"Comparisons Are Odious"

"Keep in mind," Mother would say, "Comparisons are odious." She was speaking of deficient manners, rather than deficiencies in critical thought. By this morning, Monday, January 27, we have had an earful of outlandish, distinctly odious, comparisons. Ordinarily I try to keep to subjects my readers will find more relevant than my political convictions. For savvy American elders, however, global and national responses to the issues of poverty and inequality are timely and relevant.
     I began the day with the national news and commentary. Income inequality is high on national and global agendas, so I look forward to hearing President Obama on the subject. Three Republican rebuttals, rather than the traditional single rebuttal or dual Republican/Tea Party Rebuttals, will be allowed. These, I doubt, will contain any pretense of freshness. With any luck the commentators will avoid the ludicrous.
     Two odious comparisons stand out in the news of the day, one relating to the subject of income inequality from Thomas Perkins. Who, you may ask, is Thomas Perkins? To begin, Perkins is an exceedingly wealthy gentile, who graduated from Harvard Business School in 1957 and MIT in 1963. Perkins, a venture capitalist, is a founder of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Buyers. He should be capable of social appropriateness and critical thought.
     Perkins felt compelled to write a letter to "The Wall Street Journal," comparing criticism of immensely wealthy Americans to Hitler's Final Solution, predicting a Kristallnacht, in which the progressive "persecution" of people like Perkins and his wife, ends in mayhem and murder. Wildly irrational, it is. More troubling, however is the reduction of Kristallnacht to the ridiculous. As Perkins is a gentile, no Holocaust survivor, his commentary is breathtakingly offensive. Perhaps he is applying Herr Goebbels' take on propaganda to the issue of poverty:

The most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly - it must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over.” -Joseph Goebbels

     The embodiment of evil, Goebbels was a clever, sometimes subtle liar.  Perkins, on the other hand, has shown himself to be less than clever. His comparison is a lie unworthy of constant repetition, because it is not merely bred of ignorance and monumental bad taste, it is irrational.
     Moving to the next maladroit, Rand Paul. His ludicrous comparison involves Hillary Clinton. If Mrs. Clinton makes a presidential bid, says Rand Paul, Bill Clinton's involvement with Monica Lewinsky is fodder for political debate. If this were not enough of a stretch, Paul leaps to portraying the Clintons at the vanguard of the War on Women. Does anyone else have a problem with the comparison of one man's sexual ethics (or lack thereof) with the institutionalized repression of human rights?

Mother was right. Avoiding tasteless, wildly irrational comparisons serves all of us well.

Addressing A National Disgrace

ProPublica published an important article last week, California's legislative response to abuse and neglect in the state's elder care system. I republish the article here, because of it's importance to elders, their families and friends. Equally important is are the proposed California laws and their relevance across the nation. 

In California, a Raft of Measures to Improve Conditions and Oversight of Assisted Living 

by A.C. Thompson
ProPublica, Jan. 22, 2014, 9:57 a.m.

California lawmakers last week unveiled a dozen legislative proposals aimed at stiffening regulations governing the state’s roughly 7,700 assisted living facilities, residences that offer room and care to tens of thousands of frail or ailing people, most of them seniors.

The wide-ranging array of proposed regulations would mandate annual inspections of the facilities and increase the size of financial penalties that the state can levy for failures in care. The proposals would also step up mandatory training for assisted living employees, require facilities to employ registered nurses in some instances and demand that California post inspection results online for the public to review.
     California, which is home to more assisted living facilities than any other state, currently maintains one of the loosest regulatory regimes in the country, with minimal fines (as little as $150 in cases of fatal neglect or abuse) and infrequent inspections (required once every five years). Ranging in scale from a handful of beds to hundreds, assisted living facilities provide housing and day-to-day help to the elderly and disabled, but, unlike nursing homes or physical rehabilitation centers, they do not offer around-the-clock medical care.
     The regulatory proposals come as Gov. Jerry Brown seeks $7.5 million to hire dozens of additional inspectors, and state legislators prepare to hold a series of public hearings in February on improving the performance of the assisted living facilities and the officials who oversee them.
     At least some of the new initiatives have the support of the California Assisted Living Association, an industry trade group. In a press release, the association said it was backing efforts to increase the frequency of inspections and raise training standards, as well as several other proposals.
     The consensus – at least in broad terms – that California’s regulatory system needs an overhaul is “a testament to the level of crisis we’ve reached,” said Tony Chicotel, a staff attorney at California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform, one of the advocacy groups pushing the legislative package. “Everyone seems to agree that it’s really bad and we need to do something.”
     Several lawmakers described the bungled closure of a troubled Castro Valley facility late last year – a debacle that left an unpaid cook and janitor caring for 19 seniors, many of them seriously ill – as a catalyst for the new initiatives.

“The owners of the facility basically walked away,” said state senate majority leader Ellen Corbett, a Bay Area Democrat who is sponsoring new legislation. “It was so shocking and outrageous that this could happen.”

     The state’s shortcomings have also been spotlighted in reports by ProPublica and PBS "Frontline," as well as the San Diego Union-Tribune.

     San Francisco Sen. Mark Leno, a Democrat, is spearheading a bill that would bring California’s practices in line with those of many other states, giving the Department of Social Services, which oversees assisted living, the power to halt admissions at facilities plagued by serious regulatory violations. If passed, the law “will go after the lifeblood of these facilities and prohibit them from taking any new customers,” Leno said.
     Currently, he noted, the department has few options when it comes to altering the behavior of troubled facilities. It can fine them or revoke their licenses to operate, slow-moving processes that can drag on for months or even years. Leno’s bill would allow the state to place an immediate ban on admissions until violations have been corrected.
     It would also empower the department to use the same tactic at facilities that have failed to pay their fines. During a recent five-year span, the state meted out approximately $2 million in monetary penalties but actually collected just half of that, in part because some facilities simply continued operating without paying.
     Michael Weston, a spokesman for the Department of Social Services, did not respond to requests for comment.
However, the department has quietly acknowledged its limitations. In a 16-page budget proposal obtained by ProPublica, the department said it had not kept up with the evolution of the assisted living business, which in recent years has taken in more and more seniors with complex health problems. The document notes that state rules have been broadened to allow people with “virtually any medical condition” to reside in assisted living facilities, yet the division of the department that monitors those operations “has no staff with medical expertise.”
     According to the budget document, the department has also been slow to respond to the growing role of national and regional chains, and the wave of “complex corporate mergers and acquisitions” that have marked the industry in recent years. Currently, state data systems don’t allow inspectors to identify companies that persistently flout the law. The state is seeking to create a “corporate accountability unit” to monitor chain facilities.
     In many ways, Leno said, the full reach of the proposed regulations will come down to money.

“Are we funding regulatory agencies to do their job?” he asked. “Taxpayers rightfully expect that someone’s looking after them. And the sad fact is that in many cases we haven’t been.”

Empowering Ideas for 2014

Without doubt, the concept(s) of Aging In Place, together with advances in elder care and elder law are changing a grim landscape for millions of Americans. While researching aging-in-place options for a neighbor, I stumbled across empowering information and ideas I found very hopeful. One is a book, "Audacious Aging" by Raines Cohen. It is a compelling read for anyone approaching what has become known as "retirement age," a term I view as sad, not to say, paralyzing. A linguist, I am committed to changing the terms we use to describe people over fifty. I prefer the term elder, and offer the traits of an elder, taken from the definition of The Elders' Guild:

• An elder is continually growing, a learner.
• An elder has life potential, a life of promise, connection to the future. 
• An elder views happiness, joy and pleasure as birthrights.
• An elder is a font of wisdom, gained from a lifetime of experience.
• An elder's work is to synthesize this wisdom into a legacy for future generations.

Lifelong achievement, wisdom and simple endurance make an elder someone deserving of respect and honor. This is, by no means, a new way of perceiving elders. Native American tribal cultures looked to elders as the guardians of tradition, counselors and teachers.

In the Forward to "Audacious Aging"Stephanie Marohn, the Editor, writes of an inadvertent right of passage for Baby Boomers. As she passed her 50th birthday, she began to receive mail from AARP. Her reaction was denial -- she set about filling waste baskets with AARP junk. Marohn says of her denial:

"...It revealed a belief in a future of limitation rather than expansion. I saw aging as a shrinking of options and a gradual loss of everything. What a dismal view! I was not alone in this view. It is the societal view of aging under which we currently operate."

Here is a link to the website for Raines Cohen's book:  http://www.audaciousaging.com.

Additional empowering concepts I'll explore and discuss in future posts are Aging In Community and Co-Housing. Much thought and discussion is being given to the creation of sustainable communities. Co-housing provides a means to achieving sustainability and facilitating aging in community Although co-housing communities are a perfect fit for elders, co-housing is not for elders only. Anyone can become involved in the co-housing movement. Read more about the definition and history of co-housing here:
http://www.cohousing.org/what_is_cohousing

It is a new year, a new day! As I become more involved in my own audacious aging, The Elders' Guild, Aging In Community and Co-housing, I'll share experiences and knowledge.

Remembering Diane

     

     Diane, wherever you are, I hope you can read this. Please know I am sorry to have been the one to leave first. Memory is tricky, a blessing or a curse, depending on one's perception. Insomnia is the same, bringing clarity and exhaustion in rapid succession. Last night it was a dream that awakened me in the middle of the night. In my dream you are well, waving at me from the lunch counter of our favorite Greek place. You are not burdened by the oxygen tank with the sticky valve, and you are accompanied by, of course, a cairn terrier puppy. It is a dream of fulfillment, of emphysema cured, loss of a beloved canine companion, reversed.

      My friend and former neighbor, Diane, is petite, with cafe au lait skin, short silver hair and green eyes. She is intelligent and uncompromising -- unavailable for chit chat, gossip or other trivial pursuits. We liked each other right away, destined though we were, to complete separate journeys. I take some consolation in recalling our adventures and circle of friends. I dedicate this post to Diane, Carol Jeanne, Mary and Stan.

Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anybody expects of you. Never excuse yourself.  -Henry Ward Beecher

      We were the Mighty Five. I cannot describe each person fully, except to say we were formerly: 1) a ground-breaking animal trainer; 2) a political power broker; 3) an author/archivist; 4) a teacher-turned legal administrator and; 5) a woman banker. What a bunch, all living in so-called affordable senior housing, most with physical limitations, some in constant pain, some, shopping at a local food bank. If this seems alien to readers, given our backgrounds, think again. 

     This post is not about unforgiving fate, however. My friends and I had the courage to meet and publish an agenda of empowerment for ourselves and our neighbors. We bore the brunt of accusations from neighbors, who saw us as conspirators. We started to reclaim a resident council and form a management corporation. We held Catholic Charities and Community Service accountable for retaining a corrupt site manager. We promulgated truthfulness, countering management's lies. We demanded respect against a backdrop of systematic patronization. 

     Did we succeed, or did we fail colorfully? It is a fair question. We succeeded in getting a resident council election and the consensus to draft a new constitution for a new, effective, resident council. We failed to entertain the possibility of a rigged election, underestimating the culture of fear in our housing. Some of us have died, some have moved. The point is, we made honest efforts in a place where honesty is still at a premium.

     My readers will know my conviction. It is quite simple. Elders do not thrive in housing designed to isolate us in ethnic, economic or religious clusters, or to chain us irrevocably to disability.

Getting All Up In Our Business

What You Don't Know

     In the weeks to come people will be thinking about 2013 in retrospect, and about jump starting 2014. For me, aside from the loss of Nelson Mandela, the saga of Edward Snowden cast the longest shadow of any news story of 2013. The fallout will continue for years to come. If nothing else, Edward Snowden has become an instrument of  change, one whose actions pale in comparison to the implications of NSA data collection.
     Here is a link to The Guardian's timeline of events, beginning with Edward Snowden's initial revelations regarding National Security Agency data collection:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/23/edward-snowden-nsa-files-timeline
Attempting to reiterate it here or, to recap the fallout we saw in 2013, would be impossible. Suffice it to say the whistleblower vs. traitor characterizations recall an old Fats Domino hit, I hear you knockin', but you can't come in. President Obama has not done himself or the nation any favors by pressuring foreign governments to turn Edward Snowden over for prosecution for stealing state secrets, and, subsequently, calling him a 29 year old hacker. Which is it? 
     Please do not mistake me. Snowden is no whistleblower; there is no such animal in the intelligence business. Considering his C.I.A. background and the nature of his contract with the N.S.A., Edward Snowden could not conceivably have been a naive idealogue from the get go. To some, he is an antihero, who stands charged with "theft, unauthorized communication of national defense information and willful communication of classified communications intelligence information to an unauthorized person.” (The latter two charges are, defined under The Espionage Act of 1917.)
     He may not be Daniel Ellsberg, but Snowden's revelations continue, and they are staggering. Before judging the man a coward, his growing knowledge and its implications must have been overwhelming. Who among us would have calmly gone through proper channels, expecting constructive reactions and outcomes? Come to that how much would you wager, Keith Alexander and James Clapper will suffer far less severe notoriety and consequences for their violations of constitutional law? Enter the American Civil Liberties Union.

This kind of dragnet surveillance is precisely what the fourth amendment was meant to prohibit. The constitution does not permit the NSA to place hundreds of millions of innocent people under permanent surveillance because of the possibility that information about some tiny subset of them will become useful to an investigation in the future.” -ACLU Deputy Legal Director, Jameel Jaffer.

     Beleaguered by a damaged image abroad and still fighting to regain economic security for the vast majority of Americans, we're hard-pressed to imagine the cost of the NSA's massive data collection in 2013. The Agency's budget is black; i.e., it is classified information. We know the NSA is one of more than a dozen U.S. intelligence agencies. The combined intelligence budget was $75 billion in 2012, at least $10 billion of which went to the NSA (estimated by Steve Aftergood, Director of the Government Secrecy Program of The Federation of American Scientists and reported in CNN Money, June 2013.)
      So what was the return on investment on billions of taxpayer dollars? It is not a question which lends itself to an objective answer. The Orwellian question is how we deal with the enemies of freedom we legitimize, not the ones we demonize.

     Goodbye 2013! You've wasted enough of my time in wheel-spinning pursuits! Focus and concentration present as priorities for me in 2014, and it will be a pleasure to make plans! My 75th birthday will occur in 2014, but I am far from finished. I promise there will be no dwelling on illness or lack; my speech will reflect my wellbeing. Tragedy and loss will come; 2013 brought its share of wounding events. I choose to dwell, instead, on opportunity, so bring it on 2014! Bring it!
     The close of this year brought me new perspectives on loss, more intimate and profound than I have known, since I was much younger. Two dear friends passed from this life, during the year. They seemed, simply, to have slipped away. With their departures, I sealed a chapter of life in senior affordable housing. Determined to continually take steps forward, rather than backward, I hold my ground.

     My children, now in their forties and fifties, are subject to the vicissitudes of aging. Being present for them, though, is not determined by physical or financial strength. This has been a difficult and humbling lesson for me. We are raised to reciprocate in kind, showing our gratitude by means of things. When the ability to buy a gift, help decorate a home, enjoy a shopping trip, fade, it isolates us. It is also an exercise in gracious receiving. Truly it is more blessed to receive than to give.

Education is the best provision for old age. -Aristotle

     For so many millions of seniors, limitation has become expectation. From experience, it is more than sufficient burden to be physically limited. A close friend and I recently discussed how many seniors in our state, lack the information or tools they need to obtain benefits and assistance. My friend speaks with desperate elders every day in her work. She has come to believe many of her clients are so "beaten down," they cannot act. Nevertheless she continues to provide information and technical help, so seniors can help themselves. We agree the plight of aging Americans will worsen, without collective action. Resolve to speak up, not only with your congressional representative, but with tight-fisted conservatives. Be involved in helping yourself and others this year. An excellent place to start is the National Gerontological Society; many states have their own. Here is a link to resources available on the national site:

http://www.geron.org/Resources/Web%20Links

We all share the responsibility for articulating American values. It takes perseverance to create social justice, and we are the people who can balance the scales.