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 ON A ROLL 
Produced by Joanne Caputo, in association with the Independent Television Service, with funding provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
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 Wednesday, February 02, 2005 Today was a travel recovery day. I spoke Monday night at the Idaho Statewide Independent Living Council annual conference in Boise. It is always a pleasure to address an audience of people with disabilities. They can relate. I don't have to worry about being as politically correct and I can be more free and open with my humor.The speech was about discrimmination, and conveniently, I was the only African American in the room. I used that fact to begin my speech and cover the various types of discrimmination I have faced as an African American, as a person with a disability, and as a person raised in a mostly white community. I've experienced discrimination from black and white people (and all people) because of my disabilty. I've experienced it from white people because of my race. I've experienced it from black people because of my cultural upbringing, being referred to as an "Oreo" on more than one occasion. (Black on the outside, white on the inside.) But my message was an inspirational one. All of that discrimmination has made me stronger. That's my whole theme. We all get stronger by lifting the weights of life's challenges. I want to thank Kelly Buckland for inviting me. A special treat was meeting Bobbi Ball. I remembered her name from an "On A Roll" radio show many years ago in which she was a caller. That particular show involved stories of people falling out of their wheelchairs. In that show, she called in with a story about her getting stuck under her desk, unable to reach a computer mouse she had dropped, and accidently tilting her chair back, which forced her head to raise the desk up! It was a classic "On A Roll" call. She was surprised that I remembered that call, which was made in 1997. During my speech, I acknowledged her from the platform and the audience laughed! After my speech, disability rights leader Sarah Triano took the platform and delivered a powerful, passionate oration. It had been a while since I heard her speak. She was good then. She is great now. Tom Olin, the disability rights movement's photographer was there, as was Jim Ward from ADA watch. After Sarah's speech the four of us went out to a restaurant and had a great time! It is always good to see my brothers and sisters in the disability rights movement.
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 Born with muscular dystrophy, raised by a football coach, Greg's inner strength message is woven into all of his programs: "In any situation, great opportunity exists for victory." 
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