Public Hostage Public Ransom: Ending Institutional America
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this ebook
Public Hostage, Public Ransom starts with the autobiographical story of William Bronston, the activist physician whose early professional California training steels him with a deep moral, professional and cultural bond to the huge 6000 person disabled population he encounters incarcerated in Willowbrook State School in Staten Island, NY, on whose behalf he daily battles to humanize and ultimately catalyze a Federal Class Action Lawsuit against the state to close the deathmaking institution.
Prior to the expose of Willowbrook, no small individualized community living arrangements
existed across New York state in lieu of 30 massive state institutions. Medicaid funded, these
institutions warehoused the ‘different’ population imposed on their stricken families. Having been
closed to admission by public scandal and impossible overcrowding, families were blackmailed to have their dependent member submit to secret viral research whose impact was completely unknown, where rampant disease, gruesome sanitation, lack of adequate food, clothing, carloads of tranquilizing medicine and the most minimal care and supervision was the brutal norm.
Ultimately, concerned parents, caring workers, top child development leaders in the field, local and national media were organized to expose and address the bureaucratic evil and ubiquitous violence that dominated the wretched lives inside.
This passionate book documents the immense drama, and story arc, of the public mobilization, media expose and Federal judicial process Bronston helped arouse, that forged the path to what ultimately becomes the legal conviction for this systemic human abuse and Justice Ruth Ginsburg’s subsequent, monumental Supreme Court Olmstead Decision that framed the rightful foundation for nationwide deinstitutional reform. Dr. Bronston draws the clear line to indict the self serving State bureaucracy and the strategic rationale to end Title 19 of the Social Security Act, the Medicaid system, in order to heal the deep societal wound that the nursing home and assisted living industry, the segregated norm, that compels our universal commoditized and paradigmatic terminus.
The human rights movement in America has transformed the lives of all people with special needs as new politics, technology and a profound awareness of the dehumanization of this vast community reached a zenith in the late 1960s and 1970s. It leads to the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act that emancipated the devalued and stigmatized populations of labeled people
including Mental Retardation, Cerebral palsy, Autism, Epilepsy, Polio, sensory loss, neuromuscular
degenerative conditions, on and on, “public hostages”, who now age to become society’s elders consigned again to profit driven, segregated and congregate institutional lives, funded by Medicaid’s billions, America’s “public ransom”. _ us an artificially created domestic refugee population, torn from every community and devastating America’s families has become an accepted paradigm that Dr. Bronston’s story intimately charts and passionately indicts. Universal expanded and improved Medicare for all, single payer health care, is the clear solution and ultimate antidote to this crime against humanity we numbly tolerate.
The shocking horrors of Willowbrook State School have been exposed and will never be forgotten. In Doctor William Bronston’s defining book, Public Hostage Public Ransom: Ending Institutional America, he takes on all of America’s institutions, the segregated nursing home industry, that have not learned the lesson of the tragedy of Willowbrook. His Muckraking efforts remind one of a latter-day Lincoln Steffens, Ida Tarbell, or Jacob Riis. His book is a scathing reminder of all we still have to do to build a sympathetic and just world for the many who are unable to find it for themselves.
Related to Public Hostage Public Ransom
Related ebooks
Hummingbird in Underworld: Teaching in a Men’s Prison, A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Becoming Ms. Burton: From Prison to Recovery to Leading the Fight for Incarcerated Women Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSeven Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDamaged: A First Responder’S Experiences Handling Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOn the Ledge: A Memoir Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRemembering Ruth: A Memoir of Childhood Sibling Loss Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsInvisible Sisters: A Memoir Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFilthy Beasts: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Take This Man: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Everything Is Perfect When You're a Liar Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Paint Your Hair Blue: A Celebration of Life with Hope for Tomorrow in the Face of Pediatric Cancer Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGirl in Glass: Dispatches from the Edge of Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cures for Hunger: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Loving Andrew: A Fifty-Two-Year Story of Down Syndrome Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBlood and Bone: Truth and Reconciliation in a Southern Town Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAmerican Snake Pit: Hope, Grit, And Resilience in the Wake of Willowbrook Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsI'm Still Here: A Memoir Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAll Alone in the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Waking in Havana: A Memoir of AIDS and Healing in Cuba Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGirls of Tender Age: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Enough: A Memoir of Mistakes, Mania, and Motherhood Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The End of Miracles: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I'd Hate Myself in the Morning: A Memoir Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsReal American: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Feed Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPerishable: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5On Dumpster Diving: An Essay from Travels with Lizbeth Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSummary of David Crow's The Pale-Faced Lie Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Tiger in the House Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Father's Double Life: (New Edited Edition) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Biography & Memoir For You
Becoming Bulletproof: Protect Yourself, Read People, Influence Situations, and Live Fearlessly Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Why Fish Don't Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Stolen Life: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: the heartfelt, funny memoir by a New York Times bestselling therapist Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, HER Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Good Neighbor: The Life and Work of Fred Rogers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jack Reacher Reading Order: The Complete Lee Child’s Reading List Of Jack Reacher Series Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mommie Dearest Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Meditations: Complete and Unabridged Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Just Mercy: a story of justice and redemption Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Billion Years: My Escape From a Life in the Highest Ranks of Scientology Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5People, Places, Things: My Human Landmarks Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of the Donner Party Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Good Girls Don't Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Seven Pillars of Wisdom (Rediscovered Books): A Triumph Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Seven Pillars of Wisdom: A Triumph Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Simple Faith of Mister Rogers: Spiritual Insights from the World's Most Beloved Neighbor Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Taste: My Life Through Food Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man's Fight for Justice Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ivy League Counterfeiter Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Disloyal: A Memoir: The True Story of the Former Personal Attorney to President Donald J. Trump Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Cook's Tour: In Search of the Perfect Meal Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Leonardo da Vinci Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Wright Brothers Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Wiseguy: The 25th Anniversary Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Public Hostage Public Ransom
0 ratings0 reviews