The Boomer’s Corner

Changing One’s Living Situation

May 25, 2013 By yvonne Leave a Comment

When it was clear that my father could no longer live alone, I found myself, by virtue of being the child who lived closest to him, in the position of having to encourage him to consider living in a retirement facility. At first he was resistant. He did not want to live with a bunch of strangers, eating in an institutional dining room. The way I talked him into considering it was to compare it to living in a college dorm. “Dad, you did this when you were attending college. It is the same concept.”

Just recently, I read an article about a new trend among aging single women. Four or five ban together à la Golden Girls in a group house. More than any previous generation, boomers are single, either because they never married, they are divorced, they are part of the LGBT grouping, or they are widowed. A larger number of aging people are women (57 percent make up the grouping 65 and older and 67 percent make up the group of 85 and older).

I know several women who share a home. It is not always as easy as it may seem. My friends told me that when they first moved in together, they all went about their own business. They did not even sit down to dinner together. But then one of the women needed to take care of her father and the household opted to allow him to move in with her. This decision made their house become a home, as they all found themselves pitching in to help. Although the father has since passed away, the pattern of doing things together within the household has remained. And the women are very happy about this.

One structure that makes a marriage a marriage and a family a family is sharing meals. Another structure is that everyone in the household pitches in to maintain the home. Having and/or developing mutual interests also makes up a structure of a family. These factors would seem important in the formation of a group home.

I like the idea. I sit here in a house that has become too large for me — too empty. I like the socialization that comes with sitting around a dinner table. I always enjoyed doing things with my husband. Presently, upkeep of home keeps me fairly busy. It would be nice to share those tasks with someone else. Although I keep busy with many different projects and have an active social life, coming home to someone has a very different feel.

Of course, one does have to consider that illness may settle on one or two or maybe even three of the housemates and then what happens? Another thing to reflect on is that different people have different approaches to or definitions of cleanliness. When in college, one’s sense of cleanliness may have been a little less stringent. One might be a little more impatient with someone else’s habits when in their ’50′s or ’60′s than they were at eighteen or twenty-one.

However, I do like the creative way that boomers are looking at the question of housing and how they want to spend their older years and I look forward to reading more about these innovative approaches towards aging.

Filed Under: Politics of Aging, The Boomer's Corner, Yvonne's Blog Tagged With: aging women, group housing

Boomers, The Plastic Fantastic Generation

May 16, 2013 By yvonne Leave a Comment

As a boomer, I am part of the generation that implemented the “turn on, tune in, drop out” approach to life. There seemed to be a major rejection of what existed before. In fact, there was a social revolution of sorts, and not just in the United States, but on a global level. We believed we were a turning point in the way things were done. We were the future and the future was not going to look anything like the past. Yet it turns out that most of us did not end up changing anything at all, at least in one area that we had purported to reject: consumerism. In fact, our generation has done more to increase the strength of the consumer society than any previous generation before us.

Ironically,

….baby boomers are the wealthiest generation in U.S. history, both earning and consuming more than any other age group.12• Baby boomers have amassed $3.7 trillion in total earnings, as compared to the $1.6 trillion generated by the preceding generation.

How can that be? Weren’t we the ones who recognized that materialism could not give us the true nourishment of spiritual and emotional needs? Yet, our generation has been the most workaholic generation ever. We have seen more wars fought during our existence than there ever have been fought before. We have watched as the use of automobiles and the means by which they operate, fossil fuels, have increased to an amount unimaginable forty years ago. It has been during our lifetime that the concept of time has narrowed into practical non-existence. And, although our energy levels seem higher than those of previous generations, our health may not necessarily be better. In the end, it has been during our lifetime that materialism has become so ensconced that we take for granted running to a store to purchase something we need, two or three times a day, having electricity at the click of a switch, and pretty much anything we want secured through paper money or a plastic card.

Now I am not advocating that our childish approach to rejecting the previous generation’s world was to be commended. But there were some good things that did come out of “the movement.” And since there are always two sides to a coin, let’s look at those. The advancements that have occurred in this period of time have catapulted us into a world our great-grandparents would not be able to recognize. Social sensitivities and environmental sensitivities increased. Discrimination decreased. But again because there are two sides to the coin of life, it seems as though the tolls that our advancements have taken on the environment are unprecedented. Communication abilities are at a level we could not have imagined twenty years ago and our ties around the world make cultures that once were considered foreign, our neighbors. Advancements in Science continue apace. We are re-defining the aging process, or at least pushing it back by a good dozen years. And hopefully, we will come up with a way to maintain our earth and all her gifts to us before we destroy her and thereby ourselves.

But with regard to consumerism, I still don’t understand how we ended up taking a left turn instead of the right turn we thought we were taking…..

Filed Under: The Boomer's Corner, Yvonne's Blog Tagged With: aging, Baby Boomers, consumer society, future

Transitions

April 28, 2013 By yvonne Leave a Comment

Really, when you think about it, life is a series of transitions. They can be regular transitions, like seasons, in which we can expect certain things to occur. For example, when Spring begins, certain activities that I don’t normally undertake, ie, gardening, (cleaning up vegetable and flower beds, planting, planting, planting, more active interactions with the honey bees, splitting hives, etc. of a sudden take front and center stage in the hours that I will call my uncommitted hours. I use the term loosely because I should consider my blog a commitment and it has certainly suffered since those demands of Spring have come about.

I was told by a successful blogger that what I need to do every few months is write six or eight blogs over one weekend and then time them to be inserted according to whatever timeline I wish to use. I may be in a position to try this at the end of next winter, but for now…..my blog suffers.

On a larger scale, I am in a life transition. It has been slightly over a year since my husband died. It certainly takes at least a year to get back on one’s feet and, in my case, several other occurrences clearly demonstrated the turning of a page into a new chapter. A part of me feels that I am being disloyal to my husband by thinking in this way. A new chapter that does not include him? He was such a wonderful addition to my life and I can’t imagine creating a life with somebody else. I suppose many widows and widowers go through the same dilemma.

But I do need to make decisions and move into a direction that creates a clear path in front of me. This is something I have never, ever been good at, ever! And here I am, of a certain age. It is not as if the years rolling out in front of me will be nearly as long as the years that have rolled up behind me. And I do have to confront the realities of diminished stamina and physical strength as I begin to move into my elder years.

My sister keeps reminding me that I have to make decisions. Actually, everyone is gently suggesting that I make some decisions. Everyone seems to be saying that I need to move out of the home I shared with my husband. Instead, I end up planting another vegetable garden. And this house was only supposed to be a weekend getaway and/or temporary until we built our “dream” house. Instead, we ended up making this our dream house or as close as a temporary home can be to being one’s dream house. I suppose at some point, though, I will need to face moving out of it to something more my size

Yet my life feels very full and satisfying to me. I am the sort of person who is always busy. Even if I wake up without a fixed schedule, I will immediately find things to fill the day. Take today for example. I had a one hour commitment facing me. That was all. But I got up and meditated. I ate breakfast and went to the gardens. Cleaned a vegetable bed. called a friend. We went walking. Made sugar water for my newly formed bee hives. Cooked a meal for five people. Planted peppers, basil, and tomatoes in my newly cleaned vegetable bed. kept my hour commitment. Visited the mother of a friend. Cleaned up some flowers at the house of worship. Came home and cleaned up my kitchen. Read my e-mails and looked at Facebook. Washed the kitchen floor (greatly overdue!). Took out the compost. Got everything prepped to feed the bees when it stops raining. And now I am writing this blog. I was hoping to get some exercise in, but I may have run out of time, what with the fact that it is already 7:30 p.m. At least I got a little walk in.

But I still have to make some decisions about my tomorrows. Watching Spring unfold, as it always does, each year a little bit differently, but always clearly waking up to a new tomorrow that moves it ever forward into the cycle that is its nature. The question that I have to contemplate is whether nature is the example I need to reflect on and recognize as the example to follow or whether because we have been given consciousness, it is contingent on me to take active responsibility and seek a direction? I have a whole world in front of me. I sure hope, whatever unfolds, that I do not waste this precious opportunity.

Filed Under: The Boomer's Corner, Yvonne's Blog Tagged With: blogger, gardens, spring, transitions

Anorexia Hits Older Women

March 25, 2013 By yvonne Leave a Comment

A title to a news article caught my eye the other day. It stated: Rise in Middle-aged Women with Eating Disorders. Having known women with eating disorders while in my teens and early ’20′s, I wanted to learn more about the fact that it seemed that eating disorders were not just found in those years when women feel very self-conscious about what they look like: Their teen years and early ’20′s, but in older women as well.

…. a smattering of data from around the world suggests the behaviors associated with bulimia and anorexia may be more common in mid-life than previously believed.

The most recent evidence comes from a survey of 1,849 women age 50 and up, the results of which were published last week in the International Journal of Eating Disorders.

With our society’s focus on Thin being In, it may not be surprising that anorexia and bulimia would be found across the spectrum of age. But according to these studies, stress is a key contributor.

Experts say that major transitions in the lives of middle-aged women across America – including failed marriages, job loss, children and financial difficulties – can rekindle eating disorders that begun years before or even bring them on for the first time, though this is a rarity.

Douglas Bunnell, vice president and director of out-patient clinical services at The Renfrew Center, told MSNBC: ‘It’s rare that an eating disorder shows up completely out of the blue in mid-life. The more common scenario is the resurgence of a life-long problem’

As to how prevalent eating disorders are among older women, that is a hard question to gauge because it is not a topic easily admitted by those caught in the cycle of eating and purging or starving themselves.

Despite the growing attention, experts say the problem is likely underreported, partly because adult women disguise behaviors such as purging, and partly because eating disorders typically aren’t on the radar screen of doctors who care for this age group.

“Eating disorders are still in the closet to a large extent, especially for adult women,” says Margo Maine, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist in private practice in West Hartford, Connecticut, who specializes in treating the disorders. “Adult women have such shame about admitting it.”

Body image looms large in most women’s lives. It may not be surprising that with the onset of menopause and the weight gain that is associated with that period of time, women start to feel less secure about how they project to the larger society.

According to Cynthia Bulik, Ph.D, Director of the eating disorder program at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill,

The changes associated with menopause are perfectly natural, but they aren’t always easy to reconcile with catchphrases like “30 is the new 50″ or the day-to-day demands of modern life.

Many middle-aged women are juggling child rearing and work responsibilities, or caring for aging parents. That can leave little time for planning healthy meals or exercising, at a stage of life when the amount of exercise needed to maintain one’s weight — let alone drop a few pounds — goes up.

“As a culture, we live in a very, very stressful time, and for women this is even more so, because our roles have changed so dramatically,” says Maine, coauthor of “The Body Myth: Adult Women and the Pressure to be Perfect.

This is also a period of time when a divorce can be devastating and a woman in her ’50′s may not feel as good about the way she looks as she did in her ’20′s. Her belief in finding a new mate may be eroded merely by her age. Or the stress of losing her partner to death may undermine her sense of her place in life and, in turn, her sense of self-esteem. It may be that the woman was never satisfied with the way she looked and wants to and always has wanted to just disappear. Whatever may be the cause, eating disorders are still a problem.

The standard treatment for disordered eating typically includes psychotherapy, as well as counseling about nutrition and eating habits. Women need to be proactive about seeking care, Maine says, since doctors — and especially primary care physicians — often overlook problematic eating behaviors in older women.

And although it was totally acceptable among the wealthy class of Ancient Rome to purge one’s food after a major food binge, we are not Ancient Rome and our lifestyles are nothing like that of Ancient Rome. Maybe these are the warning signs to re-think how we choose to spend our time and what is acceptable as a lifestyle.

Filed Under: The Boomer's Corner, Yvonne's Blog Tagged With: Anorexia, bulimia, eating disorders, middle-aged women

Life Expectancy: Going Up? Going Down?

March 13, 2013 By yvonne Leave a Comment

Last week I read an article that stated that women’s life expectancy in the United States was going down. According to Journal Sentinel Online,

Female death rates before age 75 actually rose in 43% of U.S. counties – including a forested swath of west-central and northern Wisconsin – between 1992 and 2006, according to a UW-Madison Population Health Institute study published Monday in the journal Health Affairs.

Apparently

Which part of the country you live in may matter, too. For women, living in counties in the South and West was associated with a 6% higher mortality rate than living in the Northeast, according to the study.

The article continues:

Meanwhile, death rates among men declined in every Wisconsin county, and throughout much of the country

However, Yesterday, I read another article that is claiming that life expectancy is going up at least in certain socio-economic circles. It turns out that

those gains have accrued overwhelmingly to society’s higher socioeconomic status individuals. Working class life expectancy has largely stagnated

According to the article, access to good healthcare, which can be expensive, becomes inaccessible for individuals who don’t make a certain amount of money. Another reason for the disparity between life expectancy among the rich and the poor is that the poorer citizen may be exposed to “negative environmental health risks” in far greater numbers than their richer counterparts. Where they might find housing they can afford may expose them to more pollutants, for example. Also, the food one eats certainly has an influence and fast foods or foods in the grocery stores that are cheap do not have the same nutritional values than, let’s say, an organic vegetable from Whole Foods which costs $5 a pound.

So now we have two articles. The first says that women’s health is causing an increase in mortality. The second says that socio economic levels influence mortality. Then today I saw an AARPBulletin article that claimed that

“Americans are in poorer health and are dying sooner than the rest of the industrialized world….A 2011 study of 17 industrialized countries…found that American men, whose life expectancy is 75.6 years, ranked last, and U.S. women, at 80.7 years, ranked 16th.”

These findings were based on a study ordered by the National Institute of Health which clearly showed

what they called “a pervasive pattern of shorter lives and poor health” crossing all (author’s emphasis) socioeconomic lines.

In the meanwhile, those folks on Capitol Hill continue to insist that the baby boomers are going to live longer and deplete the Medicare/Social Security bank. So rather than raise taxes, we should cut back on these two “entitlements” Hunh? The logic these “lawmakers” spew makes less and less sense as each day goes by. Oops I guess I am getting off track here.

And there was in fact an article in the Washington Post, albeit last year, that stated that findings from reviews of death certificates in the 50 states and the District of Columbia found that death rates were down and life expectancy was up. It was probably this article that our “lawmakers” saw and, to be fair, there is a real possibility, given the numbers that make up the baby boomers, that mortality and/or chronic health issues are more likely to be on the increase.

According to a study done for the Gerontological Society of America

It is surprising that, given the socioeconomic, medical, and public health advantages of Baby Boomers throughout their lives, they are not doing considerably better on all counts.

And, one would have to concur with this logical conclusion:

A recent report by the Institute of Medicine on the future of disability in America (Field & Jette, 2007) suggests that despite these improvements, the numbers of adults with disabilities will likely swell in the coming years as the large Baby Boom generation—those born during the years 1946–1964—reaches the ages associated with the highest rates of morbidity and disability. Undoubtedly, such a trend would have important implications for the provision of medical and social services, for the ability of future older adults to participate fully in society, including the workplace, and more generally for their quality of life. However, although the number of adults reaching older ages and thus experiencing elevated risks for debilitating conditions will certainly grow, there is debate about whether the Baby Boom cohort will enter later life with better or worse age-specific rates of morbidity and disability than earlier cohorts.

And, if one googles health and the baby boomer, pages of studies come up citing that baby boomers are less healthy than their parents or grandparents were.

In the end, there seem to be as many studies and opinions about mortality among the aging in the U.S. as there are publications willing to write about the topic. As for me, well, I live by the belief system that “Until my time comes, nothing can harm me. When my time comes, nothing can protect me.”

Filed Under: The Boomer's Corner Tagged With: Congress, life expectancy, mortality, socio-economics

Oil: Can’t Live With It; Can’t Live Without It

February 20, 2013 By yvonne Leave a Comment

As I was driving into town, I noticed how much more expensive gasoline was this week than it had been last week. At least 25c more per gallon (at places like Sam’s Club — more at private stations). In fact, the ups and downs in prices on gasoline seem to be mimicking the ups and downs we have been experiencing with our weather of late. Anyway, I was wondering why the gas prices were once again on the rise.

I guess I have become quite cynical in my old age because it finally dawned on me that this past weekend, there had been a large gathering of people in Washington to protest any further drilling for oil on our lands. According to a friend of mine who attended, there were around 40,000 people who braved very frigid weather to protest the Keystone XL pipeline from Canada to U.S. And so I concluded that the oil companies were raising the prices at the gas stations so that people would “buy into” the idea that drilling on our own lands would provide cheaper gasoline. What better way to make the point than in people’s wallets.

According to U.S. News and World Report:

There’s no business on the planet that gushes forth more profit than selling oil — nothing even close.

In 2007, Exxon beat its own one-year old record of the biggest corporate profits ever by 3 percent. If Exxon were a country, it would exceed the gross domestic product of nearly two thirds of the 183 nations in the World Bank’s economic rankings.

The article further asserts that at that time, Exxon’s profits were 80% higher than General Electric, once considered one of the most successful companies in the United States.

The most recent quarterly earnings (ie December 2012) for ExxonMobil shows a revenue of $449.89 billion with a profit margin of 9.98% or $41 billion in profits. Astoundingly enough, even with these kinds of numbers, Exxon gets tax breaks. Not only that, but they have the arrogance to gripe about the fact that President Obama is making noises of taking those tax breaks away.

In an article written by Katarzyna Klimasinska and Jim Snyder for Bloomberg News,

Chief Executive Officer Rex. W. Tillerson and four counterparts defended the $21 billion in U.S. tax breaks that Democrats are seeking to recapture to reduce the federal deficit.

The Democrats’ proposal would raise about $13 billion by blocking the five largest oil and gas companies from receiving a domestic-manufacturing deduction for exploration and extraction in the U.S……[and] generate $6.5 billion by curtailing the oil companies’ ability to claim tax credits for royalty payments made to foreign governments.

Unfortunately, and this is probably for another article, much of the drilling that goes on by these huge corporations are in impoverished parts of the world like Angola or Nigeria. We, on the most part, are ignorant of what goes on over there.
Because there are no stringent regulations in place with regard to environmental soundness, ecological areas are destroyed by the drilling that these companies do. It is not our backyard and we are so busy interacting in our own environment, we don’t have the time or take the time to look at what “we” are doing in other people’s backyards.

People in these parts of the world are displaced from their homes if their homes happen to be sitting on a site that may produce crude oil. Some people are even killed and the villages destroyed. These are terrible realities.

And last, what we have done to our environment in order to have access to this oil and the luxury of mobility is no minor topic. Whether we are talking oil spills on our coasts or acid rain destroying forests, the introduction of this “black gold” has done more to destroy than to create. I will be called an extremist for making such a statement, but it is true and we are becoming more and more cognizant of this fact every day. Unfortunately, I think it may be too late to reverse the damage done.

Filed Under: Politics of Aging, The Boomer's Corner Tagged With: environment, Exxon, price of gasoline, profits, protest

Scams Everywhere

January 13, 2013 By yvonne 1 Comment

Over the past few years, it seems that every time you turn around, you are reading about how the elderly are being taken advantage of or, at the very least, how the elderly should be aware that they could be taken advantage of. I tend to get annoyed by all the trumpeting about scam artists and how the elderly need to protect themselves against these predators. I have, in the past, looked on this as a bit of fear mongering and making the elderly feel more vulnerable.

However, just recently, I found myself the victim of a situation that could have been avoided and in which I was taken advantage, thus helping me to recognize that scamming can happen to anyone at any time. This is what happened to me.

I needed to have some trees cut: they were too tall and too close to the house and winds have started to become much stronger in our area.

I looked at the newspaper and called a couple of numbers. One person answered. He came over to give me an estimate. He had his nephew with him and he seemed like an okay guy, so we agreed that he would do the work.

The day he came over, he came with another individual, his brother, he told me. This man had a wild look in his eyes. He also brought a different kid. So it was the two men and a kid. As I recount this story, I am aware that the outcome is just as much my fault as anything they may have done. But the element that allowed the outcome was that I felt intimidated by their numbers and by the wild look in the “brother’s” eyes.

They cut down some trees — did not cut down the tree that had originally been the reason to call a tree cutter. But, and again, this is on me, when we had originally talked about that tree, we had spoken about cutting it down. On reflection, what with the fact that it was a hardwood tree and actually acted as a block should any of the pine trees behind it be blown down, I decided that I only wanted to top it off. They claimed that they did not have the equipment to do that. The main fellow offered to bring me real firewood when they came back to finish the job and then charged me an exorbitant price for the work done. I really do not know why I did not negotiate, but in part it was because this kid was in our faces and the the wild “brother” standing a few feet away. Oh, and the fact that they would ask questions like: “So do you live here all alone?” and had spent ALL day hanging around the house doing their “work.” All of that added up to my writing a check for an amount that I did not feel I should be paying for the work done.

They claimed they would come back the following week to finish the job, but, of course, I have not seen hide nor tail of them. And, I just gave them the money. I have called every single day, leaving various messages of anger, guilt-riding, threats, but to no avail. I will give their names to the Better Business Bureau.

What did I learn from this? Yes, one can be taken advantage of if one is feeling vulnerable. What can be done to avoid this?

1) Do not call someone cold turkey. Get a reference from a friend or a neighbor.

2) When you call, tell them they were referred by the person who referred them.

3) if possible, ask someone else to be there when the person comes to give an estimate and when you are ready to pay for the work.

At least this is what I learned from my very expensive lesson.

Filed Under: Politics of Aging, The Boomer's Corner, Yvonne's Blog Tagged With: elderly, lessons, predators, scams

An Interesting Perspective

December 31, 2012 By yvonne Leave a Comment

I was looking up healthcare videos and came across this video which I found interesting. Other than the mis-pronounciation of President Obama’s name, some of the arguments being put forth are food for thought. Watch and tell me what you think:

http://youtu.be/I7pqRjHQ9BU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen>

Filed Under: Politics of Aging, The Boomer's Corner

An American Tragedy: The Media

December 18, 2012 By yvonne 1 Comment

A few hours after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings, a friend who knows something about electronics came over to my house to help me get my “media” center back on the air. While he was fooling around with the wires, the television was on — probably all of ten minutes. It was the news and clearly the news had been going on for quite some time. You know, where the commentators are trying to fill air space and have repeated the same thing over and over. BUT in the ten minutes that the television was on, I heard the commentator say: “We are not giving out names because the victim’s families have asked that their privacy be respected.” This is being said as pictures of the faces of family members who have just received the news flash across the television. In front of the nation, a person’s moment of unspeakable tragedy is flashed across the screen and the commentator is talking about respecting people’s privacy.

The next thing to occur on this news channel was hearing the commentator opine that “this person was a very sick, sick individual.” As she said this, pictures of the SWAT team were being flashed on the screen. These men all looked like White Supremacists with their shaved heads, assault guns and hand guns galore hanging off their bullet proof vests and in their hands. And I asked myself: ”What planet am I on?”

That the National Rifle Association (NRA) continues to put forth their argument that as citizens of the United States, we have a right to bear arms because the second amendment (written prior to our having a standing army let alone assault weapons) says so [should we be attacked by a foreign nation] is bad enough. But then to have the media expound non-stop with pictures that, quite frankly, feed into the high drama with the same intensity that one might experience watching a movie and thereby adding a glamorous twist to such a horrific act is the tragedy we need to look at. Not to diminish by any means the tragedy of the shooting. Yes, we need to focus on the gun laws and re-consider what the second amendment is truly about. But we also need to reflect on how the news media helps to enhance these acts.

The television is in our living room (or kitchen or bedroom or family room). Wherever the television is, it is in the middle of our hearth, the place we call home, our safe haven. And yet, we are subjected to (if we turn the television on) many intrusions into that sense of safety. To see again and again the same shots, whether it be big burly SWAT teams or pictures of the victims looking innocently out at the camera or a plane going into one of the Twin Towers, our world is being intruded upon in a most profound way. Our psyches are being influenced into a belief that we live in an unsafe world. We do and we don’t.

Oh yes, it is media’s job to let us know what is happening. And of course, on a national level, people are responding with outpouring of sympathy for the victims and their families and their community. That is good. We might even FINALLY see some changes in the gun laws in this country. But we are not looking at the long term effect that seeing something played over and over again may have. There is so much that we accept, including this 24 hour news service as being something that is necessary. If, in fact, there were news that was worth anything for the most part being shared, then maybe it could be justified.

But an outcome with media’s insistence of playing something over and over and over again is that the sense of unease and insecurity gets hammered into our psyches to such an extent that we begin to feel alienated from our fellow citizens, our neighbors. We close ourselves off from feeling a societal connection with those around us. And, although at times addressed as a possibility there are no direct studies to confirm this, how much of the attention that is given to these heinous acts might encourage others to commit them in turn?

We speak about putting a cap on the types of guns individuals are allowed to carry, but I believe we should also put a cap on how much the media is allowed to enter our lives and, through its continuous presence in our lives, influencing our thoughts and emotions — mostly not for the better.

I will end with a great quote I saw on Facebook: One failed attempt at a shoe bomb and we all take off our shoes at the airport. Thirty-one school shootings since Columbine and no changes in our regulations of guns –John Oliver

Oh, and as I was scrolling down to find this quote, I saw a headline that one of the newscast people from Fox News stated that they were not allowed to mention gun control in their coverage of the most recent shootings. Hm. But speak inane nonsense for hours on end……

Filed Under: The Boomer's Corner, Yvonne's Blog Tagged With: gun control, media, shootings, tragedy

Boomers, The Plastic Fantastic Generation

Transitions

Anorexia Hits Older Women

Life Expectancy: Going Up? Going Down?

Oil: Can’t Live With It; Can’t Live Without It

Scams Everywhere

An Interesting Perspective

An American Tragedy: The Media

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