Hillary Clinton in Orlando, liveblog #2

Continuing with talking about the disabled. She’s speaking inclusively on disabilities: “not that long ago, if you had a disability—if you couldn’t see, couldn’t walk, lived with dyslexia or muscular dystrophy or some other health issue—that one fact defined your entire life.” That used to close people off, but doesn’t any more. That provides the segue to her work with the Children’s Defense Fund—her first job—to get disabled children into public school.

Goes back to her mother’s sad childhood story, how the woman she started working for as a maid and nanny at 14 insisted she finished high school and provided the example of a loving family. “The core lesson from her childhood was that none of us gets through life alone. We all have to look out for each other and lift each other up.”

“My colleagues and I at the Children’s Defense Fund gathered the facts. We built a coalition of activists and families across America. And together, we helped convince Congress to pass a ground-breaking law saying that children with disabilities have the right to be educated in public schools, just like any other kids.” And then they got the Americans with Disabilities Act passed, and it was bipartisan.

“As Secretary of State, I appointed the first ever Special Advisor for International Disability Rights, because I wanted America to stand up for the rights and dignity of people with disabilities all over the world.”

Brings up Ryan Moore, who also spoke at the Democratic National Convention, who was born with dwarfism, and who she’s worked with for years. “Now he’s a college graduate, working in the technology department of his local school district.”

“Listening to Ryan and Anastasia tell their storiesat the convention this July, I thought about all the people out there who never got the chance to go to college, get jobs, become forces for change.”

Quotes the “unbelievably good-looking” Christopher Reeves, who was paralyzed in an accident. “Since my accident I’ve found a definition that seems to make sense. I think it means that we’re all family. And that we all have value.” 
 

Says we’ve come a long way since she started on this, but “we cannot be satisfied – not when over 60 percent of adults with disabilities aren’t in the workforce. Not when businesses are allowed to pay employees with disabilities a subminimum wage.”

She will eliminate the sub-minimum wage…. good work requires good pay no matter who you are. Says we must raise standards for education, as well, to make sure all kids have access and opportunity. 

Also promises to work with private industry to help get disabled people into the workforce. Highlights a new effort—“Autism Works,” to help people with autism succeed in the workplace.”

Also says she will fight for ratification of United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. (You might remember Bob Dole showing up on the Senate floor a few years ago, trying to get his colleagues to ratify this, and the Ted Cruz wing of the Senate refusing do so, because of black helicopters or whatever other UN conspiracy theory they ascribe to.)

“Together, we will make our economy and our country more welcoming to people with disabilities. Because we all win when everyone gets to share in our nation’s promise.”

She has another example, Freia David. “Freia has Down Syndrome. When she was 21, she got her first job, at the local McDonalds.” She worked there for 32 years, and had to retire when she started getting dementia. Talks about the going-away party the restaurant had for her, with more than 100 guests and her boss’s words: “We love you, we appreciate you, we respect you, and we’re all better people for having you in our lives.”

“After years of hard work and treating people right, isn’t that what we all want to hear? Isn’t that America at our best?… We don’t thrive on tearing each other apart, or separating ourselves. We know that we’re stronger together. We believe in equality and dignity for all. And when we fall short, we strive to do better, to be better… to come closer to becoming that more perfect union.”

And she closes with her great tag line: “Love trumps hate.”