As COVID-19 pandemic reaches its 2nd anniversary and COVID-19 death toll approaches 900,000 in USA, wish for more civility:
“…the
original definition of civility, from the Latin and from the
French. Civility: citizens willing to give of themselves for the
greater good. For the good of the city.”—Steven Petrow, Three Ways to Practice Civility, Ted Salon (Jan. 2019)
“If
you’ve noticed, much of the emphasis of media conversations on COVID are
individualistic: wear a mask, get vaccinated to protect *yourself,* go back to
work even w/ symptoms bc *you’re* “fine” (even if you’re not). And while some
of these recommendations are good- like getting a vaccine + wearing masks where
appropriate, the motivations for them shouldn’t just be selfish. It should also
be bc we actually give a damn about other people - our disabled neighbors, our
coworkers who haven’t said (and shouldn’t feel obligated to say) they’re
immunocompromised, etc….
And if there’s one lesson I think we as a country are repeating until we learn,
it’s that community and collective good is our best shot through our greatest
challenges …Individualism is inadequate for planetary forces like climate
change or global pandemics, no less societal ones like healthcare, economic
inequity and racism. But WE, as a collective, can confront them. In a world of
MEs, let’s build team WE. 💙”—Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (Jan. 16, 2022)
Biden
administration made at-home COVID-19 test kits more readily available (free order
online)—so more COVID-19 cases underreported to SF Department of Public Health
(SF DPH). Given
City’s 82% vaccination rate, SF DPH is paying more attention to COVID-19
hospitalizations that represent more serious cases.
Also, Biden administration is making available free N95 masks for pick-up at pharmacies nationwide. SF DPH is reinstating mask mandate exception in public indoor settings where there is 100% vaccination, effective Feb. 1…until the next COVID variant surge?! I plan to keep my mask on, as I continue to work with clients who are immunocompromised.
We
must keep a distance
A
safe space between us
Days
of my poor hygiene are gone
Stay
far, whoever you are
If
in public, a mask should go on
Before,
I’d laugh at this chore
Now
let’s all play our part
So
my mask will go on – stay on…
Yes,
I’ll care about you
I
don’t need to know you
To
ensure I don’t pass it on
Bizarre
– how selfish they are!
It
won’t hurt when you’re out to wear one
(And
no, your rights aren’t gone)
Once
more, it’s far from a chore
Show
you care in your heart
Time
to start putting a mask on
Not
fear – just common sense here
How
could helping each other be wrong?
(An
act so small – put it on!)
We’ll
stay the virus this way
Keep
us safe with a mask
When
in public, put your mask on!
--Shirley Serban, “My Mask Will Go On – COVID-19 Titanic Parody Song of Celine Dion’s My Heart Will Go On” (July 13, 2020)
Due to COVID omicron surge, pause on client home visits continued this month, so my work has been virtual and paperless (pleasing my inner treehugger). Amazing how much work is now conducted over the phone, and some clients have gotten comfortable with telehealth.
Recently conducted assessment by phone of prospective client, who incessantly used profanity like George “7 Dirty Words” Carlin while laughing. I have yet to obtain medical records, but wondered if the use of profanity might suggest dementia?
Civility has declined, especially in relative anonymity of physical distancing, while we have evolved to “trust” larger groups of strangers; was this prospective client using profanity to build trust?
“People laugh
(sometimes nervously) when a norm is violated… Next time you come across
somebody new but are not quite sure whether to trust them, try telling a joke…a
shared sense of humor indicates shared norms. Shared norms form a solid
foundation for trust…use of profanity also can build trust. The use of
profanity is a deliberate breaking of a taboo…By deliberately breaking the
taboo, the profaner places themselves in a state of vulnerability, thus
initiating an act of trust. A positive response to the expression of profanity
reciprocates that act of trust.”—Benjamin Ho, “The History of Trust,” Why
Trust Matters: An Economist’s Guide to the Ties that Bind Us (2021)
IMHO, there are better ways to build
trust than use of jokes and profanity. Blame 45th President of USA for
taking swearing mainstream in public as news media began publishing his profane
rants (noise pollution!), and his supporters viewed him as more
“authentic.” As Rolling Stone reported,
presidential profanity is ol’ news. As examples provided do not
appear to advance trust, why not just stick to “expletive deleted” as done in
Nixon’s Watergate tapes?
This month filled with events to practice civility = give of ourselves for the greater good, in the form of civic engagement in gerontology. And #ThankU Frontline!
Happy
Anniversary, Master Plan for Aging!
California
Department of Aging (CDA) hosted virtual celebration for the 1st
anniversary of the Master Plan for Aging (MPA): lots of back patting for what
was accomplished during COVID-19 pandemic environment, silo-busting and “whole-government”
approach to aging.
Kim McCoy Wade, Senior Advisor on Aging, Disability and Alzheimer’s for the Office of Governor Gavin Newsom (new role created by MPA), declared “We all go further when we go together” (but maintain physical distance)!
WHAT GIVES ME HOPE IS WHEN I THINK
ABOUT THE PEOPLE OF CALIFORNIA. AND WHAT IS GOING TO START TO HAPPEN THIS YEAR
AS PLANS HAVE LED TO POLICY, HAVE LED TO DOLLARS. IF YOU THINK FOR A MOMENT,
- WE'RE GOING TO SEE ALZHEIMER'S DAY CENTERS OPEN AGAIN IN CALIFORNIA SO PEOPLE WITH DEMENTIA CAN GET CRITICAL DAY ACTIVITY AND CAREGIVERS CAN GET SUPPORT.
- WE'RE GOING TO SEE HOME-DELIVERED MEALS AND HOME MODIFICATIONS PAID FOR BY HEALTH PLANS SO PEOPLE CAN KEEP LIVING IN THEIR HOMES.
- WE'RE GOING TO SEE NEW RESIDENTIAL FACILITIES PURCHASED SO PEOPLE CAN HAVE HOUSING AND SERVICES. THIS IS GOING TO HAPPEN IN COMMUNITIES WHERE YOU LIVE AND WORK.
- GOING TO HAVE SENIOR CENTERS REOPEN.
- WE'RE GOING TO HAVE VOLUNTEERS WALK INTO SCHOOLS AND TUTOR CHILDREN SO WE CAN BE TOGETHER AGAIN SAFELY -- AFTER COVID -- BUILDING BACK BETTER WITH INTERGENERATIONAL CONNECTIONS.
Lourdes Castro-Ramirez, California Secretary of Business, Consumer Services, and Housing Agency, spoke of the sense of stability and belonging in intergenerational households based on her lived experience. She grew up in a two-bedroom house with her immigrant parents, nine siblings, aunt and uncle with their children; plus two other families lived in a “tiny house in the back, along with the converted garage.”
JUST AS THIS MASTER PLAN WAS DONE IN A COLLABORATIVE WAY AND ALSO WITH SIGNIFICANT ENGAGEMENT FROM STAKEHOLDERS, OUR AGENCY WILL CONTINUE TO ENSURE WORK IS ROOTED IN REAL LIFE STORIES AND EXPERIENCES. AND ALSO, UNDERSTANDING WHO WE'RE SERVING…ELDERS AND OUR AGING POPULATION.
CDA Director Susan DeMarois invited us to check out MPA First Annual Progress Report (2022).
Christina Mills, Executive Director of California Foundation for Independent Living Centers (CFILC), talked about joint advocacy across aging & disability to MPA because aging is all of us, and disability is a natural part of life for those born into disability, or age into disability. She talked about getting people, like Justice in Aging Executive Director Kevin Prindiville, to embrace and call out disability:
MASTER PLAN FOR AGING IS WHERE WE
STARTED AND A STEP IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION...GOING TO THE MASTER PLAN FOR AGING
TABLE FOR MONTHS AND HEARING COLLEAGUES UNABLE TO SAY DISABILITY HAS DEFINITELY
CHANGED. ALMOST EVERY SINGLE TIME I'M IN A MEETING WITH KEVIN -- I HOPE IT
HAPPENS WHEN I'M NOT WITH KEVIN TOO -- HE IS SAYING PEOPLE WHO ARE AGING AND
DISABLED PEOPLE FOR THE FIRST TIME…HERE IS THE THING: DISABILITY IS IN EVERY
COMMUNITY. AND YOU CAN JOIN THE COMMUNITY AT ANY GIVEN TIME.
Ed Roberts
Day
Youth
Organizing! Disabled & Proud hosted celebration of Ed Roberts Day
with launch of YO! Ed Roberts Oral History Project.
"We
make such fundamental errors in taking care of people all the time. Think about
your own life…if you had people taking care of you, making all your decisions,
what is there to life, really? In almost all of social programs we set up take
care of us or put us away in institutions to be cared for. And I think once I
began to discover that, how important it is to help yourself and to move on
from that and to go beyond what people thought my limits were…
What’s a life living in an institution or nursing home someplace?... Yet, we spend billions and billions of dollars on these… what we have to do is break that money loose from very strong special interests and move it into the community and deal with quality of life issues. We do not want to be segregated in the traditional sense." –Ed Roberts (1939-1995), “Father of Independent Living Movement,” 60 Minutes (1989)
Harry Reasoner on why Ed’s “story worth telling” on 60 Minutes: Ed contracted polio at age 14 in 1953 (two years before Jonas Salk’s unpatented vaccine ended polio epidemic), paralyzed from the neck down and required an iron lung to breathe; with his mother Zona’s fearless advocacy, Ed insisted on attending schools in-person while fighting for accommodations through his political science PhD at UC Berkeley, as Director of California Department of Vocational Rehabilitation, co-founder of Center for Independent Living (CIL) and World Institute on Disability (WID).
Joan Leon, self-described as 83-year-old person with invisible disability, CIL Board member and WID co-founder, is helping to make a film about Ed Roberts’ mother Zona, who is 101 years old.
Tatum Tricarico (disability pride flag in her background) and Evan Milburn led Oral History Project on Ed Roberts Day last year, collectively spending 40-50 hours in interviews over the past year.
YO! Oral History Project paired 20 youth with 20 older people who knew Ed Roberts. One lesson for youths facing peer pressure: how Ed changed his fear of being different into power, realizing he was a “star” to control social situations. Check out Ed Roberts Oral History Project playlist.
80 over 80
SF
UCSF geriatrician Dr. Anna Chodos provided update on her 80 over 80 SF project to amplify stories of older adults age 80+ and to end ageism. My question: Were 80over80 SF subjects asked whether they prefer to be called “older” or “senior” among language choices from Reframing Aging SF? Answer: No.
Geriatricians like Dr. Chodos speak out against ageism in healthcare. Yet few social workers call out ageism, which I suspect is due to so few social workers have gerontology competencies that they’re not even aware that they’re ageist/patronizing and working for organizations that perpetuate ageism. Justice, not charity!
Chat box
included Ashton Applewhite’s observation that organizations that serve older
adults are often the most ageist of all. Sadly true, IMHO, and perhaps an
example of the intersection of ageism + classism: age-segregated spaces
providing “supervision” (social control, often subsidized by government) like
senior centers and pre-school/K-12 structures that allow capitalism to function
so working stiff are not “burdened” with caring for their aging parents and
minor children at home. My views have been informed by my work with older
adults across the wealth spectrum: high net worth clients afford to
age at home with privately hired staff to cater to their needs, so no need to
go to age-segregated senior center, adult day health or social center, assisted
living, nursing home (see “How the poor get stranded in Bay Area nursing homes”) or other institutional settings.
80over80 SF project began before COVID-19 pandemic, and later included questions about living through this pandemic. (Just 18 months ago, 80over80 SF had 30 profiles.) Look forward to hearing if subjects share their experiences of ageism (as in Irish Examiner’s “Ageing in the Pandemic” articles). Also would be interesting to see reaction of Zeke Emanuel, who said at age 62: “There are not that many people who continue to be active and engaged and actually creative past 75. It's a very small number.” 80 is not a very small number?!
Dr. Chodos plans
to complete this 80over80 SF project by May 2022, coinciding with Older
Americans Month – publish everything on website, partner with a radio station,
make a book for participants, hold events. To date, 69 participants (43 women; 4
LGBTQ; 8 African American, 4 Latinx, 16 Asian), looking for recommendations to
profile as 11 more to go (looking for Filipino, greater
diversity).
In addition to usual demographics (socially constructed race/ethnicity and SOGI), it would be good to profile folks age 80+ in different living environments. Because SF land has been too precious for prisons, would miss profiles of octogenarian prisoners (like murderers Charles Manson and Phil Spector, fraudster Bernie Madoff) to hear voices of remorse or unrepentant evil?! Age 80 cut-off also might result in marginalizing low-income and unhoused people who have shorter life expectancies.
Cool to see
my recommendations (Legacy Film Fest Director Sheila Malkind and SF Chinatown activist Dorothy Quock) appearing as talking heads in 80over80 SF video clip. Sadly, I nominated several SF beatniks (including one in
a nursing home) who died few months later, and don’t know if they were profiled before their untimely
deaths.
MLK, Jr. Day/Speaking Truth to Power
MLK, Jr. Day reminded me that we need poor people’s movement! Due to omicron surge, I stayed put watching documentaries for MLK, Jr. holiday curated by The World House Project at Stanford.
“As an old man who has seen all the corners in this corrupt old world, who wants to change this corrupt old world, I have decided to start with myself… I know as a fact that the courage of this man (MLK, Jr.) has made a better man of me… You are truly a new man in an old world.” – Sidney Poitier (1927-2022), as 40-year “old man” delivering keynote at 1967 Southern Christian Leadership Conference
In Speaking Truth to Power (2021) documentary of 75-year-old Rep. Barbara Lee, she opens up her personal life and how it shaped policy (“people closest to pain should be closest to power, driving policy”) – describing how she roamed streets to stay away from her batterer and slept in “flea bag hotels” as a domestic violence victim; how she benefited from HUD program that enabled people on public assistance to purchase her own home for $19,475 near Mills College in Oakland, where brought her two sons to classes when she didn’t have child care.
Encouraged by Rep. Lynn Woolsey "the first former welfare mother to serve in Congress" and Progressive Caucus Co-Chair, Barbara went public about being a welfare mother.
Back last August as USA withdrew from Afghanistan, I tuned into World Affairs program, Barbara Lee Speaks for Me, about what it was like for her to stand alone in opposition to President George W. Bush 20 years ago when she was the lone dissenting vote on the authorization of war in Afghanistan in 2001. Right to dissent is central to democracy!
Age 60+
“best years”
“Your best years will be after you’re 60.”—Robert Reich (former U.S. Secretary of Labor, UC Berkeley Professor of Public Policy and The Common Good host), Answer This, Politico
Happy new year brings benevolent ageism! Thanks to AB 695, the eligibility age threshold for Adult Protective Services (APS) was lowered from age 65+ to age 60+ beginning Jan. 1, 2022.
Ahead of Chinese Lunar New Year, SF Police Department reported 567% increase in reported hate crimes against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders from 2020 (9 victims) to 2021 (60 victims)! Likely this represents underreporting for cultural/language access reasons. News reports did not disclose age range of victims, but SF Mayor London Breed referred to “seniors in the AAPI community being attacked.”
“When I was growing up in some of the most challenging circumstances in San Francisco it would have broken my heart to have my grandmother be attacked in the way that we see so many of our seniors in the AAPI community being attacked. But that did not happen because as a community, we protected each other.”—London Breed, “Hate crimes against AAPI community jumped more than sixfold, police say,” SF Chronicle (Jan. 25, 2022)
Advocates helped preserve Cantonese language classes at City College of SF, led by Trustee Alan Wong whose parents are Cantonese-speaking immigrants from Hong Kong: “We need to rescue the Cantonese program to stop Asian hate and make sure the Chinese community has access to bilingual services. We need to have firefighters, police officers and social workers that are bilingual…Language should not be a barrier for victims of crime and immigrants reporting an incident and needing care.”
Ashby Village hosted 61-year-old Bill McKibben in Engaging Elders in Climate Action. Environmentalist Bill, who co-founded 350.org with his Middlebury College students in 2008, recently founded non-partisan Third Act for “experienced Americans” age 60+ to clean up their legacy in climate change. Desmond Tutu (1931-2021, who had eco-friendly aquamation) regarded climate change as human rights issue like apartheid in 1980s, and used divestment as tool for change. Bill’s Third Act argues that Boomers and Silent Gen, who hold 70% of nation’s wealth, can use their collective power for fossil fuel divestment from biggest banks (Chase, Citi, WF, and BofA) funding climate destruction; sign Banking on our Future pledge!
