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Plenary 3: Economic Empowerment
Today is Sunday, October 19, 2003. CART services provided by Com Access. CART reporter is Tammy Jaffe.
(CART Transcripts)SPEAKER: Michelle, are you in the room?
SPEAKER: Welcome, everyone. We're so glad that you could get up so early in the morning,
Um, with -- unfortunately we didn't have breakfast for you, we would have liked to. The budget sometimes causes that issue. We do what we can.
We are going to have three plenaries today the first one today is on economic empowerment the second one at lunch is on health care and the third one is on violence against women. Our host for this session is Joanna Bush who is a student at Gallaudet University. Joanna.
Bush: Welcome, and good morning, everyone. Our first presenter for this morning will be Kathy Martinez. Blind since birth, Kathy Martinez is an internationally recognized disability rights leader.
As the World Institute on Disability, its deputy director, Ms. Martinez is responsible for the development, the supervision of the world institute on Disabilities International Technical Assistance Employment and Training Projects. Ms. Martinez currently supervises the National Technical Assistance Center for Latinos with disabilities as well as the international disability exchange and studies for the new millenium project. Ms. Martinez --
SPEAKER: I'm very honored to be here, and I was wondering who was going to come on a Sunday morning to hear an old blind lady speak I guess some of you did, and I am very honored. I just want to make sure that Stephanie thinks my lipstick looks okay. Well, it was because of HELENA, she has one of those many talents, putting make up on folks.
I really want to thank my friend Stephanie ORTOLEVA for her longstanding commitment, and her work for a more just society for the jeers of work she has put in for the women's movement and for the disability rights movement and this is especially commendable because over the years politics and limited resources often made a very tough life. I also would like to acknowledge Andy and CARADO for jumping in the river and supporting this effort and for his groundbreaking work and determination to build a political consensus that will push for real opportunities and economic security for all citizens including women with disabilities.
Finally I'd like to say to you, my sisters, brothers, children, anybody else in the room, guide dogs, service animals,
Um, you made the decision to support this conference and those who are actually here at 8:30, like I said on a Sunday morning, congratulations for what I am not sure. Just kidding.
But you really have been on the front lines for years and you know the challenges that we face as mark just said,
Um, the challenges are even bigger I think NOW. But you have been up against similar obstacles before time and time again and you never gave up. And you never stopped fighting. Because you know our cause is just. And, excuse me. The issues that will be discussed today are very similar to those we were discussing 25 years ago.
And I believe that this conference will really bring new energy and fire to our struggle. We are approaching a critical topic today the economic independence and security of all women, including those of us with disabilities and in the long view of history economic independence for women is still a very new concept. Until late in the 20th century a woman's economic security meant finding a husband. Women with disabilities, this was really not a possibility. Disabled women weren't exactly considered a catch. Even Helen keller as super as she was never had a husband. And I'm forgetting I'm switching technologies.
As I said Helen keller was an upper class woman and she even had a boyfriend for many years. She was not permitted to marry. Racial and ethnic minorities, gay rights advocates were all instrumental in shaping civil rights movement for people with disabilities. In the '70s and 80's and 90s we got lost past ban -- laws passed banning discrimination on the basis of disability.
Many of us had conversation with our LATINO and African American brothers and sisters and women's groups about seeing us as a viable minority group. About including us as equals in the struggle for all people's right to economic empower ment. For disabled women, not much has really changed in the overall picture since those conversations began. No question some of us have gotten jobs, but we are still, as Marcus said yesterday, on the margins of the margins. All over the world disabled women still rank at the bottom of every scale that measures progress.
The statistics are available. But I was told two things before I gave this speech. By the disabled women I was told please don't state the obvious. And by my non disabled sisters I was saying you know we really need to know the basics. So -- here I am, on a Sunday morning at 8:30 trying to do it all.
Any way I have the privilege of working for the ILO in Libya for a month at that time the lib 81 government was just really getting on its feet and didn't de -- had declared the country a sovereign state and one of the things that the ILO brought a few people in for was to work with the disabled women and the non-disabled women to help them develop,
Um, strategies that disabled women involved in the overall National Women's Committee. Needless to say, I was just simply a catalyst. They did all the work, and I was based in south Africa and I felt like,
Um, I saw some of the leaders we had found that there is a particular woman named alexia particularly who the first part of our training, wouldn't speak, wouldn't reveal anything about herself and then one day we all identified an experience in our life where we were discriminated against and she came up to the mike, or to the speaking post and she talked very explicitly about her -- her experience with violence, abusive family, an abusive husband and really connected with many people there. There were men there as well.
There were many non-disabled women. It was about 50/50. By the end of that month alexia was leading the international day women's March in Libya and was proudly in tribal costume at the head of the March and is NOW the head of -- of -- she is the -- she is the president of I think it is political strategies for the entire women's division for the government of Libya, it is not just disabilities.
That is just one little example of how disabled women are making a difference. But I think, you know, we're still, we're still at the bought um. We had significant activities and attention towards women with disabilities and building ALLIES. In this country as well after the Beijing conference we had the international women's for
Um, International Leadership Forum for Women with Disability in 97 at this very spot actually where we had 600 women from 80 countries both disabled and non-disabled meet together for a week and it was just remarkable the hotel almost, just, you know, exploded, because of the energy. We finally, -- having 600 women.
There was also a project after that, which was supported by the department of ED and Social Security. The project to increase opportunities for employment for women with disabilities and all the work mobility international is doing around employment of disabled women, and microfilm development. There is a lot of work in the area of entrepreneur ship and small business development, Katie Lynne raise your hand, girl, Katie Lynne has been a champion in helping both men and women with disabilities fund, develop and fund small businesses and she'll be speaking later. The inclusion of women with psychiatric and invisible disabilities I think has also been an issue that the disabled women's movement and the overall women's movement has begun to address throughout the world.
But there is still a long way to go. And this is where I am going to get to the basic part. So what can we do? What can we do to change the statistics that still have existed for -- existed for the last -- existed for the last 25 years since basically they have been kept. I think the fact we're here, the fact we are working together, to address this issue is really one of the first steps.
I was reading a study the other day which stated that the biggest barriers to hiring people with disabilities in general is still fear, fear and negative attitude. So I contacted a few friends, a few women allies who run a variety of women's business and entrepreneur projects in the bay area. Trust me. I am not a researcher, so this is not a formal survey all you academics.
It was Kathy Martinez wanting to know the dirt. I asked them what was -- what were their -- what did they perceive as the biggest barriers to hiring women with disabilities? Some took a very in direct path to the answer and some were very forth right. But overwhelmingly, it was fear. A really good friend of mine, who will remain anonymous, said that we're afraid to do something wrong, said, you know, when I first, when I first met you, I remember sitting at a table, and I was afraid to tell you the bread had come, I was afraid to ask you if you wanted me to pour you some water, I was afraid to be humiliated in a group. And I said, wow, really? I didn't know this. And she said, well, you know, we were told somewhere along the line that disabled people may not want help, and some of us don't. And she said, you know, these are the little things, these little things keep me, you know, honestly, from risking it. And she said, I also don't know how to handle the issue of my other employees.
How do I tell them that you get a special computer, that is five times faster than theirs, and that, you know, that there are -- somebody may need a service schedule. And I really thanked her for her honesty because at least she was talking the talk. I also talked to disabled women, young disabled women, who were looking for work, as many of you know, I run a project called the EDICIONE, a project to increase employment for women with disabilities, excuse me for LATINOS with disabilities, excuse me, wrong population. And I have had the honor and privilege of learning so much about the definition of economic empowerment, the definition of what that -- empower ment, the deaf definition of what that means in different cultures.
Even though I'm from a LATINO culture my definition of economic empower ment has been American eyessed. But the flip side of the coin was similar. These disabled women, in the LATINO project and some of the disabled women we worked with before in the increasing opportunities project, pretty much confirmed that their biggest barriers were also fear.
NOW some of them also said, you know, lack of accommodations, negative attitudes and all that, but I think it is probably basic fear but some of them are really honest. They said I'm afraid to get on off SSI. I'm afraid, one woman said I don't think I look professional enough, I couldn't wear dresses. I am not the type of person that somebody would put in a front office. I am afraid to lose my health benefits and she said something very, I thought they powerful to me, she said, K-Mart is really my weak point, she said poverty can be comfortable. And we internalize all of these negative attitudes about ourselves based on fear. And she really got me thinking. Because
I was born blind and although my parents were relatively progressive for their time, still their attitudes and fear had an impact on me. And how I saw myself. They never assumed I'd marry so there goes my husband I made up. They wanted me to become a none which scared the hell out of the Catholic church. And they never really assumed I'd work. Until I was a young adult and they saw role models like Judy HUMAN, so I was very influenced by her, and they were happy to know about SSI. They were happy that even though I'd be poor there would be some type of subsidy when I turned 16 that would, you know, help out the family.
Um, poverty was very familiar to them. So like I said, when they learned that I could receive SSI, they were very happy.
They were very much influenced by other people's reactions to me. One time this memory really haunts me sometimes, but I meet other disabled children, but it plays into this whole fear, and how we internalize fear.
Um, my -- I grew up for the first part of my life I grew up mostly on an Indian reservation in Mexico that is where my family is from and they moved to California when I was very young and we would drive back and forth from California to Mexico if anybody has ever done it. In the summer we'd go through Arizona which can be very hot close to -- sometimes the weather can get up to 116 degrees. So we stopped in a gas station with a little restaurant, and we ordered ice cream. Well, I come from a very large family, and I also have another blind sister. For those of you who don't know.
Um, so we ordered ice cream and need less to say the ice cream began to melt and my sister and I couldn't handle it, I mean, you know, we were probably three and five, and I remember the people at the restaurant asked my parents to leave. And my parents their English wasn't vi good, either one of them spoke English much at all at that time and my dad said why and they said because your kids are making a mess. Your blind kids, they said we don't know what is wrong with those two, but we want them out of here. The other customers don't want to look at them.
So I remember my mother crying, my brother being completely humiliated and I think to this day he still -- he is still very careful, I think he still has an incredible shame about my sister and I although I think it's changed. I think in my community especially the LATINO community, that is a big, big barrier for us, an incredible shame. So I remembered that and I remember thinking every time I -- I went to a job interview or every time I put myself out there, I wonder if somebody is going to think, you know, if somebody is going to want me to leave, or if I'm not, you know, if I'm going to make somebody uncomfortable or if I'm going to make my friends uncomfortable and my families uncomfortable and my colleagues uncomfortable. So these are things that while people say, oh, God, this is stuff you should have gotten over years ago I pretty much have, but I think it's all tied to our ability to get work.
Um, and I think also that, you know, that it is a women's issue in a way, because of course when you have disabled children, at least in my culture, if you are a woman, you get blamed for, you are the reason why you're disabled, what sin did you commit?
So any way, these experiences made me realize at a really young age that -- that I just, by the fact that I am a blind person, and that people react to that part of me the most, they tend not to react to the LATINO part unless they need an interpreter or unless they need somebody on their board that is -- no, just kidding. They tend not to react to the women, the women part of me. But they do react to the blind -- the fact I'm a blind person probably because I carry a stick. If I didn't carry a cane, they would think I was on drugs, so, who knows. But any way, I know that I've -- it has been in my head, since I was a kid, a disabled kid, you know, MARCA really did talk about the different experiences between those of us who grew up disabled and those of us who become disabled and I think you know it is fascinating to compare the differences sometimes.
Any way, at a young age, I realized that I evoked fear and pity in people and I know I've internalized a lot of it and hopefully gotten rid of a lot of it but it is very hard to undo and risk the reactions like I said from other colleagues at work and allies and the people I spoke with before this speech both disabled and non-disabled said things like,
Um, well, I did say one of my friends says I'm afraid to screw-up. I said, disabled women say I'm afraid to risk, I'm afraid to fail, because one woman, one woman with a dis ability who just got laid off said I failed but I feel like I only got one chance. My sisters, who are in the work world get lots of chances but, and she also happens to be African American, she said, but I think the fact that I'm African American, sometimes I evoke hostility, because I'm a disabled person I evoke pity and I think she said somehow I feel like I've only gotten one chance to fail in this job situation.
I'm afraid -- sorry. Well, any way, I want to give Karen a turn. I know at least when talking about all this, and it is coming out of the closet NOW, so we can deal with it. I mean we've always known it, but I think people, the friends, the women I talk to in the non-disabled business project director said we would like to have a dialogue, so I was very happy.
I think the next concept we have to consider when we think of change is the whole idea of expectations. Low expectations plague us all at some point.
Um, like I said, I have so many incredible experiences to share with you when I was young. One of the women who came to my office was, I just will tell you the story. She was a Puerto Rican woman who moved from New York, been divorced, and had three kids, came in and said, you know, I saw, I heard your spot on the radio and I really would like to work. So I went to shake her hand, and she didn't have a hand. Both of her arms were chopped off at mid forearm by a pain of glass that fell. And so I was first of all I was first of all, you know when you are blind sometimes you don't know, so I just went to shake her hand.
Um, so I heard her story. I heard her story about how after she became disabled, she, her husband left her. She had three kids under seven,
Um, and as part of -- I heard the reaction to her -- the amputation of her arms she had a slight stroke. So we talked for a really long time, and we cried together. And we laughed together.
Um, she was actually really funny. She had this incredible sense of humor that just popped out from all the misery and pain and hell she'd been through. And you know we started talking about expectations and about how as a disabled person, everybody's expectation of her changed. And she talked about that for a long time.
And so I started getting her contacts to folks. She was very fortunate to have a mentor from one of the LATINO, it was a woman who works at one of the LATINOTV stations who was very interested in mentoring her and they spent a lot of time together. This person shaddowed her, and got her a job, and she is NOW working there. She has a job at one of the television stations in PHIL I and it was because somebody expected her to do it, it is so simple, it is so simple. You don't expect people to hire us, they won't. You know, if you don't expect us to do well, we won't.
I think it is pretty simple. And along with expectations, are mentors and role models. They play extraordinary roles when it comes to perceiving expectations of one self. My role models and mentors were the very strong resourceful women in my family. My mother, my grandmother, my aunts, who didn't let me get away with much.
My mentors from the farm workers pounded it into me that I must not abandon the LATINO community, my LATINO and native American heritage even though I was very isolated as a LATINO, except for my sister, I was blessed to have a blind sister so we could share a lot of experiences. I knew no other disabled activist who was LATINO. And when I was working in the farm workers movement I still felt that, while I completely believed in the cause, and I did as much as I could, there was something missing. In many ways I felt like I wasn't being taken seriously. I felt lonely.
Um, but I did see that there was a need to, you know, to keep working in this -- in my community.
My countless role models in the disability community believed in me when I had no idea what they saw. They pushed me to make that first international exchange trip. It is interesting MARCA mentioned the international exchange trip. I spent my 18th birthday in Japan and I was terrified to go. A friend of mine who was blind had gone on a similar trip and the deal is that you, you sign up to go live with a family and you go and stay there for six weeks. Well I was good in Spanish but my Japanese sucked. So I even, you know you can practice all you want, but I can say good morning, I'm constipated. You know, those sorts of things. You learn the phrases that are really important.
But in terms of communication I thought how will I ever do it. Any way, I signed up for the program, they denied me the first year which is probably a good thing and after my senior year I was picked to go. I had two different families for three weeks apiece and the rest of the people stayed with their families six weeks, and I think the Japanese felt a blind person is too much we got to split her up a little bit. So I went, and fortunately the kids in the families could speak English and the first night, like I arrived there I remember, I -- one thing I hadn't practiced was how to use chop sticks and so when you are in another culture you look and you see what people are doing and emulate what they're doing so they took my hand and they, you know put the chop sticks in them and I would squeeze the eel if you know Japan you know eel is a delicacy, right, it is delicious, it is just phenomenal and I -- de lish yus and -- and it produces the best eel in the world there I am starving. Starving.
Threes people waited for me to arrive in their house, probably two hours. So they're starving, so we sit at the table, they eat really quickly, right, swallow it up. I pick up my eel, get the eel about this close to my mouth and it falls on the plate, and I'm like, oh, my God, I'm so hungry, the next morning need less to say there was a fork next to my plate. But the first exchange trip really did -- did make a big difference.
Um, and it -- it gave me confidence and my mentors are the reason that I was able to do it. All right, I really have to go NOW.
Um, so -- I guess I want to skip completely and talk a little bit about networking. I think one of the main things that disabled women lack are networks. And you know, how do we get jobs. Most people get jobs by knowing people who have jobs. How did -- how did you get your job? You know, you know somebody who knew somebody who knew about a job or who had a job.
Um, and so you know, I think it is very important to understand that the people get jobs and make connections, you know, who do you play golf with? Who you went out for drinks with, or who you sat next to in church. These are all networks that many disabled women don't have the opportunity to have.
Um, you had an access to those networks. And the disabled women who have jobs had access to those networks. How many of us have been invited to, you know, an after work function and have it not be accessible. I don't know if any hands are going up but often, you know, I know that many of my friends in the Clinton administration talked to me about that.
That, you know folks would be going, they'd have these high powered meetings and folks would be out after to a restaurant or bar and it would be completely inaccessible. This is just -- completely inaccessible. I know this is a base ck I know I'm not supposed to go there. These -- basic, I know I'm not supposed to go there these are things we completely forget. Or in many cases even inviting, I think a lot of times what happens to disabled workers I can tell you this happened to me a lot, my first job, I was never invited to lunch. Or even to go out after work.
My first job was in a log factory in southern California, for those of you whoever saw quick set locks, you probably saw them all your life. I ran a post press which made the backs of them flush and square and I got the job because somebody thought the blind people could make good punch press operators because they couldn't get distracted to by seeing other people around them to make signals to or talk to and the machines were very loud so I was, you know, I was there in my little blind world touching my doorknobs and after, everything was regulated, it was a factory, so we, you know, the bell would ring, you had three minutes to go to the restroom. The bell would ring at exactly a half hour to have lunch.
So when I first got to the job, I had, it was very lonely for me. The bell would ring and women would run to the restroom and I wouldn't go because I didn't have anybody to run with me. The bell would ring, and I would have, you know, I would eat my lunch alone because a lot of people would race to the parking lot and jump the fence and go to the place next door. That changed eventually and I was included but I think, you know, there was a lot going on during those lunches. People were getting promotions. People were switching departments. You know, it just happens, a lot happens and networks are very important.
We can be I think invaluable resources for women. And so I think we have to remember that fear, expectation, network, resources, you know, are all really important things, even though they're basic we must all be reminded that those are really four main areas that really do,
Um, encourage and develop economic empower MENT for everybody, and finally, my question to you all today is why doesn't it enter the minds of these brilliant cutting edge policy makers and thinkers to include disabled women in all these new brilliantly conceived anti-poverty programs? Now, I think -- I think we're calling them asset development programs now, but things like individual development counts. You know, where you could save to buy a home or you can save to get a post-secondary education, or you can save to start a small business.
Um, I know NOW things like LILA's, life long learning accounts being set up, and tried out, things like the seed accounts where it is sort of from birth to death accounts, it is just NOW, these initiatives are just getting off the ground and if any population would benefit from these types of asset development accounts it is disabled women and I know that, you know, Patty lynch, or Lynne and Michael Morris, and my -- my incredibly hard working staff person at WID LYDORF are some of the people pounding the heads of the -- the Center for enterprise development and the policy people there are developing these asset development am campaigns basically to not have earned income be the only means of savings.
Basically they are savings accounts. Where you can save for various goals. You know, we want for these folks to include things like assistive technology or personal assistance in these -- in the savings plans so that disabled people aren't excluded from these plans. Any way, all right, I'm not going to bore you. I would just like to say that I really want us to think about, for those of you who are working in the area of asset development,
I think we really have to begin to develop policy that includes people with disabilities, for those of you who are not familiar with the concept of asset development, there is a really good article in the AAPD, I think it is -- is it the last AAPD newsletter, it is on the website, any way, to make these programs usable, accessible to invisible people with disabilities before they get to far off the ground.
Well, I'm trying to skip all this. -- okay. I think continuing the -- as I said, continuing to combat fear, to really work on, you know, to -- continuing to get over the attitude based in fear, increasing expectations of each other, making -- making our business to be mentors and role models for one another and developing networks and getting in on the groundwork of some of these very new initiatives with regard to asset development will make a big difference in the economic lives of all women, including women with disabilities and remember, guys, or folks, change can happen, really, it can.
Because we have our dreams, we have each other and we have tomorrow. I'll end there. Thanks. (Applause).
Bush: Okay, Um, we'll take five or 10 minutes of Q and A. Questions and answers? Anyone from the audience? Okay.
QUESTION: We were talking about women starting employment and other things I wanted to remind people of the PAPS program that is a mart of Social Security, that gives grants to people who are really willing to start businesses and other things I just want to make sure that is being made clear that is available to you.
Martinez: PAPS?
QUESTION: Yes.
Martinez: PAPS plans work, I think a couple things about them. One of them you have to have Social Security claims reps that understand it, that understand the PAPS plan system, and I found at least when we were working with, in -- working in the increasing opportunities program there were really very few. There were folks in Minnesota and good folks in Washington. Basically I didn't find every state had a qualified PAPS plan claims rep. If you can make it work, you are right it is a good savings tool.
QUESTION: Hi, I'm Pam BERGMAN from Massachusetts more specifically independent living Center on the cape. It is kind of nice, independent living on the water, by the sea. In Massachusetts there is a work insurance program called common health and it is one of five programs that mass health and Medicaid has developed. We developed it with them.
Um, more recently, with our new governor ROMNI who brought the Olympics back to life is trying to kill off every disabled person in Massachusetts NOW and one of the ways he is doing that is he wants to impose an asset cap on folks receiving common health to -- three sets of types of people who receive common health. One is working disabled adults, I get health insurance through my work. With a common health back up. Um, the second type of person that receives common health is non working disabled folks and we all pay a monthly premium. I pay it based on my income, working income, and any other incomes I get.
The non working disabled folks pay it based on their monthly income. And then there are kids with disabilities who are eligible for common health. And he wants to impose an asset cap, which flies in the face of what you were just talking about, us accumulating funds and protected funds that aren't necessarily counted against us. And we are obviously have a huge advocacy program going on and has been going on since the governor came into office to fight that.
You know, again, we are the target of when you need to cut money you look at the elderly, the disabled and the kids. And we are all obviously deeply concerned about that, so we'll continue to advocate for that, Um, what we try to push in our independent living Center in terms of housing is homeowner ship. And that is just devastating for the folks that rely on, without my common health, Blue Cross would really pay for nothing.
So despite it is a back up to my primary health insurance, which my employment offers, which is a criteria for common health,
Um, it essentially pays for everything, and NOW they're telling me I can't save for my kids' college or if she gets a car, it is the second car in the household and it is going to count against me. They've also put on a cap on common health too I think it is important and it was a good point and something I am going to research when you mentioned these new initiatives on saving moneys.
Martinez: They are really beginning to be developed and I know the seed initiative, and I don't have my bag up here I could tell you what it stands for, LILA is life long learning accounts and LILA's are being tried out and experimented with where your employer puts in money and you save money, but your employer matches it, for education, to make you -- to keep up your skill level but the seed accounts are something being tried in England.
I think they are just recently being -- the law was passed in England where you get a -- I think it is between 500 and 1 thousand as a child when you are born and the purpose of the account is to sort of follow you through life, you know. And to -- to grow assets for either a college education, a house, or developing your business.
Um, but I know that the Center for enterprise development has just been awarded a lot of money from a variety of foundations including Ford who of course as they quote don't do disability,
Um, and a number of I can't remember the other foundations but they're -- they're -- they're -- their mission is to develop a similar type of account here in the states.
QUESTION: I think that is interesting and something we would love to support and sitting here listening to you, I am new to this conference and new to NOW and AAPD but obviously a lot of our answers will lie in legislation.
Martinez: Yeah I think we really have to be careful when these laws are passed and a lot of these asset development laws are being attached to faith based bills so many of us are not going near them. However, they are, I think it is critical that we do look at them, so that, you know, so that things, like SSI is not discontinued. And I think actually for IDEA, the law has been changed and you can NOW use SSI as a match.
QUESTION: I'm looking forward to continuing a relationship with both of these organizations in this conference and obviously I'll be looking to help, use my skills and experience with advocacy and political advocacy and community advocacy to help further nurturing.
QUESTION: Can you hear me?
Martinez: Go ahead.
QUESTION: I have a very simple question. I have been self-employed as a disability policy consultant for lack of a different set of words. Since 97, one of my goals when I get my grant money is to try to hire qualified persons with disabilities, especially women. Usually I can only do it on a part-time consulting basis. But beyond that, beyond going to be able to grow and able to hire more women, qualified women with disabilities to -- to be consultants I am -- I feel very isolated and is there any kind of a network or association for women with disabilities who have their own -- their own business, cuz I really am trying to find --
Martinez: Like an association of disabled entrepreneurs?
QUESTION: Yes, because I find it difficult to be a woman entrepreneur and I work in disability issues it is very difficult than being a man with a disability and having a business.
Martinez: I know there is an association for disabled entrepreneurs. Patty are you still here?
QUESTION: I am here.
Martinez: Can you answer that question, she is the expert on that.
QUESTION: Not yet, yes there will be very soon. In the spring of 2004, the organization that I am blessed to work with the abilities group is going to be launching, and we are reintroducing our website on that website we are having, we are beginning to sector different parts of the entrepreneurial community, particularly women, and so you'll see an entire range of -- of products and services that will be targeting women entrepreneurs with disabilities, and it is abilities fund is our organization and I'll make sure that we connect here, okay?
QUESTION: Okay.
QUESTION: Hi, Kathy. This is Stephanie. Martinez: Hi.
QUESTION: One of the things you were talking about is mentoring and supporting us being able to support each other. And in my -- in my work in my federal job one of the things that we can really encourage is mentoring within our own organizations between women, amongst women, not focusing on women with disabilities specifically, but creating, actually creating mechanisms, and another organization I'm associated with that works on women's transportation issues, really has -- has established mentoring programs, per se, and I am not sure if anything like that exists, that is a more formalized mentoring program for women with disabilities, a place where women can go who want to be mentors.
Um, and a place where women can go who need mentors. But I -- and I know that there is, you know a disability mentoring bay, in most places that is viewed as a one-day activity. I think one of the things that would be wonderful to have come out of this conference if it doesn't already exist is to try to figure out a way to try create women with disabilities networks, because I know for myself it has been people who supported me that made a difference and sometimes it is hard work to find them and sometimes it is by pure sir un dip tea.
Martinez: I agree.
QUESTION: Should we do it? Martinez: Sure.
QUESTION: Come sign up.
QUESTION: Excuse me my name is Patty Lynne from the abilities fund if I can just make one comment and I'll try to keep it real brief here.
Um, the inclusion of women with disabilities in the world of economic development,
Um, has sometimes benzene as an ox ee more awn to say the least but how well I know, I have been in the -- worked in the world of microenterprise development for the last dozen plus years and a world that I was welcome to because they recognize, they recognize women,
Um, as a whole, as being a disadvantaged population so there are many, many microenterprise organizations specifically focused on the training and technical assistance needs of women, but certainly not women with disabilities. For the last, out of those last dozen years I have spent 10 years at the national microenterprise organizational meeting every year,
Um, AEO is the organization, they do a wonderful job but I have, and they have allowed me to present on the topic of serving people with disabilities, particularly women with disabilities and while they allowed me that opportunity, there was never anyone in the room, simply never anyone in the room.
At one point, I actually, and Kathy will appreciate this I co presented with Dr. Nancy Arnold from the rural institute on dis ah bill ah fees and she is physically a very bright woman physically she is very beautiful as well I actually put her in front of the room trying to draw people in, thinking gosh, maybe they'll think this is the real hot session or something, but couldn't get anybody into the room. Two years ago or a few years ago the leadership changed at AEO and the executive director,
Um, is NOW a gentleman, and to tell you frankly I don't know what drives him. I don't know what it is that makes him understand this whole notion of not only people with disabilities being particularly entrepreneurial, but women with disabilities, but he has wholly embraced it so NOW the entire industry of microenterprise development is beginning to understand that they have missed a sector of the market, and that it is particularly folks with disabilities and certainly women. I am going to make you all a bet that while, this has been, you know there is just a lot of negative things that come, when you are on the fringe.
Um, I am going to make you a bet knowing that things that are on the fringe move into the mainstream, that within about two years right now if you'll do this conference again, in two years we'll be talking about the plenty full growth for women with disabilities in the world of entrepreneurial development. It will be phenomenal. Kathy, there will be the seed projects. There will be, you know, IDEA programs specifically targeting women with disabilities.
Um, there will be on the platter of opportunities things' we've never heard of yet, so that is a bet, let's be back, let's make sure we do this conference again and keep it on the radar screen and watch it grow.
Martinez: Thank you. (applause).
Bush: Our next presenter is Karen Thompson. Miss Thompson is president of the home care chapter, local 99 of service employees international union local 503 in Oregon. And an advocate for the uninsured women with disabilities and working people. She herself is recovering from cancer, which was diagnosed late due to her own lack of health insurance. As a president of the home care workers in Oregon, Miss Thompson represents 13 thousand workers who provide local -- provide local Medicaid person care services to people with disabilities. Miss Thompson. (applause).
Thompson: It is such an honor to be here. I just feel so excited to be a part of this group, because you guys are doing what we are trying to do in Oregon and we are going to be doing it nationwide, internationally, there is just a huge, huge movement here I am really excited to be here. My name is Karen Thompson I am a service employees international union, and I'd like to WEAVE in my personal story along with what the union has done for myself and for the women's movement for people with disabilities, and how
I came to be president of 13 thousand home care workers. I live in a little town called CIO Oregon a 600 person town in the valley and I take care of my husband who for 10 years I was just his in home care provider as a live in, and we raised my two children, and the -- in the community and we did a lot of things and I kept him home, I kept him out of hospitals, I kept him, you know, I have saved the states tons of money by keeping him home and after 10 years, we decided that we really really wanted to be married as a couple,
I really wanted it, so we were able to get a small program we have a spousal program in Oregon and we went on that for like seven years and they tried to cut us off of that twice but we have managed to stay on it. And when they came to me with this idea that we should organize home care workers, and we have a union for them so we could improve our quality and keep these people home, I thought that was an outstanding idea and I got right on board and
I got real involved with everything, and they started, you know, having meetings and we have had, we gather women and men from all over the place, the home care workers are primarily women ages 45, 50 and up, and there is like 90 percent nationally that are women, and they are a poor group of women, too, and a lot of them are disabled or on the verge of it also. I need to put my glasses on. I can't see my notes. I have -- I had breast cancer six years ago and when I got done with that, I didn't have any insurance, and I was just really mad, you know, what can we do. This is just not right. We -- I make 800 dollars a month I get get on any public health assistance, so I started fighting. And when we start fighting together, big things happen. And one of my big things is I have this huge vision of faith and hope and that the love and that if we all would just do our part and take some action, any kind of action, whatever, you know, that we feel we're called to do, that together, all these little seeds are going to come together and we are going to see huge, huge improvements and when I look around the room and I see all of you, and I see all your strengths I see people that have so many abilities I don't see any of your disabilities, I see people with abilities and that is what really, really jazzes me, because you guys are more like hear ohs than you know.
And NOW we are coming together with this other group of women, NOW, which I never heard of, and I think together, you know, we have so many similarities, we are going down so many paths that are -- that are together, you know. And I have never done public speaking of any kind, I have never, ever thought of myself as being president of anything. You know, and then when the union kept saying, you can do this, you can do this, and I'm like me? You know. And so they pushed me forward, and I started speaking at all these different places I have been here to Washington, D.C. two years ago I went to the first ever national home care convention in Detroit, Michigan last November and I got this vision that we cannot only do this in Oregon and California, but we need to do it nationwide.
We need -- we just call them personal assistants or you can call them helpers or home care workers you can call them by different names it is the same thing if we can help keep people at home, in Oregon we save 25 thousand dollars per year per client by keeping them home out of nursing homes I think the quality of it --(applause).
And the quality of life is they get to stay in their own homes, we come in, we give them whatever asishun tuns they Ted l -- assistance they need from small amounts to full live in care we give them wings to help them sore type thing and they can do phenomenal things. You know, some people thought disabled women were doing it on their own and are struggling, I don't know how they do it, but other people just, they -- they are going to isolate themselves and just die away if they don't have some help or some type of intervention and sometimes the home care workers are the only link they really have, with the outside world.
And they'll come in and check on them, and -- the value of home care workers is we want a partnership with the doctors with the community, and with all the elderly agencies, with the case managers and be seen as part of the picture and part of the loop. So that we can make it more successful for the people staying at home. And then we also can educate each other, and help each other to register a vote. Go out and be -- we put them in purple shirts, our -- our clients, and we take them to the capital, we take them and give them appear point ments with their legislators and it just builds up their self-esteem and they can see they really have an important part to fill in the community. And that their lives have value I feel every life has value.
We organize the bargaining team, we have 20 members on our bargaining team and way had -- we had 20 women on the state side for 17 months we sat around and bargained with the state to get a health insurance plan, to get Workmen's Comp, to get pay raise, to get proper procedures to just bring up our level of dignity and we did that, we have succeeded in doing that this summer. Finally the governor just signed our contract and it went into effect in July for the first time ever, historically in Oregon NOW 13 thousand home care workers have the first ever contract. And we can say we did it. And we persevered through it.
There were lots of times when we didn't think we were going to do it, they kept saying no money, no money, no money, we can't do it. And we brought in, we have days where we would bring in bus loads of clients from around the state for testimony, we'd bring them in, you know, and they have to sit there and listen to all the personal stories one-on-one. cAnd we watched them slowly start to expect us -- respect us and respect who we are and what we are doing and know we are serious and we are not going to go away and when we have people from California and they're organized hundreds of thousands there they are doing it county by county one of the things they told me that always stuck m- my head you can complain all day long to sympathetic people who know your issues but they won't do any good like preaching to the inquire, what you need to do -- CHOIR, what you need to do is go to where the legislators are where the money is and stay there if you sit in their office and talk home care they are going to get so tired of you they'll give you the money to go home. And we do that, and when band together, and persevere together, and, you know, it's really neat to see us do it together, too.
Um, one of the biggest problems with home care workers is each one is isolated in 13 thousand homes and we didn't know anything about the co-workers we didn't know what other people were doing. We didn't have networking of any kind. No one knew each other and NOW we have found, you know, through this networking and supporting of each other, we, we are never going to be invisible no more. We are just not. We are not going back. (applause).
I always say, you know, if we persevere and we stand together, we can't lose. Because everywhere we go things aren't happening by chance I am not here by chance and you are not here by chance. And it is like we were meant to meet each other and network with each other and help each other, and we are not meant to isolate away, and hide away. And quality of life is much improved when people are out there with people. Somebody was saying the other day, why don't you go in that -- once you go in the nursing home it is all over.
And you think this is it. So you start shutting down, and I do some volunteer work in nursing homes, too, and when you see the people in there versus the people in their homes, it is just such a huge difference, you know, you see it in their eyes in the way they act, and how they talk, you know, that they're just -- they're just, once they are in that nursing home, they just don't seem to care as much. When they are in their homes they do.
In San Francisco and in LA county in California, we were using them as a model, and they have organized about 150 or one thousand alone in LA county and over 10 thousand in San Francisco and they're also organizing in Illinois and Michigan and -- Michigan we sent some door knockers over there, and they are only making like three dollars an hour. So it's horrible conditions and when we found out -- when they found out we have health insurance and worker's comp and they have a chance to get that, too, they are just really, really working hard to do that, it takes a lot of work.
It took us six years in Oregon to get where we gathered signatures and put it on the ballot and passed it overwhelmingly in every county in Oregon back in 2000 and we had to get a 30 percent showing of interest amongst home care workers, there is a seven percent turn over so it took us like two years, and thousands and thousands of door knocking each one on one-on-one to get home care workers and their clients to see this vision and it seems overwhelmingly they wanted it.
You know, to happen, because they could see once we get this going and if you can bring up the quality of home care workers life, too, then they'll stay in the jobs and stay there, and there wouldn't be so much turn over, and one of the problems as you well know, any of you who are looking for personal assistance, it is hard to keep good ones and keep the ones that you can trust and will work with you in the home and if they don't make enough money to make their needs available, and they don't have insurance also, it is not going to be good.
And right in the middle of our bargaining when we were bargaining I got diagnosed with ovarian cancer I had it for quite awhile I knew I was really really sick I kept going to the doctor but I have no insurance I am a Charity care patient.
Towards the end the doctor actually said a CAT scan costs 1500 dollars and we don't -- we want to try some other things first I said I'll find a way to pay for the test and he said let's just take you off milk and put you on Metamucil and this and that, and I was so sick, you know, and I'd lost like 20 pounds I weighed under a hundred pounds and kept complaining of all my symptoms and he didn't even feel I had a grapefruit sized tumor in my stomach, in my ovary, so when I went back and they did the CAT scan and found it, he was like really oh no, oh, no, he sent me to a week in the hospital in April, and I almost died on the table and I could have this ovarian cancer it is my second cancer they said it has a high rate of coming back and maybe in a few years it might come back, but I don't believe that, I have this total faith and this total optimism that I am healed NOW and God has a purpose for me to be here and I got a voice and I am going to work double hard and work harder than ever. (applause).
Look at my life and they say this is somebody from a little place from CIA, really isolated before, never talked in front of a group of people before, ever, and I had low self-esteem, low confidence in myself and the union people SEIU kept saying you can do this, you can do this, and kept calling me one after another thing, before I knew it I was doing radio things and TV things and newspaper articles, and here I am at this conference and that conference. You know, and I have a voice. And I could have said not me, Lord, why me? You know, I can't do it. Get my brother, Eric, to do it. I said no, I'll do it, I'll overcome my fears and I will do it. And I am so happy that I did.
Because, because of that, I have met hundreds of hundreds of people just at this conference alone I look around this room and I have met many, many, many of you and I'll take you home and I'll take you to my 13 thousand home care workers and the things I've learned will be shared all through Oregon and the things that you shared, you are going to take back to your different places all around and you are going to also share them, and that is networking.
We are networking. And a lot of you get phone numbers and people like with the home care workers we help each other get jobs and keep positions filled we are developing what we call a registry which will be lists of all different available home care workers in the geographics what they can do what hours they can work and the disabled person would come in and say I need this and this and this and then one of my classes yesterday, it was brought out that it is like a job for the disabled women to find and keep these person assistants and then be like an employer to them, and I hadn't really thought of that too much, just taking care of one client but we have home care workers with seven or eight clients throughout the week and they'll be getting one person left in the morning and getting another one ready at night and the going throughout the day to all these different ones and are so dedicated even if they don't get paid or that person needs extra hours they'll stay or if they get a call and their hours are used up they'll stay when I saw so many dedicated women that will do this for other people for nothing and they put their hearts into it, this was I knew what is real and I wanted to be a part of it when we put our campaign out we said we didn't want anything for ourselves if the cost of getting things for our clients the services, anything in our contract that had a financial impact would have to come from new money, not from cutting services and we -- and we did that, we have a 25 million dollar contract, and the governor gave us up to that much, and they said the legislator couldn't go home until we got it through and they were ball king because we were going to get a pay raise and they had a freeze on pay raises for state workers but we are not really state workers.
We are called client employee providers and they used to say we were, what do you call it self-employed type thing where you don't -- they don't even take taxes out of our checks and on tax day last year, I MCed a rally in front of the tax building saying please take our taxes, we all had signs saying please take our taxes we took in a check to them for 20 million dollars saying you would have had this much money had you been taking taxes from home care workers NOW you have to track them down to get it, and you don't have it.
So that was negotiated in our contract that they have to revamp the system to take taxes out, but the number -- the issues they wanted weren't pay raises the number one things the home care people wanted is they wanted healthcare insurance and workman's comp and the services to their clients was the next most important thing and that is really, an eye opener to us that more than anything else that dedication is to making the lives easier for the people they take care of and a lot of them are disabled and a lot of them are seniors but we see a huge value in bringing the seniors out, too, because they stay in their homes, they know a lot with a lot of wisdom, been around a lot of years and we educate them and help them to vote for candidates that are going to fulfill their needs and what they are going to need and that was, I just -- I am just such a people person, I have a lot of old lady friends, too, and I don't know, people, I give my heart to people, everyone has rights, and I want it all to be a nice rosey little world and it is not, and my husband says sometimes you live in such a fantasy world, but way back when, he is laughing NOW, because when I used to talk for 10 years at home, and he was the only one who listened to me, before the union, he used to say, please, go tell somebody else.
And NOW he sees that I made all these trips, I come here to Washington, D.C., I am doing this and that, 10 years ago he would have laughed, he would have said you are not going to do that.
QUESTION: You go, girl.
SPEAKER: I said yes I can I am very unassuming it is really kind of funny sometimes people look around and I am not the one that seems like you know to be the president and chief spokesman of the group and yet here I am doing it.
QUESTION: Yes, you are. (applause).
SPEAKER: And it is because of the people like Katherine and these people from the SEIU who, and that is service employees international union, this is a people union where they have the public workers and the janitors and NOW they are doing home care workers, which I thought was phenomenal I thought how are they going to find all the home care workers and get them organized when nobody even knows each other.
It was the hardest job the organizers ever did, was organizing the home care, but it was also the most rewarding, and the most people, caring people, and they say, and I believe this to be true myself, home care workers care and are ready to be motivated, and they're mobilized and put out there because they are so isolated, and they always say, well what can I do, I am only one person, we are all only one person, they could see the vision of stronger together, we are stronger together, they are stronger together, we make these networks and these bonds all around us with all different coalition groups and I have learned, you know, so much from so many people about so many groups, sometimes I think my head is just swimming with information.
I even made an office in my little home, I painted it purple and I thought -- I save everything, so, you know, I have all this stuff from this conference I was so excited to be invited and I tell that to everybody wherever I go. So -- you know, we talk a lot. Women like to talk a lot.
(laughter). So it's really good. But I also like to listen a lot. When I go to these workshops and I listen to all of you and listen to Kathy and I thought you see people and you think you don't think about it that much and you hear their personal story and you look at them in a whole new light and then -- then that is when we start to build more and more bridges with each other. Is because we see that there is a real need, and that we're all just people, we all have emotions we all have needs and yesterday it was brought out in our class that a lot of people don't realize and this is kind of funny but true, disabled people have little needs like just finding a place to go PE: I thought that is so true people don't think about that.
You know, I am really happy we have the ADA where they have to fix things but you still go to a lot of places that are not friendly to disabilities, there is lots, we need to change that a lot more. And, let's see. What else? I also wanted to tell you a little bit about our home care commission, that we developed, the way this works in Oregon is we didn't have an employer reference so we had to develop an employer record so we developed the thing called the home care commission it is a nine person government -- governor appointed board five of the members on it are consumers of the services, and so it is more like a consumer driven board. And the other four are represent -- represent senior disabled services and the triple A's and the other agencies. So there is no -- there is no big control thing there.
And then we bargained with them on the other side and they are still new at this, so they are trying to learn how much power they have, and we are trying to learn what we can do, and it has never been done before, it has never been pioneered because we did it through a constitutional change in the Oregon constitution, they have to do it. They can't not do it. They have to bargain with us. They have to honor the home care commission's power.
And so they had to do it. So we watched them over 17 months of bargaining like I said change from being like stone walls and not wanting to be there at all, to seeing us as people, to seeing our needs, to seeing what we are saying that we are not there to cause trouble but to partnership with them to make things better for everyone and knowing when the governor signed our thing, we all had pictures he spent 45 minutes with our group, just telling us how proud he was of us all, and that it was the right thing to do and we wanted to make a model of this nationwide. We want, I want this to be a national thing. I really am serious. I know that Massachusetts is also trying to do that. And New Jersey,.
QUESTION: I'll be calling you.
SPEAKER: Yes I was thinking about you yesterday.
QUESTION: I'll be calling you.
SPEAKER: Like I said, California hasn't done it throughout the whole state yet. Washington state is also doing it but theirs is contingent on legislative approval which I don't like that idea tb you work hard and get it through and they still say we don't have the money everybody is going to say they don't have the money we don't have that on ours. They had to just do it. So we have it, and we passed it out to 13 thousand home care workers this last month and so it's just a brand new thing and our health insurance won't start till April because we had to push it up because of the money. Workmen's Comp really balked they didn't want -- BALKED we couldn't get insurance without it, they kept saying this group is going to misuse it, they are scattered in their home, how will they monitor it, and finally they did it.
People were saying it can't be done I thought if the union believes in this this much if people believe nu this much it can be done and theirs -- there is times when it gets discouraging because you think like our Bush administration, how can, if he is such a Godly man, then why -- why doesn't he care more about people and people's needs and why is he giving all our money away, why does he do it the way he does?
You know it makes you want to march up there and you know that is what you wanted two years ago, when they had the political organizing thing, they called it, about 1200 SEIU members to Capitol Hill, I was one of them, I thought there is 1200 of us here in purple shirts and we are scattering all over to give our message and they called us the purple machine, and I thought I'm part of this big purple machine, you know. And I thought it was just a little isolated home care worker, just one person and I can do all these things NOW, so can you. And I look around, I see all you guys and I think we can all do this. And I am really jazzed about it. When you give people a working wage and a self -- self-esteem and build them up and send them out and educate them you don't know what is going to come back around and organizing here with the NOW women and with the disabled women, and the, like people like me, who I am on -- I am disabled, I don't consider myself disabled my biggest disability right now is going through chemotherapy and having treatment, my feet are numb all the time but I know I'm going to get over that and I am never considered being born with one hand a disability to me.
When I was little I used to go to SHRINERS hospital in Portland I didn't want to be there, I would go around helping all the other children, the ones who couldn't walk and things, I can remember being a small child and going around, and having friends all over, running around, and me going I don't know why I'm here, and helping all the other people, all the other kids and then later when I was a teenager I worked at a home for mentally challenged children and I fit right in there.
You know, I thought I always have been a caregiver type person I always cared about people and always thought, God, I hope something is really good for me, I was fortunate enough to go to college I worked at the state, attorney's general's office the employment office I could have stayed with that, but at that time, I had kind of still low self-esteem in some ways and I really married an abusive person, who I was really determined to get away from that relationship, he was horrible, just horrible, and I was getting desperate so I prayed for a way to get out of it he got on the meth amphetamine stuff I was so scared for my children and I took them and met my NOW husband Tom who is paralyzed he needed a care provider and I needed a place to take my kids bad, so I took them and went to his house in CIO and stayed, and I have been there 17 years and I never look back.
And so I became -- that is how I came to be a care provider I could have been out in the business world, I could have made more money, but when I found the need he had, and I got in this catch 22 things, he needs me at home, and all the -- the thing that it takes to run the household, and get all his medications and his things that he needs, and taking care of him, it was a full-time job, so I started doing that. But yet, as my children grew and I got older I wanted to give more back to society.
After I had breast cancer six years ago, and I fought my way through the charity care system there and got my bills down, I said, I want to give back, I don't want to be a taker always. I don't want to just isolate and enjoy this. I want to give back. So I was given this. And here I am. So I think that is -- oh, yeah, I wanted to tell you we also got one pay day off a year. When we were telling them that, too, to the governor, he is like one day, and we were like yeah, we get one day, he goes you sure it's not one week, and we go no, it is one day.
(laughter). But that was a foot in the door and we didn't ever have anything before, and NOW we do. And we need to have it nationwide. People with disabilities should have every state should have an opportunity to have a personal assistant for whatever hours they need to make their lives manageable so they could stay home in their own homes and manage. It should be. And it is going to be. I have a vision it is going to be and I know it will happen, some people would tell me no but I don't believe it.
I am not going to take no for an answer, I would persevere I would sit at the office at the capital all day, for a week if I had to or all day, we can take care of this. And does anyone have any questions at this point because we have extra time up here so I was longer than I planned on? I don't know how this works in Oregon, of course. Also my eyes I never wore glasses all my life, and since this last year since the cancer treatment, I've -- my eyes have changed on me, so -- yes.
QUESTION: Do you think that the union will be able to do anything about the care hours that were given to people because of budget constraints?
SPEAKER: We have in a lot of cases done that, that is yes, that is another thing we are able to do is show people how to WEAVE through fighting for the grievances procedure type thing and filling out the paperwork and fighting for, getting their level changed through their doctors and through the government.
We have, a lot of people were cut, and then we would get them re -- what do you call that union, re assessed so they would be able to come back into the system. And there is still a lot out there, those cuts made us so mad. We had a lot of cuts in the last session, and then in this session, they finally did the right thing, and they added on some, a little bit of new tax that was going to go, not even cost very much, and they adjourned and went home, and NOW already people are out there gathering petitions to try to put it on the ballot in February for a specially lek shun to stop that from happening.
In Oregon last year we cutout almost a month of our school year and they cut off lots of scene services to seniors and disabled and we held several rallies on the capital. One day in Oregon it rains a lot in the spring we had a rally it was pouring, there was hundreds and hundreds, bus loads of elderly people, people in their wheelchairs and they were just dren -ched out there, and it was, I thought look at them, there is hundreds of people out here risking their lives in the cold and everything because they are so scared and so worried and so lost, and, you know, they were -- they were bringing people from nursing homes they even told people this, I am not kidding they would take these people and put them in a motel for a couple months and if nobody claimed them, they were just going to put them out on the street and we said put them under the bridge?
You know, they said they were just going to put them out, because they made a little too much money on their thing they weren't going to qualify for the services to stay in the nursing home and they didn't have any homes to go to, some of them didn't have any family to take them in at all, no alternatives you can't believe we live in a society where they are going to take people out of their nursing home beds and put them on the street this is so wrong. And yet we had 87 billion dollars to send over to Iraq and other places. The rest of the world needs money, too.
It's just, it is mind boggling to me that that happens. I don't know a lot about politics I used to not want to know anything about it. But because of being a member of the union and seeing this is where our power lies, we have a vote, each of us have a vote to voice it, and there is a lot of us, more than them, why can't we band together, more of us with our votes and outcast them, and that is where it is going to have to lie, because, you know, if we have anybody but Bush, with this thing coming up, we need to somehow consolidate and put ourselves all in the same, you know, page so that our power will be stronger together. Cuz each one of our movements alone is not going to do it.
And we have so many similarities. We have so many similarities interfacing, I was in her class and she did this thing on interfacing and I was so fascinated because that fascinates me, we are all interfaced together, our disabilities, our abilities, our strengths our weaknesses, our goals, you know, how we feel about people, these are people programs. And I -- I always say I I know what God cares about, people, that is what it is about, you can't take your money to heaven, things like that. You can only take people with you.
And I think that is where we all have, we are all, we all have a heart, we all have soles, we all have a brain, we have feelings, needs. And we have cares and we have -- we need to have tolerance of each other I am not into judging anyone, I am saying anyone who judges other people are really judging theirselves, just pour it on yourself because we have no right to, we should love each other, be tolerant of each other, listen to each other, and have room to disagree, we can agree to disagree if nothing else, you know, we don't have to have -- okay. All right. (applause).
SPEAKER: Thank you, KMAR and Joanne and Kathy, we have a set of workshops supposed to be starting in about two minutes. Health care access is going to be in the Potomac room. Reproductive freedom is in the congressional room. Women in hidden disabilities is in the sus quau has not ah room and women in business is in the judiciary suite the only one where it was supposed to be initially.
I'll repeat it. Health care access in Potomac, reproductive freedom in congressional, women and hidden disabilities in SUSQUEHANNA and women in business in judiciary suites. Lunch will be 12:15 when we have a plenary on healthcare. Enjoy yourselves.
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