The Roving Activist’s Blog

On Tuesday, I attended a Candidate’s Forum at the Chevy Chase Community Center. Each of the five mayoral candidates took questions about their agenda, and what they would do to fight crime, improve education, etc.

I arrived at the Community Center early in order to get a good seat. The first person that I saw was my neighbor, Samantha Nolan, an ANC Commissioner for Ward 4. Samantha is a really neat person who does a lot for the community. We hadn’t seen each other in a while, so it was good to see her. On a side note, Samantha was the first neighbor to welcome me to the neighborhood when I first moved here back in 2004. She was doing a study on the traffic, as she was on the Safety Commission, and saw me struggling to get across the street, looking for the nonexistant curb cut. I don’t know what strings Samantha pulled, but within days, that intersection had new curb cuts!

Anyway, Samantha showed me to a good spot up front, and I settled in. The sun was shining directly in my face, so Samantha and Ed, the president of the Chevy Chase Neighborhood Association had the window curtains shut. Up comes this Sistah With Attitude — you know the type — the self-important, overbearing African American woman who just knows that she’s All That. Miss Thang looks me up and down and says, “I need that light for my pictures. Can you move somewhere else?” It was obvious that her pics were far more important than this “wheelchair” who shouldn’t be here, and who clearly didn’t belong among this rarified crowd. Fortunately, Samantha came to the rescue and explained that the front row seats were for folks with disabilities and those who were deaf or hard of hearing. Samantha explained that the sign language interpreter would be up front, and the light would interfere with the people’s ability to see the interpreter. The lady wasn’t hearing, or “getting” it, and was trying to contain her ire. “But you closed the curtain because the sun was in her eyes”, she insisted, glaring at me. Thankfully, she was ushered away. I doubt that she realized, or cared that she came off as an arrogant snob who begrudged a small courtesy to another human being, and an important one to other members of the audience.

I breathed a sigh of relief, and once again, settled down. Presently, a woman approached me, and asked if I’d received information about Vincent Orange, one of the candidates for mayor, and a Ward 5 city council member. I replied that I had been to his website, and asked what was his stance on people with disabilities, as I couldn’t find anything on his site. She told me that Mr. Orange was resopnsible for getting the city government to recognize American Sign Language as an actual language. She also told me that his wife worked in special education, and that Orange was trying to get a parcel of land to build one of those segregated schools for kids with disabilites so that the city could stop shipping students with disabilities out of the District for school. I was NOT impressed by that last fact, and stated that under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), sudents with disabilities had the right to attend their home school, and to be integrated into classes with nondisabled students. “And what about jobs”, I asked. “People with disabilities have the highest rate of unemployment in the District, higher than all other groups combined”. The lady began talking about unemployment in Wards 7 and 8, and I began to get irritated because though I care about such matters, the discussion was about folks with disabilities, and I resented her trying to trump our issues, and downplay our importance. She ended up giving me her card.

I noticed that 3×5 cards were being handed out for folks to write down questions that they wanted to be asked of the candidates. I took one, and wrote my question, which of course, asked what each candidate would do to help people with disabilities achieve full inclusion in the District.

Scott Bolden, a well-known attorney running for an At-Large seat on the City Council came by to say hello. I asked my stock questions, including if he supported a cabinet level office solely for people with disabilities. He felt that the mayor needed to take the lead on that. He wanted to talk with me some more, and gave me his card.

A gentleman in an expensive suit came and sat next to me. He was pretty close, and the tail of his suit was on the wheel of my chair. He seemed a bit uncomfortable, as if he didn’t know what to do, and didn’t want to appear insulting, and so was I, for that matter, because I didn’t want to be responsible for getting his suit dirty, so I moved a bit to give us some space. “Thank you”, he said, and introduced himself. He was Robert Gordon, a Ward 3 ANC Commissioner, and Chair, and a candidate for city council from Ward 3. I introduced myself, and explained that I lived only a few blocks away. “I’m glad you’re here”, he said.

At this time, it was decided to go on with the forum. Council Chair, Linda Cropp, and Ward 4 council member, Adrian Fenty had not arrived yet, but were on their way. Candidates Michael Brown, a lobbyist, Marie Johns, former president of Verizon, and Vincent Orange were present. One of the emcees explained that each candidate would be give 1 minute to present an introduction, then, three questions from various organizations would be presented, which the candidates would answer. Each candidate would be given 1 minute to answer the question, and would be entitled to four rebuttals of thirty seconds each. The candidates would then take questions directed to them, individually, and the same format would be in place.

I listened to the candidate’s introductions, and was impressed by the fact that Marie Johns had risen from being on public assistance and living in subsidized housing to become a corporate president, and mayoral candidate. I noted that Michael Brown lived in my neighborhood and shopped at the Safeway, and the CVS, two places that I frequent.

I must admit that the forum was a blur of questions, and information overload. I remember that they were asked what they would do in the first days of their administration if they were elected. They were also asked how they would handle crime, and education. About this time, council member Fenty arrived.

I will admit that about this time, it started getting a bit hot because the candidates, particularly Brown and Orange, began attacking the other candidates, who, of course used their rebuttals to defend themselves. About this time, Council Chair Cropp arrived, but there was no seat for her, so someone went to find one. At this point, Mr. Gordon graciously give his chair to Mrs Cropp, and found another. Now, it really got hot and heavy, with Brown and Orange on the attack, specifically against Fenty and Cropp. To their credit, though they defended themselves, they did so gracefully, and did not return the attack. They got hit with barbs about the baseball stadium, about the fact that they (Cropp and Fenty) voted against the crime emergency legislation, and other issues. They were asked if they would retain the police chief, and what would they do about the fire chief.

Unfortunately, the attacks and rebuttals took so long that only a few questions were asked. It seemed that the repsonses were to be expected, and each candidate’s issues were almost identical. I have to admit that I was disappointed. I could have done without the attacking and grandstanding of both Brown and Orange, and funnyman antics of Mr. Orange. I would have been satisfied had even one of the cadidates had a markedly different agenda. Perhaps I would have remembered more.

Once the forum was over, I decided to see if I could speak to any of the candidates. Mrs. Cropp did come up, and thank me for coming. I managed to find Marie Johns, and told her that I was answering her invitation to come up and say hello. She gave me a hug, we exchanged pleasantries, and she took my information. I then spoke again to Linda Cropp, who gave me her chief of staff’s number, and told me to call her, so that she could send me her entire platform regarding people with disabilities. She did tell me that she supports a cabinet level office for the disability community.

I was pleasantly surprised that Vincent Orange actually sat down with me, and asked for suggestions and ideas. I told him that he needed to reach out to our community, and keep in constant contact with us. Provide good and efficient health, and other services for us. I informed him that many areas of the District was still physically inaccessible to people with disabilities, including broken or nonexistant curb cuts, and public places that could be made accessible, but weren’t. I told him that when he sets up a summer job program for youth, be sure to include youth with disabilities. When thinking of education, don’t try to lump kids with disabilities into special education–integrate them with nondisabled kids. Prepare them for college, not group homes or nursing homes. Mr. Orange felt that I have given him quite a few ideas, and asked me to stay in touch. He did say that he supported a cabinet level office for people with disabilities.

On the way out, I was approached by Mr. Brown, and I repeated the same things that I had said to the others. I asked him (as well as the others who I hadn’t heard from) if he’d received my letter. He said that he would look for it. I never did catch up with Adrian Fenty. I don’t know if he ducked out quickly, or if I simply missed him in the crowd.

I still haven’t made my choice, yet, though it was an honor to meet the candidates. I am going to follow up on Mrs. Cropp, and Mr. Orange, and see if Michael Brown will get back to me. I’ll keep up with Marie Johns, and see if Mr. Fenty will answer my e-mail. I won’t be able to work on any candidate’s campaign because I will be a poll worker. I will, however, continue to study the candidates, and will keep you informed.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 10th, 2006 at 4:39 pm and is filed under Activism, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.