Many of you may recall various messages I have posted about Joyce Bender and
Bender Consulting Services. Last week I placed a notice about Joyce Bender,
the founder, being honored by President Clinton, winning the President's
Award. What follows is a press release with remarks from President Clinton.
The beginning of the press release talks about Kosovo, but if you want to do
a search for the key words BEGIN OF JOYCE, this will take you to the
beginning of the disability-related talk.
>________________________________________________________________________
>For Immediate Release June 4, 1999
>
>
> REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
> AT DISABILITY EMPLOYMENT AWARDS CEREMONY
>
> The East Room
>
>3:05 P.M. EDT
>
>
> THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much, Jill. Secretary Hermann;
>Chairman Coehlo; Mr. Dart; to Janice LaChance, head of our Office of
>Personnel Management; ladies and gentlemen. I have looked forward to
>this day, and I am delighted to see you all here. I'll have more to
>say about the others who are up here with me in a moment.
>
> This is my only opportunity to appear before the press today, so I
>hope you will also indulge me if I say a few words about the recent
>developments in Kosovo. For 72 days now we have been engaged with our
>allies in a difficult but just and necessary military campaign, with
>three simple goals: the return of over 800,000 innocent Kosovar
>refugees to their homes, with safety and self-government; the
>withdrawal of Serb forces; and the deployment of an international
>security force, with NATO at its core, to protect all the people
>of that shattered land.
>
> Yesterday, the Serbian authorities indicated they would accept those
>conditions. Russian Special Envoy Chernomyrdin and Finnish President
>Ahtisaari played instrumental and courageous roles in making this
>possible. I am grateful to them, and so should all Americans be.
>
> Tomorrow, military officials from NATO and Serbia will meet to work
>out the details of the withdrawal of Serbian forces from Kosovo. This
>is the next necessary step for implementation of our conditions. I'm
>pleased that it will take place, and I hope the talks will proceed
>professionally and expeditiously.
>
> As I said yesterday, our diplomatic and military efforts will continue
>until we see Serb forces begin to withdraw in a full-scale manner. Our
>experience in the Balkans teaches us that true peace can only come when
>progress in discussions is followed by progress on the ground.
>
> At the same time, there is an enormous opportunity to be seized here,
>a chance to shift our focus from defeating something evil to building
>something good; a chance to work with our allies to bring a stable and
>prosperous and democratic southeastern Europe, in which people are
>never again singled out for destruction simply because of their
>religious faith, or their ethnic origin. This is a goal that has been
>worth fighting for over the last weeks, a goal which must be uppermost
>in our minds as we make sure our conditions are met; a goal we must
>work for with steadfast determination in the months and in the
>years to come.
>
> And I believe that the overwhelming majority of Americans
>share this goal. We do not want our children to grow up in a
>world which is dominated by people who believe they can kill
>innocent civilians because of the way they worship God, or the
>way they were born.
>
><BEGIN OF JOYCE>
>
> Fifty years ago, Harry Truman, the very first President to
>present the awards that we present today, set a goal for our
>nation. I'd like to repeat it: to give every American with a
>disability the chance to play their full part in strengthening
>our nation and sharing the greatest satisfaction of American
>life, to be independent and self-supporting.
>
> Today, we gather to honor three Americans whose efforts to
>bring more and more people with disabilities into the world of
>work have moved us closer to that great and just goal. Since the
>founding of our nation, work has been at the heart of the
>American Dream. Because millions of Americans have had the
>opportunity to work and to build better lives for themselves and
>their families, our nation is enjoying historic strength and
>prosperity. Through work, we reinforce the values that hold us
>together as a society -- the values of responsibility,
>perseverance, striving for the future.
>
> And in so many ways, we define ourselves as Americans not
>only by our families and our hometowns, but by our work. Often,
>the first question Americans ask each other is not, who are your
>parents, or, where do you live -- but, what do you do. Today,
>still, there are too many Americans with disabilities who've
>never had the chance to answer that question. Even as we
>celebrate more than 18 million new jobs and a nationwide
>unemployment rate of 4.2 percent, the lowest in a generation, as
>the Secretary has said, 75 percent of Americans with disabilities
>remain unemployed. And of that number, 72 percent, almost
>three-quarters, say they want to go to work.
>
> This is not just a missed opportunity for Americans with
>disabilities. It's a missed opportunity for America. This is an
>era now of labor shortages, where companies go begging for
>employees they need to stay competitive in the global economy.
>And we simply cannot afford to ignore the potential of millions
>of potential workers simply because they have a disability.
>
> One of the things I have spent a great deal of time on in
>the last year, particularly, is trying to work with my economic
>advisors on issues that only peripherally involve the disability
>community, but that you are a central part of resolving. And it
>is this: how can we continue to grow this economy and lift the
>standards of living of our people until we embrace everybody who
>has not participated in the recovery; keep the recovery going,
>which is already the longest peacetime recovery in history, and
>not have an explosion of inflation.
>
> There are -- if you think about it, there are only, I would
>argue to you, three possible answers to that. You either have to
>get more workers who are unemployed, generally, in the society,
>into the work force so that they not only are helping themselves,
>but helping the rest of us by becoming consumers and taxpayers
>and growing the economy; you have to go to those discreet areas
>where whole areas have been left out of our economic growth; or
>you have to find more customers for America's goods and services
>around the world.
>
> Therefore, I have continued to push the idea of the
>expansion of trade on fair and just terms. I have promoted the
>empowerment zones that the Vice President has so ably led our
>efforts in for the last six and a half years, and this New
>Markets Initiative, to reach into the rural areas, the urban
>communities, the Native American reservations where there has
>been almost no economic growth. We have cut the welfare rolls
>almost in half, trying to move able-bodied people from welfare to
>work.
>
> The last big chunk of people in this country who could keep
>the economy going for all of us, with low inflation, are the
>Americans with disabilities -- who want to work, who can work,
>and who are not in the work force. Every American citizen should
>have a selfish interest in the pursuit of this goal in the most
>aggressive possible way. (Applause.)
>
> As everybody here knows -- and Secretary Hermann already
>mentioned it -- one of the very largest obstacles to employment
>for Americans with disabilities is the fear that they'll lose
>their health insurance once they take a job -- that which is
>provided by the federal government. Not so very long ago, I went
>in February to New Hampshire and had a roundtable about this,
>where people were explicitly discussing this in graphic terms,
>giving -- through the press to the American people --
>dollars-and-cents reports on what the consequences of this would
>be.
>
> Under current law, many people with disabilities simply
>can't work and keep Medicare or Medicaid. For many Americans,
>medical bills literally cost thousands of dollars beyond what is
>typically covered by an employer's private insurance. For many
>Americans, their medical bills would be greater than their entire
>salary.
>
> Therefore, we keep a lot of people out of the work force.
>But we don't save the federal government any money, because
>they're spending the money anyway, on the health care. So we
>deny opportunities to millions; we prevent the American economy
>from reaching its full potential; we don't save the Federal
>Treasury one red cent, because the health care money is being
>spent anyway.
>
> Today, as a country, it is time to say that no American
>should have to choose between going to work and paying the
>medical bills. Last summer, and in the State of the Union, I
>asked Congress to free our fellow Americans from this unfair
>burden. The Work Incentive Improvement Act, sponsored by
>Senators Jeffords and Kennedy, Senators Roth and Moynihan, and a
>wide group of sponsors in both houses, from both parties, will do
>just that. There are, at last count, over 70 members of the
>Senate who have signed on to the bill.
>
> There has been a lot of commentary lately about how hard it
>is to get legislation through the Congress, with the partisan
>divide. Well, there are a lot of issues on which Republicans and
>Democrats have honest disagreements. Thank goodness this is not
>one of them. (Applause.)
>
> Because it is not one of them, because we already have over
>70 people who say they will vote for this if they can just get a
>chance to vote for it on the floor of the Senate, I am confident
>that we can work together to pass the work incentives bill by
>July the 26th of this year, the 9th anniversary of the Americans
>with Disabilities Act. (Applause.)
>
> We can celebrate that great, historic, bipartisan landmark
>by opening the doors of opportunity for millions of people even
>wider -- enabling more Americans with disabilities to join the
>proud ranks of working citizens.
>
> There is more, I would argue, that we should do. In my
>balanced budget presented to the Congress, I proposed a $1,000
>tax credit to help people with disabilities afford special
>transportation technology, which you've already heard about, or
>personal assistance needed to make the transition to work. And
>we must double our efforts to make assistive technology, such as
>voice recognition software, mobile telephones, braille
>translators, more widely available. So I ask Congress to move
>forward with both of these proposals in my budget.
>
> And today I am taking immediate action to give more
>Americans with disabilities the opportunity to become part of the
>largest work force in America. On Monday, the First Lady, the
>Vice President and Mrs. Gore and I will be hosting a White House
>conference on mental health -- an area that has been a special
>concern, as I'm sure many of you know, to Mrs. Gore for many
>years. One of our goals is to help more Americans understand
>that mental illness is not a character flaw. It is a disability.
>
> That is why today I am using my executive authority as
>President to strip away outdated barriers that keep people with
>psychiatric disabilities from serving America in our federal
>government, directing all federal agencies to provide applicants
>with mental illnesses the same opportunities as other applicants
>with disabilities to work for the United States of America.
>(Applause.)
>
> As you know, and as we see here today, not only the
>government, but individual citizens can take action and make an
>enormous difference. The three citizens we honor today are proof
>of the difference one person can make, and I am proud to present
>these awards to each of them.
>
> First, to Joyce Bender. Fifteen years ago, as Joyce lay in
>a hospital trauma unit, recovering from a near-fatal cerebral
>hemorrhage, she made a vow to give something back to the patients
>who were not so lucky. Through Bender Consulting Services, she's
>used her own expertise as a professional headhunter to place
>people with disabilities in high-wage, high-tech jobs.
>
> She knows the demand for high-skill workers will only
>continue to grow, and she is determined to make sure people with
>disabilities will be ready to meet it. She's founded a new
>program to train even more people with disabilities in the
>high-tech skills that are the ticket to the world of the 21st
>century.
>
> It's an honor to present this award to Joyce Bender. Joyce.
>(Applause.)
>
>(The award was presented.)
>
> Next, to James Click, Jr. Over more than 30 years as a car
>dealer in California and Arizona, Jim Click has become an
>undisputed leader in his field. But he's also unrivalled in his
>commitment to extending opportunity to people with disabilities.
>
> A few years ago, he discovered he could encourage more
>businesses to follow his lead by making it easier for them to
>find workers with the right skills. So he founded Linkages,
>which brings Tucson businesses and rehabilitation programs
>together to match qualified workers with disabilities to jobs in
>the private sector.
>
> In a little over a year, more than 170 people have found
>work through Linkages. It's an honor to present this award to
>Jim Click, and hope others will follow his lead in every
>community in the country. (Applause.)
>
>(The award was presented.)
>
> Finally, to Laura Hershey. Laura has said, "Disability is
>not a tragedy. It is powerful."
>
> By speaking her mind, and using her gifts as a writer to
>point out the shortcomings and the possibilities of our society,
>Laura has found the power to make the world a better place for
>people with disabilities. As head of a variety of disability
>organizations, and as a private citizen, she has fought to reform
>our Social Security, housing and transportation systems to better
>serve Americans living with disabilities.
>
> Economic freedom and self-sufficiency for Americans with
>disabilities is her goal. I am confident she will not rest until
>she achieves it. And I am proud to present this third and final
>award to Laura Hershey. (Applause.)
>
>(The award was presented.)
>
> So there you have them: a high-tech headhunter from
>Pittsburgh, a car dealer from Tucson, an activist from Denver.
>Now, if you didn't see them you might think, just by those
>descriptions, that these people have little in common. But they
>are bound together by their remarkable passion for empowering
>Americans with disabilities and helping all Americans to live
>closer to the ideal of equal opportunity for all. Each is,
>therefore, a true patriot.
>
> President Truman once said, "We love our country ... because
>it offers us the chance to lead useful lives and to do what we
>can for those around us."
>
> I thank each of you for reminding us that, really, those two
>things are two sides of the same coin. We cannot truly lead
>useful lives unless we also do what we can for those around us.
>This is a good day for America.
>
> Thank you. God bless you. (Applause.)
>
> END 3:20 P.M. EDT
>
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