"The People's Day of Reckoning": People with Disabilities Respond to Schwarzenegger

The People's Day of Reckoning is a coalition of organizations representing health and social service recipients, providers and supporters from all over California. They are demanding a balanced budget solution that includes new revenue.

Their name was created in response to a June 3 speech by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in which he said on the floor of the State Assembly, "California's day of reckoning is here...Our wallet is empty. Our bank is closed. Our credit is dried up...We must make these cuts and live within our means because what is the alternative?"

On July 15 disability activists and service providers from a variety of organizations answered that very question. They gathered in front of the governor's office in San Francisco and spoke and sang their message as follows:

Governor Schwarzengger,

The alternative is taxing California's most wealthy and corporate plutocrats in the oil industry. A budget solution that would be an alternative would be one based upon shared responsibility and shared sacrifice. Not a solution that falls squarely on the shoulders of children, people with disabilities, elders, the chronically ill, and the unemployed, the poor.

Now, all join the call to action!

It is high time to stop the governor and his legislative allies from slashing programs and make them work instead to gather revenue...particularly from oil companies and the tobacco industry!