Posted 1/17/2012
SCDC celebrates the life of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Born January 15, 1929, and called M.L. by his family, Martin Luther King, Jr. is memorialized as a visionary leader of the modern civil rights movement, a minister and an author. Characterized by his grand oratory and charismatic presence, King was known as a staunch advocate of nonviolent social protest. His assassination on April 4, 1968, was described by one biographer as “depriving America of a towering symbol of moral and social progress.” A few, among many, of the recognitions afforded King were: his receipt of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1963, his designation as Time magazine’s Man of the Year in 1964, and his posthumous receipt of the Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, from President Carter in 1977.
King gave a stellar performance on August 28, 1963, when hundreds of thousands gathered on the Mall of Washington, DC in search of freedom and equality for all. It was during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, that King delivered his stirring "I have a dream" speech asking that the same rights be afforded to ALL Americans citizens--the rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The march, led by union leader A. Philip Randolph and organizer Bayard Rustin, drew more than 200,000 supporters, 50,000 of them white. They included people from all walks of life. Among their demands was the passage of the Civil Rights Bill; desegregation of schools and housing; elimination of racial discrimination in hiring; job training; an increase in minimum wage; and enforcement of the Fourteenth Amendment. The institutional climax of King’s civil rights work came with the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act. |
Posted 12/14/11
Senior Solidarity:
From the Herald Palladium
Area senior citizens see the new tax on pensions of Michigan residents as another attack by politicians as they fight for their economic survival.
And they’re not taking it lying down.
The economic downturn, cuts in benefits and worries about future legislation that could endanger them and their families have seniors taking to the picket lines and becoming politically active.
Christine Vanlandingham, an official with the Area Agency on Aging in St. Joseph, said she has seen an uptick in engagement by seniors every year since she joined the agency nine years ago.
“One of the most gratifying parts of my job is helping seniors connect with their legislators and policy makers and helping them carry their own message,” said Vanlandingham, the agency’s fund and product development officer.
A statewide advocacy day drew 800 participants to Lansing this year, and a meeting with lawmakers in Berrien County attracted a standing-room-only crowd.
Vanlandingham observed that many of the people getting involved would not have thought of themselves as activists a few years ago.
Jess Minks, 68, of Buchanan, chairman of the South County Democrats, was a coal miner in southern Indiana and a union organizer. He was among those who “looked down their nose” at the long-haired students protesting against the Vietnam War.
Now, he said, “I trim my beard and keep my hair cut ... but I can still carry a sign.”
Minks and his wife, Edie, have been carrying signs at Occupy rallies in Niles and St. Joseph this year, along with their other political activities.
As seniors they are in the minority at these Occupy events. But Minks has noticed more gray heads showing up.
After one rally someone jokingly told him “Hey, you weren’t the only old fart out there!”
Tina Trowbridge, 64, of Niles is known as the “Button Lady” at Occupy events for the many political buttons she wears.
Trowbridge likes mixing with the younger people. “We need youth who have energy and new ideas. I’m glad to see that. Things need to change.”
Seniors can provide “wisdom, knowledge” from “having been there,” she added.
“We overlook them at our own peril,” Vanlandingham said of older citizens.
Pension tension
These elder activists see the new tax on pensions as another move that will erode the precarious financial standing of retirees.
The Michigan Supreme Court last month gave its stamp of approval to Gov. Rick Snyder’s plan to levy a 4.35 percent tax on most pensions starting Jan. 1.
The court struck down provisions in the new tax law that would have raised taxes on the pensions of higher-income earners, which they ruled is barred by the state constitutional ban on a graduated income tax.
The pension income tax exempts retirees who will be at least 67 in 2012, and a portion of them who will be between the ages of 60 and 66.
AARP opposes the legislation, arguing that retirees based their financial plans on not having their pensions taxed. The organization is pushing for the Michigan Legislature to overturn the law.
Minks said he will not be affected by the pension tax because of his age, but said he and other seniors have lost a lot of other tax breaks they had counted on.
Those include a tax exemption on charitable donations and a dependent child tax credit for seniors raising grandchildren under the age of 19. The loss of exemptions on interest, dividends and capital gains also have chipped away at the solvency of older people, Minks said.
And he is alarmed by talk of cuts to Social Security and Medicare benefits.
“I just wonder what’s coming next,” he said.
These benefits are all a lot of seniors have to live on, Edie Minks said.
Trowbridge said she and her husband, Mike, who continues to work assembling ambulances, do not rely on pension income, although she noted that they lost “a full third” of their 401K savings during the economic meltdown. Her husband hasn’t had a raise in four years.
Trowbridge isn’t concerned about her own material comfort. “I don’t care about me. I could live in a hole in the ground.”
But she visits nursing homes where old people, and young people who are disabled and can’t work, are totally dependent on Social Security and Medicare.
If those benefits are cut, “These people could just be thrown out into the street,” she said.
Edie Minks recalled talking with two widows who were discussing moving in together because all either had to make ends meet was $500 a month in Social Security payments.
“I just think, ‘How in the world are these people going to make it?’” Edie Minks said. “At the rate we’regoing, there are going to be a lot of people like that.”
AARP has expressed alarm about talks about cutting Social Security benefits as a budget-trimming measure.
According to AARP, 35 percent of Americans over 65 rely solely on Social Security (with average benefits of $14,000 a year for individuals) to survive. On Jan. 1 and continuing for the next 19 years, an additional 10,000 people a day will be turning 65.
The nation could be facing an explosion of old-age poverty, the organization warns.
Starvation nation?
National statistics bear this warning out. The rate of poverty among seniors (and among all Americans) has risen greatly over the last 10 years.
In 1999 the poverty rate among seniors was 4.9 percent. In September the U.S. Census Bureau reported that 9 percent of seniors were living in poverty in 2010. In October it recalculated its estimate, taking into account medical expenses and other costs, and found that the number of seniors in poverty was almost double its initial projection, at around 16 percent.
Others think the revised estimate is still too low.
A study at Wayne State University, “Invisible Poverty,” released earlier this year through its Seniors Count project, claims that 37 percent of Michigan’s seniors are living “at or below a level of basic economic security.”
The study focused on residents age 65 or older who are living alone and are not working, and those in two-person homes where neither senior is working.
The Census Bureau uses a method to calculate financial status that is weighted toward food costs, a method that is 40 years old, the Wayne State study points out.
The university’s study uses the Elder Index, which figures the economic security of seniors by accounting for the actual costs of living under different circumstances, such as an illness, and in different geographical areas.
While the Census Bureau reported that 11.8 percent, or 1,463 seniors, in Berrien County were living below the poverty line in 2010, Wayne State’s study estimated that 40.4 percent, or 4,997 seniors living in their own homes and not in the workforce, were having difficulty buying food and paying for housing, transportation and medical care.
Even in Michigan’s more well-off counties, more than one in four seniors struggles to make ends meet, the study shows.
Vanlandingham of the Area Agency on Aging agreed that the Elder Index gives a more accurate picture of the economic insecurity of seniors. Advocates are pushing legislators to use these calculations, rather than standard poverty measures, when setting policies.
Poverty makes seniors more vulnerable to abuse, neglect and exploitation, Vanlandingham pointed out.
Advocates are pushing for passage of a raft of bills to protect seniors, many of which have been hanging in legislative limbo for five years. One would prevent a convicted abuser from inheriting a victim’s assets, which is not currently prohibited by law.
“Our biggest wish for the holidays for seniors would be to get these bills passed,” Vanlandingham said.
They also are keeping a close eye on health care legislation. The cost of health care is one of the biggest factors creating financial instability for the elderly, Vanlandingham said.
Marcia Brubaker, 80, a member of the South County Democrats, called Medicare “the best thing going” tohelp seniors when they get sick, and she doesn’t believe it should be reduced or eliminated.
“We’re the only country in the world that doesn’t have medical care for all people,” Brubaker said. “It’s just for the few.”
Brubaker also is worried about recent college graduates who leave school with loans that will take years to pay.
And when they do graduate, there aren’t any jobs, she added.
Older people can’t afford to retire and are hanging onto jobs that would have gone to younger workers, Jess Minks said.
He knows a man who keeps working by “eating aspirin by the handful” to dull the pain of his arthritis.
Their attitude is “That young buck ain’t gettin’ my job. I’ll work ’til I drop. I can’t afford to retire,” Minks said.
Edie Minks is worried about the next generations, including the granddaughter she looks after while her son and daughter-in-law are working.
“I don’t see a lot of future for her,” she said.
Jess Minks expects to see more people who “have nothing left to lose” speaking out and standing up in the future.
“When people get to the point where they have nothing left to lose, they’ll fight the fight, and they can make things happen,” Minks said.
He has been inspired by Arthur Ott, 69, of Buchanan Township.
Ott has cancer but is “the last person to leave, always the last one gone” at Occupy rallies, even though he can’t stand for long and has to sit on a bucket.
When asked why he comes out for these rallies, sometimes in the cold and rain, “He says he has to do that for his children and his grandchildren,” Jess Minks said. “He says, ‘This is the last fight for my children and grandchildren.’ ”
jmatuszak@thehp.com |
Posted 12/1/11
District held ‘hostage’
To the editor:
Grover Norquist is not an elected official of a public office known. He heads the Americans for Tax Relief organization. He convinced 235 House members and 41 Senators — all Republicans — to sign the pledge to the district of the state they represent, and to the American people, that “I will oppose any efforts to increase your taxes.” You’ve got their idea.
And the rest of the story is, if you break your pledge, Mr. Norquist, will your multi-billionaire backers finance an opponent in your next election to replace you?
Anyone with a pulse and brainwaves realizes that increased revenue has to be raised. If they have their way, all revenue to be raised will come from Social Security payers forced to invest some of that money in the stock market, mutual funds, annuities, etc. Drastically reduce or eliminate Medicare, Medicaid and other federal programs that help educating our schoolchildren, college help, veterans and any other worthy organizations that have worked down through the years.
Don’t forget they’ll be whacking unemployment when the need is so great with jobs so scarce.
Mr. Norquist refuses to divulge the source of his endless funds committed to the no-tax pledges.
Mr. Upton refuses to compromise, although he should know by now politics is the “art of compromise.” Mr. Norquist is holding your district hostage because you signed that pledge.
Glen C. Edquist
Niles |
