It was a big weekend in Big Sandy, Montana. Jeff Ament, through his nonprofit Montana Pool Service, hosted the 16th annual Big Sandy Skate Jam + Pig Roast Saturday. It gave us the perfect reason to host our first joint episode from the Tester farm (and snag some MPS merch)!

A few days ago, our friend Dana DuBois connected us with Nick Paro, a disabled veteran and advocate who recently joined forces with Disability Community to craft a call to action based on a recent Department of Justice memo. It's raising serious concerns, but hasn’t been widely covered in mainstream media yet. The Arc published a great explainer.

The memo basically reinterprets the 1999 Supreme Court Olmstead decision that ruled disabled people can’t be forced to be institutionalized if they can get support and services in their communities. The ruling said the institutional segregation of people with disabilities and mental illness is a form of discrimination under the Americans with Disabilities Act. That decision has been the basis for requiring states to improve access for community-based services. People briefed on the situation told reporters with Bloomberg Law that White House adviser Stephen Miller was the driving force behind the DOJ memo.

The DOJ memo doesn’t change the law, but it does signal a shift. The National Alliance on Mental Illness says the language in the memo has the potential to promote a shift back toward institutionalization. It prompted Sen. Tammy Duckworth and other Senate Democrats to introduce a resolution that reaffirms the promise of Olmstead. It prompted Paro and his partners to publish their own call to action, saying this is an issue which will impact all of us. “Now is the time to speak — before they change the laws — and not after,” Paro’s group wrote.

As the Arc wrote, “this isn’t the end of Olmstead. It’s the start of a new fight to protect it.”

Stay tuned for more farm content from Big Sandy. If you want to learn more about MPS skatepark builds, make sure you check out Montana Grind and Paving the Way, two documentaries that feature Ament’s projects!