Political Action and Voting
Power
By Rick Cardenas
From a grant of the Democracy Fund at Headwaters Foundation, Rick
Cardenas of Advocating Change Together, along with Mai Thor of the
Disability Law Center and Senator John Marty presented a day long
workshop on political action and voting power at the Kelly Inn of
St. Paul. The event brought people from Center Lakes Achievement
Center just north of St. Paul, Merrick Center, Midway Training Services
of Saint Paul and folks from People First Central of Minneapolis.
They came together for a day long seminar to work on Vote Your Values.
Using techniques of popular education, participants were invited
to examine their vision and values concerning government, politicians
and the role of taxes as the means to reach that vision, and to ask
the question of where current politics, politicians and government
stand in relation to those values. Individuals learned the importance
of voting and engaging public officials to get our voices into the
mix. This effort includes take home materials to lead their own discussion
groups including a video on voting to show others, plus posters,
voter registration cards and resources to use for the participants
to follow up on goals set at the workshop. The result of this effort
will be to engage 40 new people with developmental disabilities to
active participation in the electoral process.
We learned in one example
of how the government works, when Senator Marty spoke of the taxes
we pay vs. the taxes people making $500,000 a year pay and how
private business companies pay less tax this year and less two
years ago and much less than five years ago. The group also examined
where the funds come from that pay the staff for their group home,
their achievement center, their healthcare and much of the spending
money they earned. By the end of the day the participants understood
where their taxes go and they concluded that many of the taxes
paid were going to pay their salary, housing, health-care, and
transportation. Their understanding was evident when the question
was asked “where does your salary come from?” The answer
was “taxes” and the question was asked “where does
the money come from to run your achievement center?” The answer
from individuals together was “taxes!”
I hope the lessons learned about government, political action, voting
power and voting your values became clearer for the participants.
ACT and the Minnesota Disability Law Center will put on another
Vote Your Values training session for persons with disabilities on
Friday, October 14, 2005 at the Kelly Inn of St. Paul. If you would
like to attend, please call the ACT office at 651-641-0297 or e-mail
act@selfadvocacy.org
