YouSaid · the spoken record

Anne Burke

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68

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2018-08-02

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2018-08-02

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1

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Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

1. “They don't have anyone to take care of them, so society has to step in, and we need to do this. I mean, they end up in the criminal justice system. Getting mental health care because that's the only place that they can go.”

   2018-08-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 261 - Anne Burke · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

2. “Totally unacceptable, just like what Mrs. Shriver said. It's just the unacceptability of life. We've gotten this far in society about education, especially with children and adults with special differences. We're getting further with people who are of LGBTQ and other vulnerable people in our society, but it's for short term. It's not a plan. And I don't see anybody in charge of our society, especially in the United States. I don't see anyone who's really taking charge and saying we've got to take care of this population. Education, long-term residential care, good health care, end of life issues, pension funds for a special Olympians. But a lot of our people who are vulnerable in our society don't have family.”

   2018-08-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 261 - Anne Burke · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

3. “No, it's no blow back at all, but some of my best friends were same-sex partners and had been together for years. The gentleman that does my hair, 25-year partner, my dear friends, and going through campaigning actually introduced me to that community, not only for myself, but I would tag along with Ed and became good friends. You can remember John Henry Damsky over the years. We became dear friends, and it just, you know, as far as I'm concerned, they were excluded. It was unequal treatment. It was so wrong. A vulnerable population in our society became what I cared about. And as far as marriage and civil unions, I was always there available. And in fact, I'm always counseling these couples to get married because they won't be there when there is a catastrophic injury.”

   2018-08-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 261 - Anne Burke · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

4. “Somebody touched me or was too familiar with me. Listen to them because in the old days, not only did the parents think, don't talk about father like that or don't talk about that because it's not true. And they shoved the child aside that they didn't listen to them, that it just permitted. And law enforcement too, they just said if they saw a father somewhere or somebody was said anything about father, if there was too much drinking, they just took him back to the rectory. Nowadays, that cannot happen and should not happen.”

   2018-08-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 261 - Anne Burke · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

5. “And I didn't want him to go into the washroom by himself. So I was going to take him into the ladies' room. And he said, no. And I said, well, listen. So I said, Travis, don't talk to anybody, don't let anybody touch you. Don't let anybody look at you. Nothing. Okay, so I let him go in. And it was like, Seven minutes, eight minutes, ten minutes, and I'm standing at the men's room waiting for him to come out. And he came out. And for the whole restaurant to hear, mom, no one touched me. But that's the lesson we learn that parents now have to be cognizant of this. And when a kid comes home and says,”

   2018-08-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 261 - Anne Burke · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

6. “No, because what we put in place in the Catholic Church, which is ripple effect into other institutions, boy scouts and other schools situation, although I'm not so sure about the Chicago Board of Education, a background checks that are required, employment records being looked at in the Catholic Church. It's a lot more careful than they were before, so I don't think so. What's interesting is that the children today, because parents realize what needs to be done. My mom and dad never mentioned, you know, just don't talk to strangers. That's all I ever heard. When I first got on this board and Travis is a good example, is we were in a restaurant and he was just a little guy and he had just started, you know, going to the washroom by himself. And we were in a restaurant in Greek town here in Chicago.”

   2018-08-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 261 - Anne Burke · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

7. “We're not there. They changed the whole board. Who would have been there doing it? Even the Rome board, you don't hear anything about. And that's Collins.”

   2018-08-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 261 - Anne Burke · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

8. “In one sense, there is, but I think they really don't like to give up control. I mean, they'd like it to go away, but it will never go away unless they permit the laypeople of the Catholic Church to be the administration of this situation.”

   2018-08-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 261 - Anne Burke · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

9. “And so the whole commission is a different kind of a body and reports to the bishops. We didn't report to the bishops at all.”

   2018-08-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 261 - Anne Burke · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

10. “What you probably don't realize, but our board was actually picked by us. The bishops picked Frank Keating and me and Michael Bland and Bob Bennett. So the four of us met in Oklahoma and we chose the skill sets of what we needed on the board. And then we asked had people fill those skill sets. What happened is that we had a very independent board. People who were not going to let their reputation fly by the wayside and say, you know, yes, your eminence will do this. So we became almost ostracized by the bishops and cardinals after the first month. So we really did our work as an independent contractor. So after our time was up, we set our own terms and we were going to gradually leave so there would be institutional memory. But what happened when people started to leave, the bishops did not appoint people like us.”

    2018-08-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 261 - Anne Burke · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

11. “An attorney and attorney and good friend. And he wrote and told me, he said, These kinds of crimes know no borders. And that was in the very beginning. And he's absolutely on the money with that. They knew no borders. We began to realize that the investigation has been all over the world now.”

    2018-08-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 261 - Anne Burke · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

12. “Said, what's going on over there? That told us a lot. That question meant down from the Pope down, no one else knew what was going on. It was pretty much hidden. So even the cardinals in the world didn't know what was happening, just like a lot of bureaucracies. One cardinal said we could come and visit him, but then he closed the door on us. Then when I got back, Cardinal Joseph Rotzinger had faxed back and said, would you come back and I'll meet with you. So then Joseph Cardinal Rotzinger, who became Pope, we spent two and a half hours discussing the matters of the church. It's hard to get rid of systems that are in place and bureaucracies, but there's still a lot more to come, and it's worldwide. Scott Rowe, a friend of yours and a friend of mine. Wrote me.”

    2018-08-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 261 - Anne Burke · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

13. “Is endemic across actually across the world as we know now. And hidden. And it's like anything else, bureaucracies, the Catholic Church is a two thousand year old bureaucracy and it's the top-down ruling. We finished our report, but the part that we didn't have done was what did Rome know and when did Rome know it? So I faxed letters to the Roman Curia, to the committees who might be willing to meet with us and asked if we could come to Rome to interview them. And out of the 10 letters I sent, seven came back. And Bob Bennett and Bill Burley and I, Bill Burley was head of Scripps Howard, a publishing company, went out to Rome and met with several of the cardinals. And it was interesting because For instance, Cardinal Francis Arenze from Nigeria.”

    2018-08-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 261 - Anne Burke · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

14. “and we work together to put together a charter for the protection of children, a former agent in charge here in Chicago, Kathleen McChesney from the FBI. She ended up being the third, the highest ranking person in the FBI. She was just about to retire, so we hired her. She put together the investigators, 50 of them to go into all the diocese and eparchies in the United States and find out how many victims, how many offenders. And we, our board interviewed over 100 people, victims, offenders, clerics, psychiatrists, professors, people have written about it to see what the problem was.”

    2018-08-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 261 - Anne Burke · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

15. “Spotlight. And I saw the movie. It is totally accurate. It was amazed that there was no exaggeration. I know the names that they brought out. I know those people. The sex abuse crisis, the bishops. Asked people who and the cardinals around the country for someone to be on the committee. And there ended up being 12 of us. Frank Keating, who was the governor of Oklahoma, was the first chair. I was the interim chair. Bob Bennett, Clinton's lawyer, many good, good people. Leon Panetta was on the committee as well.”

    2018-08-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 261 - Anne Burke · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

16. “Well, that was quite an experience. The only thing I knew about sex abuse was a case that I had many years ago about a person who was charged with criminal sexual abuse of students in the Chicago public schools. So that's really all I knew. But a friend of mine, Father Cleek Kylie, was working for the Bishop's Conference when the Boston Globe broke the story January 2nd, 2002, not that I forget. But the bishops. Like Deer and Headlife.”

    2018-08-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 261 - Anne Burke · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

17. “I think because I really admired Harold too. And I think that he would be very happy. I think he would have been a mentor for Travis. I think he would have put an arm around him. He would have wanted to, and that as well. Because then, because you know why? Because there's hope. Because he knew Ed at his time that was tumultuous. If he were alive today, then he knows and he could know that people can learn if they listen and if they grow. And absolutely, I believe that that's hope is that then there is hope in society for the future. If people like us who came from certain kinds of lifestyles and families, just working class people, but were raised certain way, that doesn't mean down the line we can't raise our children differently and should. And I think that's the lesson is that We did learn.”

    2018-08-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 261 - Anne Burke · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

18. “Ken Bennett worked for was probably there. Well, that really made Travis depressed because he didn't want, because they were always fighting. They were best buddies. Taylor and Travis, and they were always fighting who knew you thought he was Travis said, Oh, darn it, you know.”

    2018-08-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 261 - Anne Burke · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

19. “Senator Obama back a little bit, and he said, Well, if Taylor Bennett said so, then he was being very diplomatic about it because”

    2018-08-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 261 - Anne Burke · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

20. “Chance the rapper, yes. So when we were at Brown Chapel, first time President Obama spoke there campaigning. He came out and he saw Ed and I and he met Travis and And Travis spoke right up Can I ask you a question? he said And President Senator Obama said well absolutely Travis, what is it? Taylor Bennett told me that he was in your house, was he? It was really hysterical because, and of course, it took”

    2018-08-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 261 - Anne Burke · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

21. “It did It most certainly did because we consciously had to make sure that we raised this young African American boy to have African American friends go to school with more than 51% of African American schools. He had a lot of special needs. His caseworker became his sponsor for confirmation, very good friend. We still see him and he's kind of his counselor today. We've been on two civil rights pilgrimages with John Lewis down to Salem, we crossed the Edmund Pettis Bridge and when Barack Obama spoke at Brown Chapel first time. We were there and there's a cute story that I'm going to tell you. I don't know if you know about this, but Travis went to school with Taylor Bennett. Suller Bennett's”

    2018-08-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 261 - Anne Burke · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

22. “they should have done. Children need permanency. They did not terminate the mothers, the biological mothers' rights, and he was with us as we were only his legal guardians until he turned eighteen. And it was then we could adopt him. But of course he knew we always wanted to, we have three other children who are adopted, so he really didn't think too much of it, but he also knew that it wasn't permanent. That's the troublesome part of it. But we love him more than anything in the whole world, just like we love all our children, and the color meant nothing. Of course, raising...”

    2018-08-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 261 - Anne Burke · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

23. “So Travis came to our home eight days going through fetal alcohol, cocaine withdrawal. And we didn't intend to keep him, we were short-term emergency care appearance, but because of the system and process, he was all of a sudden three years old because the biological mother hadn't done what she needed to do to get him back. He had two older siblings. And so by then there was a bonding psychological bonding session and the doctors at the University of Chicago said that we have to, he needs to stay with us. He was needy. He was autistic, all kinds of things. So we started to go through the process of adopting. And then the case turned into a press fiasco. So actually the court, I think, didn't do what”

    2018-08-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 261 - Anne Burke · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

24. “Well, I put them on hold and I called in, and he said, Absolutely not. And me being on the appellate court, then I made a judicial decision. And I said, what time does the baby coming? So that night, Travis was delivered”

    2018-08-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 261 - Anne Burke · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

25. “Started getting calls to take short term emergency care special needs babies zero to two. So we had a few babies that came to us for a short term and after the last baby came, not the last, but the second of the last baby came to us and we had to give them up and said we cannot do that. We just can't do this anymore. It's just too heartbreaking. I was home for two days in bed and I still think about this baby Jeremy who's now got to be 23 every single day. You know, what's happened to him? So we went back to our work, decided not to do this anymore, and I got a call from department children and family services. We see that you have an open bed. We have a fetal alcohol cocaine baby eight days old, African American. Do you have room?”

    2018-08-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 261 - Anne Burke · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

26. “Two things, David. As an Edgar Special Counsel, Governor Edgar's Special Counsel on Child Welfare, I was observing the foster parent system licensing process. So I would come home at night and I'd tell Ed about, well, this particular baby just had heart surgery. They need a short-term emergency care family to take the child. And Eddie says, well, we don't have anybody at home anymore. We can take the child. And I said, I don't think so. We haven't got our license. That'd be really good. Baby dies, Burke's baby, you know, no license. But that was the impetus for us to go through the licensing process. He wanted to take babies. We could, and I just wanted to see how bad the licensing process was. But by the time we finished, it took nine months for us to get our license. I was on the appellate court.”

    2018-08-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 261 - Anne Burke · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

27. “Well, I didn't understand exactly the politics of it all because Ed was just, my husband was 24 when he got elected. His dad died May 11th. We got married May 25th and the Special Olympics was July 20th. So I really was focused on other things. It was very stressful for him. That's how he was raised. But he's changed. I mean, and we all have changed over time. And during that time it was very difficult for him. I mean, I just saw the stress. I don't know the politics of it all, but I do know one thing that I remember him saying to me. This is really government because the two sides sat in the back rooms because both constituencies didn't want their population to know that they actually talked together and they got a lot of legislation ironed out together but when they came out they were always fighting”

    2018-08-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 261 - Anne Burke · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

28. “Which was a good thing, whereas other people that I know didn't grow up in that situation, there were some very racist feelings in their families. Not in mine. So I really feel good about that. I was open as a child.”

    2018-08-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 261 - Anne Burke · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

29. “The year of the doctor King marched, the only thing my mom and dad said they didn't want me to go to the park that day. I lived in kind of like my own little bubble. I was a park kid. I didn't read the newspaper. It was, like I said, reading it was hard for me. I just didn't really pay attention to what was going on. The only time I really had Consciousness of being with African American community was at George Williams because that was the old YMCA college. So people who wanted to be social workers and physical education teachers gravitated to George Williams College. So some of my best friends were African Americans. I hadn't even met an African American in my growing up on the Chicago South side. My dad was a bartender and worked with people, but he never said anything and I never knew anything. I was probably a blank slate as to that.”

    2018-08-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 261 - Anne Burke · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

30. “I actually didn't work for legal aid. I had a neighborhood law office, and I did most of my work pro bono. So I had my own legal aid society, but I focused a lot on children and criminal law in defendants, young people in the criminal justice system. I became Governor Edgar's Special Counsel on Child Welfare, which is actually in our democratic world, a mortal sin, to go to the other side to work for a Republican governor. But he Then I have to give him credit. I mean, he recognized someone who in the picture in Cook County, especially where a lot of child welfare and welfare issues are contained between the lake and the west side and the north side and going all the way out to Markham now in Chicago. It's a geographic area where our state's two-thirds child welfare issues are. And in asking me to be a special counsel on child welfare,”

    2018-08-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 261 - Anne Burke · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

31. “I did. But I always say to young people today, don't worry about it. Ask somebody for help. You're going to do better if you do.”

    2018-08-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 261 - Anne Burke · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

32. “Yes, going back to college, it was really kind of, I really didn't want to, but I knew I had to. But I had some tutors, and DePaul University had a program for more mature learners to go back to school, the school for new learning. It's a non-traditional learning. And actually, we had mentors in helping us. So it wasn't non-traditional. And so even in law school, I had a tutor. I was able to get through law school with a tutor because I had help. As I said, I've had help my whole life and I'm not afraid, but I wanted to be better at what I.”

    2018-08-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 261 - Anne Burke · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

33. “That I needed to be, if I wanted to be respected in the field, I had to go back to college. So my husband insisted I go back to college. I started college, I had three kids at the time, but I went back because it was unacceptable. And then he said you'd be a better advocate for more people who are vulnerable in our society. They would listen to you more because of your knowledge, but if you had a law degree, you'd be a better advocate. So I went back to law school because it was unacceptable not to be better, not to be better everything can be improved. So what she said to me has been, I think, in my mind the unacceptability of whatever I do is not good enough. Do the best you can. I mean, don't not do it, but always try to be better or have somebody help you to be better. I've never been shy about asking for help, and I've always gotten help my whole life.”

    2018-08-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 261 - Anne Burke · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

34. “That's what has caused me to be who I am today. Those words reminded me we were all trying to remember, we were asked to remember sitting on the lawn in Hyana Sport what our relationship was with Mrs. Shriver. July 10th we were there and that was her birthday and we were all trying to sit there. There weren't that many of us, maybe 40 people, to think about what the relationship was with her. And I thought about my first meeting her. And when she told me that it was a blow, but then I realized, my gosh, that's what I've been doing all my whole life. There's nothing that's been not touched by that word unacceptable. It was unacceptable that the games were so small, we have to keep on improving. It's unacceptable that.”

    2018-08-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 261 - Anne Burke · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

35. “Different worlds, but watching her and the way she got things done was the blueprint for me because I was convinced that I had to stay working for people that are vulnerable in our society. And her words to me unacceptable. It was a revelation recently in Hyannasport two weeks ago.”

    2018-08-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 261 - Anne Burke · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

36. “And there was never that. And so for a period of time, I think people were hurt by it. But it didn't stop us. We went to Akron, Ohio because Eunice sat together in 1969, the year after the games, regional games around the country. So we went. And in 1970, Chicago hosted the second international special Olympics. I mean, you know, it wasn't a grudge that people are upset about. It was just the hurt feelings. So you're absolutely right. But in terms of Mrs. Shriver and the Kennedys, she was my mentor. Even from afar, for what she told me.”

    2018-08-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 261 - Anne Burke · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

37. “There were, but it wasn't because they took the idea it was because they never recognized Chicago as being the beginning of the games. Mayor Daly and the citizens of Chicago and everyone in the park district felt that Chicago should have been part of what she did in other places. And clearly she announced at the end of the 68 games that she was going to take this model nationally and started an executive board to do that of special Olympics, which is what it should have happened. And it was wonderful that she did. And nobody ever seems to think that that was the wrong thing. But I think most people felt that, and Mayor Daly would have liked to have Dan Shannon, who was vice-chairman. Vice President of the Park District on that committee.”

    2018-08-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 261 - Anne Burke · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

38. “Well, I actually met Ed around 1965 when I started working with the children. And his dad, of course, was an alderman, but it was a woman who worked for the Chicago Park District as the head of the matrons on the south side. And so she would go around to all the parks all the time. And I became very friendly with her because I was working at all the parks, different parks over the years. And her name was Loretta Black. And she said one time to me just before 19 Christmas 1965. She had a young man that she thought that I should meet. And of course, I didn't want any part of any dating fix-ups. I was dating a fellow that I knew and I kind of liked that. And he was a football player for St. Rita High School, but out at Villanova. But I was invited to her birthday party, and lo and behold, I met Ed, and that was the beginning.”

    2018-08-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 261 - Anne Burke · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

39. “And there was another fun story too. We were trying to secure a lot of in-house contributions by other charities and all. man who had all the concessions for the Chicago Park District, all the hot dogs at the beaches and pools and places that they had events. Bill Burns' name was Consolidated Concessions. And we had asked if he could provide box lunches for fifteen hundred people for our first games, and I didn't hear from him. And I asked President McFetridge again. I said, we're not going to have any lunches for all the kids and all the volunteers and everything. And he absolutely must have delivered because they were delivered. The box launches. He must have called Mr. Burns and said, You know, you want that contract next year, Mr. Burns, for the parks?”

    2018-08-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 261 - Anne Burke · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

40. “I hear you're not going to let these handicapped kids use the word Olympics in their games. And then I don't know what's going on on the other line. But then I hear Mayor Daley say, well, the fire department has been over to your hotel and they have found many, many.”

    2018-08-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 261 - Anne Burke · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

41. “Was the man. He was, and he was benevolent. I mean, he really was in so many ways. And so when I was summoned to his office, he said, this is a very bad thing that happened here. So he said, I'm going to call Avery. So he picked up the phone. I'm in the room. And he said Avery, this is Dick. Now, I didn't know at the time that the La Salle Hotel, which was across the street, was owned by Avery Brundage. And I didn't know what the La Salle hotel was being a South Cider. I never went. I never went north of Van Buren, I think, at the time. But there I am in the mayor's office, and he picks up the phone, and I'm Listening to him, and he said,”

    2018-08-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 261 - Anne Burke · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

42. “I was devastated that he said it was a cease and desist letter I was twenty three years old, a college dropout. I had no idea what that meant. What does that mean? Cease and desist. And I gave it to President McFetridge. McFetridge gave it to Mayor Daly, Mayor Daley summoned me to his office. That was another For me, it's like Probably more important than seeing Mrs. Shriver because this was home. And my dad, you know, was just so excited that I was going to meet Mayor Daly the whole nine yards.”

    2018-08-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 261 - Anne Burke · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

43. “Being flabbergasted about what she said, she said, it's unacceptable because it can always be better. It's not big enough. And it has to be national, not just city. You go back to Chicago, rewrite it, and I will help you”

    2018-08-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 261 - Anne Burke · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

44. “I had only been on an airplane once before Only once before was I on an airplane in my whole life. I went to Florida with a girlfriend once. And so that in itself was kind of scary. But to meet President Kennedy's sister and who I admired, that whole family. Everyone wanted to dress just like Jackie and all, and so it was just that was really what I was worried about. I had no worries about my proposal. That's what I did. I mean, that's what I knew best. But when she read the proposal, she said it was good. But she said it was unacceptable. That pretty put me under the table. And what are you doing about that? Because that's what I think we should be doing in Chicago is having this jamboree. And she said, but she didn't finish her sentence, which thank goodness, because then I got off the floor.”

    2018-08-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 261 - Anne Burke · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

45. “Absolutely was doing that anyway. We were all doing that anyway, so it was no big deal. They parked district employees are professionals. Most of them were and are athletes. So I had the whole park district who could execute this idea. It wasn't something that I was really daunted by, but when I did write the proposal to Eunice Kennedy Shriver, because Dr. Freeberg from Southern Illinois University, who I called, who knew about these people who had been former executive director of the Kennedy Foundation suggested I write to her because she might be interested, I sent the proposal, the simple fifty yard dash. High jump and free throw, and invited me out to Washington to meet with her”

    2018-08-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 261 - Anne Burke · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

46. “Yes, it was something we always did. My children knew how to run, even if it was, you know, a short period, you know, 50 hour dash, a relay, jump, even if it was only two feet, they learned jumping from two inches to two feet, and that was major. And the Park District officials said, how do we get more people from Chicago area to come to our park? Never did anybody know or there were no statistics because people weren't doing that kind of research. How many children were like this in Chicago? We had no idea. But the regular park program had what they called a end-of-day camp citywide jamboree where kids came to Soldier Field, did the relay races and small competition, high jump and whatever. And I said, we should just do the same thing with our ten parks. And that was what they said to do. And I...”

    2018-08-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 261 - Anne Burke · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

47. “It wasn't something that we were conscious of, except that we needed help, and who else but the kids who were in the regular day camp programs and in the park that came every day. In addition to the carpenters and the plumbers, the natatorium instructors of the park themselves. Now these were older individuals who also hadn't met a person with intellectual differences who also participated and helped me, especially the boys bringing him to the swimming pool, helped change with them. It was a whole family of people who wrapped their arms around and nurture the kids.”

    2018-08-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 261 - Anne Burke · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

48. “Absolutely we had inclusion from the very beginning, not even knowing what it meant, but I couldn't have had the program. The kids loved being playing with the other kids. And the other kids really taught the special children, really. That's what kids do. They play together. They teach each other. And now today, of course, in fast forward to today, is that, and it's a revolution of inclusion, but now it's authorized teams competing against each other.”

    2018-08-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 261 - Anne Burke · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

49. “And other kids. But it didn't happen that way because it was their neighborhood. They go to the park and the other kids in the neighborhood knew the O'Briens and here was Kevin now out there and they helped me with my program. I could not have done it without the neighborhood children helping.”

    2018-08-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 261 - Anne Burke · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

50. “We did. We ended. First of all, I had to advertise in the Roseland newspapers, the local newspapers, as did the other nine physical education teachers in the other parks to tell parents, please bring your child to the park district. Please bring your child and that word, which we don't use anymore, was in the newspaper and headlines. I still have those copies of those papers. One family did Marty O'Brien brought Kevin and his wife and Kevin being a Down syndrome and brought him to the park because they lived really across the street. They had siblings and Marty told John and Esther Cuzac to bring Michael and that's how it worked. So finally, parents realized that it was okay to bring their child to the park. They were very concerned for because they thought it might be rejected or made bullied.”

    2018-08-02 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 261 - Anne Burke · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source