Women's Enterprise Network Live Show Transcription 20081108

Women's Enterprise Network November 8, 2008
Judson Living, Cleveland, Ohio
"2008 Presidential Campaign Issues: Growing the Economic Viability

of Women"
Part 2: Where do we go from here Mr. President?"
Link to broadcast:
http://www.livestream.com/womansenterprisenetwork/video?clipId=flv
_f119b799-82e2-4ba5-8f19-4d93649be313
http://www.livestream.com/womansenterprisenetwork/video?clipId=flv
_3216921b-5c63-442c-b009-7b690da9d153
If you were in a room with Senator Obama and Senator Mc Cain,

what issues would you want to discuss and why?
* Restoration of Global Respect for America

* Healthcare
* Women's Rights
* Education
* Workforce Development
Copyright 2010 Betsey Merkel http://www.betseymerkel.extendr.com/ and I-Open

http://i-open.org/. Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution-Noncommercial-No
Derivative Works. Institute for Open Economic Networks (I-Open) 4415 Euclid
Ave 3rd Fl Cleveland, Ohio 44103 USA
Gloria Ferris: Hi, this is the Women’s Enterprise Network live TV
show, brought to you here at beautiful Judson Park in Cleveland
Heights, Ohio, we're here with a few of the Judson Park residents
and our topic today is going to be "Part 2: of 2008 Campaign Issues:
Growing the Economic Viability of Women" and our question today is,
“What now, Mr. President?” So welcome everybody, and out there I
know you already know we’re on the womensenterprisenetwork.net
please tell your friends and neighbors about us and join us on our
chat. We do have live chat today and you can enter into our
conversation. So, okay, let’s just start right in, and don’t we usually
introduce ourselves? I’m just a little foggy today…I’ll introduce myself
first and I’ll just let everyone start talking about “What now Mr.
President?” as they go around and we’ll just do it very quickly at first.
My name is Gloria Ferris and I’m a member of the Women’s
Enterprise Network and we get together once a month to talk about
issues that are not only important to women but to all Americans, I
believe. But we are giving a voice to people who might not
necessarily get on video, might not necessarily get out there and do
this kind of thing and get their voices heard and hopefully start a
conversation. A thinking conversation where we all can think, so I
think I would give the President some advice, I think that he needs to
remember to take time to think. And there will be a lot of noise and
there will be a lot of people telling him, “Well, you know, this is what
we’ve got to do…we’ve got to change this…we’ve got to do that.” but
I think he needs to remember to slow down, to be deliberate and to
think. So, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it. Jay, how about if we
start with you?
Jay Calabretta: Jay Calabretta, and I live here at Judson Park, and
one of the criticisms that I heard about Obama was that he thinks too
much.
Gloria Ferris: That’s interesting, I think thinking, I think part of that is

Jay, what do you think about this? I don’t think that people think now
we react a lot. Well, you said you were a psychiatric nurse; you
thought didn’t you? I mean you had to do a lot of on the fly stuff but
part of that of being able to do that was because you thought and you
knew…
MaryBeth Matthews: Gloria, how about letting her say what she
means by that? What do you mean that he thinks too much?
Gloria Ferris: She didn’t say that she said that…
Jay Calabretta: That’s what I heard a criticism of him.
MaryBeth Mathews: So, what do you think they meant by that

criticism?
Jay Calabretta: I think he’s a very thoughtful man, from what I’ve
heard, from what I’ve seen and any time he opens his mouth its not a
lot of garbage coming out its usually well thought out, well planned,
you know…
Gloria Ferris: I agree.
MaryBeth Matthews: By the way, since I was just jumping into that
conversation, and I’m not sure if I’m on camera…
Gloria Ferris: Well, I don't know if you are either but I am sure we are
either, but anyway…
MaryBeth Matthews: Eventually it will come around to me…my name

is MaryBeth Matthews and I have been a core member of the
Women’s Enterprise Network as well as a teacher for the Cleveland
Municipal School District, and a partner is the manufacturing
company called “Work Holding Tools.” Perhaps we should continue
around the circle…
Susan Altshuler: Would you like to introduce yourself?

Claire Marsh: I’m Claire and I live at Judson. Let’s see…what do I
want him to know about me? I want him to know what I think right
now, I think that it is not Obama, but all the time we’re talking about
cleaning up the government, how many people are going out in their
garages and looking? You know we’re talking about what the
government does, but how many of us are wasting money by buying
the first thing we see in the store? Filling the house up, let’s start in
our own places first so we can say, “Hey, we’re following what you tell
us to do. Now, let’s do it to the government.
Gloria Ferris: That’s a really good point. Susan, would you like to
introduce yourself and maybe respond to what Claire said.
Susan Altshuler: I’m Susan Altshuler and I’m a member of the

Women’s Enterprise Network and Director of I-Open. Claire, you
have a very good point, I think that we always expect other people to
do things for us and say if somebody from the government, say the
President says, “Well, we need to do this…” and a lot of people think
well, that’s not our responsibility, and I think it’s every American’s
responsibility to try to help turn this country around so that we have a
legacy to leave to our children and grandchildren; that they’ll have a
better world than some of us have right now. Unfortunately, my
parents did much better than I did and really what you want to do is
have your children always have that possibility of doing much better
than you and being able to live a really wonderful and fulfilled life. So,
I think it’s our responsibility to see that we help this President and not
just look at the small things, look at the big picture about creating job
growth and getting health care for everyone and keeping yourself
healthy and living a healthy life because if you live a healthy life then
you're probably not going to get sick as much as if you don’t.
Gloria Ferris: Alice?
Alice Merkel: Hi, I’m Alice and I’m a junior at Chagrin Falls High
School. I think that going on Susan’s and Claire’s comment that
America needs to turn itself around and we as citizens, act, we are
part of America, we are the foundation of America and when you
think something you start from the foundation and you work up. So it
doesn’t make sense not to have the government fix everything for
you, you have to fix yourself first, so that you can build up and fix
everything above.
MaryBeth Matthews: One of John F Kennedy’s more famous

statement was “Ask not what the country can do for me, but what I
can do for my country” and we can apply that to today. When we say,
well, okay, what is Barak Obama, what are the democrats going to do
for me? When we should be saying, “What can I do to change the
world? And, how can I – if we’re going to have an energy crisis, we’re
worried about global warming, how do I shrink my carbon footprint?
How do I consume less? How do I consume less energy? Am I in any
way contributing to the credit crisis? What is my part in the economic
problems that are facing the United States? If we can first look to
ourselves and fix the small things we can, then we’re doing our part
instead of just sitting back and saying, “Help me…fix the country”,
and then wait for somebody else to do something first.
Gloria Ferris: We’ve been joined by a lady behind MaryBeth there,

that is nodding her head “yes, yes, yes” … so if you would introduce
yourself…
Linda Horter: My name is Linda Horter and I live in Breuning here and
I’ve been here for a year and I’m delighted to be in this conversation
and excited to be here.
Gloria Ferris: Well, thank you. I noticed you were nodding your head
when MaryBeth was talking, so did you have maybe…
Linda Horter: I agree with everything she says.
MaryBeth Matthews: Thank you.

Gloria Ferris: Well, you now have a new friend, MaryBeth…. Do you
think that what we’re talking about here, and let me just throw this
out: I think part of the “Yes, we can” slogan that they took I think that
a lot of Americans took that on and that they were going to be a part
of this and that President Obama expects Americans to do exactly
the things we’re all talking about. What do you think, or what…do you
think that that might be it? That he’s looking for some self-reliance?
Linda Horter: Everybody should do their part.
Gloria Ferris: Everybody should do their part.
Claire Marsh: I think he’s hoping.
Gloria Ferris: You think he’s hoping too?
Claire Marsh: Yes.
Gloria Ferris: That’s an interesting thought. That’s an interesting

thought.
MaryBeth Matthews: Well, I recall that, and actually I wish I could

recall better – you know the mind’s the first thing to go – but at some
point in is campaign one of the solutions he had to the energy crisis
and our dependence on foreign oil, he said that was that people could
be more aware of their driving habits. If we could drive to conserve
energy, it we could inflate our tires properly, that with everybody
working together we could all, that all those little savings could add up
to a lot of oil that we don’t need in our country…he said that…where it
made sense to me, where a number of people in the opposition that
kind of blacked that off and poo-poo’d it, but I thought wait a minute
that makes sense to me so many little things that add up to really
quite

Gloria Ferris: I think you bring up a good point, MaryBeth. I was on a
web cast a few days ago that was with Investment News puts out a
weekly broadcast and they actually were saying, “What now?” for the
financial markets with Obama as President. And one of the things
they said, and I’m sorry because I don’t remember the man’s name
he currently is in the House of Representatives, but he’s on the short
list to become his Transportation Secretary, he rides a bicycle to work
everyday. So, I think you will see a change in how people think about
driving habits, maybe do the errands in a circular instead of the back
and forth and that wastes a lot.
Susan Altshuler: Those little trips that waste so much gas.
Jay Calabretta: Well, that's a no brainer.
Gloria Ferris: For you Jay, for you...
Susan Altshuler: And walking if you can instead of driving, but I think
that people are starting to think about that because I always think that
they, I think that people didn’t look to themselves to try to help, to do
it themselves, that they always think others should do it for them,
number one; number two, I think that the way Obama had his
campaign I think people really were looking at those new kinds of
ways that American’s can help in their own small way, because you
don’t look at a problem and say, “Oh, my gosh, it’s so big I can’t do
it.” You go right down to the very bottom and say, “What little step can
I take?” If all Americans did that little step imagine how much we
would save and how much energy we might save or not spend as
much money on gas so we’re not so dependent on the foreign oil until
we can figure out what we’re going to do.
Alice Merkel: I think that…um…Oh; I had a point…I forgot.
Gloria Ferris: How about if we go to Jay, she had a point too and then
we’ll come back to you, Alice?
Jay Calabretta: Okay, all right. I keep reading about our
transportation system here in Cleveland, how they want to cut out the
buses and stuff, and I think, what a wonderful opportunity is going
down the drain. You know, people do things by habit. Get them in the
habit now of using the buses. Okay? Increase service; don’t decrease
it. Once you get people in the habit of doing something they’re going
to continue, especially if it works for them.
Alice Merkel: I think that the mass majority of Americans know about
global warming, the energy crisis, all that good stuff and yet they just
don’t even think, pay attention or think or act on it. They acknowledge
it, but then they just kind of, “Oh, well, you know, that doesn’t really
involve me.” They need to accept the responsibility as citizens and
act on it.
Gloria Ferris: That’s very good. We have been joined by another lady,
that lives here at Judson Park, and if you would please just introduce
yourself and our topic today, just so we get you up to speed is, 2008
Campaign Issues: The Economic Viability of Women and What Now
Mr. President? So today, we’re kind of like, what issue is important to
us that we want to kind of put out there for the new President Obama
to talk about?
Dorothy Schade: Hard to begin with, I’d like to be over there so I can
have a piece of paper and sit at the table. My name is Dorothy
Schade and I’ve lived here since 03’. Cleveland Heights was my
husband’s home so when he retired from the military we came here
to live. I’m very happy to be here and I'm from New Orleans,
Louisiana and that’s it.
Gloria Ferris: Okay, all right.
Dorothy Schade: Is that what you wanted?

Gloria Ferris: That is what I wanted. Thank you very much, Dorothy,
and we’ll take care of moving you around…I want to ask MaryBeth to
maybe, I don’t mean to put you on the spot but maybe you have
some thoughts about education, so let’s get the education topic into
this conversation. What would you like from the Federal government,
because that’s where the President is, with education, do you see it
as a local issue or do you think Federal?
MaryBeth Matthews: You know what? Right now we have some very
serious educational problems but they’re at the state level in Ohio for
funding. Our funding process of course has long been known to be
unconstitutional, but now that we have a new State Legislature,
hopefully we can get some of those funding issues resolved. So that’s
where my focus has been through this last election cycle has been to
get the changes in our state government. As far as the Federal
government is concerned…now, there are some problems with the
No Child Left Behind Act. Just mostly because there are lots of
mandates, but there was no funding to back up the mandates. When
you say that you have to bring all these children up to a standard and
yet you’re not giving them money especially in impoverished districts.
The impoverished districts are not helped financially, and how do they
compete with the well off districts? We have children that come to
you, damaged. I teach in the City of Cleveland in the urban school
district and so many of our kids they come to us poisoned from
impoverished situations and when the kindergarten teacher has
children in her class that don’t even know their name as opposed to
in the suburban schools where they’re coming into a kindergarten
class and they’re reading. You can’t expect the playing field to be
leveled when you’ve got kids coming in, they’re broken, they’re
damaged, they’re coming in so far behind that they may never catch
up. And to do that with out funding, it’s inane. The people who are
making these mandates just don’t seem to understand what the
situation is…”Well, all children can learn.”…Well, yeah, all children
can learn but they’re not all starting out at the same point.

Gloria Ferris: Well, you know, I think you bring up a good point. I think
the Federal government can do something about lead poisoning.
That’s an issue that we all know is an issue. They can do something
about maybe some early childhood care development for kids that
are, that don’t have the parents who know the importance of that, for
their kids to get a good start. I think that is where the problem lies, for
the Federal government up to this point has done the mandates for
education and said, “These are the standards.” Well, basically, every
school system knows the standards for a kid to succeed; they didn’t
need that, what they needed was…
Ginny Becker: Money…
Gloria Ferris: Well, they needed, and maybe not so much money, but
what they needed where the things behind that that cause some kids
not to be able to live up to it. Exactly what MaryBeth was saying, we
need to look behind the slogan and the mandate.
Ginny Becker: What about Head Start?
Gloria Ferris: Head Start, actually I believe does a very good…
Ginny Becker: Yes, they do…
Gloria Ferris: Very good, it’s a very good program that is something
you need to be sure its still there.
Ginny Becker: Well, I’m a retired teacher and I know that all the
children I had in the middle grades, the best ones were Head Start
students.
Gloria Ferris: They keep that through their life, usually they do, so…

Ginny Becker: The ones that succeeding, I know of two, one’s a
lawyer and the second one is becoming a doctor. But, they all had
Head Start.
Marybeth Matthews: I’m so glad you brought that up because that is

just fabulous antidotal story to back up what most of us already know
but that although there are people that want to disregard the
importance of early childhood education.
Gloria Ferris: Well there, that’s one of our issues, early childhood
education.
Ginny Becker: Head Start. Head Start.
Jay Calabretta: I find it really hard to believe that children come to

school and don’t know their names.
MaryBeth Matthews: Well, here, I’ll give you an antidotal story…a

friend of mine was a kindergarten teacher and she was reading her
class roster, all the names of her nineteen, twenty students, and she
had the same number of students in front of her and each child would
raise their hand and one name was called and no child raised their
hand for that name. Finally, she comes to the end and she says,
“Well, is there anyone here whose name I didn’t call?” And the little
boy says, “You didn’t call my name.” “What is your name, honey?”
“Well, my name’s Big Daddy.”
Jay Calabretta: Spaghetti?
MaryBeth Matthews and Residents: Big Daddy. Big Daddy.
Jay Calabretta: “Big Daddy?”
MaryBeth Matthews: “Big Daddy.” He knew his nickname; he didn’t

know his real name; because no one is his real family ever called him
his real name, so he came to kindergarten not knowing his own
name.
Ginny Becker: Most of them know how to print their name.
Jay Calabretta: Well, okay, that’s kind of a cultural thing.
MaryBeth Matthews: Well, no I wouldn’t call it a cultural thing; I would

call it well ignorance on the part of the parents. You have parents
who…
Ginny Becker: Neglect.
MaryBeth Matthews: Yes, neglect. Precisely.
Ginny Becker: When they sign their kids up for kindergarten, they
should give them a handout telling them these are the things your
child should be knowing. His name, his address, when he was born,
was she born and how put their coats on, you know…
Gloria Ferris: And their phone number.
MaryBeth Matthews: And the thing is the school districts do those

things, they have parenting classes and they do give that information
out and yet there are parents who don’t pay any regard to it. But you
can’t not educate the child because the parents aren’t ready to
become parents. The child needs to come in, and you need to step in
where the parents…
Gloria Ferris: Pre-school for parents.
Susan Altshuler: The parents have to be partially responsible for their

children. My daughter works for an elementary school in Shaker and
a lot of these parents think school is a babysitter for their children and
they don’t have any responsibility to work with them at home if they’re
having problems reading, I mean, I think we have to look, they have
to look themselves and say, “If you want you child to succeed you
have to be a part of their life and encourage them.” If a kid comes to
school hungry, how can he do anything? How can he work if a child is
hungry? My sister-in-law used to work in the city schools and she
said the kids would come to school no breakfast, starving, and you
can’t function unless you have good nutrition.
MaryBeth Matthews: Let me kind of jump in on this. Because we all

know what the parent’s responsibilities are supposed to be, and as
educators, and I’m a teacher I can say, I can shift the blame we can
say, “We can’t do our job because the parents aren’t doing their job.”
But do you know what? We can’t shift the blame what we have to do
is accept the fact that there will be parents that don’t do their jobs and
those kids will be coming to us, so, we just have to say, okay, we’ve
got kids here who aren’t getting breakfast so what do we do? We’ve
got kids here who don’t have the basics, who don’t have the parental
support, who might not know their name, who might not know their
address, who might not know their phone number because they are
coming to us damaged, this is where we have to start. This is
how…what are we going to do? How can we fix this as educators?
Not just throw up our hands and say, well, it’s the parent’s job. I
guess we can’t do ours because the parents aren’t doing theirs.
Gloria Ferris: That goes back to before, Dorothy and Mary I think
came, when we talked about being responsible. About being self-
reliant. I think MaryBeth brings up a good point, A friend of mine who
was a very avid community activist in our neighborhood would always
say that too many people are really comfortable with the phrase, “Let
George do it.” Let somebody else do it. I don’t have time, I don’t have
this, I don’t have that. And I think that as Americans and citizens even
though we wanted to talk about the President and what he could do,
we’ve talked a lot about what we can do as everyday people which I
think is a good trend. Let’s ask Alice what the climate is at her high
school with this new President. What did the other students say?
Alice Merkel: I live in Chagrin Falls, it’s kind of a well-to-do
community, kind of exclusive, slightly, and they usually are heavily
Republican, but this year we had a lot of Obama supporters. Some
say, he’s going to ruin the country, others say that you know McCann
is going to do the same thing. Everyone was respectful, we didn’t yell
at each other but we had very high opinions. They might have been
different from our parents, our friends but we had very high
expectations for the candidates and whoever is going to win, which is
Obama. So, I feel that the students think that, we recognized that our
nation is in a bit of trouble right now, we’re all feeling it in one way or
another. I think that our main concern is how we’re going to get to
college, our jobs, house market, debts, like we’re going to like
basically, we have a great education and we all appreciate it every
day, but when we get out of school we’re not sure how we’re going to
function. And all the families – they come from families that are well
to do – and they don’t really know, any kind of hit in their financial
status, everyone’s feeling it and so they’re wondering, what’s going to
happen when I get out of college, if I can go to college, what’s going
to happen when I start searching for a job, if I can get a house; so we
are concerned because we have to look forward to the future and we
all recognize that.
Gloria Ferris: I think that is a good point to stop. We’re going to take
our break and we’re going to come back to that. This is the Women’s
Enterprise Network live Internet TV show brought to you at Judson
Park and we have five very intelligent, aware women with us who are
talking about some of the campaign issues and problems that face
our new President Obama and we’ll be back with you in five minutes.
We’ll take a little break.
BREAK
Gloria Ferris: Okay, while we were off with the little blurb about our
group Women’s Enterprise dot Net, Sarah Hollister joined us? Your

name, M’ame? Is Livingston? Yes, Sarah Livingston who was the
Assistant Superintendent of Cleveland Schools?
Sarah Livingston: Support Services.
Gloria Ferris: Support Services of Cleveland Schools. And we’re

talking about networks, the question is, “Do we have anybody who
represents us at the State Legislature?” Our core group of women
know a lot of people and we have different kinds of networks of our
own, and the way a network works is that, Claire was talking about
that maybe our next topic should be, “What are we going to do in this
group?” What would we like to take forward? So, what we would do
with that is we would decide what we wanted to do and then we
would say, “Okay, how do we get that out and how do we get
something done?” And then we start thinking, well, so and so knows
this person and we need to talk to that person and we need to get
that person involved. So, that’s how we work that, Mary. But, before
we took the break, and I want to thank Judson Park again for being
our gracious host here for…this is the fourth conversation that we’ve
had here and our group kind of grows and changes, we have new
voices, we have a few of the same faces, but we’re getting new faces
and that’s how this all works. We are talking today about Part Two
2008 Campaign Issues: Growing the Economic Viability of Women”
But before we took our break, Alice was talking about the younger
people and the students she’s going to school with and they say that
things are okay now, they realize they are getting a good base
education and a good foundation, quite a few of the kids she goes to
school with don’t have financial difficulty at this point, but they wonder
about what will happen when they’re on their own. First of all, I might
ask you ladies to talk about your experiences when you were
younger, starting nursing school, going to college teaching, and how
you survived those years, that might be a good point. The other thing
is, she’s talking about financial problems, financial difficulties, we
have foreclosures…the other day I read on the Internet, and I think it
was Ed Morrison, one of our Directors at I-Open, the Institute for
Open Economic Networks, referred to an article that said that this
generation of young people will be less educated than their parents.
That is the way we are going. That we are now going back, that we
will not be as educated and that is a huge problem.
MaryBeth Matthews: I can speak from personal experience. I teach at

Max Hayes High School, in the Cleveland District. One of the things
my students are very concerned about is that they look at the cost of
a college education and they say, my parents can’t afford it, I can’t
afford it and the financial aide packages that are offered to them don’t
cover it. So they say, hey, I guess I’m not going to college. Quite a
few of my students see the military as their only option to further their
education. If they go into the military that perhaps they can get their
college education from the military. Other than that, they all have very
high hopes but in some ways they all, at least they say to their
friends, “Well, yeah, I’m going to go to College” but then when you
talk to them privately, they say, “I don’t really think I’ll be able to.”
Dorothy Schade: I happen to be the wife of a retired career officer.

The education that the kids get in the Army isn’t bad they are
qualified for anything really; so, don’t feel sorry for the ones that get
into the service.
MaryBeth Matthews: Oh, I don’t feel sorry for them at all. It’s just that
it’s interesting to see how things are changing. I’ve been teaching
now for close to thirty years and I didn’t have as many students who
saw the military as their only option before. In fact, when I went to
college I paid nothing, I went to college in the 1970’s and that was
really an era of, everybody got a grant. I paid nothing for my college
education at Ohio University. I don’t even remember what kind of
grant I got, I just filled out the paper work and my tuition was paid for,
my housing was paid for, my books were paid for, everything was
paid for.
Ginny Becker: That was the times.

MaryBeth Matthews: Oh, yeah, a college education at that point in
history was for everyone. The only people who didn’t go to college
were those who didn’t want to. If you wanted to go to college,
everyone could afford it. Now, the smartest students at my school
may not go to college because they might get a scholarship, say they
get a $15,000 scholarship, well, they need $20,000 for a year of
college and that’s not counting the books. So, they can’t go to college
without incurring a serious, serious debt.
Ginny Becker: Well, luckily, we have a Governor who is for education.

Ed Strickland. And I think that if you go to his office, they could
channel you to some sources, some grant sources.
MaryBeth Matthews: I’d like to see more grants made available for…
Jay Calabretta: You know MaryBeth, I think we have been

brainwashed that you need to go to college. Okay? And I don’t think
that a college education is the end all, be all. I have worked with lots
of educated fools. [Laughter] I worked with a nurse who had a
master’s degree. I couldn’t trust her. I was a supervisor. When she
was on duty, I couldn’t trust her to do…no common sense.
MaryBeth Matthews: Ah, but she had a degree.
Ginny Becker: Just get that paper.
Gloria Ferris: Well you know, I think we need to speak to that. I’m
wondering if that’s one of the ways education is shifting, is that for a
while, it was a college degree. Now, maybe, we’re shifting into…I
agree with you, I’ve worked with those educated fools too, and you
wonder why, God, they can really take a test but they couldn’t do
much with life. I’m wondering now if maybe life experiences…IT, I
think is a huge place. It was very funny when I was visiting my
daughter and son-in-law, they stop everything at 7:30 and they watch
Jeopardy, and they brought back these people that had been the high
school kids that had won twenty years ago. What was really
interesting was the young man who won it back then was the only
one when asked that no he wasn’t going to college because he was
into computers and he wouldn’t learn that in college and he was the
only one who won again. He was the only one who did not have a
college education. But, he owned his own company, he had sold two,
he had made all this money and he was the only one of the nine
that…Bill Gates is another one and I have a friend who is an inventor
who says that education is a good foundation, but it’s not everything.
MaryBeth Matthews: It isn’t the end all be all. It is a good foundation.

Of course for most of you who know me, but for those of you don’t,
I’m also involved in promoting manufacturing. I am a partner in a
small manufacturing company, component manufacturing, metal
parts, pieces and parts for various machines and things. One of the
issues in manufacturing is we can’t find the workers. I see the faces
here…manufacturing jobs all going out overseas, well, a lot of the
companies have gone overseas, but the thing is people aren’t being
trained in those skills anymore, there are very few young people are
machinists who know how to run a machine. The current machinists
are all retiring. So, for those of us who have companies, we’re
stealing each other’s employees to keep our companies going.
Ginny Becker: You need know-how.
MaryBeth Matthews: We need that know-how and young people are

not going into manufacturing because all they hear on the news is
that companies are shutting their doors, they’re going overseas,
they’re being off-shored, they’re being out-sourced and nobody’s
going into it. So, it’s kind of a real conundrum.
Dorothy Schade: Overseas they have the workers.
Sarah Livingston: Somewhere along the line, we have put a XX on

educating, but certain types of education. You know, if you go to
college, you do this, you do this, and the thing we need to be doing is
developing students who have a feel for their own work and the work
of the things that they are doing. One of the things that has happened
as I have worked with students along the way, some of the children
who are bright and do well, sometimes get passed by their parents,
because they didn’t get this education a certain way and they didn’t
do certain things a certain way. That’s one of the things that’s
happening to small manufacturing. Now, if you look around you, the
people who are getting pushed around are the ones who are going
into jobs where they’re going to be a doctor or a special person or a
special something but one of the things that is happening is with the
students coming along now that are getting sent to China, Japan, and
places like that which haven’t always had these things and we have
to put on what it is we value, I think, that’s one of the things. So I think
that what you’re saying is just the thing. So, if we stop worrying about
whether or not this child is as bright as the next child and put on the
worth of, is this child a good person? Does he understand, right here,
that he occupies a space that he is supposed to contribute
something?
MaryBeth Matthews: Yes, exactly. And what is that individual’s gift?

They may not be the lawyer because he doesn’t want to be and he
doesn’t need to be. We’ve got enough lawyers. We’ve got enough
kids going into law school, we need more kids using computers and
technology and the trades we need trades today, not just manual
labor, we have to have skills in order to be a tradesman nowadays.
You need specific technical skills.
Gloria Ferris: You know, I think Sarah brings up a really good point.
We have said that, what if a young man wanted to be the best welder
in the world? I use that because my three cousins were welders and I
know that welding is really going…one of them was, and the two
older brothers would always laugh because my youngest cousin was
the one that they always called for the joints when they knew they
were going to be inspected because he did them perfectly. He didn’t
work as fast as his two brothers but he was the one, they used to say
he was the artist of the welders. He always said, “You know, if you
are going to do something, you need to do your best.” And he always
said that, he was the youngest of the three, but he said that and my
feeling is that, yeah, you should be able to be whatever you want to
be in America, but just strive to be the best you can be, taking a
military thing, it shouldn’t matter to us, if you want to do something, all
we ask of you is that you know who you are in the scheme of things
as a citizen, that you do whatever you do well…and you do it.
Sarah Livingston: And that what you are doing on this earth is
important.
Gloria Ferris: Yes.
Sarah Livingston: That is what is sometimes hard to tell. I’m working

with the children all the time. One of the children who was working
with me, was going to, he was wanting to be, it wasn’t a welder, but
he was doing something in the manufacturing but these people were
pushing his being this doctor. And of course, he’s going now to, I
can’t think of the school, one of the school’s in Cleveland…
Gloria Ferris: It’s probably Max Hayes.
Sarah Livingston: It might be Max Hayes.
Gloria Ferris: They’re the only vocational school we have in the

Cleveland School system.
Sarah Livingston: Max Hayes is the only vocation school but there is
another school where they also do some of those things…
Gloria Ferris: Sarah, that’s not important. You know he’s going there
and that’s what’s important. So, go on with your story. He’s important.

Sarah Livingston: One kid kept saying to me, “Ms. Livingston, my Dad
wants me to go here because this is where he went. He loves his
family; he wanted to be in this manufacturing situation. And I’m just
saying we sometimes put too much stress on when you are a doctor
this or a doctor that…
Ginny Becker: They need to be happy in their skin, they call it.
Sarah Livingston: Right.
Gloria Ferris: Being happy in your skin, Mary, did you say? That’s
good.
Sarah Livingston: You have to be a good person, then.
MaryBeth Matthews: The thing that I tell my students, they’re

teenagers, they say “People always ask me what do I want to be
when I grow up? But, I don’t know. I don’t know.” They could be a
doctor or a lawyer. They always say, “A doctor or a lawyer. Or, I could
be a football player, a basketball player…they name maybe about
five jobs where they can make a lot of money… and I say, but what
do you like to do? What’s fun for you? What do you do when you are
not being pushed? What do you do for enjoyment?
Mary/Ginny: Sarah, do you think we need more counselors in the
school?
Sarah Livingston: Actually, not so much more counselors as just get

in the families. Trust your children for what they are and teach them
how to be a good person, how to get along with people. Let them
know that what they do is contributing.
MaryBeth Matthews: And support, support what they want to do.
Sarah Livingston: And support what they want to do, because they
don’t know…twelve or fourteen…they don’t know what they want to
do. Right then, whatever is popular and as they get a little older they
begin to understand. And as you say, if they want to be a plumber
and you don’t think a plumber is quite important enough, you want
them to be a doctor, but maybe a plumber is all they can do, but they
can make money plumbing.
? And they are respected.
Gloria Ferris: The thing is we need plumbers. We need plumbers, but

I think that…
Jay Calabretta: They make good money.
Gloria Ferris: I think that’s part of the reframing of the conversation

about education. I also think the other thing our daughter went with a
liberal arts education and all of our friends said, “How can you let her
do that? She won’t be able to get a job.” And my husband said, “If
you can write effectively and you can communicate effectively, how
will you not be employable?” She’s never had a day of unemployment
since she graduated from college. So the whole thing of going to
college for a specific purpose is not necessarily why someone should
go to college. Our other daughter on the other hand, is an artist. She
had a scholarship to CIA but like MaryBeth said, she realized that
with that scholarship that was quite substantial she would still have a
forty thousand dollar debt when she got out after five years. She told
us, “No way, I’m not going to go to college and be in debt.” So, she’s
waiting she’s doing it a different way, she’s doing it her way. Maybe
not the way her Dad and I would want her to do it, but she’s doing it.
And I agree Sarah; part of being a parent is allowing your kids to fly.
And maybe as a nation, we need to think about, how do we ready
these kids to fly? And maybe we’re not…we’re still doing things the
way we did forty years ago. That’s not the world today and that’s not
the world tomorrow. I think Sarah brings up a good point as
to…maybe we need to rethink this a bit, of how we fit in and what we
should expect of young people today.
MaryBeth Matthews: We put an awful lot of emphasis on college
preparatory training in high school where we said every student
should be given the chance in the classes so that they can go to
college. And what we left behind were the career, tech and vocational
classes, and they cut back those programs drastically. Now, what are
we lacking in this country? We are lacking machinists; we’re lacking
people to build our infrastructure, to rebuild our infrastructure. The
roads and the bridges and all the things that make our country what it
is.
Sarah Livingston: But it’s honorable to build bridges.
MaryBeth Matthews: And those are good paying jobs. But we don’t
have enough people to do them now, because everyone was put on
this college track and not all of them were successful…we’re
lacking…
Gloria Ferris: Our hour is almost up, ladies. I can’t believe that, I’m so
interested in…and I’m looking at the clock…before we stop I’d like to
thank Judson Park and I thank all of you Judson Park residents for
coming and to let you know we are going to be here again, December
13th at 10 AM and we’ll do this again and we’ll do it all over and our
topic is going to be, ‘What are we going to do?” So, in the next month,
think about our conversation today, I have a few ideas; I like Jay’s
transportation issue…
Mary: Could we get a book of the Ohio Assembly in Columbus? A

book of the different committee chairmen…
Gloria Ferris: Yeah, we have that and you know what? I’ll bring some
of those names with us for next time around transportation, education
and health care, I think is basically what our three topics were today.
So, we’ll do that. And does anybody have anything they would like to
say in closing? Or, anything else? Well…Claire?

Claire Marsh: I have something about a part of what we’re saying.
What I’m thinking is, there is a bunch of us here from Judson, how
many of us really care about who is the upper thing, and how many of
us really care and couldn’t get along without the attendants who have
no college, probably. We have to have those people who help us
physically and know how to be cheerful and care. I don’t care whose
up there in the big office.
Gloria Ferris: That brings us back to what we were talking about

earlier, with small steps…and what do we do as individuals and that
comes back to Sarah’s point of we all have worth, we all have value.
We all are important to the foundation that Alice talked about with the
bricks and the mortar; we’re the bricks and the mortar of America. We
kind of keep it moving and it doesn’t matter whose at the top. You
know what my husband kept saying about people were so worrying
who was going to be President. And he goes, “You know what?
Basically, our lives aren’t going to change much day by day, we still
have to keep on going and keep on pushing for what we believe is
right.” Yes, it makes a difference a little bit, it makes it easier for what
you might think is important, but basically day by day its up to us. It’s
up to us to change. It’s up to us to find cash instead of going into
debt. You know I heard another thing that when I said that this group
of people, this group of young people not having the education that
their parents had…
Betsey Merkel: We have a comment, when you are finished.
Gloria Ferris: Oh, all right. Okay, good. But, this is the first time a
college debt is more than one year’s salary for someone leaving
college. They’re debt is more than their starting entry pay. So, we do
need to think of value in different ways. So, Betsey says we have a
comment…from one of our online people.
Betsey Merkel: Yes, Jill at NPR says, “Good morning, Ladies. Two
items I want to add regarding economic impact on women. First, a
story on how parents are pulling kids from childcare because they
can’t afford it. What will be the ripple affect of that?” and second,
women suffer from job loss twice as much as men. That was in the
Women’s E-News this morning, she said and she said she’ll Twitter
links to me. So we’ll include more information in our follow up to you
and after the show closes we can talk about how we can stay
connected.
Gloria Ferris: Oh, great.
MaryBeth Matthews: Thanks, Jill.
Gloria Ferris: Thanks Jill, good job. Jill is a Blogger, she writes online,
she’s actually by education, she worked as a social worker at
Bellfaire and then she went to law school and she’s an attorney, but
she is now a journalist, she started blogging…she is blogging at
Newsweek, I can’t think of what her…Newsweek Ruckus, I think it’s
called. She is in a group of women Bloggers, they call themselves
“Bloggher” – they are all women Bloggers from all over the United
States and they have gotten together as a collective and have all of
their blogs up so you can read the different things that they’re…she is
sometimes on the “Sound of Ideas,’ NPR, if you ever listen to that.
Recently, she was asked by NPR to go to Washington, DC on
Election night and do their blogging for them so, but I guess that kind
of tells you education is different, you went for one thing and you’re
doing a whole different thing. Thank you.
Related Links
Book: October 2008 "2008 Presidential Campaign Issues: Growing

the Economic Viability of Women" Part 1: A Pre-Election Discussion"
Women's Enterprise Network Broadcast channel
Link: http://www.livestream.com/womansenterprisenetwork

Women’s Enterprise Network on Strategy-Nets
Link: http://womens-enterprise-network.strategy-nets.net


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Women's Enterprise Network November 8, 2008

Judson Living, Cleveland, Ohio

"2008 Presidential Campaign Issues: Growing the Economic Viability

Part 2: Where do we go from here Mr. President?"

If you were in a room with Senator Obama and Senator Mc Cain,

* Restoration of Global Respect for America

Copyright 2010 Betsey Merkel http://www.betseymerkel.extendr.com/ and I-Open

Gloria Ferris: That’s interesting, I think thinking, I think part of that is

Gloria Ferris: She didn’t say that she said that…

Jay Calabretta: That’s what I heard a criticism of him.

MaryBeth Mathews: So, what do you think they meant by that

Gloria Ferris: I agree.

MaryBeth Matthews: Eventually it will come around to me…my name

Susan Altshuler: Would you like to introduce yourself?

Susan Altshuler: I’m Susan Altshuler and I’m a member of the

Gloria Ferris: Alice?

MaryBeth Matthews: One of John F Kennedy’s more famous

Gloria Ferris: We’ve been joined by a lady behind MaryBeth there,

Linda Horter: I agree with everything she says.

MaryBeth Matthews: Thank you.

Linda Horter: Everybody should do their part.

Gloria Ferris: Everybody should do their part.

Claire Marsh: I think he’s hoping.

Gloria Ferris: You think he’s hoping too?

Claire Marsh: Yes.

Gloria Ferris: That’s an interesting thought. That’s an interesting

MaryBeth Matthews: Well, I recall that, and actually I wish I could

Copyright 2010 Betsey Merkel http://www.betseymerkel.extendr.com/ and I-Open

Susan Altshuler: Those little trips that waste so much gas.

Jay Calabretta: Well, that's a no brainer.

Gloria Ferris: For you Jay, for you...

Alice Merkel: I think that…um…Oh; I had a point…I forgot.

Gloria Ferris: Okay, all right.

Dorothy Schade: Is that what you wanted?

Copyright 2010 Betsey Merkel http://www.betseymerkel.extendr.com/ and I-Open

Copyright 2010 Betsey Merkel http://www.betseymerkel.extendr.com/ and I-Open

Ginny Becker: Money…

Ginny Becker: What about Head Start?

Gloria Ferris: Head Start, actually I believe does a very good…

Ginny Becker: Yes, they do…

Copyright 2010 Betsey Merkel http://www.betseymerkel.extendr.com/ and I-Open

Marybeth Matthews: I’m so glad you brought that up because that is

Ginny Becker: Head Start. Head Start.

Jay Calabretta: I find it really hard to believe that children come to

MaryBeth Matthews: Well, here, I’ll give you an antidotal story…a

Jay Calabretta: Spaghetti?

MaryBeth Matthews and Residents: Big Daddy. Big Daddy.

Jay Calabretta: “Big Daddy?”

MaryBeth Matthews: “Big Daddy.” He knew his nickname; he didn’t

Ginny Becker: Most of them know how to print their name.

Jay Calabretta: Well, okay, that’s kind of a cultural thing.

MaryBeth Matthews: Well, no I wouldn’t call it a cultural thing; I would

Ginny Becker: Neglect.

MaryBeth Matthews: Yes, neglect. Precisely.

Gloria Ferris: And their phone number.

MaryBeth Matthews: And the thing is the school districts do those

Gloria Ferris: Pre-school for parents.

Susan Altshuler: The parents have to be partially responsible for their

MaryBeth Matthews: Let me kind of jump in on this. Because we all

Copyright 2010 Betsey Merkel http://www.betseymerkel.extendr.com/ and I-Open

Sarah Livingston: Support Services.

Gloria Ferris: Support Services of Cleveland Schools. And we’re

MaryBeth Matthews: I can speak from personal experience. I teach at

Dorothy Schade: I happen to be the wife of a retired career officer.

Women's Enterprise Network Live Show Transcription 20081108

Women's Enterprise Network Live Show Transcription 20081108