Women's Enterprise Network Live Show Transcription 20081011

8/9/2019 Women's Enterprise Network Live Show Transcription 20081011

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Copyright 2010 Betsey Merkel http://www.betseymerkel.extendr.com/ and I-Open http://i-open.org/. Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution-Noncommercial-NoDerivative Works. Institute for Open Economic Networks (I-Open) 4415 EuclidAve 3rd Fl Cleveland, Ohio 44103 USA

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Women's Enterprise Network October 11, 2008Cleveland Heights Library, Cleveland Heights, Ohio

2008 Presidential Campaign Issues: Growing the Economic Viabilityof Women"

Part 1: A Pre-Election Discussion

Links to broadcast:http://www.livestream.com/womansenterprisenetwork/video?clipId=flv _614fc221-f1d5-42de-bf92-29eded8869a4

http://www.livestream.com/womansenterprisenetwork/video?clipId=flv _39f94c5a-0b2d-4724-847f-5f6b19c02fa0

http://www.livestream.com/womansenterprisenetwork/video?clipId=flv _05f82a9c-62ff-4340-9dec-09c9008b92ba

Gloria Ferris: Hi, this is Gloria Ferris and I’m here today at theCleveland Heights Library on Lee Road with four members of theWomen’s Enterprise Network, and I’ll let them introduce themselvesas well as we have a guest to meet, Tim Ferris is going to be

speaking with us and in fact he is our token male, we have flipped theparadigm and instead of the one woman in the room, we are going to




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have a one man in the room. Our subject today is, if you were in aroom with Senator Obama and Senator McCain, what issues wouldyou want to discuss with them that we should all be thinking about?So, without further adieu, I’m going to turn it over to Susan Altshuler.She will introduce herself and tell us why she is here today.

Susan Altshuler: Hi, my name is Susan Altshuler and I’m a member of the Women’s Enterprise Network and of the I-Open team. Goodmorning. I think the subject today is very important because…thiselection, I think is very important, for women especially, because of health care issues, equal pay for equal women [work], equalopportunity for jobs, and also for the economy, because we are allaffected by the economy, and especially women because a lot of times because they make a lot less than their male counterparts, and

we, a lot of us have families to raise, and I think that the economy isgoing to be a huge issue going forward. And, I would like to askSenator Obama and Senator McCain, what they would do about theeconomy and how are they going to bring back jobs to this countryand how are women, especially single women, going to raise their children and be able to provide for them?

Gloria Ferris: Thanks, Susan. Mary Beth?

MaryBeth Matthews: Hi, I’m MaryBeth Matthews and I’m also amember of the Women’s Enterprise Network. I am a teacher and Iteach at the Cleveland Municipal School District. Why am I heretoday? Because, gee, I’m always here. But of course for the topic,that is very relevant. My focus is on jobs. I would like to hear morespecifics from the candidates and what they are doing to get jobs.

Gloria Ferris: Alice?

Alice Merkel: Hi, I’m Alice Merkel, a Chagrin Falls High School

student, I’m a Junior, and I’m also a part of the Women’s EnterpriseNetwork. And, I’m here for the conversation because even as a




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student, we constantly are dealing, talking about, gossiping if you will,about the Election and how it’s going to affect the downswhirlingeconomy. I want to hear them actually come out and say, you know,“We have messed up and we’re going to fix it one way or another.”

Tim Ferris: Hi, there, I’m Tim Ferris and I’m married to Gloria and I’vebeen a fan since the first day, since the first recording of theWomen’s Enterprise Network. And the reason I’m here today isbecause someday when women take over the world, not that theydon’t control it already, I want there to be somewhere a record that Iwas on the women’s side at the early stage. That’s why I’m heretoday. What I’d like to do, is just make sure everybody reads the Oct16 (2008) Rollin Stone that has a marvelous piece of journalism in itabout Senator Obama; a great piece of investigative journalism.

Gloria Ferris: Okay, well, I guess my reason for being here is that Iwas one of the ones who chose the topic. I believe that when we seethe candidates, you can tell that they are reacting to polls and to whatthey see as expediency to either turn down the another candidate or just throw out things, that, on healthcare, you know, “I’ll give a fivethousand dollar health care tax credit” that’s the ticket, and everybodywill want that because that will help them with their health care. But,we don’t hear a lot of substantiation, and I also think that Town Hallmeetings are a joke. They never listen to the people who come, the

people who come are allowed to ask a question, and then they givethis two minute answer that “…somebody rebuts it…”I disagree withyou”…”you didn’t vote that way in Congress”…

Tim Ferris: Wait, Gloria, for example, and pardon me for interrupting…

Gloria Ferris: Yes?

Tim Ferris: Are you saying this is pre-arranged, that people are pre-

selected, pre-screened?




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Gloria Ferris: Well, I don’t even think that’s the problem; the problemis there’s no dialogue. I haven’t heard any yet….MaryBeth: Nothing has changed…you know, when I happened tosubmit a question, that was one of the questions they wanted to dealwith, they need to let me read my own question, it could be tweaked alittle bit you know, it’s an insult, I think, to those of us who would reallylike to see, to see a dialogue interchange. But, if I can ask a question,but not ask for clarification, or may be not deviate from the thing that’swritten on that slip of paper, then what’s the use, it’s, it’s…

Susan Altshuler: I don’t think you can get out of the conversationwhat you’re really interested in hearing, and they don’t let them dothat and I don’t know if you could, because they have to be respectfulof each other when they are answering questions to give the other

time to answer it. I think one of the things in elections that are so badis that all they’re doing is putting each other down instead of talkingabout the real issues and the American people don’t care about, Ithink they really care about what’s happening to my money? What’shappening to my job? How am I going to help my children? How am Igoing to send my children to college? How am I going to pay mybills? How am I going to make my car payment? I think those are, youknow that is right to the heart of what I think most American peopleare thinking about right now. The economy is in a mess and this

should be our first priority – I mean health care is really important, butif you don’t get the economy on track people can’t afford to even getor even think about getting health care, or employers can’t provide it.You know, we’re no farther ahead. We need to get at the crux of theproblem which is the economy is in a horrible state and of course theadministration that is in power now, of course its all their fault and youknow its not always all their fault but it trickles down. We need toreally pay attention to it and get serious about it instead of slingingthat “You didn’t do this and you didn’t do that.” I wish elections wouldstop until we pass because we could get to the issues much better

and find out what they are really about.




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Gloria Ferris: Well, you know, I think what we are really saying here –I’m just kind of free associating – is that, instead of taking thisopportunity of “going on the stump” as they call it and going allaround the nation and actually engaging the people. They’re notengaging us; they’re not asking what we think. I think that when Ilived in Washington, DC and they used to talk about inside thebeltway versus the rest of the country, and its very very true – theylive un an unreal kind of situation, and, much like Hollywood, kind of an unreal situation, and they don’t really get out very often, and Idon’t really think they talk to people and even with Congress, Alicebrought up Congress and she’s saying Congress were the ones whoscrewed this up, you were both members of Congress, how did thathappen? And I think that even there, there’s not a dialogue. It’s whatSusan said, “I’m right and my way is best.” And I think that if they

really truly wanted to change things they would have to acknowledgethat both of them have some good ideas. They have differences inimplementation, but that’s not what its about.

MaryBeth Matthews: But, you know what, yes that is what it’s about.Implementation. Implementation, that’s what we need to hear. I don’tneed to hear somebody saying, “Yes we’re concerned, we need tobring jobs back.” Well, yes, we do. Now, tell me how you are going todo it? What’s your strategy? They seem to avoid all the specifics.

Yes, we need to revamp the health care system. Now, tell me how?Because therein lies the difference.

Tim Ferris: We’ve been in a dialogue relationship for a couple of years now and the one thing we know about true democracy andleadership is that when a leader asks, the people know the solutions,by the aggregate they know the perfect solution and we know thisfrom the “Wisdom of Crowds” by James Surowiecki. But, its worksand instead of these people out there telling us, we’re waiting for them to tell us the national answer they should be asking questions,

because the true leader understands the more he or she cedescontrol, the more power he or she has.




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Alice Merkel: But, shouldn’t a leader accept responsibility for whatthey’ve done wrong instead of saying you’ve done it, like Obama andMcCain are, its all his fault, his plan sucks, mine’s awesome, whydon’t they just accept responsibility – I messed up, we all messed up,I should have said something and this is how I’m going to change it.

MaryBeth Matthews: Where do we go from here and what are our next steps?

Gloria Ferris: Yes, exactly right, that is part of being a leader, youaccept. One of our friends was saying, accept all the blame, takenone of the credit. Because if you are a true leader, that’s what you’lldo. I mean you’ll say, “Yeah, we messed up, we deregulated the

banks, we listened to the bankers – you know, who knew that theywere thinking about all of us collectively that they were just thinkingabout one part of this. So say that, yeah, we made some missteps,we found some ways we can change this, this is how we’re going todo it. But they never tell us that.

Tim Ferris: McCain has been around since the 70’s [XXXX11:56] butthe fact of the matter is will he go ahead for atonement? Than Obamahas because he’s older and he’s been around. But does either one of

them say, “I was wrong. Mea culpa. My fault. My fault. I was wrong.”

Gloria Ferris: No, and I don’t think you need to take the world on your shoulders. You have to accept what Alice is saying, that, I was part of this.

Alice Merkel: And you know what, they’re so, they don’t say that,because they want to get ahead, they want to win. But, if they did saythat and that’s the part that would actually help them.

Susan Altshuler: I would think so. I would think people would respectthem more for doing that.




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MaryBeth Matthews: Well, absolutely respect. You always respect.I’m sorry but even, even in the lowest level in my classroom. 95% of my students are boys.

Gloria Ferris: I was going to say; here I would have thought that at avocational schoolMaryBeth Matthews: There is some kind of instant

Tim Ferris: You are also a bigot…

MaryBeth Matthews: Anyway, back to the fabulous thought I’vealmost lost track of…Some little incident will occur and, okay, for example, kids tap on the desk and it makes me crazy…-er. And so I’ll

say, “Jim, enough of the tapping.” They will look at me and say, “Whome? I didn’t do it. I didn’t do it.” The proper response is, “I’m sorry. Itwon’t happen again.” And then, I have respect for you because you’rehonest; you’ve apologized to me. But when you tell me you didn’t doit, the feeling becomes that I’m a crazy woman. Now, that I’m makingup a lie, that I’m seeing things and that I don’t know what’s going on.But, if you just man up and say, “Hey, sorry, it won’t happen again.”We talk about the past, we finish it, we talk about the future – thefuture will be rosy. Now if our politicians can say, “I’m sorry, it won’t

happen again. I’m sorry; we’re going to do our best to change thesituation/” Wouldn’t we just respect one another?

Tim Ferris: XXXX..He had an adolescent response.

Gloria Ferris: Basically, it’s in our culture now that one can’t acceptresponsibility. For some reason, to say, “I did something wrong, I’msorry.” It’s like…

Susan Altshuler: It’s a blame game. You know, it’s always the other

person and if they could stop doing that and really come out and sayYeah, this happened and this is wrong – all wrong – and how do we




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fix this? How do we work together to fix this? Who ever wins theyshould each be working with the other one to get it fixed and getsomething done and people get sick and tired of hearing same oldsame old because they say, “Well. The next administration comes upand it’s the same thing,” nothing happens.

Gloria Ferris: And that’s what I think a lot of people are deciding, Imean I’ve heard more people say they hope there will be change, butthey doubt it. They doubt that the whole culture cannot changeovernight, one person will not be able to do that because all of thesame other players will be there, so I think that a lot of people arerealizing that it really doesn’t matter – Democrat, Republican – itsgoing to be up to us, because we’re the ones who can say, “Hey, thisis a bad situation.” And we can move on.

Susan Altshuler: Don’t you think people need to stand up and startsaying, “No, you can’t do this. You work for us, you serve the people.Now how about dong that?” I really believe that. But, a lot of peopledon’t want to stand up. We’re always afraid to come out and say whatwe really feel because we think we’re going to get into trouble.

Gloria Ferris: Well, no. I think its because we see our meters, our supposed meters up there and just nit picking and, “You’re wrong”

and “No, you’re wrong.” And you get so used to that kind of blamegame that…

MaryBeth Matthews: I see it as a distraction from the reality of what’sreally going on. If one party can distract the other party, you’re goingto say “Hey, Obama --- ex-terrorist.” Its like, Wow… he must be aterrorist too…They are appealing to the lowest, most stupid factor inpeople as opposed to saying, “What does that have to do with theprice of gasoline?” You know, somebody could say to me - if I wasgoing for politics - “She taught murderers.” You know what? I did. I’ve

had students in my teaching career who have been murderers andrapists. They were in my classroom and I had an influence on them




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for forty minutes a day. More so than their parents did. And yet, theywent on to be criminals. Now that would be like taking that little toyand twisting it and using it to…well, I guess I hung around with them,you know, I was their mentor. I mentored murderers andcriminals…and yet, you don’t know my background and there couldbe some…and what happens is they use those things, those toys todistract, because it appeals to the interest of people, to distract themfrom what’s really important. You say you want to bring jobs back.How are you going to do it? Give me a plan.

Tim Ferris: You keep saying distract, distract, distract. Is this wholething a distraction to keep us all from knocking everyone out of power? XXX How long has this election been on TV? A year? A year and a half? That’s an awful long time. We went through the Primary. I

don’t even know if we should spend time talking about the Electiontoday because…

Gloria Ferris: No. We are talking about this because this is somethingthat needs to be fixed and its, a distraction, insulting the Americanpublic that we certainly could possibly know what’s best for us. Youknow, um, this whole idea of what are you going to do about thesethings? This needs to be out there and more people need to demandof leaders we’re not going to stand for this distraction.

MaryBeth Matthews: Why should we not talk about it? If we don’t talkabout it we’ll just hope it goes away. [Discussion]

19:55 Tim Ferris: Let’s talk about something else instead of them andtheir Election, their XX Election, why aren’t we talking about XX,we’ve already said no matter which party gets in …

MaryBeth Matthews: I’ve never said it doesn’t matter which party getsin. [Discussion between Gloria, Tim and MaryBeth]




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Susan Altshuler: I think that one of the things is that people alwayshave hope that it is going to change. And if we loose that hope then Ithink we’d really be in trouble. I think we need that hope thatsomebody will come in and surprise us.

Tim Ferris: Should we look to them or should we look to ourselves?

Gloria Ferris: No, we have to look to ourselves.

Susan Altshuler: We have to look to ourselves.

Alice Merkel: They always have this shield of what their name is, whothey are associated with, what their positions, their very vaguepositions on healthcare but they never focus – it’s so vague. The

public is so used to just saying, “You know, I like McCain” – you askthem why and they say, “I like the health thing, the healthcare plan.”You say, “Well, what are the details?” and they say, “I don’t care.”We’re so used to saying, “This is their picture, which one do youwant?” And we just pick one because it looks better to us. We don’treally look deep into what their affect is going to be.

Tim Ferris: If it came out to be XX elected on substance today, we’dhave to vote for Alice! She’s delivered more on substance this

morning than what we’ve seen on…

MaryBeth Matthews: That’s why she is in our group.

Susan Altshuler: She brings that perspective from a young personand that is really important.

Gloria Ferris: But, that is something really true. And I do think thatyoung people cut through the bull shit a lot more than…

Alice Merkel: Because we haven’t been through so much of it yet.




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Gloria Ferris: Yes.

Tim Ferris: You have nothing to loose either.

Susan Altshuler: So, how do we, as citizens try to change thedynamics of what goes on? How can we be a part of something, andeffective?MaryBeth Matthews: Okay, I was thinking about this before when XXwas talking. [Discussion…laughter] One of the things, I think we, whoare not politicians, you know the every woman and every man needsto take responsibility for…and this is what sparked the thought whenyou said that “They’re not asking questions, they’re not giving aresponse…” and actually, yes they are. How many letters have youwritten to the people who are our civic leaders? They do throw

questions out there and they do watch a response…How have eachof us communicated what our thoughts were? I mean, you know, wesay it all the time, “You know, nobody asked me.” Yeah, well, haveyou written a letter? Have you made a phone call? What have youdone? And, I see Susan, you shaking your head yes, but I mean for the general person who’d rather sit and complain how no one’sasking me, well sometimes – and I tell this to my Father when hesays,” You haven’t called me…” I say, “Dad, the phone works bothways.” You know, if you haven’t talked to me, it’s because you

haven’t called me. If they’re not hearing my point, maybe it’s becauseI haven’t made the effort to tell a civic leader or the people who canmake those decisions, what my point is.

Gloria Ferris: I think that’s a good place to stop for our break andwhen we come back I think we ought to talk about that a little bit morebecause I think that technology makes what MaryBeth is talkingabout much easier to do. You are watching Women’s EnterpriseNetwork TV Show available on Mogulus and You Tube and we mustthank our videographer Betsey Merkel who does such a good job of

getting that up and out and the Cleveland Heights Library is where weare meeting today. They graciously let us do this once a month and




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we are hoping that next month we are back in Judson Park for our follow up question, which will be, “This, Mr. President, is what wewant you to focus on.” So, we’ll take a break and we’ll be back.

[BREAK]

Gloria Ferris: Hi, and welcome back to the Women’s EnterpriseNetwork Live television show. We are broadcasting here from theCleveland Heights Library on Lee Road (Cleveland, Ohio USA).Before we took our break, MaryBeth was asking the question, “Dowe actually engage our leaders at the Federal level, and what do wedo about that?” And before I turn it over to what everybody thinks, Iwanted to mention two things: there is a new book out called,“Reinvigorating Democracy” by Anthony Williams and his partner who

published “Wikinomics.” It’s a very, very good read of how democracycan really become robust and people can engage because with theWeb 2.0 tools, it’s much easier – for instance, here we are on anInternet TV show letting the world know basically, what our views areabout for the Presidential election and how we’re a little perturbedthat it is at such a low level, that there are a lot of us out there whowould really like to hear about the issues. I think all of us in this littleconversation have different ways we engage our leaders and I thinkwe should talk about it and let’s start with Alice and ask her how she

thinks we should go about doing that.

Alice Merkel: I think that most of the American public does notengage with their leaders, but the people who do go to townmeetings, like I went to one town meeting for extra credit for historyand there were like, two people there. And, um, okay fine, three. Butthe thing is, the people who do ask questions, they weren’t reallyanswered. Like I know, in the second debate with Obama andMcCain when they are asking the panel of people, they would justgive the same things, they said before. They didn’t, I know that one

guy was saying that – I didn’t see this part because my teacher toldus but he said, “I am a young black student what can you do for me?”




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And they never answered it, they circled around it and I think that thepoliticians just give vague, general answers and they don’t reallycenter on the questions because they’re so preoccupied with results.

Tim Ferris: The answer essentially is it’s up to you.

Gloria Ferris: Really?

Tim Ferris: They can’t do anything for the young black students, its upto him; they can’t do anything for the young white students, its up tohim. As a matter of fact, I think of this as a paring process we’reactually hiring people to run our great big beautifulcountry…city…and we’re hired help. What we’re doing is we’re actinglike help, or are they acting like people to us? No, they’re acting like

they run the estate. We own the estate, you’re hired help. They’ve gotit all in context.

MaryBeth Matthews: One of the things I wish…I saw the young mansit down and I saw the conversation kind of circle around his questionand I wished he could of spoke and said, “Hey, bring it back to me.What can you do for me about my student loans? What can you dofor me to ensure that when I graduate I can get a job?” Because theyare afraid to say anything more and if they do hear a little bit more of

a plan, it’s such a national forum they’re afraid if they throw their planout there it will get picked apart.

Susan Altshuler: Or, they’ll be negative about it. How could they evenknow what to do, really? Unless they really, when they get into officethey start working. I mean, be honest. Say, well I know the country’sin a mess and I know that there are a lot of things wrong, you know, Idon’t have anything specific right now but I know I’ll say we havethese problems and we’re going to work on it, we’re going to try to getyou to be able to go to College and pay your student loans. Because

they don’t really know how they are going to do that. Because…




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MaryBeth Matthews: And why not, it’s their job to know. They keepsaying, “We’re going to work on it.” Who are you going to get to workon it? What are the people you are tapping into? Those are thequestions I want to hear.

Susan Altshuler: You’re right. I think, “Who they are surroundingthemselves with…?”

Gloria Ferris: I think that is very important. It’s like, all we really know;all we really hear about are their campaign advisors. Which is only asmall bit part. Who are you going to go to? How are you going tochange education, so that it leaps into the 21st century?

MaryBeth Matthews: Don’t just tell me you’re going to change it. Or,

that we want to bring education back that will be “applicable, will berelevant to the 21st Century…well to young Americans that soundsgood. I want, what’s the next step, how are you, and the…

Tim Ferris: You guys are making a critical point. Change doesn’tcome from the top down. Change comes from the bottom up. Theanswer is, the right answer is, that I’m not going to do everything.

MaryBeth Matthews: And, how are you going to help me do it?

Gloria Ferris: Tell us what you need and how it’s going to look. Heshould have asked that Black man, the young man, the answer to himwas another question. How do you want me to help you? What doyou need?

Susan Altshuler: What do you suggest? What do you need? What isyour idea?

Alice Merkel: You imply ignorance on your part; that you don’t really

know how to fix it. I think that when we elect our politicians we’re so




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used to them giving us a big huge answer that never really answersthe question.

Gloria Ferris: Well, Alice, part of that is because we’ve been told youdon’t have the answers we have the answers. We’ve got to take backour country. I mean town hall meetings, part of the reason nobodycomes to those any more is because exactly what you said, they’requestions were really not answered. And the reason is, we’ve gotteninto this attitude that the answers lie out here somewhere and theydon’t. They are within each and every one of us and when we talkand we exchange ideas, as we talk about problems then we come tothe realization that somebody in that crowd is going to say, “Oh, I’vebeen there. I know this part of it and then somebody else sayssomething, then you start really drilling down into what the problem is

and how it is. I always think that’s what MaryBeth means when shesays, “I’m insulted.” We have to be insulted that they think there issome silver bullet for health care. It didn’t happen overnight. Therewhere a whole little things that happened. Independent of each other and then it became rolled together and then it became this huge…well, what is that old thing about “How do you eat an elephant?One bite at a time.” Well, that’s how you get rid of those things. Thosehuge, huge problems.

MaryBeth Matthews: One thing you just said Gloria, that I think hithome because I say it all the time, but I would like to hear…What doyou need? Unless they understand what we need, unless we canarticulate clearly what we need then nothing’s going to get done.We’re asking them to help us, they’re saying “Okay” and then wedon’t get helped and we’re frustrated, why? But we need to articulateour needs. And they need to ask and they need to listen. And if I wereto hear more candidates asking that question specifically and then tosay, “Okay, you told us you need a new health care plan…okay, andkeep asking those next questions. Because when you stop at the

beginning of the conversation, you don’t get all of the information andthat is what our political process is doing right now. You start the




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conversation and then you cut it off, and everybody walks awayfrustrated.

Susan Altshuler: In our own small way, when we have these kinds of meetings – these networks that we’re building – we always askpeople, “What do you need?” …”What do you see you need for thefuture?” …”How can we work together to make it happen?” …And Ithink that is more of what the politicians should be looking at, “Whatare the people saying?” …Because we live it everyday, and we cancome with good questions and answers, there is not a silver bullet,but we could help them to help themselves better to be able to do thekinds of things they need to do for the people by asking, “What doyou need and how do you see it happening?”

MaryBeth Matthews: This happens repeatedly. I find that in my owncareer, I’ll walk around my own students and I’ll ask them, ‘what doyou need?” and it might be as simple as a pencil or it might besomething like, I need you to explain this to me, I need you to showme this, or I’m just not getting that. My question is always, “What doyou need to master whatever we’re doing?”

Tim Ferris: Are you okay?

MaryBeth Matthews: No, don’t ask if you are okay, because the firstresponse is ‘Yes.’ Now, what do you need and what can I do for you?What can I do for you? And if the answer is, “Nothing” and I amlooking and I see that they are doing something, then I’ll say, “Whatabout this?” or if they say, “I don’t need you to help me.” I will say,“But, you are sitting there without a pencil, let me go and get a pencilfor you. You don’t even know what you need, but I know what youneed right now. Unless you continuously ask those questions, nobodygets anywhere.

Gloria Ferris: I think sometimes the question is, how? How can I helpyou to get to where ever you need to be? This is, I think, the whole




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thing. I read recently, well, just the other day, that North Carolina hada coalition, Iowa had a coalition, I know that our state [Ohio] reallywent into the sub-prime lending, they were going to Congress in 2002and telling them this is a huge problem and they were saying, “Weneed to do this” and Congress was more or less saying, “No, no it’s just pockets its fine.” Because they were having the banking, theywere having the question, they were asking, “Well, why do you thinkthat? How can we help you so it wouldn’t be? They were just askingsomebody else who had a different viewpoint completely, never getting the two groups together to, and they maybe could have donesomething where we wouldn’t have gotten as bad. But they weren’tlistening and I think that is what MaryBeth is talking about, they needto listen. And I think that if anything should come out of this today, Ithink we should tell Senator Obama, Senator McCann, you need to

listen to the American public.

Alice Merkel: And I think that by listening and asking the questionsyou are unifying yourself with the people and actually representingthem, the people, not by setting yourself differently and not, “This iswhat I do but, this is what we do together.”

Gloria Ferris: So, they need to listen, they need to ask questions andthey need to become a part of us, instead of us versus them. I think it

goes back to what we said in the beginning…we’re so tired of hearing, “No, but I’m better. No, you did this.” The blame game, we’reall talking about changing the guidelines and make it a true dialogue.Make it the Socratic method of asking the questions and learningfrom each other.

Alice Merkel: And making it a two-way conversation.

Gloria Ferris: I guess that is my beef with this whole thing. This bringsme back to a story, I remember that when I worked at BP, there were

seven us in this little like cubicle, we all worked together and three of us had college educations, we had degrees and four of us didn’t. Of




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the four, two of those had worked for SOHIO and BP for twenty plusyears. Okay? There was another newbie that had worked there for about a year or two and then there was somebody who was a middleof the road, but this one gal would come in there and she was one of the ones with the college education and she would come in and say,“Well, they’re not like you and me, they don’t even have a collegeeducation and he’s trying to tell me what to do.” And I’m thinking, “Oh,my God, here we are stuck in this room with all of these people, whodon’t have a college education but have this wealth of experience.”And I always thought, you know, it doesn’t really set you apart if youdon’t do anything with it. Experience is an education in itself. But I sayeducation is only as good as you use it and you can use education ina lot of different ways. So, it really bothers me when some of thesepeople are saying, “I know what’s best for you.” How could you

possibly know? Maybe I’ve got fifty plus years of experience, maybemy health is in the toilet and I deal with bureaucracy every single day,maybe I have two kids who are not going to be able to go to collegebecause I can’t afford it and we can’t do it. Maybe I know what wewould need so my kids could get to college. That’s when I think thatwhen we try to set ourselves apart, because you know even the oldHarvard versus Yale education being different and better in a way, Imean this is, instead of our differences, we should be talking abouthow we can work together.

MaryBeth Matthews: We are talking about solutions. You brought upa story, there was something I listened to on the news thismorning…of course the first thing that goes is the memory…I forgetwhere this happened but there was a sheriff in a town, it may havebeen out west somewhere, who was refusing to evict people from thehomes they were in that the bank foreclosed on. Now, the peoplewho were living in those houses were renters. The sheriff said theyhaven’t done anything wrong. I’m not going to kick them out of their homes because the bank, because their landlord foreclosed, now the

bank is kicking them out and of course the banks are getting annoyedwith the sheriff because he’s not doing his job. “You know [the sheriff]




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what? I’m just doing what my heart feels is the right thing.” And itreally got me thinking about what the whole problem is, with thisforeclosure issue, because I’ve had students in that same position,their families, they’re renting and their families are paying the rent,paying the rent and all of a sudden, “Well, you got to move out.You’ve got two days to move out or your stuff’s going to be out in thestreet.” Which is very hard to, it’s horrendous for these poor families,but if you would always remember who the victims are and thishorrible economic situation and that the standard of living on theground level that we need to worry about, like this sheriff is doing, thisis where we need to pay attention to. How is it affecting the day today person and in fact, if those renters get kicked out of the house,like the banks want them to be kicked out, then well you know at leastwhat happens around here, they’ll tell you that that house is going to

be immediately scrapped.

Susan Altshuler: And they’re getting the money, they’re paying therent…

MaryBeth Matthews: These are the things that keep coming up…theissue of kicking out renters, don’t kick your renter out, you renters justkeep paying your rent and then put it in escrow and then we’ll give itto whoever who wants to buy it…I’m not sure how that whole financial

thing will work out but, kicking the people out? It makes no sense.

Susan Altshuler: These are the things that so many people in thiscountry are facing right now. It’s the biggest thing for them; they can’tafford to stay in their houses, where are they going to go? It doesn’tsound like anybody’s, the candidates, are addressing that directly andthey need to.

Tim Ferris: Alice pointed out the fact that she’d like to have everybodyon the same side on the same team, and then you ladies are talking

about the disparities how we’re not on the same team how we’re notconsidering the greatest needs of the most of us, and that’s how the




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whole system is so sick they must pander to the general populationfor the vote, they must tell you what you want to hear to get the vote,but then their power, the money isn’t still power these days – it will beless in the future – they’re money comes from the lobbyists, their money comes from the people who actually feed off of the generalpopulation. This whole bank thing is nothing more than the banksfeeding off of the common man, and the credit card companies andthe credit people feeding off the common man and everybody else,the hospital systems taking advantage of it. Why should theanesthesiologist make $400,000 dollars a year and the guy headministers the anesthetic to only be on Medicaid? We don’t haveparallel XX all across the board, and money has been one class of people against one class of people and the people who are supposedto be our lobbyists in Washington, Dennis Kucinich and Sherrod

Brown, Voinovich and whoever is filling in for Stephanie Tubbs Jones,they are not really lobbyists because they are compromised, and yetthey want to tell you what you want to hear and not lie too much inorder to get your vote so that they can continue the charade.

MaryBeth Matthews: So that they can say, “We’re working on it.”

Tim Ferris: Working on what?

Gloria Ferris: Well, I think…Alice?

Alice Merkel: Well, I was going to say, can you imagine a politicianwho is actually like the sheriff who knows the situation andunderstands that you cannot do that to those people. That’s…can youimagine what kind of impact a politician who is on that side of fence,to say, can you imaging what he would do and how he would affectthe world?

Gloria Ferris: Well, this sheriff was actually doing the three-question

thing, which is: is it legal? Is it ethical? And, is it right? And he’s goneto, Is it legal? Because I enforce the law and this is the law on the




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books. Is it ethical? Yes, because it’s the law. Is it right? He said no.And he stood up for it, and he said, “You guys need to make it right.”Because it isn’t right that somebody who paid their rent every monthis suddenly put out on the street because a landlord didn’t and a bankwants…and that’s what’s really kind of crazy and the bank is so far removed from the house on the street that is going to be abandonedand vandalized, but they don’t care. They’ll say, “Well, but it’s our property.” Well, that’s not the whole issue.

MaryBeth Matthews: So, you need to be out of it, so we can clear thatoff our books.

Gloria Ferris: Right, exactly…So, I guess what we all decided was wewould say to the next President of the United States would be, you

need to listen, you need to ask questions, and you need to dosomething. It’s not a matter of everybody is going to blame you if youare not exactly right but you need to start making some changes andwe need to start moving forward. Anyway, thank you all for joining us.Alice, it’s always a joy to have your perspective and MaryBeth, itsalways great that you always bring in that education perspective andbring it to the kids that are dealing with some of this stuff and Susan,you always have a perspective of the economic development part of it, and Tim thank you for the male perspective it’s a new thing, and

thanks to everybody watching and here we are it’s the Women’sEnterprise Network TV Show at the Cleveland Heights Library on LeeRoad.

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Women's Enterprise Network Live Show Transcription 20081011