• The New Freedom Buses drove until 3 am, when we arrived at Clague Road United Church of Christ in North Olmsted, Ohio.
• We were hosted (and given terrific hospitality) by the Deaf and Deaf-Blind Committee on Human Rights (DDBCHR), a member group of the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign, and the Clague Road UCC.

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• Deaf people face many barriers to their basic human rights, including the rights to communication, education, employment and health care.
• We heard stories of people denied the right to communication at hospitals. One senior was told that she would be thrown out of her doctor's office if she brought an interpreter. The DDBCHR has confronted hospitals on this issue and continues to fight to hold them accountable.
• In mainstream schools many Deaf children are not provided interpreters, and struggle to understand what is going on. As a result, many have poor reading skills.

• We visited Columbia Park, a trailer park for seniors with about 1500 residents.
• Columbia Park was recently bought by a private company who has raised the rents 20% or more. They are continuing to raise the rent even higher and raise water "surcharges."
• Most of the seniors are on fixed incomes, and unable to afford these increases. Many have been unable to afford life-sustaining medication. Others have not had enough money for food.
• The neighbors joined together to fight for one another.They organized the largest rent strike in Ohio history. They created a food bank for neighbors who needed it. They have taken the owners to the courts, and continue to fight for their right to housing.

Leaders of the Columbia Park Tenants Association speak to the bus riders.

Neighbors in Columbia Park have been brought together by their struggle for the right to housing.

Freedom Bus Riders sing "The Rich Man's House."

Cheri Honkala spoke during lunch at the Catholic Charities Family Center: "Not having enough food to make it through the month, going without housing or medical care, we need to tell these stories and start calling them what they are: human rights violations. And we need to let people know that there is an organized response."

• Catholic Action Commission of Lorain County
• Catholic Charities Disability Services
• Catholic Charities Family Center
• Catholic Comm. of Wayne, Ashland & Medina Counties
• Clague Road United Church of Christ
• Coalition of Affordable Prescription Drugs
• Commission on Catholic Community Action
• Grassroots Leadership Development Program
• Oberlin College Center for Service & Learning
• Oberlin College Dining Co-ops: Harkness, Keep & Tank
• Ohio Chapter of the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf, District 2
• Organize! Ohio
• St. Augustine Church for the Deaf
• St. Richard Catholic Church
• Universal Health Care Action Network of Ohio
• Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign

One busload of Freedom Riders attended a townhall meeting on universal healthcare, hosted by the Eastern District Joint Council of UNITE in Sandusky, Ohio. Dallas Fells from UNITE opened the discussion, followed by Dr. Ken Frisof from the Universal Health Care Action Network, Alan Abrams from the Farm Labor Organizing Committee and Mariluz Gonzalez and Cheri Honkala from the Kensington Welfare Rights Union.

Dr. Ken Frisof from the Universal Health Care Action Network said, "While the US ranks first in health care expenditure at almost $5,000 per person per year, other industrialized democracies spend only about half that amount. Our system wastes billions of dollars on administration, with overhead costs more than twice as high as other nations that guarantee health care to all." Mariluz Gonzalez of KWRU told her story and concluded, "I'm not only talking about myself. Lots of people come to our office in Kensington- people who have jobs - people who have an education, but don't have healthcare. We try to help them out, taking them to free clinics, but what we need is Just Healthcare."

Press Link

"Activists Learn of Deaf People's Fight for Jobs," Cleveland Plain Dealer, November 12, 2002.

Resources for Deaf Awareness

The Deaf and Deaf-Blind Committee on Human Rights developed these resources for Freedom Bus Stop planners:

• Making Your Freedom Bus Stop Events Accessible to the Deaf Community
• Tips on Interacting with People who are Deaf

Daily Prayer for the New Freedom Bus Tour

The Rev. Noelle Damico, Catalyst, School of Theology, University of the Poor

Monday, November 11

Creating God, you have fashioned us to need each other. May we understand the importance and appropriateness of this need as neighborhoods, as a nation, and as a global community. Too often our country perpetuates the myth that each of us succeed of fail on our own. But we know the truth – no individual is responsible for poverty and it will take all of us working together to eradicate the root causes of poverty. We know that to end poverty we need to develop the social consensus and political will to establish and ensure every person’s right to food, shelter, healthcare, education and jobs that pay a living wage.

So through this bus tour we ask that you would help us solidify our relationships to our allies in the labor, religious, educational, social work, and artistic communities, that we may work effectively together in common cause for the essential rights we all need to thrive. Amen.