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       #Post#: 748--------------------------------------------------
       ✨💐🎍🍾🌞🕊️
   DIR By: AGelbert
       Date: December 30, 2022, 2:51 pm
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       [center]
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       [center]
       ✨💐🎍🍾🌞🕊️
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       #Post#: 774--------------------------------------------------
       Salmon People: A Native Fishing Family’s Fight to Preserve a Way
       of Life
   DIR By: AGelbert
       Date: January 11, 2023, 1:29 pm
       ---------------------------------------------------------
  HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-180822134328.png
       January 10, 2023 Editorial
       [center]The Fight
  HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-040622202540-1395150.gif<br
       />Of The Columbia River Salmon People[/center]
       [center]
  HTML https://gcaptain.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/20221228_SalmonOneFamilysJourney-10-1536x864.jpg[/center]
       Aiyana George with her dad, Sam, at the end of a long day of
       fishing on the Columbia River Credit: Katie Campbell/ProPublica
       SNIPPET:
       By the time Randy saw his dad in the paper, he was used to his
       parents being arrested for fishing. He was about 8 the first
       time he saw them dragged into a police car, and he cried.
       Eventually, he’d get arrested, too.
       Sometimes the police would stop by The Dalles Wahtonka High
       School to see if he was there. If he wasn’t, they knew to search
       along the river for his family.
       More often than not, though, teenage Randy Settler was there in
       school, frequently asleep during first-period history. He’d
       spend all night setting nets and the early morning pulling them
       and trucking the catch over to his mom. When he got to school,
       he’d slip into the back of the classroom and nod off.
       “I didn’t mind sleeping through manifest destiny,” he said.
  HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-120422122257-657398.pnghttps://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-050422145533-5682069.png
       The Settlers became one of the most aggressive commercial
       fishing families on the river. Alvin, who’d later become a
       tribal judge, taught himself the law and began to test the
       limits of the state’s authority over tribal fishing.
       Mary Goudy-Settler and Alvin Settler took such a hard line on
       treaty rights, and racked up so many fishing violations, that
       one of the Yakama Nation’s council members tried to distance
       them from tribal government.
       But they were building something.
       Full article with DETAILED history of this struggle:
  HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-040622202540-1395150.gif<br
       />
  HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-040422164555-532108.png
  HTML https://gcaptain.com/columbia-river-salmon-people/
       [center]Salmon People: A Native Fishing Family’s Fight to
       Preserve a Way of Life[/center]
       [center]
  HTML https://youtu.be/16zHZSCmfzw[/center]
       #Post#: 802--------------------------------------------------
       The casual disregard for the lived experience of working people
       in America is a sign of an unhealthy society.
   DIR By: AGelbert
       Date: January 25, 2023, 11:48 am
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       [move]Where does blind obedience to
       [shadow=maroon,left]Capitalism's[/shadow]
       [shadow=red,left]Social Darwinist Ideology[/shadow] of socially
       and environmentally destructive Profit over People and Planet
       end and a sense of responsibility start to take effect, if not
       at the highest levels of government power?
  HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-110822204813-1782742.png[/move]
       [center]The casual disregard for the lived experience
  HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-050422182057.gif<br
       />of working people in America is a &#128681; sign of an
       unhealthy
       (SEE: &#128127;&#129421; [shadow=red,left]Social
       Darwinism[/shadow]
  HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/sound-christian-doctrine/darwin/msg789/#msg789)<br
       />society. [/center]
       [move]"Let no man seek his own, but every man another’s
       wellbeing." -- 1 Corinthians 10:24[/move]
       "Fascism has always involved a morally unprincipled, ruthless,
       and sociopathic pursuit of power as the supreme goal in and of
       itself. ... ... Having no moral center and being perfectly
       willing to lose and disdain old friends and allies is part of
       the game. Fascism has no problem with self-centered individual
       accumulation of wealth and/or power. To the contrary, its Social
       Darwinian ethos
  HTML https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/586030/how-fascism-works-by-jason-stanley/<br
       />celebrates such accumulation in the name of natural selection,
       survival of the fittest, and proper social hierarchy." -- Paul
       Street - January 6, 2023
       [center]
  HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-040622202545-13961729.png<br
       />It's the &#128127;&#129421; [glow=red,2,300]SOCIAL
       DARWINISM[/glow], STUPID![/center]
       Social Darwinists believe that the dictum “survival of the
       fittest” (a term coined not by Charles Darwin but by sociologist
       Herbert Spencer) means that only the &#128520; fittest should
       survive. Darwin's book published later ("Descent of Man") made
       it clear that Darwin completely supported the morally bankrupt
       views of Spencer.
       Enthusiastic converts to Social Darwinism have, to this day,
       used the language of evolution to frame an understanding of the
       growing gulf between the rich and the poor, as well as the many
       differences between cultures all over the world. The explanation
       they arrived at, and continue to use to justify biosphere
       trashing profit over people and planet, regardless of any
       alligator tear filled mendacious claims to the contrary, is that
       businessmen and others who are economically and socially
       successful are so because they are biologically and socially
       “naturally” the fittest.
       
       Conversely, they reason that the poor are “naturally” weak and
       unfit and it would be an error to allow the weak of the species
       to continue to breed.
       The money lenders have played a key role in funding this deceit
       propagated in high schools and universities, where it is passed
       off as "the Capitalist fiduciary duty of corporations to make a
       profit above ANY OTHER CONSIDERATION, be it the health and
       wellbeing of employees or the environment". It is, and always
       was, legerdemain formulated by the monied elite to dress up
       selfish, abusive, exploitative and cruel behavior towards "less
       important" humans and/or animals experimented upon in research
       labs, as "scientifically justified".
       Social Darwinists believe that ethics based principles are
       'limitations pretending to be virtues'. To them, ethics are
       'feel good illusions' that humans invented to pretend our
       species has empathy. To Social Darwinists, empathy is
       irrefutable evidence of inexcusable weakness. To them, all who
       are guided by ethics are deluded fools that should be eliminated
       from the human 'apex predator' gene pool for the "good" of our
       species.
       
       The ideology of the Social Darwinist is indistinguishable from
       the despicable ideology of NAZI Germany, clearly exemplified in
       their brutally enforced morally bankrupt concentration camp law:
       “Eat your own bread, and if you can, that of your neighbor.”
       Social Darwinists are governed by both unbridled greed and fear
       of tomorrow, which provide the morally bankrupt excuse for
       rejecting altruism and empathy and embracing a selfish, greed
       dominated, hoarding modus vivendi.
       --- Quote ---
       > "One who fears tomorrow does not offer his bread to others.
       But one who is willing to divide his food with a stranger has
       already shown himself capable of fellowship and faith, the two
       things from which hope is born." -- Primo Levi, author of
       Survival in Auschwitz
       --- End Quote ---
       Social Darwinism is the morally bankrupt world view that spawned
       the profit over people and planet neoliberal ideology.
       Neoliberal intellectuals like Friedrich von Hayek, Ludwig von
       Mises and Milton Friedman were all Social Darwinists long before
       they renamed laissez-faire liberalism (that had been thoroughly
       discredited by the Great Depression) with the catchy title of
       "Neoliberalism".
       &#129300; Based on what celebrated social theorist and
       geographer David Harvey has written, I'm surprised that he has
       not reached the "It's the Social Darwinism, stupid" conclusion
       yet (see below):
       David Harvey asked, "Is there a way to capture what (to the
       detriment of human civilization) is going on now" ?
       YES.
       David Harvey explains that neoliberal ideology serves the
       following principle:
       --- Quote ---
       > "There shall be no serious challenge to the absolute power of
       money to rule absolutely. And that power is to be exercised with
       one objective: Those possessed of money shall not only be
       privileged to accumulate wealth endlessly at will, but they
       shall have the right to inherit the earth, taking either direct
       or indirect dominion, not only of the land and all the resources
       and productive capacities that reside therein, but also assume
       absolute command, directly or indirectly, over the labor and
       creative capacities of all those others it needs. The rest of
       humanity shall be deemed disposable."
       --- End Quote ---
       David Harvey, “The Party of Wall Street Meets its Nemesis
  HTML http://www.zcommunications.org/the/party/of/wall/street/meets/its/nemesis,”.<br
       />Also, by David Harvey, A Brief History of Neoliberalism
       (Oxford:
       Oxford University Press, 2005.
       Agelbert OBSERVATION: If the morally bankrupt, socially
       destructive ideology which champions the absolute power of money
       to rule absolutely, while it simultaneously deems the rest of
       humanity disposable, is not SOCIAL DARWINISM, I don't know what
       is. &#128544;
       The Social Darwinist Oligarchs hate you. They want you to be
       slaves on their plantation. They want you to have no rights, no
       freedom, and no future. The Social Darwinist DUOPOLY is there to
       turn your energy state into fear and anger and sorrow.
       Whether he realized it or not at the time, when Sinclair Lewis
       wrote this in 1935, he was describing the Social Darwinist
       worldview: “Every man is a king so long as he has someone to
       look down on.” -- Sinclair Lewis
       [move]"The righteous man wisely considereth the house of the
       wicked: but God overthroweth the wicked for their wickedness.
       Whoso stoppeth his ears at the cry of the poor, he also shall
       cry himself, but shall not be heard." -- Proverbs 21:12-13
       [/move]
       [center]"The wicked shall be a ransom for the righteous, and the
       transgressor for the upright." -- Proverbs 21:18[/center]
       #Post#: 1028--------------------------------------------------
       Leading Civil Rights, Faith, And Housing Policy Groups Urge HUD
       To Swiftly Adopt Final AFFH Rule
   DIR By: AGelbert
       Date: May 5, 2023, 1:51 pm
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       [center]Leading Civil Rights, Faith, And Housing Policy Groups
       Urge HUD To Swiftly Adopt Final AFFH Rule » NCRC[/center]
       April 25, 2023
       Fair housing, civil rights, faith and housing advocacy
       organizations issued a joint statement urging the US Department
       of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to move quickly in
       adopting a final affirmatively furthering fair housing (AFFH)
       regulation following the closure of the proposed rule’s comment
       period.
       “The goal of the federal Fair Housing Act and, specifically, its
       mandate to affirmatively further fair housing (AFFH) was to
       rectify the [glow=red,2,300]deeply inequitable systems[/glow] in
       our nation caused by decades o[glow=red,2,300]f unjust
       policies[/glow] and [glow=red,2,300]practices[/glow] that
       deprived millions of people from gaining access to secure and
       healthy housing opportunities. However, for much of the past 55
       years, we’ve lacked a robust framework for actually enforcing
       this important AFFH mandate. As a result, issues like unfair
       appraisals, biased technologies, a dual credit market,
       restrictive zoning policies, health and food
       [glow=red,2,300]deserts[/glow] and aspects of subsidized housing
       administration [glow=red,2,300]persist[/glow] and continue to
       drive disproportionate outcomes in health, education, wealth,
       homeownership, technology, environment, climate, employment and
       other areas.
       “Our organizations commended HUD’s leadership for releasing its
       updated Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) proposed
       rule this year, an important step toward expanding fair housing.
       Now that the proposed rule’s comment period has closed, we call
       on HUD to move swiftly in adopting a final rule that creates
       more equitable, well-resourced and inclusive communities in
       which all residents can thrive. In order for the final rule to
       accomplish this, a number of elements must be strengthened, such
       as:
       1. Local fair housing outreach and enforcement capacity should
       be a fair housing goal category.
       2. The requirements of the community engagement process must be
       clarified.
       3. HUD must increase transparency in the equity planning
       process.
       “In addition, HUD must address the full scope of the AFFH
       mandate.
       “We look forward to working with HUD to advance an effective
       final AFFH rule, and we are eager to further work with the
       broader administration to implement the regulation in a way that
       truly benefits everyone in this nation.”
       This statement was issued jointly by the following
       organizations:
       &#128509; The National Fair Housing Alliance
       &#128509; American Civil Liberties Union
       &#128330;&#65039; Justice in Aging
       &#127774; National Coalition for Asian Pacific American
       Community Development (National CAPACD)
       &#128509; National Community Reinvestment Coalition
       &#128509; National Housing Law Project
       &#128330;&#65039; National Low Income Housing Coalition
       &#128509; The Arc of the United States
       &#127774; UnidosUS
       ncrc.org/leading-civil-rights-faith-and-housing-policy-groups-urge-hud-to-swiftly-adopt-final-affh-rule/
  HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-050422133654.gif<br
       />Where does blind obedience to
       [shadow=maroon,left]Capitalism's[/shadow]
       [shadow=red,left]Social Darwinist Ideology[/shadow] of socially
       and environmentally destructive Profit over People and Planet
       end and a sense of responsibility start to take effect, if not
       at the highest levels of government power?
       [move]"The righteous man wisely considereth the house of the
       wicked: but God overthroweth the wicked for their wickedness.
       Whoso stoppeth his ears at the cry of the poor, he also shall
       cry himself, but shall not be heard." -- Proverbs 21:12-13
  HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-090422150144.png[/move]
       #Post#: 1080--------------------------------------------------
       &#128226; Dear &#128104;&#8205;&#128300; Colleagues: You Don't
       Hate People — You're just stretched really &#129402; thin
   DIR By: AGelbert
       Date: June 4, 2023, 12:44 pm
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       [move]Empathy by Occupation:[/move]
       [center]
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       [center]
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       June 1, 2023 by Edwin Leap, MD
       [center]Dear Colleagues: You Don't Hate People[/center]
       [center]— You're just stretched really
  HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-110422141413-626465.png<br
       />[glow=maroon,2,300]thin[/glow][/center]
       It's something one hears too often in healthcare. I've heard it
       my entire career at one time or another. More in the last few
       years, with the shortages, pandemics, lions, tigers, and
       bears...
       A nurse, physician, medic, or someone else involved in the
       madness of bedside care comes back to their desk, collapses into
       their chair in frustration, and says "I really hate people!"
       It might be because their intoxicated patient keeps pulling out
       his IV, blood pooling on the floor and dragged all across his
       sheets. Later he was squatting in the corner, relieving himself
       on the floor of his room.
       It could be because a family member of a patient is particularly
       demanding, and due to their own fears and frustrations, says
       angry, biting things to the staff member. It makes it hard to go
       back into the room.
       Sometimes it's because there are just too many patients, who are
       too sick, and the demands keep rising. Physicians and nurses
       alike face this as people live longer and have more complex
       illnesses. It's made worse because administrators keep piling on
       charting requirements; medical records systems add new
       time-stamps to track; and nurses, patient care techs, labs
       techs, respiratory therapists, and all the assorted staff of the
       hospital are in short supply. To top it off, housekeeping is
       wildly overworked and underpaid.
       Patients can't get discharged because they can't go to nursing
       homes, or to their own homes due to weakness and infirmity. They
       lie in the hospital for days or weeks in a perpetual holding
       pattern, like a commuter flight circling Charlotte.
       Other times it's far more painful. The team staggers out the
       room where they tried to save the child who was beaten to death
       by an adult. Men and women go to separate corners, cry, scream,
       and dream of justice.
       The car crash, caused by an impaired driver, leaves a young
       mother paralyzed, a young father near death.
       The great-grandmother, doing her best, is raising her great
       grand-children on virtually no money, because the children's
       mother and father can't escape fentanyl, or meth, or any other
       substance.
       A fellow staff member berates a colleague. It happens to
       everyone. I've received my own share of this from other
       physicians. We are not a monolithic group. Everyone in
       healthcare is potentially divided by tribe and family. We can be
       very cruel and our words, which should heal, can cut like #11
       scalpels.
       After all of this, people say "I hate people, I really do!"
       To which I try to reply, "I've seen you take care of patients.
       If you hated people, you wouldn't do this job. You love people,
       you just hate the way things [glow=red,2,300]are[/glow]."
       Before COVID, during COVID, after COVID, it has always been hard
       to take care of the sick and dying. There have always been and
       will always be tragic situations, hateful people, unkind fellow
       travelers.
       All of it takes a toll. The suffering, the wounds, the death,
       all imprint themselves on our memories and likely onto our DNA.
       But to everyone who thinks, in the midst of the fight, "I hate
       people," I submit that you don't.
       Quite the opposite. I think you love people.
       If you didn't, you would never be there in the first place,
       telling us about your hatred. Which is, by the way, just another
       way of saying that you care enough to keep doing the job even
       when it's [glow=red,2,300]terrible[/glow]. You're just stretched
       thin; physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
  HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-090422150144.png<br
       />So, keep the faith brothers and sisters.
       The world needs you. Especially the people you think you hate.
       You see, I know the work you do.
       Hatred doesn't look a thing like that.
  HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-110822211615-18511577.gif
  HTML https://www.medpagetoday.com/opinion/rural/104783?xid=nl_secondopinion_2023-06-04&eun=g2211511d0r
       Edwin Leap, MD, is an emergency physician who blogs at
       edwinleap.com opens in a new tab or window, and is the author of
       The Practice Test
  HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-070822230414-163943.png
  HTML https://booklocker.com/books/5196.html
       opens in a new tab or
       window and Life in Emergistan
  HTML https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00NF5GGFU/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00NF5GGFU&linkCode=as2&tag=kevcom-20&linkId=ERXKJTVFTE27AKYS<br
       />opens in a new tab or window. You can read more of his writing
       on his Substack column, Life and Limb
  HTML https://edwinleap.substack.com/
       opens in a new tab or window,
       where this post opens in a new tab or window originally
       appeared.
       COMMENT by Charles_Beauchamp  &#128077;
       I can vouch as a rural general internist at the pinnacle of the
       [glow=red,2,300]Stroke & Diabetes Belts[/glow] and the Southern
       Chronic Poverty Areas in NE NC that:
       1) Hospital at Home services are needed;
       2) 24 x 7 outpatient call is sometimes impinging on having
       unconditional regard for patients;
       3) Daunting are the forensic aspects of our care for those with
       Intermittent Explosive Disorder & the ubiquitous availability of
       guns to settle disputes;
       4) Unless cultivated and curated regularly and with "vigah",
       community pride in helping others can sputter to a standstill;
       5) Riding on country roads to do home visits can be very
       hazardous to one's health, especially at dusk and later during
       hunting season;
       6) Prior authorization of urgently needed medications is more
       than a major nuisance;
       7) Managed (very poorly) Medicaid with four different coverage
       options in sparsely populated areas = a sign of insanity of the
       politicians;
       8 ) Sham phone call coming in on the clinic number --> wish one
       could push a button to fry the origin of the robocall
       9) The lack of local youth trained & certified to be community
       health workers and home caregivers = a bad reflection on the
       school system's inability to give youth the vision and the means
       of becoming care team players in rural areas.
       10) It is very difficult to recruit replacements for ole farte
       physicians like yours truly in rural areas
       11) Lack of help in making needed referrals, transporting
       patients from the hinterlands to tertiary care centers,
       arranging ongoing home care....etc = impairment of needed care
       and increase in unnecessary deaths, especially during the
       pandemic;
       12) disparities in pregnancy outcomes, lack of adequate means of
       protecting the fetus in its transition to becoming a person,
       lack of protection of the mother, lack of [b]doulas and ready
       access to needed care = [glow=maroon,2,300]third world
       pregnancy[/glow] [glow=red,2,300]outcomes[/glow][/b]
  HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-201222142942.png
       #Post#: 1102--------------------------------------------------
       Expanded SNAP work requirements will do more harm than good
       &#128543;
   DIR By: AGelbert
       Date: June 11, 2023, 1:31 pm
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       [center]
  HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-040623141651.png[/center]
       June 6, 2023 by by Robin Dickinson, MD
       SNIPPET:
       As physicians, we know our advice to patients to eat a
       particular diet for their health condition is at least as
       important as medication, and often more so. Caring for our most
       vulnerable by making sure they have food to eat should be a
       non-partisan issue. So why is the government making access to
       food even more challenging? &#129402;
       Full article:
  HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-040422164613-5332481.jpeg
       [center]How I Became a Physician on Food Stamps
  HTML https://www.medpagetoday.com/opinion/second-opinions/104860<br
       />
  HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-110422180553-643238.gif[/center]
       #Post#: 1106--------------------------------------------------
       &quot;Every day, every night hospitals have to deal with the
       social crises associated with aging and infirmity.&quot;
   DIR By: AGelbert
       Date: June 12, 2023, 4:50 pm
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       June 10, 2023 by EDWIN LEAP
       [center]A Different Kind of
       [glow=maroon,2,300]Orphan[/glow][/center]
       [move]All around us, every day in medicine[/move]
       SNIPPET:
       While some hospitals have more of the ‘exciting stuff,’ than
       others, much of what I and my amazing colleagues do is treat the
       injuries and illnesses of a rapidly aging population.
       Although that may sound mundane it really isn’t. As humans live
       longer and medical science advances, managing the
       i[glow=maroon,2,300]nfections, heart disease, lung disease,
       stroke, fractures, head injuries and other assorted
       travails[/glow] of the
  HTML http://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/1/3-120818184307-16311866.gif<br
       />elderly becomes ever more complicated. Indeed, we’re getting
       better at it. We’re just not so good at adding quality of life
       to quantity, but that’s another discussion for another day.
       We also do more than manage the medical issues. Every day, every
       night hospitals have to deal with the social crises associated
       with aging and infirmity. Whether it’s how to arrange home
       health after a broken arm, or where to place the confused and
       violent patient with dementia, there are few easy answers as
       skilled nursing beds fill up, neurologists and psychiatrists are
       few and far between and perhaps most poignant of all, men and
       women are aging all alone.
       Whether this happens because they had no children, lost their
       children to disease or injury, or are estranged from their
       families, it comes to the [glow=maroon,2,300]same[/glow]. Many
       seniors with [glow=red,2,300]disability or chronic
       illnesses[/glow] have no advocates and
       [glow=maroon,2,300]little[/glow] hope of flourishing in their
       later years. &#128542;
       [center][img
       width=640]
  HTML https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1494438043283-22a3c46831a4[/img][/center]
       As I was contemplating this I had a minor epiphany. And since
       it’s almost Sunday, I’ll throw in some James &#128330;&#65039;
       (brother of Jesus).
       “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is
       this: to look after orphans and widows in their
       [glow=maroon,2,300]distress[/glow] and to keep oneself from
       being [glow=red,2,300]polluted[/glow] by the world.” James 1:27
  HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-090422150144.png
       That seems fairly &#128330;&#65039; straightforward.  It’s a
       statement free of politics. (Unlike [glow=red,2,300]so
       much[/glow] that comes from my fellow &#128530; believers in
       these [glow=red,2,300]dark days[/glow].)
       But as I thought about my aging mother, my aging in-laws, the
       men and women I see in the ER, confused and frightened, lonely
       and without help or hope, I realized what I was missing.
       Full article:
  HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-040422164613-5332481.jpeg
  HTML https://edwinleap.substack.com/p/a-different-kind-of-orphan/
       #Post#: 1115--------------------------------------------------
       &quot;It baffles me that the Legislature keeps gas prices low
       ... ...but will not work to put a roof over their heads.&quot;
   DIR By: AGelbert
       Date: June 15, 2023, 1:36 pm
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       [center]
  HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-120422130903-68837.png[/center]
       June 14 2023
       [center]Rev. Devon Thomas: Homelessness can
       [glow=maroon,2,300]affect us all[/glow] when we least expect
       it[/center]
       SNIPPETS:
       It baffles me that our Legislature will work to keep gas prices
       low for struggling families but will not work to put a roof over
       their heads.
  HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-110422141413-627726.png<br
       />... ...
       Housing and homelessness will always be problems to which our
       communities should pay close attention. If the state will not
       take up the problem, it falls to us in our local communities to
       do the right thing and provide a place to sleep for a neighbor
       in need.
       Read more:
  HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-040422164647-5372345.gif
  HTML https://vtdigger.org/2023/06/14/rev-devon-thomas-homelessness-can-affect-us-all-when-we-least-expect-it/
       #Post#: 1198--------------------------------------------------
       In People 85+, the fastest-growing segment of the population,
       lifespans are NOT matched by health spans
   DIR By: AGelbert
       Date: July 23, 2023, 10:19 pm
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       td
       LYNN PARRAMORE / INSTITUTE FOR NEW ECONOMIC THINKING
  HTML https://www.ineteconomics.org/perspectives/blog/why-is-getting-old-so-hard-and-expensive-in-america-new-book-challenges-how-we-think
       JULY 19, 2023
       [center]
  HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-090422150144.png<br
       />Why Is Getting Old So Hard and Expensive in America?
  HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-080422121331.gif[/center]
       [move]In "The Measure of Our Age," elder justice expert M.T.
       Connolly offers both a warning and challenge about our eldercare
       systems.[/move]
       SNIPPET:
       We’re not ready for old age. Not as individuals, not as a
       society. That’s the sobering news from lawyer M.T. Connolly,
       former coordinator of the Elder Justice and Nursing Home
       Initiative at the U.S. Department of Justice. In her new book,
       The Measure of Our Age: Navigating Care, Safety, Money, and
       Meaning Later in Life
  HTML https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/m-t-connolly/the-measure-of-our-age/9781541702745/?lens=publicaffairs,<br
       />she outlines how our institutions, laws, and cultural
       practices
       have [glow=red,2,300]failed[/glow] to keep up with our amazing
       advances in longevity over the last century. As a result, many,
       if not most of us, are spending our final years with far less
       [glow=teal,2,300]security, health, purpose, and joy[/glow] than
       we could be having. (Americans have been
       [glow=maroon,2,300]falling behind[/glow] peer countries on
       [glow=red,2,300]mortality rates[/glow] in recent years
  HTML https://www.ineteconomics.org/perspectives/blog/america-land-of-the-dying-alarming-study-shows-u-s-killing-its-own-population).
       We aren’t prepared to care for people living longer, either. As
       many a midlife person can tell you, I’ve found my own journey
       through the land of caring for an elderly parent to be difficult
       in ways I never anticipated—often unnecessarily so. Gaps and
       ambiguities in the law made it hard to figure out who could
       decide and do what, despite my mother’s diligent planning.
       Well-known financial institutions my family had trusted for
       decades turned out to be predatory—with whole divisions set up
       to take advantage of an aging population. Help was hard to come
       by, as was knowledge of how to navigate confusing systems of
       insurance, home care, and the constantly-shifting needs of a
       person with diminishing capacity. All of it was crushingly
       expensive—and my mother was one of the lucky ones of her
       generation, reaching old age with a pension and educated
       children to help oversee her medical needs and combat the
       scammers that seemed to lurk around every corner, some wearing
       handyman overalls, others in suits and ties.
       Connolly has written a book not just to warn us, but to prepare
       us and to offer insight into the changes and adaptations we must
       make in order not just to live longer, but to live longer
       better. She spoke to the Institute for New Economic Thinking
       about what prompted her to take on the challenge of aging and
       what she envisions for a final stage of life that is healthier
       and happier.
       Lengthy article:
  HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-040422164520-5301778.gif<br
       />
  HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-040422164555-532108.png
  HTML https://www.truthdig.com/articles/why-is-getting-old-so-hard-and-expensive-in-america/
       #Post#: 1201--------------------------------------------------
       My final stop was at the beloved Dente’s Market, whose owner
       who, like his city, nearly drowned but ...
   DIR By: AGelbert
       Date: July 24, 2023, 3:52 pm
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       [center]
  HTML https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-190623175536.png[/center]
       July 17, 2023, 3:31 pm By David Goodman
       [move]Just when Rick Dente thought it was over, three tenants
       who lived above his store came down, ropes around their waists.
       They banged open the door and rescued the exhausted
       shopkeeper.[/move]
       [center]
  HTML https://vtdigger.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/20230715_120857-1568x882.jpg[/center]
       The mud-filled back room of Dente’s Market where Rick Dente was
       trapped and nearly drowned on July 11, 2023 before being rescued
       by his tenants. Photo by David Goodman/VTDigger
       [center]Vermont Conversation: ‘[glow=teal,2,300]&#9757;&#127995;
       Someone[/glow] was watching over me’: A near death and a second
       chance for Barre
  HTML https://vtdigger.org/2023/07/17/vermont-conversation-someone-was-watching-over-me-a-near-death-and-a-second-chance-for-barre/https://soberthinking.createaforum.com/gallery/soberthinking/1-040422164615-5351419.gif[/center]
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