Patricia Wright Quotations

There are very few people advocating for the poor in this state or in the country. Poor people have no voice.

One of the things I think we were helpful in doing was getting some exposure.

We want to be a clearinghouse for individuals and groups concerned with federal and state budget issues affecting the middle class and the poor. We want to take back their power and speak on their behalf.

We hit a nerve. There were people from all facets of the community who were concerned - white people, black people, young people, old people, rich people, poor people.

Everyone who wanted an opportunity to speak, got a chance to speak. These are people who had an opportunity to interface with policy makers in a matter that they might not have otherwise had. They were looking at the problem of poverty from so many angles, but they were of one accord.

After all the attention from this article. I was told that the pressure I put on helped to push the compromise. The original bill called for immediate implementation.

They were looking for a Harvard government major to be a lobbyist for the state of Massachusetts. That was the first and best job I ever had.

There were leaders from around the world at the institute, so my appetite was whetted for this.

Everyone knows the foods are really wonderful because they're all homemade. You can't buy anything like it in the stores.

(It's) very good news and the board really appreciates the support of the community. I think that patrons know that both of our communities in our district are in a growth pattern and we want to be prepared for the future.

I'm proud to say we were not standing around the reflecting pool. We were in the House of Representatives, and they briefed us as to what was going on, on the Hill that week.

In essence, we want to know if Title I funds will be withheld if we exempt non-Title I schools that don't get the money. That is the million-dollar question.

I honestly am gratified that the process works. I don't want to do away with our system. I want to make it work for everyone.

Lemurs are extraordinarily leapers. I mean they are just really going from tree to tree and then if there is not a tree, they just come down to the ground very gracefully. But it is the music that makes them seem to be dancing. They are basically getting from one place to another and that's just natural for them. They are just natural acrobatic dancers, just the way they move. It's beautiful!

The black and white lemur, the one that relaxes on that branch, they actually have day care, like kindergartens; where all the mothers come together and they put all the babies into this one nest and they let dad watch it while they go out and have food and have a good time and then they come back in a few hours. We've never seen that in other primates.

Lemurs are good parents but they do it in different ways. I originally studied father care. I was very interested in that and we saw that a lot of these animals that lived in pairs and the father wasn't doing anything at all for the first month. But then suddenly, when the baby got to be a certain weight then the dads chipped in and started carrying the babies which was very nice. And then if there was twins or triplets then they helped.

My first job was actually as a social worker. And then later, I got my PhD in anthropology. And I've always been interested in humans as well as primates. We are all kind of have the same emotions, the same goals and lives really. But to me, when I first got to Madagascar I realized that the lemurs lives are very closely related to what the humans are doing; partially because they've got both looking for natural resources. And if we can make some way that both humans and lemurs can live together peaceably and happily, that would be my goal for Madagascar.

There's over 100 species of lemurs. Each is a little bit different in their social structure except for one thing: they are all female dominant. The females are the leaders. They are the ones that call the shots. When you watch a group, you can see the females are the first one to say "We're going to move." Then she moves off and everybody just follows.