Mrs. Parmelee offers us a great gift as we approach our very, very hard work.  The dream is right.  As long as the dream is right, we will find a way through it, we will learn from the snags, but we won't let them cloud our vision of the dream.

Personally, I have a dream of a society where Interdependence is a reality.  A place where all people-including elders and individuals living with disabilities--are in active reciprocal relationships.  I have a dream that the Culture Change movement will grow to the point where there are more organizations with households than without, that there are more communities offering elder co-housing than not, and where more of us look forward to our aging experience than not.

We are off to a very good start--I am so proud of what the Pioneer Network and others involved in the culture change movement have accomplished in nine short years.  

But as Mrs. Parmelee says, we are going to hit some snags and we can't let them stop us.  It is time, I think, for us to start dealing with some of those "snags" head on.

One small example: If we have built a household, but the people who work in that household don't earn enough to have their own household outside of work, then what have we accomplished?  Not nearly enough.
It is time for us to tackle policy issues such as wages and benefits head on.  This won't be easy, it's bigger than any one employer, but it's right--and in my opinion the dream can't be accomplished otherwise.

There are many hard issues--issues that involve pulic policy--that are going to have be tackled to really change this system.  And the time to get going on this is now.  The Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute has a team that works actively on policy, and has started a healthcare for healthcare workers campaign as many direct care workers--particularly those in home health--have no health insurance.  I hope the Pioneer Network and each of us individually will start pushing harder on the snags that lie under the surface of our change efforts.

So, thank you Mrs. Parmelee.  Thank you for a moment of beauty--a moment where I am reminded that the dream is right, the dream is important, and hard isn't what matters.  

And a special thanks to Joe Angelelli, not only for sharing your message at the conference, but for posting this so we can listen to it over and over again!