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Deval Patrick on Families & Children
Democratic Governor (MA) and presidential contender
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In my youth, whole community raised its kids
Q: You were raised largely by a single mother. And in your book you describe how your family relied on welfare and that there were some nights where, because there weren't enough beds, you slept on the floor.PATRICK: Not SOME nights.
Q: What did
that teach you?
PATRICK: You know, there were a lot of things we didn't have. We had big and broken and under-resourced, sometimes violent public schools. But we had terrific teachers. We had broken sidewalks and broken families, but we had a strong
community. Because that was a time when every child was under the jurisdiction of every single adult on the block, right? You messed up down the street in front of Ms. Jones, she'd go upside your head as if you were hers. And I think what those adults
were trying to teach us is that membership in community is understanding you have a stake in your neighbors' dreams and struggles, as well as your own, that we belong to each other.
Source: CNN N. H. Town Hall on eve of 2020 N. H. primary
, Feb 6, 2020
Simplify funding for mental illness treatment
Q: The block grants for the treatment of mental illness and substance abuse have created huge bureaucracies that make states' ability to individualize their response very difficult. And the way the block grants are conceptualized, that formula is you
have to be like an MIT professor to figure out how states get funded. So what would you do to reform the block grant system?PATRICK: So I think the simplest response, Mary, is simplify, simplify, simplify.
Flexibility--you know, there's so much need for resources. And the need, as you said, is different from community to community. And when we are dealing with the kind of public health
emergency we are around both substance use disorders and mental illness, we have to trust local leadership and local decision-makers to make decisions quickly that get relief to people.
Source: CNN N. H. Town Hall on eve of 2020 N. H. primary
, Feb 6, 2020
A child's future should not be defined by their zip code
there are children here in our own Commonwealth whose future is still defined by the zip code in which they were born. I was once one of those kids. And for all my many blessings I have not forgotten. I see the working poor struggling to keep their heads
above water. I see the middle class family one paycheck away from being poor. I see the person who has been out of work for a year and has lost not just her way but her self-confidence.
I see the parents working two and three jobs and sacrificing everything so their kids can go to a school that sometimes doesn't meet their needs. I see those people. And so do you. For too many of our neighbors, the American Dream is in trouble.
And, I refuse to accept that their Dream is out of reach. Government cannot deliver that all on its own, but government--we here in this chamber tonight--have a solemn duty to help all our people help themselves.
Source: 2014 State of the State speech to Massachusetts legislature
, Jan 28, 2014
Parents wonder if their kids will do as well as them
We made choices inspired by our generational responsibility, our commitment to leave to others a better Commonwealth than we found. To the members of the Legislature: I know that some of the votes I have asked you to take were politically tough.
There are parents across our state who wonder tonight whether they will be able to do as well for their children as their parents did for them. There are workers, some unemployed for many months, who wonder tonight whether this new economy has a
place for them. There are small businesses and working families who now have the security of health insurance, but who wonder tonight whether they can manage the ever-increasing costs.
There are children tonight who wonder whether they will be safe when they step outside their own front door. We are not yet fulfilling our generational responsibility to them.
Source: MA 2012 State of the State Address
, Jan 23, 2012
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