Leadership Quote by Major Owens

Enforcement is where lofty civil-rights language goes to die, and Major Owens is bluntly calling that out. By leading with “The first place to start is on enforcement,” he yanks the ADA out of the realm of moral celebration and into the messier arena where rights either become routine or remain decorative. It’s a reminder that legislation is not the finish line; it’s the starting gun.

The phrase “We who got the ADA passed” is doing strategic coalition work. Owens is staking authorship, not for ego alone, but to defend institutional memory: the people who fought for passage understand the law’s intended force, and they’re warning against its quiet defanging. That “we” also draws a line between insiders who endured the fight and latecomers who may praise the ADA while starving it of mechanisms, staff, or political will.

Then comes the sharpest subtext: “did the hard part, the heavy lifting.” It sounds triumphant, but it’s also a reprimand. Owens implies that today’s leaders, agencies, and employers are treating enforcement as optional, as if the moral credit of passing the law substitutes for compliance. The wording carries a veteran legislator’s impatience with performative progress: you don’t get to hang a mission-accomplished banner over a statute while ramps, accommodations, and equal access are still being negotiated case by case.

Context matters here: the ADA’s promise has always depended on regulators, courts, budgets, and complaints processes. Owens is warning that without teeth, a landmark law becomes a landmark alibi.