to the heart of this old soldier. As with all of us
> > >
> > > > the time comes when body and mind are battered and weary.
> > >
> > > > But I do not go quietly into the night. I do not give up
> > >
> > > > struggling to be a responsible contributor to the sacred
> > >
> > > > continuum of human life. I do not give up struggling to
> > >
> > > > overcome my weakness, to conform my life - and that part of
> > >
> > > > my life called death - to the great values of the human
> > >
> > > > dream.
> > >
> > > >
> > >
> > > > Death is not a tragedy. It is not an evil from which we
> > >
> > > > must escape. Death is as natural as birth. Like
> > >
> > > > childbirth, death is often a time of fear and pain, but
> > >
> > > > also of profound beauty, of celebration of the mystery and
> > >
> > > > majesty which is life pushing its horizons toward oneness
> > >
> > > > with the truth of mother universe. The days of dying carry
> > >
> > > > a special responsibility. There is a great potential to
> > >
> > > > communicate values in a uniquely powerful way - the person
> > >
> > > > who dies demonstrating for civil rights.
> > >
> > > >
> > >
> > > > Let my final actions thunder of love, solidarity, protest -
> > >
> > > > of empowerment.
> > >
> > > >
> > >
> > > > I adamantly protest the richest culture in the history of
> > >
> > > > the world, a culture which has the obvious potential to
> > >
> > > > create a golden age of science and democracy dedicated to
> > >
> > > > maximizing the quality of life of every person, but which
> > >
> > > > still squanders the majority of its human and physical
> > >
> > > > capital on modern versions of primitive symbols of power
> > >
> > > > and prestige.
> > >
> > > >
> > >
> > > > I adamantly protest the richest culture in the history of
> > >
> > > > the world which still incarcerates millions of humans with
> > >
> > > > and without disabilities in barbaric institutions,
> > >
> > > > backrooms and worse, windowless cells of oppressive
> > >
> > > > perceptions, for the lack of the most elementary
> > >
> > > > empowerment supports.
> > >
> > > >
> > >
> > > > I call for solidarity among all who love justice, all who
> > >
> > > > love life, to create a revolution that will empower every
> > >
> > > > single human being to govern his or her life, to govern the
> > >
> > > > society and to be fully productive of life quality for self
> > >
> > > > and for all.
> > >
> > > >
> > >
> > > > I do so love all the patriots of this and every nation who
> > >
> > > > have fought and sacrificed to bring us to the threshold of
> > >
> > > > this beautiful human dream. I do so love America the
> > >
> > > > beautiful and our wild, creative, beautiful people. I do
> > >
> > > > so love you, my beautiful colleagues in the disability and
> > >
> > > > civil rights movement.
> > >
> > > >
> > >
> > > > My relationship with Yoshiko Dart includes, but also
> > >
> > > > transcends, love as the word is normally defined. She is
> > >
> > > > my wife, my partner, my mentor, my leader and my
> > >
> > > > inspiration to believe that the human dream can live. She
> > >
> > > > is the greatest human being I ever known.
> > >
> > > >
> > >
> > > > Yoshiko, beloved colleagues, I am the luckiest man in the
> > >
> > > > world to have been associated with you. Thanks to you, I
> > >
> > > > die free. Thanks to you, I die in the joy of struggle.
> > >
> > > > Thanks to you, I die in the beautiful belief that the
> > >
> > > > revolution of empowerment will go on. I love you so much.
> > >
> > > > I'm with you always. Lead on! Lead on!
> > >
> > > >
> > >
> > > > Justin Dart
> > >
> > > >
> > >"Justin Dart, An Obituary"
>
> June 22, 2002
>
> By Fred Fay and Fred Pelka, written at Justin Dart's
> request.
>
> Justin Dart, Jr., a leader of the international disability
> rights movement and a renowned human rights activist, died
> last night at his home in Washington D.C. Widely
> recognized as "the father of the Americans with
> Disabilities Act" and "the godfather of the disability
> rights movement," Dart had for the past several years
> struggled with the complications of post-polio syndrome and
> congestive heart failure. He was seventy-one years old. He
> is survived by his wife Yoshiko, their extended family of
> foster children, his many friends and colleagues, and
> millions of disability and human rights activists all over
> the world.
>
> Dart was a leader in the disability rights movement for
> three decades, and an advocate for the rights of women,
> people of color, and gays and lesbians. The recipient of
> five presidential appointments and numerous honors,
> including the Hubert Humphrey Award of the Leadership
> Conference on Civil Rights, Dart was on the podium on the
> White House lawn when President George H. Bush signed the
> ADA into law in July 1990. Dart was also a highly
> successful entrepreneur, using his personal wealth to
> further his human rights agenda by generously contributing
> to organizations, candidates, and individuals, becoming
> what he called "a little PAC for empowerment."
>
> In 1998 Dart received the Presidential Medal of Freedom,
> the nation's highest civilian award. "Justin Dart," said
> President Clinton in 1996, "in his own way has the most
> Olympian spirit I believe I have ever come across."
>
> Until the end, Dart remained dedicated to his vision of a
> "revolution of empowerment." This would be, he said, "a
> revolution that confronts and eliminates obsolete thoughts
> and systems, that focuses the full power of science and
> free-enterprise democracy on the systematic empowerment of
> every person to live his or her God-given potential." Dart
> never hesitated to emphasize the assistance he received
> from those working with him, most especially his wife of
> more than thirty years, Yoshiko Saji. "She is," he often
> said, "quite simply the most magnificent human being I have
> ever met."
>
> Time and again Dart stressed that his achievements were
> only possible with the help of hundreds of activists,
> colleagues, and friends. "There is nothing I have achieved,
> and no addiction I have overcome, without the love and
> support of specific individuals who reached out to empower
> me... There is nothing I have accomplished without
> reaching out to empower others." Dart protested the fact
> that he and only three other disability activists were on
> the podium when President Bush signed the ADA, believing
> that "hundreds of others should have been there as well."
> After receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Dart
> sent out replicas of the award to hundreds of disability
> rights activists across the country, writing that, "this
> award belongs to you."
>
> Justin Dart, Jr., was born on August 29, 1930, into a
> wealthy and prominent family. His grandfather was the
> founder of the Walgreen Drugstore chain, his father a
> successful business executive, his mother a matron of the
> American avant garde. Dart would later describe how he
> became "a super loser" as a way of establishing his own
> identity in this family of "super winners." He attended
> seven high schools, not graduating from any of them, and
> broke Humphrey Bogart's all-time record for the number of
> demerits earned by a student at elite Andover prep. "People
> didn't like me. I didn't like myself."
>
> Dart contracted polio in 1948. With doctors saying he had
> less than three days to live, he was admitted into the
> Seventh Day Adventist Medical University in Los Angeles.
> "For the first time in my life I was surrounded by people
> who were openly expressing love for each other, and for me,
> even though I was hostile to them. And so I started
> smiling at people, and saying nice things to them. And
> they responded, treating me even better. It felt so good!"
> Three days turned into forty years, but Dart never forgot
> this lesson. Polio left Dart a wheelchair user, but he
> never grieved about this. "I count the good days in my
> life from the time I got polio. These beautiful people not
> only saved my life, they made it worth saving."
>
> Another turning point was Dart's discovery in 1949 of the
> philosophy of Mohandas K. Gandhi. Dart defined Gandhi's
> message as, "Find your own truth, and then live it." This
> theme too would stay with him for the rest of his life.
> Dart attended the University of Houston from 1951 to 1954,
> earning his bachelor's and master's degrees in political
> science and history. He wanted to be a teacher, but the
> university withheld his teaching certificate because he was
> a wheelchair user. During his time in college, Dart
> organized his first human rights group -- a pro-integration
> student group at what was then a whites-only institution.
>
> Dart went into business in 1956, building several
> successful companies in Mexico and Japan. He started Japan
> Tupperware with three employees in 1963, and by 1965 it had
> expanded to some 25,000. Dart used his businesses to
> provide work for women and people with disabilities. In
> Japan, for example, he took severely disabled people out of
> institutions, gave them paying jobs within his company, and
> organized some of them into Japan's first wheelchair
> basketball team. It was during this time he met his wife,
> Yoshiko.
>
> The final turning point in Dart's life came during a visit
> to Vietnam in 1966, to investigate the status of
> rehabilitation in that war-torn country. Visiting a
> "rehabilitation center" for children with polio, Dart
> instead found squalid conditions where disabled children
> were left on concrete floors to starve. One child, a young
> girl dying there before him, took his hand and looked into
> his eyes. "That scene," he would later write, "is burned
> forever in my soul. For the first time in my life I
> understood the reality of evil, and that I was a part of
> that reality."
>
> The Darts returned to Japan, but terminated their business
> interests. After a period of meditation in a dilapidated
> farmhouse, the two decided to dedicate themselves entirely
> to the cause of human and disability rights. They moved to
> Texas in 1974, and immersed themselves in local
> disability activism. From 1980 to 1985, Dart was a member,
> and then chair, of the Texas Governor's Committee for
> Persons with Disabilities. His work in Texas became a
> pattern for what was to follow: extensive meetings with the
> grassroots, followed by a call for the radical empowerment
> of people with disabilities, followed by tireless advocacy
> until victory was won.
>
> In 1981, President Ronald Reagan appointed Dart to be the
> vice-chair of the National Council on Disability. The
> Darts embarked on a nationwide tour, at their own expense,
> meeting with activists in every state. Dart and others on
> the Council drafted a national policy that called for
> national civil rights legislation to end the centuries old
> discrimination of people with disabilities -- what would
> eventually become the Americans with Disabilities Act of
> 1990.
>
> In 1986, Dart was appointed to head the Rehabilitation
> Services Administration, a $3 billion federal agency that
> oversees a vast array of programs for disabled people.
> Dart called for radical changes, and for including people
> with disabilities in every aspect of designing,
> implementing, and monitoring rehabilitation programs.
> Resisted by the bureaucracy, Dart dropped a bombshell when
> he testified at a public hearing before Congress that the
> RSA was "a vast, inflexible federal system which, like the
> society it represents, still contains a significant portion
> of individuals who have not yet overcome obsolete,
> paternalistic attitudes about disability." Dart was asked
> to resign his position, but remained a supporter of both
> Presidents Reagan and Bush. In 1989, Dart was appointed
> chair of the President's Committee on the Employment of
> People with Disabilities, shifting its focus from its
> traditional stance of urging business to "hire the
> handicapped" to advocating for full civil rights for people
> with disabilities.
>
> Dart is best known for his work in passing the Americans
> with Disabilities Act. In 1988, he was appointed, along
> with parents' advocate Elizabeth Boggs, to chair the
> Congressional Task Force on the Rights and Empowerment of
> Americans with Disabilities. The Darts again toured the
> country at their own expense, visiting every state, Puerto
> Rico, Guam, and the District of Columbia, holding public
> forums attended by more than 30,000 people. Everywhere he
> went, Dart touted the ADA as "the civil rights act of the
> future." Dart also met extensively with members of
> Congress and staff, as well as President Bush, Vice
> President Quayle, and members of the Cabinet. At one
> point, seeing Dart at a White House reception, President
> Bush introduced him as "the ADA man." The ADA was signed
> into law on July 26, 1990, an anniversary that is
> celebrated each year by "disability pride" events all
> across the country.
>
> While taking pride in passage of the ADA, Dart was always
> quick to list all the others who shared in the struggle:
> Robert Silverstein and Robert Burgdorf, Patrisha Wright and
> Tony Coelho, Fred Fay and Judith Heumann, among many
> others. And Dart never wavered in his commitment to
> disability solidarity, insisting that all people with
> disabilities be protected by the law and included in the
> coalition to pass it -- including mentally ill "psychiatric
> survivors" and people with HIV/AIDS. Dart called this his
> "politics of inclusion," a companion to his "politics of
> principle, solidarity, and love."
>
> After passage of the ADA, Dart threw his energy into the
> fight for universal health care, again campaigning across
> the country, and often speaking from the same podium as
> President and Mrs. Clinton. With the defeat of universal
> health care, Dart was among the first to identify the
> coming backlash against disability rights. He resigned all
> his positions to become "a full-time citizen soldier in the
> trenches of justice." With the conservative Republican
> victory in Congress in 1994, followed by calls to amend or
> even repeal the ADA and the Individuals with Disabilities
> Education Act (or IDEA), Dart, and disability rights
> advocates Becky Ogle and Frederick Fay, founded Justice for
> All, what Dart called "a SWAT team" to beat back these
> attacks. Again, Dart was tireless -- traveling, speaking,
> testifying, holding conference calls, presiding over
> meetings, calling the media on its distortions of the ADA,
> and flooding the country with American flag stickers that
> said, "ADA, IDEA, America Wins." Both laws were saved.
> Dart again placed the credit with "the thousands of
> grassroots patriots" who wrote and e-mailed and lobbied.
> But there can be no doubt that without Dart's leadership,
> the outcome might have been entirely different.
>
> In 1996, confronted by a Republican Party calling for "a
> retreat from Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln democracy,"
> Dart campaigned for the re-election of President Clinton.
> This was a personally difficult "decision of conscience."
> Dart had been a Republican for most of his life, and had
> organized the disability constituency campaigns of both
> Ronald Reagan and George Bush, campaigning against Clinton
> in 1992. But in a turnabout that was reported in the New
> York Times and the Washington Post, Dart went all out for
> Clinton, even speaking at the Democratic National
> Convention in Chicago. The Darts yet again undertook a
> whirlwind tour of the country, telling people to "get into
> politics as if your life depended on it. It does." At his
> speech the day after the election, President Clinton
> publicly thanked Dart for personally campaigning in all
> fifty states, and cited his efforts as "one reason we won
> some of those states."
>
> Dart suffered a series of heart attacks in late 1997, which
> curtailed his ability to travel. He continued, however, to
> lobby for the rights of people with disabilities, and
> attended numerous events, rallies, demonstrations and
> public hearings. Toward the end of his life, Dart was hard
> at work on a political manifesto that would outline his
> vision of "the revolution of empowerment." In its
> conclusion, he urged his "Beloved colleagues in struggle,
> listen to the heart of this old soldier. Our lives, our
> children's lives, the quality of the lives of billions in
> future generations hangs in the balance. I cry out to you
> from the depths of my being. Humanity needs you! Lead!
> Lead! Lead the revolution of empowerment!"
>
> Today, disabled people across the country and around the
> world will grieve at the passing of Justin Dart, Jr. But
> we will celebrate his love and his commitment to justice.
> Please join us at in expressing our condolences to Yoshiko
> and her family during this difficult time. Keep in mind,
> however, that it was Justin's wish that any service or
> commemoration be used by activists to celebrate our
> movement, and as an opportunity to recommit themselves to
> "the revolution of empowerment."
>
> ###
>
> =====================
>
> JUSTICE FOR ALL -- A Service of the
> American Association of People with Disabilities
> www.aapd-dc.org www.jfanow.org
>
> There's strength in numbers! Be a part of a national
> coalition of people with disabilities and join AAPD today.
> www.aapd-dc.org
>
Disabilities
> Act
> > in 1990, Justin Dart was on his left. On his right was Evan Kemp.
Evan's
> > wife, Janine Bertram, sent me the email below. The ADA also applies
to
> > prisoners and is beginning to bring about needed reforms in
American
> prisons
> > and jails. As we know, many, many prisoners have disabilities.
> > As you can see from his last letter, Justin was a prison reformer
too.
He
> > was a lifetime member of CURE, paid CURE's membership to belong to
the
> > disability coalition and spoke at National CURE Conventions. Paul
Kruger,
> our webmaster, has one of his speeches to CURE on our website at
> www.curenational.org .
> > Although Justin was a very kind person, he was like the Old
Testament
> > prophets. He said it like is!
> > Both he and Evan (who also didn't hold back) used wheel chairs. I
have
> thought when their biographies
> > are written, the book should be entitled "Hell On Wheels!"
> > CURE owes them a great deal on how to bring about reform. Charlie
> >
> > PS. Janine, a former prisoner and leader in CURE, has been our
bridge to
> the
> > disability world.
> >
> >
> >
> > > Many of you receiving this letter are not part of the civil
rights
> > movement
> > > for persons with disabilities. Justin Dart, one of our leaders,
loomed
> > large
> > > for many of us. He died this morning. His last letter moved
me
and
> I
> > > hope it touches you. Janine
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > > "I AM WITH YOU. I LOVE YOU. LEAD ON."
> > >
> > > >
> > >
> > > > Dearly Beloved:
> > >
> > > >
> > >
> > > > Listen to the heart of this old soldier. As with all of us
> > >
> > > > the time comes when body and mind are battered and weary.
> > >
> > > > But I do not go quietly into the night. I do not give up
> > >
> > > > struggling to be a responsible contributor to the sacred
> > >
> > > > continuum of human life. I do not give up struggling to
> > >
> > > > overcome my weakness, to conform my life - and that part of
> > >
> > > > my life called death - to the great values of the human
> > >
> > > > dream.
> > >
> > > >
> > >
> > > > Death is not a tragedy. It is not an evil from which we
> > >
> > > > must escape. Death is as natural as birth. Like
> > >
> > > > childbirth, death is often a time of fear and pain, but
> > >
> > > > also of profound beauty, of celebration of the mystery and
> > >
> > > > majesty which is life pushing its horizons toward oneness
> > >
> > > > with the truth of mother universe. The days of dying carry
> > >
> > > > a special responsibility. There is a great potential to
> > >
> > > > communicate values in a uniquely powerful way - the person
> > >
> > > > who dies demonstrating for civil rights.
> > >
> > > >
> > >
> > > > Let my final actions thunder of love, solidarity, protest -
> > >
> > > > of empowerment.
> > >
> > > >
> > >
> > > > I adamantly protest the richest culture in the history of
> > >
> > > > the world, a culture which has the obvious potential to
> > >
> > > > create a golden age of science and democracy dedicated to
> > >
> > > > maximizing the quality of life of every person, but which
> > >
> > > > still squanders the majority of its human and physical
> > >
> > > > capital on modern versions of primitive symbols of power
> > >
> > > > and prestige.
> > >
> > > >
> > >
> > > > I adamantly protest the richest culture in the history of
> > >
> > > > the world which still incarcerates millions of humans with
> > >
> > > > and without disabilities in barbaric institutions,
> > >
> > > > backrooms and worse, windowless cells of oppressive
> > >
> > > > perceptions, for the lack of the most elementary
> > >
> > > > empowerment supports.
> > >
> > > >
> > >
> > > > I call for solidarity among all who love justice, all who
> > >
> > > > love life, to create a revolution that will empower every
> > >
> > > > single human being to govern his or her life, to govern the
> > >
> > > > society and to be fully productive of life quality for self
> > >
> > > > and for all.
> > >
> > > >
> > >
> > > > I do so love all the patriots of this and every nation who
> > >
> > > > have fought and sacrificed to bring us to the threshold of
> > >
> > > > this beautiful human dream. I do so love America the
> > >
> > > > beautiful and our wild, creative, beautiful people. I do
> > >
> > > > so love you, my beautiful colleagues in the disability and
> > >
> > > > civil rights movement.
> > >
> > > >
> > >
> > > > My relationship with Yoshiko Dart includes, but also
> > >
> > > > transcends, love as the word is normally defined. She is
> > >
> > > > my wife, my partner, my mentor, my leader and my
> > >
> > > > inspiration to believe that the human dream can live. She
> > >
> > > > is the greatest human being I ever known.
> > >
> > > >
> > >
> > > > Yoshiko, beloved colleagues, I am the luckiest man in the
> > >
> > > > world to have been associated with you. Thanks to you, I
> > >
> > > > die free. Thanks to you, I die in the joy of struggle.
> > >
> > > > Thanks to you, I die in the beautiful belief that the
> > >
> > > > revolution of empowerment will go on. I love you so much.
> > >
> > > > I'm with you always. Lead on! Lead on!
> > >
> > > >
> > >
> > > > Justin Dart
> > >
> > > >
> > >"Justin Dart, An Obituary"
>
> June 22, 2002
>
> By Fred Fay and Fred Pelka, written at Justin Dart's
> request.
>
> Justin Dart, Jr., a leader of the international disability
> rights movement and a renowned human rights activist, died
> last night at his home in Washington D.C. Widely
> recognized as "the father of the Americans with
> Disabilities Act" and "the godfather of the disability
> rights movement," Dart had for the past several years
> struggled with the complications of post-polio syndrome and
> congestive heart failure. He was seventy-one years old. He
> is survived by his wife Yoshiko, their extended family of
> foster children, his many friends and colleagues, and
> millions of disability and human rights activists all over
> the world.
>
> Dart was a leader in the disability rights movement for
> three decades, and an advocate for the rights of women,
> people of color, and gays and lesbians. The recipient of
> five presidential appointments and numerous honors,
> including the Hubert Humphrey Award of the Leadership
> Conference on Civil Rights, Dart was on the podium on the
> White House lawn when President George H. Bush signed the
> ADA into law in July 1990. Dart was also a highly
> successful entrepreneur, using his personal wealth to
> further his human rights agenda by generously contributing
> to organizations, candidates, and individuals, becoming
> what he called "a little PAC for empowerment."
>
> In 1998 Dart received the Presidential Medal of Freedom,
> the nation's highest civilian award. "Justin Dart," said
> President Clinton in 1996, "in his own way has the most
> Olympian spirit I believe I have ever come across."
>
> Until the end, Dart remained dedicated to his vision of a
> "revolution of empowerment." This would be, he said, "a
> revolution that confronts and eliminates obsolete thoughts
> and systems, that focuses the full power of science and
> free-enterprise democracy on the systematic empowerment of
> every person to live his or her God-given potential." Dart
> never hesitated to emphasize the assistance he received
> from those working with him, most especially his wife of
> more than thirty years, Yoshiko Saji. "She is," he often
> said, "quite simply the most magnificent human being I have
> ever met."
>
> Time and again Dart stressed that his achievements were
> only possible with the help of hundreds of activists,
> colleagues, and friends. "There is nothing I have achieved,
> and no addiction I have overcome, without the love and
> support of specific individuals who reached out to empower
> me... There is nothing I have accomplished without
> reaching out to empower others." Dart protested the fact
> that he and only three other disability activists were on
> the podium when President Bush signed the ADA, believing
> that "hundreds of others should have been there as well."
> After receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Dart
> sent out replicas of the award to hundreds of disability
> rights activists across the country, writing that, "this
> award belongs to you."
>
> Justin Dart, Jr., was born on August 29, 1930, into a
> wealthy and prominent family. His grandfather was the
> founder of the Walgreen Drugstore chain, his father a
> successful business executive, his mother a matron of the
> American avant garde. Dart would later describe how he
> became "a super loser" as a way of establishing his own
> identity in this family of "super winners." He attended
> seven high schools, not graduating from any of them, and
> broke Humphrey Bogart's all-time record for the number of
> demerits earned by a student at elite Andover prep. "People
> didn't like me. I didn't like myself."
>
> Dart contracted polio in 1948. With doctors saying he had
> less than three days to live, he was admitted into the
> Seventh Day Adventist Medical University in Los Angeles.
> "For the first time in my life I was surrounded by people
> who were openly expressing love for each other, and for me,
> even though I was hostile to them. And so I started
> smiling at people, and saying nice things to them. And
> they responded, treating me even better. It felt so good!"
> Three days turned into forty years, but Dart never forgot
> this lesson. Polio left Dart a wheelchair user, but he
> never grieved about this. "I count the good days in my
> life from the time I got polio. These beautiful people not
> only saved my life, they made it worth saving."
>
> Another turning point was Dart's discovery in 1949 of the
> philosophy of Mohandas K. Gandhi. Dart defined Gandhi's
> message as, "Find your own truth, and then live it." This
> theme too would stay with him for the rest of his life.
> Dart attended the University of Houston from 1951 to 1954,
> earning his bachelor's and master's degrees in political
> science and history. He wanted to be a teacher, but the
> university withheld his teaching certificate because he was
> a wheelchair user. During his time in college, Dart
> organized his first human rights group -- a pro-integration
> student group at what was then a whites-only institution.
>
> Dart went into business in 1956, building several
> successful companies in Mexico and Japan. He started Japan
> Tupperware with three employees in 1963, and by 1965 it had
> expanded to some 25,000. Dart used his businesses to
> provide work for women and people with disabilities. In
> Japan, for example, he took severely disabled people out of
> institutions, gave them paying jobs within his company, and
> organized some of them into Japan's first wheelchair
> basketball team. It was during this time he met his wife,
> Yoshiko.
>
> The final turning point in Dart's life came during a visit
> to Vietnam in 1966, to investigate the status of
> rehabilitation in that war-torn country. Visiting a
> "rehabilitation center" for children with polio, Dart
> instead found squalid conditions where disabled children
> were left on concrete floors to starve. One child, a young
> girl dying there before him, took his hand and looked into
> his eyes. "That scene," he would later write, "is burned
> forever in my soul. For the first time in my life I
> understood the reality of evil, and that I was a part of
> that reality."
>
> The Darts returned to Japan, but terminated their business
> interests. After a period of meditation in a dilapidated
> farmhouse, the two decided to dedicate themselves entirely
> to the cause of human and disability rights. They moved to
> Texas in 1974, and immersed themselves in local
> disability activism. From 1980 to 1985, Dart was a member,
> and then chair, of the Texas Governor's Committee for
> Persons with Disabilities. His work in Texas became a
> pattern for what was to follow: extensive meetings with the
> grassroots, followed by a call for the radical empowerment
> of people with disabilities, followed by tireless advocacy
> until victory was won.
>
> In 1981, President Ronald Reagan appointed Dart to be the
> vice-chair of the National Council on Disability. The
> Darts embarked on a nationwide tour, at their own expense,
> meeting with activists in every state. Dart and others on
> the Council drafted a national policy that called for
> national civil rights legislation to end the centuries old
> discrimination of people with disabilities -- what would
> eventually become the Americans with Disabilities Act of
> 1990.
>
> In 1986, Dart was appointed to head the Rehabilitation
> Services Administration, a $3 billion federal agency that
> oversees a vast array of programs for disabled people.
> Dart called for radical changes, and for including people
> with disabilities in every aspect of designing,
> implementing, and monitoring rehabilitation programs.
> Resisted by the bureaucracy, Dart dropped a bombshell when
> he testified at a public hearing before Congress that the
> RSA was "a vast, inflexible federal system which, like the
> society it represents, still contains a significant portion
> of individuals who have not yet overcome obsolete,
> paternalistic attitudes about disability." Dart was asked
> to resign his position, but remained a supporter of both
> Presidents Reagan and Bush. In 1989, Dart was appointed
> chair of the President's Committee on the Employment of
> People with Disabilities, shifting its focus from its
> traditional stance of urging business to "hire the
> handicapped" to advocating for full civil rights for people
> with disabilities.
>
> Dart is best known for his work in passing the Americans
> with Disabilities Act. In 1988, he was appointed, along
> with parents' advocate Elizabeth Boggs, to chair the
> Congressional Task Force on the Rights and Empowerment of
> Americans with Disabilities. The Darts again toured the
> country at their own expense, visiting every state, Puerto
> Rico, Guam, and the District of Columbia, holding public
> forums attended by more than 30,000 people. Everywhere he
> went, Dart touted the ADA as "the civil rights act of the
> future." Dart also met extensively with members of
> Congress and staff, as well as President Bush, Vice
> President Quayle, and members of the Cabinet. At one
> point, seeing Dart at a White House reception, President
> Bush introduced him as "the ADA man." The ADA was signed
> into law on July 26, 1990, an anniversary that is
> celebrated each year by "disability pride" events all
> across the country.
>
> While taking pride in passage of the ADA, Dart was always
> quick to list all the others who shared in the struggle:
> Robert Silverstein and Robert Burgdorf, Patrisha Wright and
> Tony Coelho, Fred Fay and Judith Heumann, among many
> others. And Dart never wavered in his commitment to
> disability solidarity, insisting that all people with
> disabilities be protected by the law and included in the
> coalition to pass it -- including mentally ill "psychiatric
> survivors" and people with HIV/AIDS. Dart called this his
> "politics of inclusion," a companion to his "politics of
> principle, solidarity, and love."
>
> After passage of the ADA, Dart threw his energy into the
> fight for universal health care, again campaigning across
> the country, and often speaking from the same podium as
> President and Mrs. Clinton. With the defeat of universal
> health care, Dart was among the first to identify the
> coming backlash against disability rights. He resigned all
> his positions to become "a full-time citizen soldier in the
> trenches of justice." With the conservative Republican
> victory in Congress in 1994, followed by calls to amend or
> even repeal the ADA and the Individuals with Disabilities
> Education Act (or IDEA), Dart, and disability rights
> advocates Becky Ogle and Frederick Fay, founded Justice for
> All, what Dart called "a SWAT team" to beat back these
> attacks. Again, Dart was tireless -- traveling, speaking,
> testifying, holding conference calls, presiding over
> meetings, calling the media on its distortions of the ADA,
> and flooding the country with American flag stickers that
> said, "ADA, IDEA, America Wins." Both laws were saved.
> Dart again placed the credit with "the thousands of
> grassroots patriots" who wrote and e-mailed and lobbied.
> But there can be no doubt that without Dart's leadership,
> the outcome might have been entirely different.
>
> In 1996, confronted by a Republican Party calling for "a
> retreat from Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln democracy,"
> Dart campaigned for the re-election of President Clinton.
> This was a personally difficult "decision of conscience."
> Dart had been a Republican for most of his life, and had
> organized the disability constituency campaigns of both
> Ronald Reagan and George Bush, campaigning against Clinton
> in 1992. But in a turnabout that was reported in the New
> York Times and the Washington Post, Dart went all out for
> Clinton, even speaking at the Democratic National
> Convention in Chicago. The Darts yet again undertook a
> whirlwind tour of the country, telling people to "get into
> politics as if your life depended on it. It does." At his
> speech the day after the election, President Clinton
> publicly thanked Dart for personally campaigning in all
> fifty states, and cited his efforts as "one reason we won
> some of those states."
>
> Dart suffered a series of heart attacks in late 1997, which
> curtailed his ability to travel. He continued, however, to
> lobby for the rights of people with disabilities, and
> attended numerous events, rallies, demonstrations and
> public hearings. Toward the end of his life, Dart was hard
> at work on a political manifesto that would outline his
> vision of "the revolution of empowerment." In its
> conclusion, he urged his "Beloved colleagues in struggle,
> listen to the heart of this old soldier. Our lives, our
> children's lives, the quality of the lives of billions in
> future generations hangs in the balance. I cry out to you
> from the depths of my being. Humanity needs you! Lead!
> Lead! Lead the revolution of empowerment!"
>
> Today, disabled people across the country and around the
> world will grieve at the passing of Justin Dart, Jr. But
> we will celebrate his love and his commitment to justice.
> Please join us at in expressing our condolences to Yoshiko
> and her family during this difficult time. Keep in mind,
> however, that it was Justin's wish that any service or
> commemoration be used by activists to celebrate our
> movement, and as an opportunity to recommit themselves to
> "the revolution of empowerment."
>
> ###
>
> =====================
>
> JUSTICE FOR ALL -- A Service of the
> American Association of People with Disabilities
> www.aapd-dc.org www.jfanow.org
>
> There's strength in numbers! Be a part of a national
> coalition of people with disabilities and join AAPD today.
> www.aapd-dc.org
>