THIS GRANNY GRUMBLES

More and more as I write this blog I am arriving at the conclusion that I need an organization.

A grassroots organ, not one geared to sell insurance or sell out its constituency to commercial interests. An organization that will truly represent the interest of people who are physically unable to work a full work week, or are old enough to retire, but must fight ageism and financial insecurity when seeking to market their skills in the workplace. I envision a group of committed individuals willing to go “sit on the desk” of their legislators and corporate directors and governmental administrators and demand a hearing. A “union,” if you will, of this under-served and under-employed but still vital population segment.

Our numbers are large, but we are NOT UNITED. Our struggle is lonely, obstructed by bureaucratic sprawl and the deliberately obfuscated language of the “benefits” packages we are tossed by our government. Being disabled, or for that matter a senior who is still aware and alive and struggling to keep a home and life together on a fixed and limited income is a full time occupation. We need to help each other and work together for an easier, more productive, more hopeful path. We need an organization to tell our stories, distribute information, and keep the pressure on the governmental organizations that supposedly represent our interests.

So I dabble with acronyms as I wander through the maze of daily living:

HANDS – Helpful Adults and Newly Disabled Seniors
SERVE – Senior Extended Ready Vital Energy
BELT – Big Energetic Life Time
STRIDE – Senior Teachers Retired Individuals Disabled Energy
SDWW - Retired and Disabled Want Work
DAMN – Disabled and Able Mentally-competent Nation
DAWN – Disabled and Aging Working Nation

I am astounded to find that there are only a handful of grassroots organizations serving the interest of the mentally competent disabled in this country. I am shocked that the aging boomer population is so shell-shocked and insular in their response to their shrinking opportunity to have a creative and fruitful senior experience that we have not kicked up our heels and DEMANDED appropriate service opportunities at this time when our country could really benefit from our skills.

Then again, I am discouraged that when I went to sing out with the Grannies at a local gathering to shout out on behalf of National Health Care, only a couple hundred folks turned out to Salsa to Save Lives at a local park on a lovely spring evening. The Current Population Survey Revised CPS ASEC Health Insurance Data published April 10, 2007 indicated that 21% of the total population of New Mexico is without health insurance, meaning that this population is just one health incident away from financial disaster, not to mention that they are unlikely to be getting the ongoing care they might need. And that was 2007 – not today when these numbers are undoubtedly far larger.

Where were these folks on April 9 when we gathered in the park??? Do we believe, just because we made the bold step of electing Obama that he must now solve all our grave social and economic riddles without ongoing support???

Grrrrrr.

Once again, I challenge my readers! I am looking for allies and partners in this process.

Synergy

Forward Thinking for Boomers and the Disabled:
Job Share for the Public Sector

Synergy means creating energy by bringing together a new paradigm by combining action or functioning of energy. In brief, it’s a useful way to look for tools for change.

We know that this country needs change. And our minds return to the same old ruts when searching for the mechanisms to accomplish that change, particularly the minds of the folks who enact most of our legislation. If you don’t believe me, just try reading the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/arra_public_review/. Most of the proposals are couched in terms that reference previous legislation; governmental shorthand that demands such expertise that one has to wonder how the legislators knew what they were voting for.

We, as ordinary citizens, have to figure that our elected officials were just trying to give our President some tools to craft change in our country, as quickly as they could because of the urgency of the need.

As a simple-minded member of this citizenry, I worry. And while there are many things one could worry about, I choose to be simple minded and worry about my own interests, because I feel they are representative of a segment of concerns that are not being met. My concerns and the synergist approach I have developed to create a personal and a segmental solution for economic survival and benefit to the nation may constitute just a small piece of the jigsaw puzzle of how to reassemble this country and I want them heard and addressed.

I believe that my ideas are important keys to solving some of the problems we as a nation seem to grapple with only in the privacy of our homes, with dread, in our sleepless nights. I am searching for others who see these problems and are interested in the solutions I am proposing because THIS IS THE TIME to get these issues on the table, before the opportunity presented by the ARRA is lost.

So I welcome all response to this blog, whether private (live.wire2@comcast.net) or public.

I read with great interest an article in the Washington Post published this day, March 3, 2009, “Many Hires Needed for Budget Goals.” http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/02/AR2009030202935.html?wpisrc=newsletter

My thoughts as I read this article were simple:“What about me?”

More and more today the aging and disabled population needs to work, and would relish viable part-time employment. The nation needs us too. Many thought they had enough salted away, or enough forthcoming in pensions to retire comfortably and find that these funds have vanished. Others are still working full time into their seventies.

For many of us, a part time job would make a huge difference. Our society regards us as a “burden,” when many of us would leap at the opportunity to be useful, and have years of expertise to contribute in just those areas where workers are overwhelmed by low pay and staggering workloads, like teaching and social services. If only someone would agitate to make a portion of those jobs part-time! Then they could be filled by people who find it physically overwhelming to work a full day, but who would come to their jobs with a sense of gratitude and the desire to serve.

It would not be too hard to find a mechanism to reserve a portion of the new need for governmental workers this segment of the population. Our numbers are known: relative to the larger population and by income levels. We count. We have skills. We even have medical insurance. Nonetheless, we find it a tremendous challenge to find the part-time employment that would fulfill the yearning we have to be useful and create the small piece of income we need to survive with greater choices.

There is such a crying need skilled service workers of every stripe–particularly in today’s economy. But there is no one negotiating on behalf of a solution.

Personally, I have been searching for year-round stable part time employment for 3 years. The best solution I have been able to patch together is seasonal and fragmented and doesn’t allow me to use my skills in a consistent fashion. I am always worrying about the next job. During the last year I have worked as a tutor in the public schools, a great job for my tutees, and me but only funded for 23 hours per student per year. I have also scored “No Child Left Behind” tests –even though this work is also seasonal and the only option for part of the season is to work full-time, which depletes my small fund of “ticket to work” months. I have no comment about the nature of this work other than to say I would not do it if I had other options. Next, I registered 500 voters for Acorn at minimum wage. I could only do this because most of the time I could sit, and I could stop when my pain made me cross. I only did this because in order to work for the most dynamic Presidential campaign of my lifetime I needed to have financial support, minimal though it was. Next, I worked for the Board of Elections for a month and a half, until the full-time plus workload shot me down. Then, in November, I resumed work as a tutor. Put plainly, while I performed valuable service and learned a lot, this scatter-brained approach to obtaining some semblance of economic survival really sucks! Do you hear me???

Please join me or help me find allies in bringing this idea to the attention of the pertinent state and federal legislators and agency administrators. The need of the boomers and the disabled (who are not infrequently the same population) for part-time employment has, in my view great potential as an untapped source of public sector skills.