As a senior how much do you know about Medicare? Medicare, a national health insurance program for the elderly and disabled, was signed into law in 1965 by President Lyndon B. Johnson as part of the Social Security Act. The history dates back further, with earlier proposals and discussions surrounding national health insurance going back to the…
Category: Politics
What Now?
Life is at a crucial point for older Americans. Will we continue to get Social Security? Will Medicare still exist to provide quality health care for citizens over 65? These past 100-plus days have taken a toll on older Americans, instilling a pervasive fear of watching the news or reading our papers. When texting about…
Worrying About Many Things
The difficulty of expressing the now versus the future is heavily burdened by the past. I grew up in the heyday of the 60’s, sex, drugs, and rock n roll. Throw in the major changes in moves to eliminate racial discrimination, and Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty, along with the loosening of pregnancy implications, and…
Not Really
As a child, spirituality was a saving grace. I believed that when the sun’s rays were blasting through the clouds, forming pillars on the earth, these were signs of the Holy Ghost. In awe, I would immediately pray, imagining these signs were for me and just me. These spiritual signs guided me through a difficult…
False Flag???
Usually, politics is something I can take or leave. Recently a recurring theme in reporting has been the phrase “False Flag.” This phrase meant nothing to me and factually means nothing. Looking it up does not provide contextual guidance. Wikipedia describes a false flag as an act committed to disguise the actual responsibility and blame…
Yes, It Could be Worse!
With a saddened yet not time distant response, I feel this period of turmoil IS WORSE than the 60s. Rioting is not uncommon in American history. Storming the US Capitol and attempting to destroy the seat of government has not happened since the War of 1812 when the British burned the Capitol. The country’s emotional…
COVID-19 Vocabulary #3
Day 3 of reflecting on the new vocabulary common to the COVID-19 pandemic highlights the desirable social distancing, our almost painful new reality, and the politically sensitive face mask. Social Distancing: Once upon a time, this was a phrase implying the appropriate distancing when carrying on a conversation or standing in a public area. Social politeness required the…
COVID – 19 Vocabulary #2
In an effort to keep up with the many new phrases and their uses during the pandemic, today’s words include data-driven, flatten the curve, and in an abundance of caution. Data-driven: As an educator, since No Child Left Behind was enacted under the Bush Administration, data-driven as come to mean using the results of standardized…
The Intrusion of COVID Vocabulary: What are these words and phrases?
At the beginning…who knew? Over these months, I have been recording, sequentially, new phrases and words that, while “real words,” the concepts were either utilized in a different context or had not been previously in common usage. COVID 19: The name of this disease is coronavirus disease 2019, now abbreviated as COVID-19. In COVID -19,…
“Black” and other related races
What goes around, comes around. I have finally lived long enough for the term “Black” to become acceptable again. When I grew up in the late 50s, the term “colored” was used and, at the time not considered offensive. Then, based on the very important civil rights’ changes which took place in the 60s, the…
Life Gets Better 