Famed TV reporter Geraldo Rivera stepped up (again) for persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities by announcing a one hour TV special focused on the plight the the hundreds of thousands in our nation who languish on wait lists for services. Branded as our nation's "new institutions" , lives are being wasted, neglected and abused as they live in an archipelago of hopelessness.
Rivera cut his reportorial teeth on a series of blazing exposes on ABC some 36 years ago as he and a film crew surreptiously entered the infamous Willowbrook institution on State Island. His graphic and appalling scenes disturbed the conscience of America that led to deinstitutionalization efforts across America.
Now, after nearly four decades of change with ample community based services available, thousands suffer from a more humane but no less disturbing-level of neglect as funds dry up t0 provide vital and critical services. Despite the economic crisis and the "economic stimulus" packages leveraged by the federal government...it is hoped that Rivera's upcoming special will ignite the conscience and imagination of the American people and inspire Congress and President-elect Obama to throw some funds to "bail out the waitlist".
Go Geraldo!!
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