“This is what democracy looks like!”
Sure, I had participated in demonstration marches before. By the time that I first shouted the words above, I had already become, as per the news media, an “activist” for disability rights. As a member of DOGFITE (Disability Organizing Group For Initiating Total Equality), a Sacramento-area disability advocacy group hosted at Resources for Independent Living, I learned to use my voice to fight for equality. Many long days were spent in the California State Capitol waiting my turn to give testimony, often begging for legislative mercy during the inevitable cut-laden state budget process.
In October 2011, I had an awakening. After attending a meeting in Fremont Park, with a group that would reunite in César Chávez Plaza to become Occupy Sacramento, I was made aware that I was no longer living in “the land of the free.” I had long felt that there was something fundamentally wrong with these words, often proudly sung at major sporting events and any other time that we Americans feel particularly patriotic.
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