Mary E. Dolan: Latest With FDR Memorial Legacy Committee

Welcome to Disability Matters with your host Joyce Bender. All comments, views, and opinions expressed on the show are solely those of the host, guest, and callers. Now the host of Disability Matters, here's Joyce Bender.

Hello everyone and welcome to the show. Oh, you know what this month is, right? National Disability Employment Awareness Month. But you know what I call it? I call it National Disability Employment Month. You know why? We've had more than enough awareness. We're aware. Companies are aware. They just need to hire people. That is where the rubber meets the road. Hello, Yoshiko Dart. Special shout-out to you and to all my friends around the world. Richard in Brazil and Carla, Dong-young Cho in South Korea, all of you great disability rights leaders. You know what? You're awesome. You're awesome how you listen to this show. And, of course, all of my wonderful listeners in North America. So, I want you to know, if it weren't for you, we wouldn't be here. This is the 20th anniversary of Disability Matters with Joyce Bender. And as a woman living with epilepsy and disability rights leader, I need all of you to try to help me spread the word about hiring Americans with disabilities. And, you know, I get involved in as many things as I can, and one is with the FDR, the FDR Memorial Legacy Committee. And it is an honor, an honor for me because, you know, I always say, what, if you have a disability, you think you cannot, you cannot, companies think, not you, that you cannot work. And yet, one of the greatest presidents of the United States was in a wheelchair. Think about that, corporate America, when you're not hiring people with disabilities. And one other shout-out, my engineer Andrew has to put up with me all the time, and he does a great job. I feel sorry for him. He probably right now is having a shot of tequila. But Andrew, you are awesome. Thank you, thank you, sorry for all the times they drive you crazy. Well, I'm excited about this show today because we have one of my favorite people on who has been on before, Mary Dolan, the Executive Director of the FDR Memorial Legacy Committee. And Mary, I love having you on as we celebrate, as I call it, National Disability Employment Month. Because, you know, we just need all the help we can get across the board. So, Mary, how did you first get involved in the disability community?

Sure. And thank you for having me on, Joyce. I love being on this show, and thank you for everything that you do and the leadership that you have shown and through this show and your company for all these years. America and the world is stronger because of that, because of you. So, I'm one of your big fans. And how did I get into this world of disability? It's, you know, it's a crazy, funny story, I guess, like everybody's. You know, life happens to you. And And we are all— those who are non-disabled are temporarily able-bodied. I consider myself a person with disability. I later in life learned that what I had been dealing with is anxiety, is ADHD, is depression, finally given it a name.

But that was not—

that was only when I was in my 40s. When I was in— my 20s, I got a job for— with a great organization, the National Organization on Disability, uh, which was rather fortuitous. I wanted to work on rights in America. I was pretty agnostic to what, what those rights would be, but I just wanted to be on the side of the angels. And little did I know was that this small but mighty organization was going to rally up the very large and mighty disability community to lead the fight at the FDR Memorial to make sure that disability was not seen as a stigma and that it was front and center for the millions of Americans to be seeing every day when they go— not every day, but every year when they go through the FDR Memorial. That's a little bit of a snapshot as to how I came upon this work and who I am as a person now.

Well, exactly how did you come upon this work? I mean, what happened and what made you decide this is what I want to do?

Yeah, like I said, I really wanted— after I, you know, I got a nice college degree and I got a nice graduate degree in international affairs, international politics, wanted to work on human rights. And I met along the way, as I was doing a lot of interviews, I met a dynamic person named Alan Wright, who was the founder and president of the National Organization on Disability. And it was one of the greatest interviews in my life. Really hit it off, but he was looking for somebody at a level that I had been doing a bunch of years earlier, I'll just say. But it was a conversation that really reminded me that I had had people with disabilities in my life my entire life. Long story short, he hired me as a special assistant, and it was, for me, one of the greatest decisions in my life to take that job. And I was his right-hand person, and I'd say also for the chairman of the board, Michael Delland, who was the chair of the National Organization on Disability, when they led the fight for the wheelchair statue. And I stayed at NOD for 16 years. Holy cow. Then taught school for 7 years to students with disabilities. I just had to do that. It just was one of those itches that I just absolutely had to scratch. And now here I am running this friends group for the FDR Memorial born out of the disability community.

And we're so lucky to have you, Mary. Hey, Mary, how about telling everyone about that fight with the statue? Because you know what, Mary, in a way, doesn't that just show stigma all over it? You know what I mean? So, tell everyone about that fight to get the chair. Tell everyone how it was originally.

Sure, sure. For those of you who have been to Washington, D.C., hopefully you've gone to the FDR Memorial. And now, when you walk through it, when you roll through it, when you experience it, the first statue that is there now is a gorgeous bronze of FDR in a wheelchair. But that wasn't the case when it was designed and when it was dedicated and for the first 4 years of the existence of that memorial. The brilliant landscape architect, Larry Halperin, when he designed the memorial in the '70s, they just, you know, for whatever reason, I can't go in, I don't know the exact reasons for what steps, for why that statue of him shown as a disabled person, those conversations. Those that be, those who were in charge at the time did not put forward the idea to show him clearly as a disabled person. There was a discussion that the family didn't want him to be shown disabled. There was a lot of discussion that FDR himself went to great lengths to hide it. There was other discussions that the public didn't know that he was disabled. And then that sort of took hold, and in the memorial there is a fabulous grandiose statue of FDR seated in a chair with his cape, if you know that famous picture from Yalta. He has a cape on. And when we started asking, well, how is his disability going to be portrayed, we were told, well, look to that statue. Peek around the back. Look at the bottom where his cape falls, and you'll find a caster, a small round circle, which clearly— we were told clearly— indicates that he was sitting in a wheelchair. And so that was about 1995. And we said, well, that's really not a clear indication of a person who spent every day of his life, especially in the White House, and most of his adult life using a wheelchair. And so there the battle began. You know, one could say that there were maybe some, yes, that there was stigma involved in those decisions. And especially in our initial entreaties to say, "Let us fix this. Let us add a statue." You know, I will say official Washington, which included the Park Service, which included those who were developing the memorial, were very much against the depiction, and plus they also were shovel-ready to get this memorial off the ground. So, a little— they just certainly did not want a bunch of nosy bodies like us in the disability community mucking up what they had been planning for a few decades.

Wow. That is really— you know what amazes me? That part about look at that underneath. The cape. That could be a famous line, you know that? Look at the back underneath the cape and then you'll see the signs of disability. Wow, that really, that's really something. Well, Mary, tell everyone and anyone listening right now, I'm going to ask Mary at the end to give the website in case, and I hope you will make a contribution to the FDR Memorial Legacy Advisory Committee If you're listening to the show, if you have a disability, if you're using a wheelchair, hey, we got to fight this fight. You know, no shame. So, I don't care if it's $5. I don't care what it is. But Mary, at the end of this, will give you the website. So, Mary, tell our listeners, what is the FDR Memorial Legacy Advisory Committee?

Sure.

Absolutely.

And so, our organization, I know it's a mouthful and some people tell me I got to shorten it, but we call it the FDR Committee for short. But it's the FDR Memorial Legacy Committee. And we have a board of directors because we are a 501 organization. But the first group of people that we assembled to help put this group together was our advisory board. And we— I'm thrilled, Joyce, that you're a member of that. And we have a couple of other Luminaries within the disability community also involved, such as Senator Harkin, Ambassador Luis Gallegos, John Kemp. And Helena Berger, by the way, is our chair of the board, and most of you might know her from her days at AAPD. But, you know, the advisory board, we meet twice a year, and thank goodness for all of them because they really are there as sounding boards for how, not just how to run the organization, because that is really the board, but it is really the heart of the organization. You know, how do we, how do we go about taking on some of the educational and preservation and inclusion battles, and campaigns, and efforts that we need to to be involved in. For instance, the advisory board's been very involved in our recent work to track the new project that the National Park Service is going to do, which is to rehabilitate some of the walls, some of the seawalls along the tidal basin. And we were really worried that that was going to create some issues at the FDR Memorial. And that is something that the Advisory Board was just, just side by side with me on, giving me advice, signing petitions, circulating letters. And we, we really were able to get our voices heard. And that is because of that advocacy, that grassroots work, and just a dedicated bunch of folks who I am so thankful to be working with.

Wow. Well, what is the website, Mary?

Our website is, you know, everybody, you all know that www part, so it is FDR, for Franklin D. Roosevelt, so FDRMemorialLegacy.com. And I really appreciate that shout out to donate. And I'll tell you, one of our wonderful donors, Gordon Gund of the Gordon and Laura Gund Foundation, they are matching all donations to us up to— so our goal is $100,000 this year. I'm sorry, this— starting this year going into next year. So, anything that you give is going to be doubled. Which is, I mean, if you do not know the nonprofit world, that is just amazing. So, like as Joyce Bender said, if it is $5, $10, it is double once you, once you make that donation. And you can, you can give right online. Again, it is www.fdrmemoriallegacy.com.

And I just want to say that You know, it's getting toward the end of the year. I know you'll be thinking about where to make a donation. Well, here you go. This is where you can make a donation. And I'm telling you, when you go to that monument, that memorial, it is beautiful. It is absolutely beautiful. I want to, um, Actually, I'm going to go over this now. Mary, tell everyone what those 4 rooms represent at the memorial.

Sure. Yes. So, the memorial is a— it's a really 5 rooms because the first room is the Prologue Room, which is where the FDR wheelchair statue is. And then it's followed by 4 additional rooms, each one representing the 4 different terms of FDR's presidency. And each one has a bit of a different theme. The first one is inauguration, and it includes some images of his inauguration. And then the second term is showing how difficult the times were. During that period with the Great Depression. And so, that has some real iconic artwork in there. The third room is war.

It— you really—

they delve into World War II. And then, the last room is— he didn't last very long into his final term in office, So, it's more of a somber room, but ends on an uplifting note with a tremendous fountain when it's working is triumphant. And mind you, that final room includes a statue of Eleanor Roosevelt, who is the only First Lady to have a statue in a presidential memorial. And quick little other shout-out, on December 9th, rain date of the 10th, we're going to be doing a belated birthday celebration for Eleanor Roosevelt at the FDR Memorial in D.C. at 2 o'clock. And we're doing it on the 9th, again, rain date of the 10th, because we're going to tie in Human Rights Day and the 75th anniversary of the Declaration of Human Rights, which For those of you who remember the days of the Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities, RCRPD is a direct outgrowth of that work of Eleanor Roosevelt. So, this is an important commemoration for us as well.

Wow, I didn't know that. That is really amazing, Mary.

I mean—

Definitely. —how that came— that is really amazing. What you just said about where that came from. Well, Mary, my birthday is December 7th, so you see we're close. I love it.

Well, then we got to talk about getting you to D.C. for that.

I'll tell you, I'll be everywhere this year for my birthday, and I'll explain that later. But I guess— oh, I should use that to get money donated. That's, that's That's a good idea, Mary. I'll think that out. So, Mary, you do so many great things at the FDR— from the FDR Advisory Committee, and I wanted you to explain to our listeners what some of the main programs are.

Sure, absolutely. So, we have a 3-pronged mission. The first one is education. The next one is inclusion and accessibility, make sure everyone people can access the memorial, whether in person or through, you know, online components. And then finally is preservation, making sure the memorial lasts into the future. And then the stories. So a couple of things that we've done. Education, one, we do teacher workshops. We train teachers on how to use the FDR Memorial and particularly the story of the fight for the wheelchair statue, how to teach that in the classroom. How does it relate to curricula? How can you use that to meet all the things that teachers are asked to do? And so we have a tight little workshop that we've delivered for the last 3 years, and helping teachers make sure that they embed disability into the classroom through using that story. We also do wreath-layings throughout the year. Again, this is a big, big memorial, and a lot of anniversaries come by each year. So we recognize Eleanor Roosevelt's birthday with a wreath-laying, which we do with local area Girl Scouts. We do a wreath-laying for FDR's birthday with a local D.C. public school, Brown Education Campus, who are real rock stars each year with us. And then each year we always make sure to recognize the anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act. And we get beautiful wreaths and we sometimes have events. One year we actually had Senator Duckworth and Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton back in 2021 to help us do that ADA anniversary. In terms of inclusion and accessibility, we've done some audits of the access issues at the FDR Memorial, and I have found those have been very successful, not only because they— those— the audit wound up in the Washington Post, but also because it prompted the Park Service to add interpretation tables throughout the FDR Memorial so that very varied learners, varied visitors, you know, people with all different types of learning points can access the information that is presented at the memorial. And then finally, preservation. And I mentioned preservation to us means bricks and mortars and stories. So, we do get all the stories that we can about those who were involved in that fight for the wheelchair statue, oral histories, news articles, but also trying to make sure that we have all the information about how the memorial was built because It's a huge, huge memorial and a really important part of history. And then we also fight to make sure that the memorial is preserved for the future. Climate change is hitting everyone. Tides are rising. And we need to make sure that the memorial is being appropriately planned for into the future. If we do nothing, we are promised by scientists in 30 to 50 years water will be encroaching severely onto and into the FDR Memorial as well as the rest of the tidal basin. So we are tracking everything that the Park Service is doing really carefully. We are spending a lot of time and resources on making our voices clear that there is no exception to preserving that entire memorial.

Yeah, I wanted you to talk a little bit more about that, Mary, because I know there's a big— thanks to you and the group, you know, I was thinking about a handful of people fighting the fight to save the memorial not being underwater. Could you talk a little bit about what's been going on, what we've been doing to try to stop this or You know, just everything about it. First of all, explain where this comes from, this water.

Sure. Absolutely. And— Yes. So, this is something that everyone— you're hearing about this in the news all the time. What's going to happen to coastal communities? What's happening even inland because of voluminous rain events, right? So, water— and it's ironic because FDR— there's a lot of water within the memorial, and water is prominent in FDR's life. So, but the Tidal Basin itself around which the FDR Memorial sits, as well as the MLK Memorial and the Jefferson Memorial and some other beautiful pieces of art, but the Tidal Basin itself is sinking. The tide within the memorial itself is rising. Water comes in from the Potomac. It now laps over into— onto the walkway around the FDR Memorial. So, sort of that perimeter, that access within that perimeter is compromised. And if nothing is done, that water will keep rising. That's just what the scientists say, and it will keep encroaching higher and higher until eventually the— not only FDR Memorial, but MLK as well is going to get waterlogged. So the Park Service designed a project which in some part we have no problem with, and in other parts we have lots of problems with. Simply put, they identified what they found— and again, I put that what they found, this was not put to public scrutiny— what they found to be the most severe areas of the tidal basin that are being damaged by— I'm sorry, the areas of the tidal basin seawall that has been damaged. And so that area they chose to work on is near the Jefferson Memorial. And then another area, which is across the street from the FDR Memorial along the Potomac. So we agree that the area along the Jefferson, if you even Google it, you know, Jefferson Memorial tidal issues flooding, you'll see. There's no doubt that that area needs some rehabilitation. The area that they chose along Ohio Drive and the Potomac, and I'm sorry if that's inside baseball for for y'all. You know, we're not so sure why that was chosen, and that's apparently— they get to choose, and so be it. What we were worried about and remain worried about is that this decision was not a comprehensive solution to really think about how to protect the rest of the memorials as well. Now, they do say that They promised to do that, and they will be addressing that in their comprehensive plan, which is underway now. What we, over a year, kept saying to them, once we got smart on the subject, is, "How come you're not considering alternatives like modifying the tidal basin tidal gates?" Guess what? There are gates within the tidal basin, and my— some preliminary investigations that we've done with some consultants has led us to understand that tidal gates can be modified to deal with the tides. Why is that important? Because that would mitigate the amount of water flowing into the tidal basin, uh, overtopping the seawall along the FDR Memorial, and then into the future, going even beyond the seawall up into over the berm into the FDR Memorial. So we are pushing the, uh, the Park Service to consider that as a possible alternative. We don't know that that's the alternative, but what we were concerned about was that real other alternatives were not explored for this $112 million public work project, which has now been greenlit to repair some walls around the tidal basin, not all again, but just some areas, while still leaving the far majority of the tidal basin and unprotected. And $112 million doesn't come to the Park Service within Washington, D.C. very often. So, the worry is, well, when are they going to get their next $112 million appropriation to do something to protect the rest of the memorials? I don't have my crystal ball working today, so I don't have an answer to that. Right?

So this is a—

we got to play the long game on this. And our community needs to represent at these meetings when they present to the National Capital Planning Commission and during the public scoping meetings. One of the— so I'll stop there because it is quite an octopus of a project to track that. And I'll just bring it back to the disability community because it's trying to make sure folks understand why this memorial matters to our community. And I think it's because in the '90s, our community, over 50 disability organizations across the country, signed on and endorsed the campaign to remove stigma and add a depiction of FDR as a disabled guy, as a disabled man. And now over 3 million people each year, it's the first thing they see. They see disability at this memorial. Where else are you going to go and see the president of the United States as a disabled person and have that as a talking point for what is possible? And so, that's why this is important. It's important because Judy Heumann was a member of our advisory board, and she believed in our work. It's important because Justin Dart marched at our rallies back in the '90s to make sure that FDR was shown. And I could go on and on about, you know, why it's important and who was involved. But that's why we are taking this on. And furthermore, I'll just say, any changes to— the tidal basin, we all got to make sure are going to be fulfilling all the hopes and needs of people with disabilities for accessibility, right? We got to make sure that we are always represented.

Hey, Mary, let's hear that website one more time so people can make a donation to this great memorial.

Thank you so much. FDR, standing for Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial Legacy dot com. And we are a nonprofit. We just chose dot com, just so— don't, don't get weirded out by that. FDR Memorial Legacy dot com. And right at the top, you'll see a nice little button that says donate. Couldn't be easier.

All right. And I know a lot of you either share this podcast with others because so many people listen on demand. Make sure you tell other people you all can go to Spotify, Apple, benderconsult.com, voiceamerica.com, really almost all the social media venues. To hear these shows on demand. So make sure you share that with everyone so more people know that one of the greatest presidents of all time, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, lived with polio and used a wheelchair. What an unbelievable statement does that make for National Disability Employment Month. Let's have that awareness. You see it right there with that memorial. And with that, it's time for What's Going On at Bender. Gerald Homme, are you with us? I am here, Joyce. And how are you today?

I am wonderful. Thank you very much. Thank you for having me on the show again.

Okay. Well, what do you have for us today?

Since it's National Disability Employment Awareness Month, I wanted to remind our viewers about our upcoming Bender Virtual Career Fair coming up on November 15th. This is a free opportunity for candidates with disabilities to sign up and connect with great employers all over the U.S. to— or hiring people with disabilities. It's going to be online on CareerEco's website. If you go to benderconsultant.com, www.careers.gov/careers, you can learn about it. We've been partnering with CareerEco for years hosting these events. Wells Fargo is our top-level sponsor for the event, but we've got great organizations like the Bureau of Land Management, CVS, the FDIC, the NGA, ICE, New Jersey Economic Development Authority, Sherman Williams, a ton of great companies and federal agencies signed up that are going to be recruiting candidates with disabilities. So make sure you go out there and sign up as a candidate with a disability looking for work. And if you're looking to recruit candidates with disabilities, we always have over 1,000 applicants apply. Our fall event is always our biggest one, so registration's open to sign up and connect with— Job Seekers with Disabilities Today. Oh, thank you, Gerald.

What is that date again?

November 15th, and you can learn about it at benderconsult.com/careers.

Anyone of you with disabilities looking for employment, there is no fee. Go to that job fair, and if you're a company listening, you can still be a sponsor Get in touch with us, benderconsult.com. Thank you, Gerald. Thank you, Joyce. You know, Mary, we're working on a project together where we want to get high school students with disabilities working with you at that memorial, educate them. Anyone listening, by the way, you know, this would be a good thing to be a sponsor of. Because high school students with disabilities need our support. And why I bring this up is tomorrow is National Disability Mentoring Day, the third Wednesday of every October, where high school students with disabilities go for a day of job shadowing at your company. If you don't do this, plan on doing it next year. It is the greatest thing. I'll tell you, after I received the President's Award at the White House, From President Clinton, I got to know Jonathan Young because he worked at the White House. And one day he called me in Pittsburgh where I'm headquartered and said, Joyce Bender, above all, I know you know how important employment is. We won't get a month, but let's try to get a day. And with that day, let's center it around employment. And so came Disability Mentoring Day in 1999. And you know what? Pittsburgh, we have the largest group, and last night we had our kickoff, and tomorrow we have 500 to 600 students going to different companies. National Disability Mentoring Day, and the overseer is AAPD at AAPD.com, but if you get in touch with us, we can get you ready to go for next year. Benderconsult.com. Mary, isn't that an awesome story?

I absolutely love it. And, you know, mentoring is where it's at. I mean, I— we all need mentors no matter what age we are. And job exposure, that's, that's how we bridge this gap. And we got to remember, there is a gap between people with and without disabilities in terms of employment, in terms of income, and And that means every other factor in life as well. And that's not the world that we want to be in, right? So, Joyce, I'm so thrilled to hear about the hundreds of people that you are serving through your program with Disability Mentoring Day. And we're— again, we're thrilled to be able to hopefully plan for a project bringing some folks to to D.C. as part of mentoring as well. So, fingers crossed.

Oh, we are going to do it, Mary. We are going to do it. And, you know, all I can think about still is that time Senator Harkin was at the memorial and heard this person talking to their son or grandson, and the child saying, "Well, who is this?" What is this? Right. He didn't know who FDR was. He had no idea what the whole thing was about. And, you know, that's terrible. That is terrible. And that's why this project is so important. I want young people with disabilities to know, hey, I can be president. I'm not going to let people knock me down. I'm not going to let people tell me that I can't do it or I'm not able. He was the president, and boy, what a loved president, that he was in all those terms of office is so amazing to think of today, isn't it, Mary?

It definitely is. And his story is, you know, everybody goes through challenges in life, and The fact that we have so much literature now to understand really what he went through, it really is a story that relates to so many people. His experiences in Warm Springs, Georgia, with what he accomplished there in terms of literally founding a community of disabled people where they could live with ease and comfort and without the stigma. So, you know, the FDR Memorial story just is a gift that keeps on giving. And I'm just honored to be able to do this work and carry on not only just those stories of the memorial overall, but particularly the story of how the disability community truly changed how the world will remember FDR into the future. And that is remembering that he was great and great with a disability.

Well, Mary, as your executive director there, I just want to say you're a great disability rights leader because you are helping educate and you are giving hope to young people with disabilities when they see a president that used a wheelchair. So, you know, Mary, you never know the life you may impact that would cause a young person with a disability to say, I am going to run for office. You just never know. Let's not forget Senator Tammy Duckworth, who was in that horrible helicopter crash when she was serving and lost her legs with that Afghanistani terrorist that shot the rocket that hit her. But she too is an example. But just think, Mary, you're educating the disabled and non-disabled. You're helping them realize that what they may think, the stigma they may have, is wrong. So I want to thank you, Mary, for the work you're doing as the executive director. I can tell all of you listeners she puts her heart and soul in this. She is so passionate and dedicated. And Mary, we all respect you and thank you so much. Thank you so much, Joyce Bender.

It's a thrill to be with you, and those words mean a great deal, and I appreciate all of it.

Well, it's a fact. And you know, Mary, I just can't stop asking for that website, because someone may have just joined the show. And by the way, if you just did join the show, we're talking to Mary Dolan, the Executive Director of the FDR Memorial Legacy Committee in Washington, D.C., right where the memorial is. What is the website, Mary? Sure.

It's FDRMemorialLegacy.com. FDR as in Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial Legacy.com. And Yeah, you can go to the donate button and donate, but while you're at it as well, just click on education, go to lesson plans. You'll see a lesson plan we made about Judy Heumann, which I'm honored to say that we were able to show her long before she was failing. There's a lesson plan about Mike DeLand, former chairman of the National Organization on Disability. And another great, another great leader, Thomas Mick County, a lesson plan on him. So those are some examples. If you're looking for something tangible about what we're doing, those are 3 products we're super proud of that we are pushing into schools as well. Thank you, Mary.

And before I close off today, I just want to say my heart is with all of you in Israel that were impacted from this horrible terrorist act. You know, we are all with you. I am with you. And with that, we have to end the show, every show, with a quote. And today the quote is, "In the truest sense, freedom cannot be bestowed, it must be achieved," said Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Thank you, everyone. I'll talk to you next week. You're great listeners. And in the words of Mary Brooker, remember today, choose joy.

Voice America would like to thank you for tuning in. Please join us next Tuesday at 11 AM Pacific time and 2 PM Eastern Eastern Time for another installment of Disability Matters, right here on the Voice America Variety Channel. We are the leader in live internet talk radio. VoiceAmerica.com.