CLINTON CHEERED IN JENKINTOWN
Hundreds wait for a glimpse of the presidential candidate
Several hundred supporters turned out to catch a glimpse of Hillary Clinton Friday morning, April 22, when she arrived at Curds & Whey for what was billed as a conversation with Lilly Ledbetter.
Clinton met with Ledbetter, whose fight to close the gap between men’s and women’s wages led to the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, signed into law in 2009 by President Obama, and fielded questions from a select group of supporters in the busy café on Old York Road. Hundreds more waited outside, while unsuspecting customers picking up their Passover orders were patted down by the Secret Service before being permitted inside.
Jenkintown resident Diana Fine Luks, who was two years ahead of Clinton at Maine Township East High School in Chicago, showed those waiting with her pictures of Clinton in her yearbook, which she brought to the campaign stop.
“She was an all-around student, at the top of her class,”
said Luks, whose brother was in the same class as Clinton and performed in “Bye Bye Birdie” with the Democratic presidential candidate.
“I think she would make an incredible president, not just for women,” Luks said. “I’m a proponent of Planned Parenthood and I think she would keep that on board.”
Recalling having met Clinton eight years ago outside the Bonnet Lane restaurant in Abington, Jenkintown resident Patricia Harte said, “She’s our hope. It’s got to work this time.”
“We’re ready for her,” agreed Janice Bauer, of Elkins Park.
Among the men in the majority female crowd, Dr. Rick Pescatore, chief resident for emergency medicine at Cooper University Hospital in Camden, noted he once met President Bill Clinton and shook hands with and saluted President Obama when he graduated from the Naval Academy in 2009.
“I came to see the next president of the United States,” he said, simply.
After cheering Clinton, who was quickly ushered in a side door of the café, those on hand waited and at one point a speaker was set up so they could hear the 90-minute exchange with Clinton, who asked those inside to “share their thoughts and concerns.”
An employed mother of a child with special needs spoke of the high cost of getting help for her child, noting “even with a good health plan costs are a factor.” Her husband works two shifts and has a second job on Saturdays, but they are “still struggling,” she said.
“We need to figure out how to keep costs down,” Clinton said, adding as president she would “go after high prescription costs,” which she said are higher in the United States than in Canada and other countries.
“We need more affordable options for kids with special needs,” she added. “We’re ahead of the world with integration,” but for those who need more specialized programs “it’s prohibitively expensive. There has to be a way to make it easier and more affordable.”
To a woman who went back to work 12 weeks after having a baby but felt employers should provide 20 weeks of maternity leave, Clinton said she would “fight hard for paid family leave.”
State Rep. Madeleine Dean, D-153, who listed education, climate change and gun violence as her three main concerns, noted “in Pennsylvania it’s quite a challenge to close the background check loophole,” and thanked Clinton for her “leadership in gun violence intervention.”
Gun violence “is front and center in my campaign and my thinking,” Clinton said. “We can have common sense gun safety measures consistent with the Second Amendment.
“We have to make it a voting issue. We have to take on the gun lobby if we expect to make any progress.”
Clinton spoke of the need to prioritize education and to incentivize investment in businesses to create more jobs, and drew cheers when she said, “We need to incentivize small businesses like this.”
She advocated “more elementary science in schools” and “encouraging girls not to get discouraged” from seeking STEM jobs, and promoted equality in pay, noting boards are sometimes “shocked” at the disparity in their own companies.
Lamenting an “online culture of bullying women,” Clinton said, women must “support each other” and “not take it personally.”
Referring to “insults” about her made by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, she said, “It’s not really about me.”
If she wins the nomination, Clinton said, “I will respond to what he has said about women in general, about Muslims and immigrants. To try to intimidate and degrade others is off limits.
“We have to change the culture” regarding attitudes about women, she said.
Noting she has worked as a senator and secretary of state with Republicans, Clinton said, if elected, “I will be tireless in trying to find common ground in Washington.”
And “If elected,” she noted, “I will break that final glass ceiling.”