The first place to start is on enforcement. We who got the ADA passed did the hard part, the heavy lifting.

About Major Owens

Major Robert Odell Owenswas an American politician and librarian who served in the United States House of Representatives from 1983 to 2007, representing the New York’s 11th and then 12th congressional district. He was first elected to replace retiring Representative Shirley Chisholm.

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More quotes from Major Owens

Excitement in education and student productivity, the ability to get a result that you want from students, go together and cannot be separated.

Major Owens

American politician (1936-2013)

Competition is such a virtue, and everybody’s so busy competing, they have no time for compassion.

Major Owens

American politician (1936-2013)

It was the best route to get folks to understand segregation fast. Civil rights and women’s rights had a clear history. Making the transition to rights for people with disabilities became easier because we had the history of the other two.

Major Owens

American politician (1936-2013)

Children are already accustomed to a world that moves faster and is more exciting than anything a teacher in front of a classroom can do.

Major Owens

American politician (1936-2013)

The kind of society which we still have is maybe, in some cases, getting worse. Competition is becoming a virtue. Intense competition drives people to go more and more into self-interest. Even to see other folks as competition.

Major Owens

American politician (1936-2013)

You have no power at all if you do not exercise constant power.

Major Owens

American politician (1936-2013)

We can do it better, more consistently, and in the end, it will cost us less because the students that we produce will be superior to those without technology experience.

Major Owens

American politician (1936-2013)

He testified that when you looked at it through the eyes of ‘let’s do it,’ the costs were very small. They were less than they’d had to spend to host a convention of transportation executives. The cost was not that great.

Major Owens

American politician (1936-2013)

We need to get ready for a world where terrorism will not ever fully go away.

Major Owens

American politician (1936-2013)

Therefore, you are not training young people for the world of today and the world of tomorrow unless you are doing proven technology training. That is one of the reasons I’m so concerned.

Major Owens

American politician (1936-2013)

The first place to start is on enforcement. We who got the ADA passed did the hard part, the heavy lifting.

Major Owens

American politician (1936-2013)

Those involved in the program are interested in how to use photography, videos, the Internet, film, and anything related to communications and transmission of information in the most up-to-date modern ways.

Major Owens

American politician (1936-2013)

Education technology is very important because we have a massive challenge in public schools.

Major Owens

American politician (1936-2013)

I would like to spend my next two years showing how the aim of making technology available to every young person can be built into the effort to make our nation more secure. That is my latest concern and what I will be pushing over the next two years.

Major Owens

American politician (1936-2013)

In preparation for it, we need to have folks who are trained, we need facilities, equipment and supplies, that are going to be built into our society, and we are going to spend a lot of money on it.

Major Owens

American politician (1936-2013)

The problem was just a mean attitude that festers and has to be challenged.

Major Owens

American politician (1936-2013)

Education technology and school construction go together. Modernization, updating education facilities, and making a capital investment in education are all included.

Major Owens

American politician (1936-2013)

We can close the gap and improve what happens in the classroom by using educational technology that is the same high quality everywhere.

Major Owens

American politician (1936-2013)

I will continue my activities related to education in one way or another. I certainly would have at the top my agenda, with respect to education, the need to do much better with modern educational technology.

Major Owens

American politician (1936-2013)

I do not think we are ever going to be able to, for a long time, get the kind of quality of school personnel that we need in our schools, especially in the areas of science and math. One of the answers to that problem is to use more educational technology.

Major Owens

American politician (1936-2013)

People didn’t always see a person with a disability who had to use a ramp or elevator as people who have been given unnecessary privileges. But I run into that often now. People are saying, ‘Why do we have to go to great expense for these people?’

Major Owens

American politician (1936-2013)

I think some combined pressure could go a long way, could establish the fact that this legislation did pass and we mean business by it. We mean to have it enforced, we mean to have it become effective.

Major Owens

American politician (1936-2013)

Our government just won’t enforce civil rights laws. The laws will be ignored.

Major Owens

American politician (1936-2013)

I have a great deal of respect and admiration for people who put themselves on the line.

Major Owens

American politician (1936-2013)

The whole community of people with disabilities was alive, politically alive. I give Justin Dart credit for that. He traveled to every state in the country. He really made people with disabilities understand that they had some political power.

Major Owens

American politician (1936-2013)

Technology tools such as laptops are the kind of help that we need. A program that provides laptops for all youngsters would close a gap that most of us are not aware of, or will not admit to, which is a tremendous gap in the poor communities.

Major Owens

American politician (1936-2013)

What is our greatest enemy? Segregation.

Major Owens

American politician (1936-2013)

People’s lives have to change as a result of this legislation.

Major Owens

American politician (1936-2013)

There’s a kind of sick security some people get out of keeping away from people with disabilities. They are running away from any situation that’s not totally pure and all-American and that requires them to do any thinking.

Major Owens

American politician (1936-2013)

We can not wait until we have enough trained people willing to work at a teacher’s salary and under conditions imposed upon teachers in order to improve what happens in the classroom.

Major Owens

American politician (1936-2013)

The ownership of computers in the home is far less than the statistics show, because usually when the computer breaks down once, that is the end of it for a long, long time. They do not have the money or incentive to get the computer repaired.

Major Owens

American politician (1936-2013)

It is very difficult to get legislation passed. But then the danger always is that you have no power at all if you do not exercise constant power.

Major Owens

American politician (1936-2013)

There’s a whole set of values, spawned by the vocal and highly visible Republicans, that appeal to the worst in people. Our society is moving in that direction.

Major Owens

American politician (1936-2013)