Our Life & Times

A Journal of 1199SEIU

Our Life And Times

NOVEMBER FOURTH IS ABOUT US

July/August 2008

Contents 3 4 5 6 8 10 12 14

Easing the Pain November’s elections are about real people.

President’s Column You choose: Obama and a new future or McCain and four more years of Bush decline.

November Is Also About Equality Washington, D.C. member is on frontlines.

Redefining Poverty The majority of our nation’s poor are working people.

Shrinking Economy Raises Fears Niagara County hospital offers stability in declining region.

Home Health Aide Betty Ann Alexander Universal health care would ease the burden of thousands of homecare workers.

Rural Institutions Have Special Problems Healthcare funding equality is a major issue.

SEIU Launches Ambitious Campaign Change in Congress on agenda.

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Our Life And Times, July/August 2008, Vol. 26, No. 4 Published by 1199SEIU, United Healthcare Workers East 310 West 43rd St. New York, NY 10036 Telephone (212) 582-1890 www.1199seiu.org PR E S I DE NT: George Gresham S E C R E TA RY T R E A S U R E R :

Maria Castaneda EXEC UTIVE VIC E PR E S I DE NTS:

Jennifer Klein

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Norma Amsterdam Yvonne Armstrong Angela Doyle Mike Fadel Aida Garcia Patrick Gaspard George Kennedy Steve Kramer Patrick Lindsay Joyce Neil John Reid Bruce Richard Mike Rifkin Neva Shillingford Estela Vasquez E D I TO R : J.J. Johnson S TA F F W R I T E R : Patricia Kenney P H OTO G RA P H E R :

Jim Tynan P H OTO G RA P H Y A S S I S TA N T :

Belinda Gallegos A RT D I R E CT I O N & D E S I G N : maiarelli studio C OV E R P H OTO S : Jim Tynan, Belinda Gallegos Our Life And Times is published 6 times a year by 1199SEIU, 310 West 43rd St., New York, NY 10036.

Subscriptions $15 per year.

Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY and additional mailing offices.

ISSN 1090-3089.

USPS 000-392.

Postmaster: Send address changes to Our Life And Times, 310 West 43rd St., New York, NY 10036.

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OUR UNION

November’s elections are about real people.

Easing the Pain

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t’s easy to view the November elections as horse races handicapped daily by media talking heads dissecting the electorate and going on about red and blue states.

But as this issue of Our Life And Times (OLAT) attempts to illustrate, the coming elections are perhaps the most important in decades — because they are about the ability of ordinary working people to get through the day. They’re about 1199ers, who are typical of this country’s working people, wanting desperately to put an end to eight years of pain.

This issue — presented mostly in photographs — introduces you to members who give voice to their dreams and in some cases have already begun laying the groundwork to change the administration.

In preparing this issue of OLAT, we spoke with a member in Brooklyn who lost her home to unscrupulous lenders. Her mortgage payments rose so high that they exceeded her monthly take-home pay.

Because she is in the midst of legal actions, she is not ready to be interviewed. “I eventually want to tell my story because I don’t want this to happen to anyone else,” she says. e spoke with Carmen Davis, a single mother of three and a CNA at Amsterdam NH in Amsterdam, N.Y. “I would love to have a car, but I can’t afford one,” she says.

And there are 1199ers with cars who can’t afford to fill up their gas tanks.

Christine Watson, a billing clerk at Intercommunity Memorial Hospital in Newfane, N.Y., worries about her 24-year-

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old daughter. “She lost her job to downsizing,” Watson says. “She’s out there looking for a job. There’s nothing full time” Brooklyn Project OHR home health aide Betty Ann Alexander is one of thousands of 1199ers who live in constant fear that they might lose their healthcare coverage. Intense lobbying and member mobilization last year averted the cutoff of her coverage.

“It’s scary when our benefits are cut and workers don’t have money to take their children to the doctor,” she says.

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adly, thousands of recently organized 1199ers are among the nation’s 47 million without healthcare coverage. Also, children of 1199ers are found among the 37 million living in poverty in one of the world’s richest nations.

Alexander says she is supporting Barack Obama because she believes he will help make universal health care a reality.

John Rusinko, a maintenance worker at Catskill Regional Hospital in Middletown, N.Y., counts ending the war in Iraq among the primary reasons he supports Obama.

Donna Payne, the associate director of diversity for the Washington, D.C.-based Human Rights Campaign, says she puts her hope in Obama because he offers hope for an America that embraces all. hough many of the members in this issue talk about the increasing difficulty of making ends meet, many also express optimism about finally being able to see some light at the end of the tunnel. They call that light a Democratic victory and Pres. Barack Obama.

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The coming elections are perhaps the most important in decades—because they are about the ability of ordinary working people to get through the day Members at June’s SEIU convention in Puerto Rico cheered Barack Obama’s vision for progress for the nation’s working families.

THE PRESIDENT’S COLUMN George Gresham

You Choose: Obama And A New Future Or McCain And Four More Years Of Bush Decline?

The issues in this year’s elections—and the differences between Barack Obama and John McCain—could not possibly be clearer.

The question for us is: What are we going to do about it?

JOHN MCCAIN OFFERS US LITTLE MORE THAN A THIRD GEORGE BUSH TERM

• Thousands of more lives and billions of more dollars down the sinkhole of the Iraq occupation.

• The loss of millions of jobs—especially Union jobs—and the increase of impoverishment and housing foreclosures.

• Inflationary prices of essential goods and services with some food prices, gas and oil, and college tuition being placed beyond the means of working families.

• Millions of more Americans without health care (under Bush, the number of uninsured has grown from 40 million to 48 million).

• The demonization and persecution of millions of immigrant workers.

• The growing erosion of our basic Constitutional rights, such as warrantless wiretapping, the invasion of homes, a secret prison system, and the torture of prisoners.

• The widening gap between the billionaires who own and run our basic industries, banking and mass media, and the tens of millions of hard-working Americans trying to stay afloat.

• The increasing degradation of our most precious natural resources the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat—and the reputation of the United States as a rogue nation that refuses to join with the rest of humanity to save the planet from human-made global warming.

BARACK OBAMA OFFERS US THE OPPORTUNITY TO MAKE SERIOUS CHANGE

• To end the Iraq war and bring our troops home.

• To pass the Employee Free Choice Act, giving millions of unorganized workers an easier road to joining a Union of their choice.

• To finally achieve healthcare reform that provides affordable health care for everyone.

• To secure real immigration reform that provides a path to citizenship for millions of immigrant workers.

• To restore an equitable tax system that relieves the burden on working families and makes the corporations and the wealthy pay their fair share.

• To take the money now spent on war and war preparation and invest it in rebuilding the infrastructure of our cities and transportation systems, and in alternative safe energy sources—thereby creating millions of jobs.

• To rejoin the family of nations and restore the good name of the United States by negotiating treaties aimed at safeguarding the planet from climate change, weapons of mass destruction, and violations of human rights.

That is a pretty stark choice facing our members and our families.

Our Union has made the obvious one by not only endorsing Barack Obama but planning to do all within our power to send him to the White House, along with a worker-friendly and healthcare-friendly Congress.

We will be sending hundreds of our very best leaders, organizers and Delegates into more than a dozen battleground states to secure victory in November. As the election gets closer, those hundreds will become thousands of 1199ers door-knocking, phoning and getting out the vote of our Union brothers and sisters, and our neighbors and families.

But 1199SEIU is our 325,000 members, not our officers and our headquarters buildings. Our Political Action Fund is built from your voluntary contributions of five or ten dollars a month.

That is a small enough investment to make for our jobs, our benefits and our families’ security. It is little more than the cost of a fast-food meal or a movie ticket, either of which is quickly forgotten in 24 hours. But the results of November will be with us for years to come and seriously affect each of our families and us.

Outside of pulling the right levers on Nov. 4, you will not be making any more consequential decision this year. We know you will do the right thing.

Letters OBAMA AND MY SON istory has been made with the nomination of Barack Obama for the presidency of the U.S.A. As a young black woman who sees the dire need for change, especially for our black youth, I pray that this will be a new beginning.

My 12-year-old son, Dominique, while studying the history of America’s past presidents, once queried why they were all white men. He was curious about why America never had a black president. I introduced him to the persona of Barack Obama and he was elated.

However, I also informed him that there was no guarantee that Barack would be our next president. My precious son regrettably shook his head, walked away and muttered under his breath, “Well, to heck with them if they don’t want a black man to be president.”

In my son’s eyes, Barack would open a new stage of history.

He would be “their” Martin Luther King, “their” Marcus Garvey. Barack Obama promises a change, the change that my son and all youths yearn for. It is a change that will show my son that perseverance will prevail, the change that will redirect our nation’s course. But in the words of my son, if his Barack loses, “to heck with them, they will never know the change that they missed out on.”

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MAXINE McCARTHY Isabella NH, New York City

LESSONS OF CONVENTION was proud to be an 1199SEIU delegate at the SEIU convention that was held in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in June. I was happy to see that the convention’s theme was “Justice for All. Pass It On.” I was also happy to meet and talk with other SEIU members who work in for-profit nursing homes. Our problems are many and we need thorough discussions within our union and with other SEIU members about how to coordinate our struggles against rich and powerful owners and about how to finally achieve justice.

There were many resolutions and discussions about how to achieve greater unity within the different states and how to unite SEIU members in the each of the industries.

The most touching moment for me at the convention was the speech of Sen. Barack Obama, who mentioned our sister Audrey Smith-Campbell, who died of an

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asthma attack while she was on strike fighting the heartless, greedy owner of Kingsbridge nursing home, Helen Sieger.

Had Sieger not violated the contract by cutting off the Kingsbridge members’ health benefits, I believe Audrey would be alive today. Sen. Obama in his remarks also spoke about the need for everyone to have health care regardless of whether they have a job. He said that no one in the world’s richest country should suffer because they can’t afford to pay for medical care or medication.

I believe that an Obama victory would mean that we can finally make universal health care a reality. I have confidence that we can win. And more than that, the convention gave me confidence that we can begin to change our country’s direction and really get justice for all.

HUGO QUINTEROS Bridgeview NH, Queens, NY

KINGSBRIDGE HEIGHTS (UNION STRIKE)

By Coral Aquino, age 10

Breaks my heart when I see 220 Workers striking outside If they don’t get their benefits Then soon they would die Snowing or raining, they’re always outside And helping each other so they will survive Helen Sieger took all the benefits away, Now I have to help my mom and Not go out and play Maybe I should work today and Make a lot of noise So that Sieger could sign and I can have my toys If the neighbors could help us Make this strike be done So then I could go outside And have a lot of fun I hope Helen signs the contract But if this doesn’t happen, we Are not giving up!

Coral Aquino is the daughter of Kingsbridge CNA Dania Rojas.

Kingsbridge workers (some of whom are shown below) struck Feb. 20 after Kingsbridge owner Helen Sieger violated their contract and cut off their health benefits.

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Civil rights and liberties loom large in November.

Towards Equal Rights for All Donna Payne is the associate director of diversity for the Washington-based Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) lobbying group and political action committee in the U.S. HRC staffers are represented by 1199SEIU. “She is the quintessential advocate for equality,” emailed 1199SEIU HRC delegates Sascha Heller, Steffan E. DeClue and Amy Hinze-Pifer. “Her easy ability to bring disparate groups of people together informs her work daily and speaks to her effectiveness as a champion of the community.”

Payne works at HRC because she believes deeply in the old union motto, “An injury to one is an injury to all.” And she

devotes her life to building bridges of understanding and support. Her HRC position takes her from community storefronts to corporate boardrooms. The photos hanging on the walls of her office attest to the breadth of her contacts. They include pictures of her with Bill Clinton, NAACP Chair Julian Bond and even Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan.

Payne says she is proud that the HRC doesn’t limit itself to LGBT issues. In August she will represent HRC at the 45th anniversary observance of the historic civil rights March on Washington. From there she will head to Denver to host the first Democratic Party convention reception for LGBT people of color.

“We work with ministers across the country to change the conversation about faith and LGBT people.”

“My church is gayinclusive, but excludes no one.”

Payne with Harry Knox, director of Human Rights Campaigns’ Religious Faith Unit.

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REDEFINING POVERTY LOW-INCOME 1199ERS FEEL ECONOMIC PINCH. In what is considered the richest nation on the earth, more than 37 million people, or about one in eight, live in poverty. Of this total, about 13 million — about one in six — are children.

And it’s getting worse. In 1990, reports the non-profit United for a Fair Economy, the typical CEO earned 107 times as much as the average worker. In 2005 that figure had ballooned to 411. The richest one percent of U.S. households now owns 34.3 percent of the nation’s private wealth, more than the combined wealth of the bottom 90 percent.

Women face additional hardships.

Today women in the U.S. earn 77 cents for every dollar men make; African-American women earn 72 cents, Latinas 60 cents. While the gap is closing, it’s due more to the declining wages of men than increasing pay for women.

Unfortunately, many mistakenly believe that poverty stems from the failures and deficiencies of the individual rather than the failures of our institutions and structures.

Another mistaken belief is that the poor don’t work. Actually, two out of three families with incomes below the poverty line include at least one worker.

1199SEIU recently spoke with members at two institutions in economically depressed central New York — Amsterdam Memorial Hospital and Nursing Home in Montgomery County and Nathan Littauer Hospital in Fulton County.

Many of these members hope that a change in the national administration can help lift them out of poverty and repair the broken social safety net.

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“ I’m a single mom. I make less than $12 an hour and I have three children to support.

I find the time to be an 1199SEIU Delegate because without the union, we’re not going to improve.”

“I have to pay healthcare premiums and copays, and I even have to pay for my children’s school lunches. I would like to have a car, but I can’t afford one.” Amsterdam CNA Carmen Davis.

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“I love what I do, but in my years in our maternity ward, I’ve seen things change for the worse. It’s also sad to see all the money that’s spent on elections.

Nathan Littauer LPN 2 Paula Pelosi.

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“Our patients are mainly poor or middle class. We need greater support for health care. I used to be a Hillary supporter, but I’ve been swayed

by Obama.”

Nathan Littauer Radiology Technologist Edwena Brown.

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“I have two kids and I’m told that I’m supposed to be middle class, but I think the definition of middle class needs to be changed. I’m fortunate that I’m able to get Children’s Health Plus insurance.”

“I’m a Union Delegate and I do local political work. I’ve also volunteered for Barack Obama because he’s the candidate who will help working people like us.”

Amsterdam CNA Ruthie Rueda.

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“I HOPE MY KIDS WILL BE ABLE TO STAY HERE.” AS THEIR REGIONAL ECONOMY SHRINKS, WORKERS AT UPSTATE NEW YORK’S INTERCOMMUNITY HOSPITAL EXPRESS FEARS FOR THE FUTURE. Intercommunity Memorial Hospital is in western New York State’s Niagara County in a small town called Newfane near Lake Ontario. The area was once a center of manufacturing and good-paying, unionized jobs.

Most industry is now gone from the region and residents struggle to find full-time work that pays enough to keep up with the cost of living. As in many towns and cities the local hospital — in this case, Newfane’s Intercommunity Memorial — provides some of the area’s most stable jobs.

Other major employers in the region such as Delphi Auto Parts and Jamestown Container are downsizing.

A recent organizing drive at Intercommunity brought five new members into the hospital’s 200member bargaining unit. An Obama presidency would bring tax cuts, a plan for business development, and relief from the housing crisis to the area. Our Life And Times spoke with 1199ers at Intercommunity Memorial about how they are faring in today’s economy and their hopes for the future.

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Delynn Parlier “Every day I worry about making ends meet. There never seems to be enough to go around,” says Parlier, a mother of three who works in Intercommunity’s billing department. “My husband changed jobs just to be a little closer to home. I cut down on food and take fewer trips to school. We take fewer vacations and we don’t go as far from home. We got a woodburning stove to cut down on fuel costs.”

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Linda Andrews “It’s quie There’s not a lot going o Lockport resident Andrews, a pharmacy technician. “I have something better; hope that p back. I’ve worked at the hospi years. It’s a nice community. I Everybody knows your name. W incentives for the little people shoot for, to keep a business o a business. I hope my kids wil here and get good jobs.”

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et and small. n,” says certified hope for people will move ital almost 14 It’s like ‘Cheers.’

We need more e, something to open or to open l be able to stay

Kim Sherwood “It’s tough because of the Delphi situation and Jamestown Container’s downsizing,” says phlebotomist Sherwood . “If my husband and I didn’t have secure jobs, we’d be out of here in a heartbeat. We’re taxed to death on gas, food—everything. It’s to the point where people can’t afford anything because of the taxes. They need to start looking out for the middle class and revamp Medicaid and welfare.”

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Robert Kudel, Jr. “I’ve lived in this area for 51 years. The snow isn’t bad. The summers are awesome. But as far as the economy, I’ve watched the Simons Steel Mill go. I’ve watched the Bethlehem Steel Mill go down. We’ve lost just about all of our auto and about 95 percent of our steel industry,” says storeroom clerk Kudel. “The housing market has completely deteriorated because of [the lack of] good paying jobs. And some of our kids are upbeat about the future, but some of them are like, ‘What am I going to do now?’ because the jobs just aren’t there for them.”

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HOME HEALTH AIDE BETTY ANN ALEXANDER UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE WOULD END THE CONSTANT THREAT TO HOMECARE WORKERS’ BENEFITS.

Betty Ann Alexander is a home health aide with Project OHR in Brooklyn, N.Y. She cares for client Leon Fried, a survivor of a World War I I concentration camp who contracted polio during his imprisonment. Alexander, a delegate, cares for Fried 11 hours a day, four days a week. She receives healthcare coverage through the 1199SEIU Homecare Benefit Fund, but like tens of thousands of homecare workers, lives with the threat of losing her benefits to government healthcare budget cuts.

Last fall, tens of thousands of 1199’s homecare workers and their families almost lost healthcare coverage in New York State’s budget fight. Though most coverage was at least partially restored, Alexander says universal healthcare coverage is the only real answer to finally ending the healthcare coverage crisis.

“When our benefits get cut, workers often don’t have the money to take their children to the doctor,” says Alexander of the recent changes to New York City’s homecare workers’ benefits. “Before now we never had co-payments, we never had to pay to go to the doctor. Sometimes the reality is you just don’t have the money to go to the doctor or to buy your medication.”

“It’s very important that we win universal healthcare coverage so we can have coverage for all of our families,” adds Alexander. “I think it’s something that we’ll see. It’s the reason that I support Obama.

I see that it’s something he wants for us.

I know he supports home health aides.”

“I think it’s a terrible thing for there to be a country like this and there are poor people without coverage,” says Alexander’s client Leon Fried. “There has to be a system that works. There is a lot of corruption and fraud.

There is plenty of money to go around. We’re spending billions in Iraq. They’ve got all the oil in the world over there and we have no health care for people here. It’s shameful.”

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“My grandson has healthcare coverage because he is three, but my son doesn’t and I worry,” says Alexander. “We went to try to get him signed up and they never got back to him. I don’t know why. I don’t know what we would do if something happened.”

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“Most people don’t even know where western Massachusetts is. They know Boston and Albany.

They seldom hear of North Adams. It’s a nice town. It’s a great place to bring up kids. There’s not much crime.

Working here is like family. Everyone knows everyone.

That’s true of the whole city,” says unit secretary Shirley Valotta. “At the hospital we need money and we need technology. We need to keep the community involved and informed about the hospital. We also need better reimbursement.”

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NORTH ADAMS REGIONAL HOSPITAL “THIS IS AN IMPORTANT HOSPITAL FOR PEOPLE THAT LIVE IN OUR RURAL AREAS.”

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“I like it because it’s a small community and people know each other. They treat each other like family compared to other bigger communities. It’s nice because you see people you know in and out of here all the time,” says housekeeper Susan Campbell.

North Adams Regional Hospital sits in the Berkshire Mountains in northwestern Massachusetts. It serves a community of small, largely rural towns. North Adams is a former mill town that was once home to Sprague Electric, which closed in 1985 and eliminated 4,100 jobs from the community. The hospital is the area’s center of primary care and emergency services for the sick and injured.It is also a major employer. Health care provides 10 to 15 percent of the jobs in many of the nation’s rural counties.

And like many rural healthcare centers, North Adams Regional struggles with getting its fair share of funding and to attract qualified professionals. Members at North Adams Regional recently won inclusion in the 1199SEIU Pension Fund; a big victory for workers from a small town. Barack Obama has promised more equitable Medicare and Medicaid disbursement for rural healthcare providers and the creation of a loan forgiveness program to attract doctors and nurses to smaller, outlying hospitals like North Adams Regional. Members from the institution recently spoke with Our Life And Times about their new pensions and the challenges facing small-town healthcare providers.

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“The hospital is recruiting. I’d like to see the young people come in and the new doctors coming in. I’d like to see them younger and knowing that this is a really good place to start a family. It really is,” says OR unit secretary Cindy Bird. “You are so isolated from some of the bigger crimes and the bigger city things. We don’t do big traumas.”

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“Our reputation isn’t as good because we’re a little hospital in North Adams, but this is an important hospital for people that live in our rural areas because sometimes they don’t have time to get to one of these other hospitals,” says CNA Jennifer Klein. “You’re talking 30 minutes or 40 minutes. I don’t know what the answer is as far as getting recognized, but I know these people think we are a godsend and they’ve been to bigger hospitals where they’re not treated personally. They’re just a patient number and they can’t wait to come back here where they are Joe or Mary.”

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“It was a lifesaver that 1199 wanted to expand into Massachusetts with their pension plan. I’ve been here for 30 years and I’ve got 30 years credit and it’s just going to grow as long as I continue to work," says respiratory therapist Mike O’Brien, a North Adams Regional delegate. “The hospital’s pension plan was voluntary. It tended to be the ones that would need the pension the most who were the ones who didn't have the pension. Now all 180 of us are in the 1199 plan. We’ve got past credit depending on how long we’ve been here. It’s not costing us a dime.”

We’ll Make Politicians Accountable SEIU Convention backs ambitious political campaign.

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ome 2,000 delegates at SEIU’s quadrennial convention June 2-4 in Puerto Rico voted to extend the 2008 political campaign through the first 100 days of the new administration to win affordable health care for all and pass the Employees Free Choice Act. The political campaign is a key component of the “Justice for All” program that was approved at the convention. Under the 100-day plan, SEIU has pledged to dedicate a large percentage of its resources and to mobilize thousands of members to hold the 111th Congress accountable.

Delegates and guests also gave a rousing reception to Sen. Barack Obama during his televised message to the convention. “This is our moment. This is our time,” the pre-

sumptive presidential nominee said. He brought the conferees to their feet when he eulogized Audrey Smith-Campbell, the martyred 1199SEIU striker from Kingsbridge NH in the Bronx.

Our Life And Times interviewed a number of the 1199SEIU convention delegates.

“I’m optimistic about our new Congresswoman Donna Edwards and Barack Obama. People are looking for change and growth. They will help realize my dream of a holistic community that heals body, mind and spirit,” said Mary Theresa Anderson, an RN from Prince George’s Hospital in Cheverly, Maryland.

“The resolutions we adopted regarding health care, immigration and the Bush war in Iraq will have a real good chance of

becoming reality when Obama is president.

But it’s going to take a lot of effort and hard work to make that a reality. 1199 and SEIU will have to get a veto-proof Democratic Congress as well,” stressed John Rusinko, a maintenance worker at Catskill Regional Hospital in Middletown, New York.

“When I heard him (Obama) mention Audrey (Smith-Campbell) I felt so much emotion. I felt sadness and happiness. I was happy because now everybody will know about our struggle,” said Kervin Campbell, a cook at Kingsbridge NH, in the Bronx, N.Y. “When I started helping PCAs join the union I never realized I would be part of such a big nationwide effort to help all working people. We will win,” said Gloryvee Santana, a PCA from North Andover, Massachusetts, who spoke at the convention.

“I never realized I would be part of such a big effort to help all working people.”—PCA Gloryvee Santana

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OUR UNION

Clockwise from left: Barack Obama spoke via satellite to SEIU members at the Union’s international convention in Puerto Rico. He vowed to fight for workers rights and recalled the late Audrey Smith-Campbell, an 1199er who passed away while on strike at Kingsbridge NH in the Bronx, N.Y; (continuing clockwise) Gloryvee Santana, a Massachusetts PCA; Dennesse Wray, a homecare worker with United Cerebral Palsy in New York City; and Monique Johnson, left, a geriatric nursing assistant at Baltimore’s Harborside Healthcare Center, who introduced new Maryland Congresswoman Donna Edwards.

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THE BACK PAGE This Election Is About Equality Donna Payne, an associate director of diversity at Human Rights Campaign in Washington, D.C. and a leader in D.C.’s Metropolitan Community Church, is dedicated to fostering change in our society.

See page 5.

“The Obama campaign makes us all feel included.”

—DONNA PAYNE