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By Heath Montgomery
Montana ADAPT
On Monday, we had to be downstairs at 6:30 am. I was so tired that I was still half asleep when I got dressed and ate oatmeal. We got downstairs and saw our friends from the yellow group.
We rolled out towards the Capitol. We saw a lot of police in the area. I thought we were going to the Capitol building. I felt really excited. I didn’t know where I was going but I felt like it was going to be a good place. We stopped at Health and Human Services. I was on the corner with Gabbi and Toni and I gave away leaflets about stopping the shock of people in institutions. It was fun but not everyone wanted a leaflet. I pretended to high five them but then I gave them the leaflet. And I ran into this very confused couple. They were like, What is this? I didn’t like it when people didn’t really care. They would care if they had a disability. Some people listened to me and they learned about stopping the shock. I hate that shocking.
We ate lunch at a park near the Capitol. I wrestled with Charlie Miller and threw water all over him. We ate hamburgers and fries but I wanted chicken nuggets.
I saw Bruce, Anita and Josue strategizing. I saw Bruce Darling talking to a policeman who was waving his hands and shaking his head. Mike Oxford was talking to a policeman also and smiling and laughing. He told the policeman with a mustache “Your logic is impeccable.” Maybe he guessed we were heading somewhere.
We went into the Senate Building and went to Senator Murray’s office. About 50 ADAPT activists occupied the office and demanded that she cosponsor the Disability Integration Act. Charlie told me to stay with him in the back and he would protect me. They were about thirty police standing and waiting. Some had plastic handcuffs in the belts. Bruce was furious with Patty Murray. It got very noisy with chanting and I felt overwhelmed. I backed off a little bit. I live-streamed about DIA and accidentally started to say a bad word. Charlie told me we don’t say that in ADAPT but I heard Bruce say it!
We started chanting and cheering and clapping when we found out she would cosponsor DIA. No one got arrested because we got what we asked for. I felt great about that.
We got outside and the rain was pouring down. I couldn’t even see. We put on raincoats and ponchos which helped in no way. All parts of me got wet even my butt. We went super fast and I was on Level 5 on my wheelchair. We were chanting and laughing, How do you spell power? A-D-A-P-T!!! It was fun and exciting.
When we got back to the hotel, Dad was there with towels and food. We got out of our wet clothes and into pajamas. I felt cozy and safe. We ate dinner in our room with Kelly Lynn Sellars and Charlie. It was a really exciting day, thanks to the rainstorm and our win at the Senate.