We have a lot to be thankful for this time of year and I am reminded of how much the Mercer County Office on Aging contributes to senior issues.
Eileen Doremus, Executive Director of Mercer County Office on Aging, was recognized by the city of Trenton Monday evening, December 19 at the Marriott.
In an email to Staff and Advisory Council Members, Ms. Doremus noted, " This is a team award." and proceeded to include each member's contributions in her thank you.
I can affirm that her leadership and teamwork is what makes this group so effective.
The City of Trenton's Annual Senior Gala is an opportunity to network and to acknowledge the concerns of senior citizens and ways to meet their needs. The presentation of the highly coveted "Community Award" noted how Director Doremus succeeded in helping older Americans "connnect" with the community. Doremus expressed her thanks again to Diane McKnight, Director of the Jennye Stubblefield Senior Center, and Katherine Woods, Nutrition Site Manager, for the certificate recognizing Mercer efforts in this area.
This community "connection", highly debated and funding compromised, is always vulnerable to funding cuts on a regular basis. The Office On Aging gives seniors opportunities to give back to their friends and families while they enjoy nutrition programs and social interaction. Hopefully, dedicated professionals like Executive Director Doremus can ensure that this positive direction will continue.
I read once that a hive of wasps, for example, sends its oldest members to the front of the hive to defend it if threatened. The theory seems to be that the younger wasps are the most valuable to the hive and have a preferred status for survival.
Thank goodness we are not shoving senior citizens to our front lines because they are considered expendable. I like to think we are more advanced on the evolutionary scale and, as such, value seniors and the elderly for the enrichment of our entire society. This is something that sets us above lower forms of life...or does it?
Congress is jammed up again on budget issues. Everytime this happens, there is a hue and cry about Social Security entitlements and the barrel of that cannon swivels around again...kapow!
When a community like the City of Trenton reaches out and acknowleges the Mercer efforts and teamwork for seniors, we all cheer. It recognizes senior issues as a productive direction for the future. The Office on Aging here in Mercer keeps chugging along, hoping for more funding, working on schedules that would knock Rocky to his knees, but always with determination and the gift of foresight that has been finally honored.
Let us keep this in mind in our next election and hold candidates accountable to our needs and issues.
Seniors rock!
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Social Security "Entitlements"
I am so steamed up about this debt load from the War in Iraq that words fail me.
Back in July I wrote about this use/misuse of our Social Security Trust Fund monies.
The blog date is July 27, 2011, and the article said it pretty well. Instead of sputtering in frustration today, I invite you to read it again.
This week Congress is again waffling on budget concerns and passed a "two month extension" of approval for budget appropriations. Are they kidding?
Imagine that you are an accountant trying to keep your client organized and projections relevant. Imagine that you are a SSI or Social Security recipient and need monthly income to survive. What are they thinking?
It is time to send a bulldozer down to Washington and flatten some offices. Maybe if they have to stand in the street, like the protesters in New York and Los Angeles, Congress might get down to business faster and have much more focus.
No, I do not consider myself a tea party fancier. I am a frustrated liberal who is appalled by the lack of common sense in our capitol.
Let's cut our military budget back to Eisenhower (pre-Regan days) and let states and private enterprise do their own thing. Ethics and regulation, oversight and supervision is just so much crap. I would dearly love to hear a professorial discussion between Newt Gingrich and Barack Obama. They are both teachers and of high intellect. (Really) I would like to see just what is going on. Then we can turn our sights to Congress and the apparent dim-wits who are really running our country.
To Congress: Get a life. Get some smarts. For crying out loud, get over project and pork barrel swaps and pay attention to what the country really needs.
Get rid of lobbyists because the types of industry and business they foster are not good for the long run. An example: Buffets and catered cocktail parties to sway legislation to build a "bridge to nowhere", or "let elephants perform in the circus", or "count the number of times a shrimp jerks its legs when exposed to nasty stuff".
I am not exaggerating too much; these examples are just a bit altered from the real McCoy.
The kind of changes in our economy that we need are down at the grass roots level. Forget the 50 thousand dollar loans. Do you have any idea how many really small incubator loans can be made for that sum?
There is a church project to buy a $100 heifer for a needy woman in a poverty stricken country. The opportunity the heifer represents is hope. The heifer grows and is bred. It has a calf and gives milk. The heifer is potentially a calf producer, the milk is nutritious and can also be sold. After a couple of years, the calf/cow represents independence.
For our circumstances, micro loans can do the same thing.
Large loans incur a lot of interest and this cost is out of proportion to fledgling business ideas. Micro loans are better able to let a good idea take root and grow.
Lets think about that kind of helping hand at this holiday season.
Seniors rock.
Back in July I wrote about this use/misuse of our Social Security Trust Fund monies.
The blog date is July 27, 2011, and the article said it pretty well. Instead of sputtering in frustration today, I invite you to read it again.
This week Congress is again waffling on budget concerns and passed a "two month extension" of approval for budget appropriations. Are they kidding?
Imagine that you are an accountant trying to keep your client organized and projections relevant. Imagine that you are a SSI or Social Security recipient and need monthly income to survive. What are they thinking?
It is time to send a bulldozer down to Washington and flatten some offices. Maybe if they have to stand in the street, like the protesters in New York and Los Angeles, Congress might get down to business faster and have much more focus.
No, I do not consider myself a tea party fancier. I am a frustrated liberal who is appalled by the lack of common sense in our capitol.
Let's cut our military budget back to Eisenhower (pre-Regan days) and let states and private enterprise do their own thing. Ethics and regulation, oversight and supervision is just so much crap. I would dearly love to hear a professorial discussion between Newt Gingrich and Barack Obama. They are both teachers and of high intellect. (Really) I would like to see just what is going on. Then we can turn our sights to Congress and the apparent dim-wits who are really running our country.
To Congress: Get a life. Get some smarts. For crying out loud, get over project and pork barrel swaps and pay attention to what the country really needs.
Get rid of lobbyists because the types of industry and business they foster are not good for the long run. An example: Buffets and catered cocktail parties to sway legislation to build a "bridge to nowhere", or "let elephants perform in the circus", or "count the number of times a shrimp jerks its legs when exposed to nasty stuff".
I am not exaggerating too much; these examples are just a bit altered from the real McCoy.
The kind of changes in our economy that we need are down at the grass roots level. Forget the 50 thousand dollar loans. Do you have any idea how many really small incubator loans can be made for that sum?
There is a church project to buy a $100 heifer for a needy woman in a poverty stricken country. The opportunity the heifer represents is hope. The heifer grows and is bred. It has a calf and gives milk. The heifer is potentially a calf producer, the milk is nutritious and can also be sold. After a couple of years, the calf/cow represents independence.
For our circumstances, micro loans can do the same thing.
Large loans incur a lot of interest and this cost is out of proportion to fledgling business ideas. Micro loans are better able to let a good idea take root and grow.
Lets think about that kind of helping hand at this holiday season.
Seniors rock.
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Holiday Thanks for End of Iraq War
Today, December 18, will go down in history as the end of our involvement in Iraq. Well, hopefully that is the case.
From the first step on Iraq soil to our last nighttime trek into Kuwait, this has been a sad sojourn for America and its allies. Gas price per gallon today is $3.05 per gallon at the pump. That has nothing to do with winning or losing the war but it did have a lot to do with why we went into Iraq.
At the time President Bush was trying to convince the world that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction, we were one of the countries that had had trouble negotiating for oil with Saddam. The French were successful but Britain and the US were not getting anywhere. I was not paying attention to oil at the time but did try to affirm those reports of the infamous "weapons of mass destruction". All the quotes and sources that both the Brits and Bush were using seemed to be repeating the same origins. Now wouldn't you think that Hillary Clinton and others who opposed going in would have been smart enough to figure that out?
If everyone else is on the bandwagon, you are labeled as unpatriotic by your peers. It gets harder and harder to stay the course. I applaud those who did have the common sense to vote against our involvement. Locally, Congressman Rush Holt voted against going in. He is and was a very smart man.
What did this war really mean for our country? Now we add up the cost.
Brown University has carried out research and one study is "Cost of Wars Project".
It estimates that it cost the US between 3.2 to 4 trillion dollars to look for the phantom weapons of mass destruction. The Department of Defense cedes 357.8 billion but that was borrowed monies so there is interest due. Expect another trillion or so in the future to care for the maimed veterans who have survived to come home.
Ahem. Borrowed monies. Borrowed from where? Try our Social Security Trust Fund on for size. I am not going to say more but if a Republican Congressman stands in front of me to insist that he "must" cut my social security benefit which I am living on, because it is a superfluous "entitlement"....well, sir, follow the bear over the mountain.
Before I finish today, I suggest clicking on to the following link for a first hand reply to Newt Gingrich's blithe consideration of poverty.
http://www.cnn.com/2011/12/13/opinion/granderson-poor-families/index.html This is a link to a thoughtful article prompted by recent Newt Gingrich's comments.
The Social Security Trust Fund is this government's largest creditor. Don't tell me you're going to take away my Social Security just so you won't have to pay the interest on the Bush Iraq War Debt!
Seniors rock.
From the first step on Iraq soil to our last nighttime trek into Kuwait, this has been a sad sojourn for America and its allies. Gas price per gallon today is $3.05 per gallon at the pump. That has nothing to do with winning or losing the war but it did have a lot to do with why we went into Iraq.
At the time President Bush was trying to convince the world that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction, we were one of the countries that had had trouble negotiating for oil with Saddam. The French were successful but Britain and the US were not getting anywhere. I was not paying attention to oil at the time but did try to affirm those reports of the infamous "weapons of mass destruction". All the quotes and sources that both the Brits and Bush were using seemed to be repeating the same origins. Now wouldn't you think that Hillary Clinton and others who opposed going in would have been smart enough to figure that out?
If everyone else is on the bandwagon, you are labeled as unpatriotic by your peers. It gets harder and harder to stay the course. I applaud those who did have the common sense to vote against our involvement. Locally, Congressman Rush Holt voted against going in. He is and was a very smart man.
What did this war really mean for our country? Now we add up the cost.
Brown University has carried out research and one study is "Cost of Wars Project".
It estimates that it cost the US between 3.2 to 4 trillion dollars to look for the phantom weapons of mass destruction. The Department of Defense cedes 357.8 billion but that was borrowed monies so there is interest due. Expect another trillion or so in the future to care for the maimed veterans who have survived to come home.
Ahem. Borrowed monies. Borrowed from where? Try our Social Security Trust Fund on for size. I am not going to say more but if a Republican Congressman stands in front of me to insist that he "must" cut my social security benefit which I am living on, because it is a superfluous "entitlement"....well, sir, follow the bear over the mountain.
Before I finish today, I suggest clicking on to the following link for a first hand reply to Newt Gingrich's blithe consideration of poverty.
http://www.cnn.com/2011/12/13/opinion/granderson-poor-families/index.html This is a link to a thoughtful article prompted by recent Newt Gingrich's comments.
The Social Security Trust Fund is this government's largest creditor. Don't tell me you're going to take away my Social Security just so you won't have to pay the interest on the Bush Iraq War Debt!
Seniors rock.
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Pre-Holiday Jitters
Andrea Boccelli sang "Amazing Grace" on Good Morning America today. It was a hanky box spot for sure. He is just beautiful and his voice is wonderful for these special hymns. "I was blind and now I see..." just set me bawling in front of my cat and coffee. I managed not to spill my coffee and luckily no one else caught the spectacle. I just couldn't pass it up, even if I would be late to go to school. I just felt enveloped by his warm tenor voice, the Christmas decorations, the whole holiday thing....
Wow, I just took a look at the calendar. Where does the time go?
Aside from the fact that I am a year older...and I feel a year older...But, hey that's not an excuse to stop perking along. If we were roasting coffee beans what kind would you be? (Just not that super expensive kind that is harvested from monkey dung...or whatever...geez, please.)
No, I think I would be Evergreen Mountain berries that think they grew from New England or New Zealand, or some place that coffee doesn't usually grow, because I am a non-conformist for sure. Picture a greenhouse stuffed with ripening coffee berries on the slopes of New England's Mt. Washington...and when the weather gets nippy, imagine being toasted...and then steeped into your by-the-fireplace brew.
I think this nonsense is coming out of a campus-rat frazzled brain. I have a major exam tomorrow, a filming on Friday, and another presentation next week. Phew!
It is supposed to be time for holly and evergreens and I am pricked by exam schedules. I think even my teachers are burned out.
The December angst has not settled in yet and I still watch commercials thinking that "That one is nice." or "Maybe that would be great for my son-in-law." Come to think of it, there are only a handful of shopping days left before Christmas or the other celebrations in December.
I don't think I can handle anymore stress. If you have a computer you probably already shop online. Of course there are shipping costs and waiting for parcels to arrive. I found that calling stores before time to see if they carry an item does cut down on the randomness of the shopping experience. Sometimes, the stores just do not know what they have in stock and you waste a trip anyway.
I am trying not to get overly excited about this but the holidays are almost upon us.
If you know someone who is elderly or disabled, drop in on them or at least phone. Sometimes a cookie gift just might brighten up their day.
Years ago, my mom and two daughters used to get together two weekends before Christmas and bake cookies. Through the years, when grandchildren arrived, they were also included. We have some wonderful photos of the kids helping decorate the sugar and spritz cookies.
When my mother declined to the level of nursing home care, we still kept her supplied with homemade cookies. I brought in platefuls for the nurses and staff with tags that noted that my Mom and Santa had gotten togther in order to thank everyone for their friendship and caring.
If you know anyone who is hospitalized or in a nursing home this holiday season, I suggest that you drop in and pay them a visit. It is appreciated more than you know.
As senses deteriorate in an aging person, the ability to hear lasts longest. Melody and rythmn also stimulate the senses and make everyone feel so good. Try singing with some of these elderly folk and you will all have such a great time.
As the evergreen boughs come out and the ribbons unfurl, think about the end result and having family and friends home for the holidays. Ahhh. So much better this year.
Santa's elves rock.
Wow, I just took a look at the calendar. Where does the time go?
Aside from the fact that I am a year older...and I feel a year older...But, hey that's not an excuse to stop perking along. If we were roasting coffee beans what kind would you be? (Just not that super expensive kind that is harvested from monkey dung...or whatever...geez, please.)
No, I think I would be Evergreen Mountain berries that think they grew from New England or New Zealand, or some place that coffee doesn't usually grow, because I am a non-conformist for sure. Picture a greenhouse stuffed with ripening coffee berries on the slopes of New England's Mt. Washington...and when the weather gets nippy, imagine being toasted...and then steeped into your by-the-fireplace brew.
I think this nonsense is coming out of a campus-rat frazzled brain. I have a major exam tomorrow, a filming on Friday, and another presentation next week. Phew!
It is supposed to be time for holly and evergreens and I am pricked by exam schedules. I think even my teachers are burned out.
The December angst has not settled in yet and I still watch commercials thinking that "That one is nice." or "Maybe that would be great for my son-in-law." Come to think of it, there are only a handful of shopping days left before Christmas or the other celebrations in December.
I don't think I can handle anymore stress. If you have a computer you probably already shop online. Of course there are shipping costs and waiting for parcels to arrive. I found that calling stores before time to see if they carry an item does cut down on the randomness of the shopping experience. Sometimes, the stores just do not know what they have in stock and you waste a trip anyway.
I am trying not to get overly excited about this but the holidays are almost upon us.
If you know someone who is elderly or disabled, drop in on them or at least phone. Sometimes a cookie gift just might brighten up their day.
Years ago, my mom and two daughters used to get together two weekends before Christmas and bake cookies. Through the years, when grandchildren arrived, they were also included. We have some wonderful photos of the kids helping decorate the sugar and spritz cookies.
When my mother declined to the level of nursing home care, we still kept her supplied with homemade cookies. I brought in platefuls for the nurses and staff with tags that noted that my Mom and Santa had gotten togther in order to thank everyone for their friendship and caring.
If you know anyone who is hospitalized or in a nursing home this holiday season, I suggest that you drop in and pay them a visit. It is appreciated more than you know.
As senses deteriorate in an aging person, the ability to hear lasts longest. Melody and rythmn also stimulate the senses and make everyone feel so good. Try singing with some of these elderly folk and you will all have such a great time.
As the evergreen boughs come out and the ribbons unfurl, think about the end result and having family and friends home for the holidays. Ahhh. So much better this year.
Santa's elves rock.
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