#InMyWords: Jean Searle, Harrisburg
The Pennsylvania Poor People’s Campaign will be publishing a series of testimonies from those involved with the campaign about why they joined the campaign as part of a national effort to document and uplift the voices of the most affected. The following statement was given during the campaign’s launch in Harrisburg on May 14, 2018.
“I just want to acknowledge and thank everyone who is brave enough to come out in support of and tell your story today. We all know how hard it is to ask for help or identify as a person needing assistance. Everybody here knows how hard it is or else you would not be here.
We need to make our vote count. Pennsylvania is one of only 21 states that require their residents to provide an excuse for an absentee ballot. No-excuse absentee voting is critical to ensuring turnout of voters with disabilities because it allows participation even if people cannot secure transportation, enter the polling site or use the voting equipment without assistance. Not only do we have a right to vote but it is the right thing to do!
I’m here today as a person with a disability. My name is Jean Searle, I work for Disability Rights Pennsylvania and I live in Harrisburg. I rely on the system for my healthcare.
I know what it is like to live paycheck to pay check. I was a ward of the state and could not make my own decisions. Not because I couldn’t, but because politicians did not think I could. They told me how to dress, what to eat, and where to work. I worked for eight cents a day. I had no rights.
I struggled and fought to get out. Now, I no longer living in an institution and I no longer work for 8 cents a day. 33 years later, I am still fighting the system. I had to fight people who knew better than me where I live, how I live and how I receive my services. I now have a good job and I live in a community. However, I can only work a few hours a day or I lose my healthcare benefits. I I lose my benefits, I will have to go back to the institution.
My choices are work and be poor or go back to the institution and lose my freedom. That is not a choice anyone should have to make.
Why is living in the community so important to me? 37 years ago, I gave birth to a beautiful boy that I never got to hold or kiss.
He was taken away from me and I was told that because I was retarded, I was not able to take care of him or myself. I am here to say, that is not true.
Because I do not live in an institution, I started searching for my son and found my son.
The system is wrong.
I am capable of so much more than what they think and so is everyone here.
Stop labeling me, stop telling me I can’t do something, stop bringing me down with your rules.
We need to show them that they are wrong. We need to make our voice count. We are people, we count and we are not going away. Voting matters. These rallies matter. What we do everyday matters.”
Auditing of Pennsylvania:
In addition to uplifting the voices of those most affected, the Pennsylvania Poor People’s Campaign is auditing Pennsylvania 50 years after Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. challenged the evils of racism, militarism, and poverty, assessing what the conditions of poverty look like in our state.
Discrimination of People Living with a Disability in Pennsylvania
Over 14% of people in Pennsylvania live with a disability. The employment rate for people with a disability is 35% compared to 80% for working-age people without a disability. Among full-time employees, people living with a disability are paid $7,300 less than people working without a disability.
Median household income for households with working-age people with a disability is $40,100 compared to $70,500 for households with working age people with no disabilities.
