[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:05] Speaker B: Welcome to Disability Empowerment now season four. I'm your host, Keith Mavidi Ginsini. Today I'm talking to Jim Klick, a philanthropist and business owner in Tucson, Arizona, and feuds disability ally. Jim, welcome to the program.
[00:00:42] Speaker A: Well, Keith, it's nice to know you and I hope your audience knows a little bit about your family.
And I'd like to tell a quick story if I could, about your great grandfather.
[00:00:55] Speaker B: Yeah, sure.
[00:00:57] Speaker A: Well, as you know, he was a Supreme Court judge and he was the head of the local hospital here. I was a young man of 27 back in 1971, and our first child was born there. And I wrote him a letter about the service I received at the hospital.
Your grandfather came to see me and said, we've got a reward for you. I said, well, gosh, that's really nice. He said, we're going to let you be the annual gifts committee chairman for the hospital. We want you to raise money.
So he got me into not only fundraising for the hospital, but I've been fundraising ever since. And working with people with disabilities has become a real passion for me. Keith and my wife my wife had a disabled sister.
Man, I went to the gentleman I went to work for Homesteadle had a terrible son that was had cerebral palsy. So we have we know about disability or learning differences in our own family and we've been very involved in employing people with disabilities and we've been very involved in adaptive athletic program here at the University of Arizona.
And my son was, I think, lucky enough to go to a school where you might have gone.
[00:02:19] Speaker B: Yes, that we're all perhaps first intersected, although I don't believe we actually met there. Vintage Lamarck College in Putney, Vermont. And earlier on in the season, I managed to interview a former clad maid of mine and a kind employee of the college and a colleague of his.
I was fortunate enough to go to the gay gala at the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens in April.
I believe in not next year, but the year after is the 50th anniversary, I believe.
And so tell me how your family became involved with Landmark.
[00:03:36] Speaker A: Well, it's a my son Chris, who I love very much.
And he had struggled as a young man and we thought it might just be a language. So we went to the University of Arizona to a speech program there with the doctor's name was Dr. Dan Boone. I remember it. He worked with Vicki and I on helping Chris with these language skills. And as we went through the school system, he struggled.
It was difficult for him and we had him tested and it had been nice if someone would have said, well, these were back in the 70s, would have said, you know, your son doesn't process information like other kids.
But he, he got through same schools that some of your family went to here in Tucson. Him. And he went to South Point Catholic High School. He was accepted to University of Arizona. And by the way, for your listeners, the University of Arizona has a wonderful program called the SALT program, which is a strategic learning techniques for kids with dyslexia or learning differences. He did that for a year and frankly, he just needed more.
Any additional help, initial additional way to learn.
So somehow Vicki, my wife, God bless her, found somehow she found Landmark College. We went back and we. We studied up about it, we learned about it.
We flew back to Boston and then drove over to Putney and we got to visit there with Carolyn and Jim Oliver.
And Carolyn looked, Carolyn wanted to talk to Chris, not to us, and said, chris, I can help you. I can make a difference in your life with your learning.
And you just process information differently. You know, it comes in and it just takes you a little while longer to process it. And we think we've got the school that will be perfect for you. And what impressed me, Keith, is that Jim, when I say the letter lady's name was gosh darn it, both of them were so nice to us, but they both taught at Landmark High School in, In Boston, I believe. And then he decided to do a college for kids. At that time it was a two year program.
So after Chris's freshman year at University of Arizona, he was able to transfer. The Landmark time we went back there, I'll never forget, we were driving back to Boston and one of the world's most famous athletes that day had an issue. I think this was in 75.
And that night I went to 75. Chris graduated in 80.
I got my, I got my. You know, it was in the 80s, I guess. Darn. 85, 86, 87. And we were drove back to Boston and Chris said, I'm not going to go.
But that night he came in and said, you know, I'll go for one year or one semester.
And so the next fall we took him back. And I mean, it was hard for mom and dad. Wow.
[00:07:18] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:07:19] Speaker A: We're in Tucson, Arizona. We left the only boy we have in Putney, Vermont.
[00:07:24] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:07:25] Speaker A: I'll never forget it. That night we went to Rattleboro and had dinner at Peter Ravens, and we're sitting there crying. Yeah, it was one of the best experiences our son's ever had in his life and for what it did for him.
I have spoken everywhere I go.
People want to know about a great school for kids with learning differences. I tell them, you got to go to Landmark College. Chris is still in charge with the janitors.
[00:07:54] Speaker B: Yeah, Landmark had grown exponentially.
I started there in 06.
No, that's when I graduated from there. And it was still a two year College of Associates degree. Now they're four years. They have master's program and they have like most campuses now, they do online learning as well.
I was talking to a therapist of mine about you a few weeks ago and he reminded me that the level of giving that you have bestowed upon this city, it is probably next to impossible to find someone in this city who hasn't either directly and or indirectly benefited from your generation generosity and your family's generosity.
So tell me, what brought Jim Click and family to Tucson and how did you get your start in business?
[00:09:43] Speaker A: Well, Keith, that's a great question.
I was born in Oklahoma.
Mr. Tuttle, the man I went to work for, was born in Tuttle, Oklahoma in 1905, 1915.
His sister had a child. That was my father.
His name is Jim Click Senior. I'm Jim Click junior. When my dad was three, his mother died in childbirth. And so my dad was raised by the the Tuttle family.
But in 23, the family went broke. They were very successful. Keith and my dad then moved in with the Click family. And Mr. Tuttle then went to work for the Ford Motor Company for $5 a day.
And my dad then graduated from high school in little town called Alec, Oklahoma. And when he graduated, he hitchhiked in New Orleans and joined the Marines. Ended up being a Shanghai, China for four years, which he loved. He loved the Chinese people. That was before obviously what had happened with communism there. He loved the Chinese people. Mr. Tuttle, in the meantime, in 1923 when the family went broke, went to work for the Ford Motor Company. And I tell these stories because here's two men with different jobs but different background. Mitchell Tuttle at 18 going to work for the Ford Motor Company. My dad went into the Marines.
Mitchell Tuttle, in 1926, Keith hitchhiked to California on a train. He didn't hitchhike. He rode the rails with the hobos out to California. And he would got the Ford business because he had a little experience at the Ford Motor Company plant. And he became terribly successful. He was in parts, he was in sales. He was a sales manager. He went, he went through World War II, got his first Ford dealership.
Mr. Tuttle loved free enterprise, which I know everybody on this call loves this country. He was so grateful to the country.
So meantime, my dad got back from China and. And he got in the car business.
And that's a great story. And you just have to take advantage of every opportunity. My dad was pumping gas and at a little grocery store, gas station back in the 40s, let's see, 33, 37, late 30s, early 40s.
And the man my dad would shine in his windshield and put the air in his tires and gas knees, and this guy said, you want to be selling bus advertising? Make a long story short, he moved from Paul's Valley to Lawton, sold bus advertising, sold it to a Chevrolet dealer. Chevrolet dealer said, he said, the Chevrolet said, you ought to be selling cars. So my dad then got in the car business, and then my dad ended up being a dealer in Oklahoma. And I saw along the way of my life, I saw the way my father and Mr. Tuttle treated people and how they cared about people, how they had this real connection with everybody, especially people with disabilities.
Then Mr. Tuttle had one of his first grandsons, just had a terrible cerebral palsy. And they love that boy just like I love my son. And anybody else with a learning difference loves their children.
So I was able to get that as a background. I saw my dad being a giver, and then when I got to. And he loved people. And I saw the same thing with Mr. Tull in California. When I came to Tucson in 71, Mr. Tuttle said, look, if you have run a business, you're going to take out of the community. You need to give back to the community, and you need to try to make it better.
And I was worried about selling cars when I first came here. Tell your grandfather. Evo Deaconsini made that call on me. So I started raising money for different charities.
And your grandfather told me this. He said, you know, Jim, this community is not a wealthy community.
We need people like you to give back. There's a lot of needs in our community. We're not a New York City, we're not a Phoenix. You know, we're close to the border.
So there's a lot of people need a lot of help.
So three years later, four years later, I started working on different, got involved Buckle Rally got me involved with Junior Team.
But my first.
When I first started hiring people with disabilities, there was a rehab agency named Beacon foundation in Tucson that called on me. And they, they had a lot of clients, A lot of people they took care of were developmentally disabled.
And my wife's sister was developing disabled. So they asked me if I would consider hiring some of their people they served. And we started with two kids. Today we have 50 or 60 in our stores.
We started an organization called Linkages, which helps people with disabilities get gainful employment.
We came back to Landmark College. We were on the parents committee. We came back, we encouraged other parents to contribute. Chuck Strauss, I talked to him today, by the way. Talked to Chuck just today. He said old and he still loves your school.
And it wouldn't be what it is today probably without Chuck. And man, you talk about a man that gives. And I think he just gave a big gift to Lehigh University. So I think in this country, men like your family, they, they serve.
Your dad has done that.
Your uncle, Dennis Deaconsini, he gave back to the community. He served in public service. He became a United States senator even though he was a Democrat. Yeah, I liked him.
Yeah.
[00:16:11] Speaker B: I mean, yes.
Yeah.
It's that sense of service.
It's very much needed now more than ever.
[00:16:24] Speaker A: I couldn't agree with you more, Keith.
[00:16:26] Speaker B: Around this country and it's so wonderful that people who are politically opposed can come together and work with each other.
I wish that there would mold that in today's environment that camaraderie of country above politics.
[00:17:01] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. We're all, we're all Americans.
[00:17:04] Speaker B: All of us.
[00:17:04] Speaker A: Yes, Even the founders, they all had their differences.
They put their differences aside and they tried to do what was best for a brand new country.
You know, when some of them didn't agree. But they finally all came together and started this wonderful experience called the United States of America called democracy. And look where we are today. And you're exactly right, Keith. We're going to have to make sure that we're Americans first.
We're Americans first. Then we can.
We can be political, but political in a way that you're going to try to do the very best to help other people. We need to help people in this country that were born with differences.
We need to help people who become disabled as a result of an accident or an illness or born with a disability. They deserve an opportunity to be productive.
And by the way, the people I've hired during a wheelchair or with any kind of disability, they're our best employees.
[00:18:17] Speaker B: Yes, that's a very important point you make because the unemployment rate of people with disabilities is about three times the national average of their non disabled old counterparts, which is a huge shame and waste of talent.
Talk more about that from a executive point of view.
[00:18:58] Speaker A: Well, first, every company today is looking for great people.
And I've had two teammates of mine break their necks.
They went to Craig Institute, they came back to work.
One we tried to make. We made accommodations for him to.
He was a mechanic. He ended up being a service manager and he ended up being our webmaster. And he was so productive. Another one was a body shop mechanic.
And because he couldn't use his hands being a body shot mechanic, he went back to school, got an accounting degree. Today he's our chief financial officer in our own company.
And it was hard for him to get an interview with other companies. So I think this has been a.
I feel bad that I haven't been able to influence other. More companies, more individuals, more big corporations. Now there's some good ones, you know, but Safeway, I think at one point them and Walmart, and they were big employers of people with disabilities, from development disabilities to physical disabilities, everything, everything in between. So we are now trying to work with the local high schools to help the kids in special ed.
Like with.
Right now, we're training young people, we're training them to be automobile mechanics so when they get out of school, they get a scholarship. And within a couple of years, in Pima College, with the help of Ford Motor Company, they'll be master mechanics. But we need to take all those kids that if once you can go to college, some of them are very bright. You and I both know that.
[00:20:48] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:20:49] Speaker A: Just because you have a learning difference or you may have cerebral palsy, you have a great brain.
So we need to make it possible for them to go to college.
Arizona University of Arizona has a great outreach for people with disabilities through their SALT program and through our disability Resource center, the lady that runs it, Amanda Crouch.
Oh, I just got an email from her today, so. And by the way, she just got a big promotion and now she's over several departments at the university.
She's amazing. I'm glad you know her.
[00:21:28] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Hopefully I'll interview her next season.
So this, what I do, has grown exponentially since I started in 2020.
Back then it was just a audio podcast and now it's video cats.
And next year it is going to become a nonprofit to give it more legitimacy and make it more professional. I work with the greatest team of young professionals. Most of them are news reporters who do everything that I don't do. And I work with a wonderful attorney in Florida who is actually going to become my co host in the postseason on disability law.
And then we're gonna launch the nonprofit probably next spring or next fall.
It's all about giving back to the community and amplifying voices that aren't usually heard or thought about.
[00:23:11] Speaker A: Yeah, I first, I want to be your first contributor to your non profit.
[00:23:17] Speaker B: Thank you.
[00:23:18] Speaker A: I think. So this is a video podcast so you'll show online as a video. YouTube.
YouTube. Oh good.
[00:23:28] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:23:30] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, listen, we're so blessed in this country to have the opportunities that we've all had. We're not perfect. We all know.
[00:23:39] Speaker B: No, no. The founding fathers, for all their wisdom and genius, founded a imperfect union and set up a in perfect system that has evolved over the centuries to become what we know now. And it will continue to evolve and become greater and greater. But the founders did not found a perfect union with a perfect system.
And people often forget that with American exceptionalism.
That's valid.
But we're all still humans at the end of the day. Imperfect, simple humans that are constantly learning, improving, hopefully and evolving.
And it's our job edge God's children and as Americans to help each other learn and grow together to get to that eventual perfect union that was set out by our Creator, you know.
[00:25:23] Speaker A: Well, glad to hear you say that, Andrew, because there's nothing wrong with.
Yeah, I'm sorry. Sorry, Keith.
[00:25:31] Speaker B: No problem. I've been called a large believer.
[00:25:37] Speaker A: Sorry, Keith. But you know what? We can always, always try to do better.
[00:25:44] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:25:44] Speaker A: You know, in our job, with our families, in our communities and our church and politics today has gotten so divisive.
[00:25:57] Speaker B: Yes, it's a blood sport really. It's a emotional blood sport. And that.
Pardon me for taking a big leap of faith, but I believe the founders would be qualified at what? I mean, it's on both sides. It's judge a match.
It's.
[00:26:32] Speaker A: It is, it is. But you know what?
We're going to get through this crisis.
And somebody, Richard Tuttle always said that's why he was so helpful to Ronald Reagan becoming a president, because he thought he could bring this country back together. He can create jobs. He can help the people that were unemployed by getting them a skill.
One of his people that worked for him said the best form of welfare is a good paying job.
[00:27:06] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:27:07] Speaker A: And there's a lot of good jobs.
My wife's father was a bus driver for Graham.
But he was, he was a damn good bus driver and he loved his family. He raised two girls. One was developmentally disabled, the other one is my wife.
And he did very well, worked hard, good church going man. He gave back. His wife helped people with disability because of Michelle.
So we can all. We just said if everybody would just do a little more. Yeah, what can we do a little more? One more act of kindness, one more little favor opening the door for somebody helping, asking a handicapped person to help you. Would you need some.
You know, it's just that. And that's the way you were raised, yet that was why God gave you that as well. But you're an example for other people, Keith. You're an example for them. You know, my son was an example.
Joy Engineering, who's my.
He's my number one producing person in my company, and he's in a wheelchair. He broke his neck as a senior in high school.
He went to U of A, got a degree, did adaptive athletics, came to work for me.
And he's now one of the best, most valued employees, teammates that we have in our company. Richard Nolan, broke his neck. One of the best teammates.
Chris Burns, same way. So just because you get knocked down because you're born with a learning difference or some disability, we need to make sure that we help everybody reach their potential. And I got to tell you something. I know your dad, mom are proud of you, and I'm proud of you. And I've enjoyed being on your show. I don't know how much longer you want me to. You know, these car salesmen, you get us on here, we don't want to get off.
[00:29:16] Speaker B: Yeah, I know. I have a few more questions, and thank you for your count candor and your storytelling, but most of all, your sense of service.
Because you're right, the city of Tucson, it's not the city of Phoenix, it's not New York City. Hell, it's not Austin, Texas, Tampa, Florida.
But there are men and women like you who give so much back that again, I'm reminded of what Motherovich says. It's really impossible to calculate how many people have been impacted by your generosity and by your family's sense of service and giving back to the community.
And I know that something all families share, and it goes back to your father, to your grandfather, to your great grandfather, and it goes back the same way to my family.
So in case there are any one listening or watching this who wants to give back in a more philanthropic way, what would a real sense of savage.
I hope that that is the main point that people take away from this episode. But as someone who has made it their lives mission to do this vital, important work, what would be your advice to the next generation on following in Jim Klik junior's footsteps?
[00:31:54] Speaker A: Okay, first, each and every one of us. I've said this a lot of times, Keith. You know, putting your name on a check, giving your money, that's easy.
Everybody, in their own way, can be a giver, can be a person who goes out of their way to help other people every day. You can volunteer in all kinds of organizations, whether it be your church, your Rotary Club, your neighborhood association, the Boys and Girls Clubs, a school, you know, you have to. And I. I probably spread myself a little thin sometimes, trying to do more like I should first. Someone's gotta. You know, you got to focus on your job. You can't. You got to focus on your family, okay?
You got to take care of yourself. If you don't take care of yourself, you can't take care of others. You can't do a good job at work.
You gotta love your country, okay?
We are what we are.
[00:32:59] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:33:01] Speaker A: We gotta realize that we're all created equal, but sometimes we're born with differences. And there's people that always need a hand up.
Maybe not necessarily a handout, but hand up. By getting an education at Landmark College, by being able to participate as a disabled person. In this recent olympics, we have 14 people from university of Arizona who were either students here at one time or in our program who participated in the Olympics. It's amazing.
[00:33:36] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:33:37] Speaker A: And. And they turned out that we got to admire the French people. They turned out wonderfully.
Not only to cheer the best athletes in the world, but also the best disabled athletes in the world.
[00:33:51] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:33:51] Speaker A: Who are really, really, really performing. So I just. I'd encourage first. Everybody needs to do their job, be nice to everybody. And if you get a chance to get involved in an organization, serve on the board.
I did that.
You know, 80 right now. I don't feel 80.
I don't think I act 80. I.
[00:34:15] Speaker B: You don't look, Daddy. And that's not me trying to flatter you.
[00:34:21] Speaker A: Yeah. You know, if you. If you got a minute, I'd love to show you my office on this video screen.
[00:34:27] Speaker B: Yeah, sure.
[00:34:29] Speaker A: Okay. Here, I wanna. I want to show you some things.
Hold on a minute.
[00:34:34] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:34:34] Speaker A: I think your audience will enjoy this. All right. Yeah. Hold on. Okay. Can you see me?
[00:34:40] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:34:41] Speaker A: All right. Okay, great.
All right, Lindsay, help me do this. All right, well, this. This is my.
This is my granddaughter.
Yeah. Flip me around.
You're gonna flip me around here.
[00:34:59] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:35:00] Speaker A: Hold on.
I don't know. I don't think we can do it. We get. I have a glove on. Hold on. It's not ready. All right, here, wait a minute. I'LL do it without touch.
Hold on. Oh, it's it. Nope.
Yeah, you want to be able to see. That's my.
That's my granddaughter and we were at the Tucson Zoo and that's her today. But I tell that story only because that day we went to the zoo and the Click family decided to make a contribution to the zoo to make sure we can have that. And that's was given to me on my 40th birthday. And I've got a book on Mr. Tuttle over here and my dad.
And if you want to.
I'm going to walk through my office here.
[00:35:48] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:35:49] Speaker A: This is the dealerships now that we represent.
This is a great photo. I love this photo.
That's Joey Engineering in the blue shirt in the wheelchair. And that's Chris Burns. The gentleman on the far right is Andy Fish. He went to me in high school and said someday he wanted to work for me and he's worked for me now. The rest of them are some of our beacon teammates.
That's a friend of mine that your daddy probably knew. He was three star general in the Marines.
Hold on here a minute.
[00:36:28] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:36:31] Speaker A: I got to go to Rwanda.
[00:36:33] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:36:34] Speaker A: Gorilla.
We got to see them. And my daughter worked in the Bush White House.
[00:36:41] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:36:41] Speaker A: And she met a gentleman who met the gentleman.
Hold on here. We're going another group.
[00:36:47] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:36:47] Speaker A: Anyway, we got to go to Rwanda as a result of a good friend who knew Kagami who stopped the genocide.
[00:36:56] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:36:58] Speaker A: Race cars.
Okay.
[00:37:01] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:37:02] Speaker A: So I get to have fun too. Keith.
[00:37:04] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:37:06] Speaker A: President Bush and my daughter.
[00:37:08] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:37:10] Speaker A: And the Queen of England. Not bad.
[00:37:14] Speaker B: No, not bad at all.
[00:37:16] Speaker A: And I got to see your uncle Dennis. Had a.
A couple events in Washington D.C.
this is Oklahoma State.
[00:37:26] Speaker B: Nice.
[00:37:27] Speaker A: Montgomery State wall.
This is kind of some of my.
That's my Mr. Tuttle. Yeah, he passed away, but he's the guy that got Ronald Reagan to run for governor. That's my partner, Bob Tuttle.
My dad, my son.
Some more of the kids from the Beacon. This is one of our special employees who passed away.
This is something you'll get a kick out of.
See what that says.
[00:37:55] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:37:56] Speaker A: You know where that is?
[00:37:58] Speaker B: Tell me.
[00:38:00] Speaker A: Landmark College right there.
[00:38:02] Speaker B: Yep. I know. I would judge saying that for the audience.
[00:38:08] Speaker A: Yeah. This is.
This is just more stuff.
[00:38:12] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:38:12] Speaker A: This is President Clinton.
I got an award for hiring people with disabilities. That's all community stuff.
That was when President Reagan was day before he became president.
That sound met the Boys and Girls Club event here in Tucson.
And there's some more.
Anyway. Yeah, just athletics here's my office.
There's Mr. Tuttle.
[00:38:44] Speaker B: Nice.
[00:38:45] Speaker A: Yeah. Here's my family, President Bush's office, but I don't show those.
There's my kids when they're in high school, and that's when they were little.
Now I'll turn this off. Lindsay, you want to help me turn it off or put it back on so he can see me?
Hold on, Keith.
[00:39:09] Speaker B: Okay. Not going anywhere.
[00:39:14] Speaker A: Yeah, I got it. You did it. Yeah, I got it. Good job. Can you see me, Keith?
[00:39:18] Speaker B: Yep, I can.
[00:39:23] Speaker A: I gotta turn the wrong way, but.
Well, listen, will you tell all your family I said hello?
[00:39:32] Speaker B: Yes. One ledge question before lunch.
[00:39:36] Speaker A: You go, oh, by the way, this is the.
We did this last Sunday nights. Yeah.
[00:39:46] Speaker B: Nights. What is it?
[00:39:49] Speaker A: It's the gym, Click, run and row where we raised money for the people with disabilities with physical disabilities who are playing sports at the University of Arizona nights. Yeah.
[00:40:04] Speaker B: One large question before I let you go. I like to think that both advocates with disabilities and those who have yet to discover or embrace their own disabilities lets in watch this program.
I'm not naive enough to think that each group in groups within those groups take away the same things from every episode.
So as my guests, what do you hope that advocates with disabilities take away from this episode?
[00:40:53] Speaker A: And.
[00:40:53] Speaker B: And what do you hope that those who have yet to discover or embrace their own disabilities take away from this episode?
[00:41:07] Speaker A: Well, first, if someone becomes disabled or born with a disability or let's say a learning difference, I want you to know you're just as special as anybody else.
And they are, Keith, everybody.
And there's opportunity for you.
Okay. And are you going to have to work a little bit harder? Yes.
Sometimes that's a good thing.
I was not blessed in school, so I had to work at it. And you have to work at means more to you.
So.
And people with disabilities, we all need to fall in love with each other and especially people with disabilities.
If you have a disability, you're down maybe, but you're not out. There's lots of opportunities still for people with disabilities.
And if you're able bodied and you are able to help someone get gainful employment or get a better education or be a part of a program where someone can go get in a skill with a disability, I'd encourage other business owners.
You should go call rehab in our country, Keith, the rehab agencies take people, therapists take people. Landmark takes people with learning differences with physical disabilities, development disabilities, mental disabilities, and I encourage people. You want to hire people.
Rehab has done a great job in our country.
Getting people ready to take a job.
They are, they have.
So regardless of your disability, don't let that hold you back. Use as an asset. Not that we want people, we're not going to beat people to feel sorry for you. Just show them how capable you are.
So I would encourage people with disabilities, don't get discouraged. There's a lot of people out there that care about you.
And the more businesses, families we can get to be aware that people have differences, but they're not different.
God just still loves them as much as he loves us. And it's just good business.
Good business, Keith to hire people with disabilities because guess what?
They're the best damn employees you can have.
[00:43:44] Speaker B: And what do you hope that people who have yet to discover and embrace their own disabilities take away from this episode?
[00:43:58] Speaker A: Well, people that don't know they really have a disability.
Well, you know, if you I know there's testing programs available.
I know there's places maybe where you can go and people can help you discover a disability.
Jim Click.
Learn differently.
You know, I want to sit next to the smartest kid in class because I want to learn from him too, as well as the teacher.
There are strategies you can use to, you know, to learn better, to learn differently.
But I think all of us, we all have flaws and I think if we can address them and try to make ourselves better result of recognize them what they are.
Gentleman today told me he liked these three courses and guess what? Those are three courses he did really well in. He excelled in them. So we can't all be car salesmen, we can't all be presidents, but we can all be productive part of societies whether we're abled or disabled and we can all damn sure go about our way helping each other.
[00:45:16] Speaker B: Jim, I want to thank you for this interview and for being the season closer that really shaped the whole season's topics of advocacy and employment so beautifully by a life of servants to his fellow man and his community, recognizing that we are all God's children and in this country, regardless of party affiliation, we are all Americans and it is our duty to serve and to help each other along this life's journey.
Thank you for embodying that throughout your life walk. And hopefully it's not over yet. My friend. I.
I'm very honored to interview you and I hope this is to quote the final line of a movie that we both know and love well. Cat Sablanca, I hope this is the beginning of a long, beautiful friendship.
[00:46:58] Speaker A: Me too. And I want to tell you I'm nice you've been. I'm very impressed with the way you've handled me today and the questions you've asked.
I'm impressed with what you're doing to help people with disabilities.
And I want you to know I think I might have recommended Landmark College to your mom and dad. They might have called me years ago and I said, well, here's a place that you might want to consider.
So, Keith, God bless you and your family.
Thank you for inviting me. And I know you'll get your nonprofit started and I'll be one of your first contributors, son.
[00:47:34] Speaker B: Thank you. God bless you, too. Have a wonderful holiday.
[00:47:42] Speaker A: Thank you. God bless everybody that's listening or watching. Take care, Keith. Hello to your mom and dad.
[00:47:49] Speaker B: I will. Bye. Now.
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[00:48:34] Speaker A: Now.
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