ShAARP Session: Observations from AARP

A little Friday fun from Garry Lee Wright

One of the funnier pieces of political news in the last month was buried yesterday amid the coverage of the automakers pleading with Congress for a bailout. Florida Representative Illeana Ros-Lehtinen received a call of congratulations from a man claiming to be President-elect Barack Obama. Believing the call to be an elaborate prank and not wanting to be the next Sarah Palinesque prank call victim, she hung up. Just minutess later the Representative got another phone call, this time from a man who identified himself as Rahm Emanuel, Obama's chief of staff and a political star in his own right. Despite knowing Emanuel from his time in the House, Ros-Lehtinen was not convinced and hung up again.

Prank averted, except for one detail. It was Obama calling. Not until the Representative received a call from fellow Florida Rep. Howard Berman confirming the truth was she convinced. Realizing she had just hung up on the President-elect, Ros-Lehtinen told Rep. Berman to inform Obama that he could now call her. For his part, Obama found the whole situation both understandable and comical.

As Monday, December 1st was World AIDS Day, folks have been blogging all week in efforts to raise AIDS awareness. So we say - better late than never!

I found a local piece from NorwichBulletin.com that talks about how while AIDS is assumed by many to be a young person's condition, more older people have the condition than generally thought. Here are some stats just in Connecticut:

Since 1980 through June 30 of this year, the Connecticut Department of Public Health reported 4,800 Connecticut citizens older than 50 living with HIV or AIDS. That represents 37 percent of all cases.

In the first six months of this year, 27 new cases were reported in people older than 50. The highest numbers of new cases were reported in the 40 to 49 age group. The second highest numbers were in people older than 50.

Looking at general U.S. statistics, I found that 42% of diagnoses of HIV in 2006 were of people over the age of 40. So while we remember the loved ones we've lost to AIDS and work towards raising awareness, let's also remember that this condition effects all people - and all ages.

AARP has a piece on this, "Speaking Out for a Ground Once Unheard Of - Aging with AIDS." It's not to miss.

This is crazy. The New York Times blog Well had a post up yesterday about a compelling new study on aging showing that, on average, older people feel about 13 years younger than they really are. Talk about "young at heart"!

The University of Michigan and the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin conducted the study:

Researchers surveyed 516 people between the ages of 70 and 104 who were taking part in the ongoing Berlin Aging Study in Germany, asking a series of aging-related questions, including how old they typically feel compared to the age on their birth certificate. Although individual responses varied, the average gap between chronological age and subjective age was 13 years. Among study participants who were particularly healthy and active, the gap between subjective age and actual age was even wider.

This brings up the discussion of what cultural expectations are of older folks compared to how they really feel. Jacqui Smith, a psychologist at the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research, says, "We are somehow aged by the culture we live in. It's about how we should look, when you should retire - sometimes those stereotypes are a little out of date.''

Smith also makes an interesting fact that we wish we were older when we're kids, but once we hit our mid twenties, we begin to see ourselves as younger. Other studies have even shown that people as young as 40 and 50 feel about 20 percent younger than they really are.

Do you feel younger than your actual age? By how many years?

I've spent a lot of time blogging here about the many ways folks are trying to deal with hard times, but here is one situation where you have to wonder if the pain is worth the reward. As people are losing their jobs and seeing declines in their home values, they are being forced to wait out the bad economy. Specifically, divorced couples and those who have recently broken up are being forced to postpone plans to move out. This means that even though couples have split, they're forced to stay under the same roof to save money. Talk about awkward!

Today, six entrepreneurs over age 60 found out that they are 2008 Purpose Prize Winners! One invented a $28 machine to help rural African villagers turn their small peanut farm into a cash crop, another rallied hundreds of volunteers to help Iraqi refugees start new lives in their city, and a third is helping African-American farmers in the South become part of the new "green" economy. The six big winners get $100,000 to continue their efforts - and nine more won $10,000.

Over 1,000 people were nominated for tackling everything from "poverty to pollution, recidivism to racial reconciliation, and health care to homelessness.

Read the inspirational stories here - and join AARP Create the Good Network to get tools and inspiration to make a difference in YOUR community!

This short piece was produced for AARP-TV's "My Generation." It won a a 2008 TIVA-DC Peer Gold for directing (non fiction, under thirty minutes). Enjoy

Yesterday the National Bureau of Economic Research announced that the U.S. has been in an economic recession since late 2007. For just about everyone else, this was pretty old news. The stock market responded accordingly and tanked, as the Dow fell 679 points. Despite all the bad news, the government still says it is working hard to stem the losses and Fed Chief Bernanke has outlined some additional actions that could improve the economy.

America just finished a historic election that brought millions of citizens to the polls. We voted in hopes that the new President and Congress would act quickly to address the most important issues facing our nation. And we were united - Democrats, Republicans, and independents - in frustration with Washington gridlock and partisan bickering. Now the real work must begin. We need to turn hope into action and hold our political leaders accountable for delivering on the promises they made to get elected.

At Divided We Fail we've been doing our part in the past 18 months to rally together organizations representing well over 50 million Americans in order to make a unified statement to our president-elect. Barack Obama promised prior to the election to make quality health care affordable, help families save more of their own money, strengthen Social Security for future generations, and end partisan bickering and Washington gridlock. Now is the time to hold him to that promise.

Recommit to Divided We Fail by demanding that this much-needed reform happens, and that it happens quickly! Join DWF and help Obama lead America forward with more than just words--with action.

TAGS: Divided We Fail, AARP, Social Security, Barack Obama, election, Washington, gridlock, health care, financial security, ShAARP Session

The economy may be cooling down along with the weather, but yard sales are still hot. Millions of people are feeling the pinch of tighter budgets this year, and they are turning to yard sales as a way to free up some cash for the holiday season. Surveys show that yard sale numbers may have doubled from this time last year. There has also been a huge increase in the sales posted on sites like Craigslist. I guess people will always find creative ways to deal with tough financial times.