Older Americans

At 96, Columbia resident Starks Kelly runs rings around his son Robert, 66, when it comes to recalling yesterday."He has a better memory than me," said Robert Kelly, laughing. "He can remember things I can't remember."For instance, his father can recall his living legacies."I have five children, 11 grandchildren, six great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren," he said, while his son struggled with the totals.Kelly was honored Friday at the Florence Bain Senior Center during a celebration of Older Americans Day in the county.

Let's Get Organized - "Organizing for the Season," Wed., May 15, 10:30 a.m.-noon, Laurel-Beltsville Senior Activity Center, 7120 Contee Road. Judy Tiger, of Just That Simple, shares tips on putting away winter clothes and organizing for spring and summer. Sign up at registration in center lobby. 301-204-3350. "Power Over Pain" group - Sponsored by SPRING, Senior Peer Resources: Individuals, Networks and Groups, program of Howard County Office on Aging, Wed., May 15, 1-2:30 p.m., North Laurel 50+ Center, 9411 Whiskey Bottom Road.

Westminster photographer Susan Ruddick Bloom has led photo tours throughout the world, written a book on computer-generated fine art and taught several generations of photographers at McDaniel College and at summer workshops in Maine, Florida and New Mexico. So imagine her surprise at receiving a flurry of press attention for her latest venture: Writing the weekly "expert" photo blog for Eons.com, a new social networking Web site for Americans age 50 and older. Before the Web site sought her services, the 58-year-old photographer had never even read a blog, much less written one. Since word began spreading about Eons, dubbed a "MySpace" for baby boomers, Bloom has appeared in The Christian Science Monitor, on Retirement Living Television and even in American Way, the inflight magazine of American Airlines.

May is Older Americans Month! The Administration for Community Living and the Administration on Aging, which come under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, continue this great tradition and their commitment to recognizing the valuable contributions older adults make in communities across our country. This year's theme is "Unleash the Power of Age. " The Administration for Community Living's website, http://www.olderamericansmonth.acl.gov , states, "Every older American has a wealth of talents, experiences, and interests worth celebrating.

It's a time-worn story: Mom and Pop finally reach retirement age, sell the old family home and head south to a blissful retirement under Florida palms. But new reports on domestic migration from the 2000 census suggest that many of the oldest snowbirds are returning north near the end of their lives, perhaps to go "home" again, or to be closer, as they grow frailer, to their adult children. Florida, still the nation's most popular retirement destination, with a net gain of 149,000 people age 65 and older during the last half of the 1990s, recorded a net "outmigration" of the very old -- people age 85 and older, the bureau said in a report released today.

Did you know?--Nine out of 10 hip fractures in older Americans are the result of a fall. -- National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases

Here is a list of publications which contain information about housing for seniors:The Continuing Care Retirement Community: A Guidebook for Consumers. Published by the American Association of Homes for the Aging. Send a self-addressed stamped envelope for a catalog to: AAHA, 901 E Street NW, Suite 500, Washington, D.C. 20004. $4 plus shipping and handling. Literature also available.Housing Options for Older Americans (D12063), and the Continuing Care Retirement Communities Fact Sheet (D12181)

STUDENTS at Yale University have devised an interesting way to relieve stress during that most dreaded time of college life, final exams. Dressed in little more than their sneakers, a few undergraduate males ran through the Yale library last month shouting "Merry Christmas!" and pelting students buried deep in thought with candy.Streaking on college campuses is really nothing unusual. The University of Virginia and Princeton (home of the infamous Nude Olympics) have long traditions of such naked jaunts.

WHEN Newt Gingrich, the House Speaker in Waiting, decided to do away with taxpayer funding for congressional caucuses, he struck the right chord for many Americans who view these appendages as a flagrant example of unnecessary (and liberal) government spending.Clearly, the caucus-syndrome had gotten out of hand.A review of the 28 groups that had permission from the House Administration Committee to receive free space and equipment and to receive contributions from a representative's office account to hire staff shows how ludicrous it had become.

WASHINGTON - President Bush's support among older voters has dropped substantially in recent months, eroding Republican gains and highlighting the importance of this critical electoral group next year, political strategists and analysts say. The trend underscores the stakes for Bush in the congressional negotiations aimed at creating a long-promised prescription drug benefit in Medicare, which covers 40 million elderly and disabled Americans. Negotiators missed a self-imposed deadline Friday for reaching agreement on the prescription legislation, but vowed to complete their work before Congress adjourns, which is expected next month.

The way some people talk in Washington, you could get the idea that Social Security and Medicare are little more than numbers in a budget. Yet for families in Maryland and all over America, Social Security and Medicare have a deeper meaning: They are the very foundation of security in retirement. Social Security and Medicare enable millions of older Americans to survive financially each month, after years of working hard and paying taxes to earn these protections. One day, younger people will count on these same pillars of security for their own independence and dignity in old age. Here are a couple numbers that lawmakers considering cuts to these programs should keep in mind: Half of America's seniors get by on less than $20,000 a year.

In the days following Barack Obama's re-election, we learned that Mr. Obama didn't win because voters trusted him more than Mitt Romney on the economy, or because he ended the Iraq war and killed Osama bin Laden. He didn't win because he started to turn around an economy that shrank by 4 percent in his predecessor's final 15 months. He didn't win because his advisers built a state-of-the-art field organization that overpowered the Romney campaign's beached "Orca" targeting program. No: President Obama won re-election because Americans want "free stuff," and millions of lazy takers-not-makers gave him another four years to dish out the goodies.

Baltimore health officials have launched a program they hope will give paramedics more information to treat the elderly and people with disabilities. They are asking people to fill out Gold Card forms that will list crucial health information, such as whether someone suffers from diabetes. The Gold Card can then be displayed visibly in a person's home or carried in a wallet. If there is ever a medical emergency this will help medical staff with treatment options and decrease the likelihood of complications, health officials hope.

In the scramble to cut the nation's debt burden, President Obama, congressional Democrats and even some Republicans have proposed squeezing money out of Medicare by changing the way it pays forprescription drugs. They claim this would save $112 billion over 10 years. But if passed it would be a disaster, costing hundreds of thousands of jobs in the biopharmaceutical industry - an important contributor to the Maryland economy - driving up drug prices and discouraging drug innovation.

As the U.S. economy continues its meltdown, it is unthinkable that the retirees who fought wars and built our nation through decades of labor, earning post-employment pensions and medical benefits, are among those being faulted for America's economic problems. Lately, economists, talk-show hosts, journalists and even politicians have been echoing the corporate-speak by tagging baby boomers and retirees' earned pensions and health benefits as "legacy costs" dragging our nation down. The Miriam-Webster dictionary defines legacy as a "gift by will, especially of money or other personal property; bequest; something transmitted or received from an ancestor or predecessor."

Millions of Americans with respiratory diseases have relied on oxygen equipment delivered to their homes to help them breathe. A basic setup, deliveries of small oxygen tanks for three years, can be bought from pharmacies and other retailers for as little as $3,500, or about $100 a month. Unless, that is, the buyer is Medicare, the government health care program for older Americans. Despite enormous buying power, Medicare pays far more. Rather than buy oxygen equipment outright, Medicare rents it for 36 months before patients take ownership, and pays for services that critics say are often unnecessary.

For a growing number of people, the American Dream is simply that--a dream.Fewer than one in five Americans say they have achieved that dream, a CNBC/Gallup poll found. Those surveyed listed obctacles such as taxes (cited by 72 percent of repondents), education costs (71 percent) and job security (58 percent).When asked what effect the Clinton presidency would have on their chance of achieving the American Dream, almost half said the administration would make it easier; 34 percent said there would be no impact.

This Memorial Day, Jodi and Mark Davis are celebrating the launch of the RV season hunkered down with three trailer-loads of relatives in a leafy campground near Hershey, Pa. The Bel Air couple have picked a site with plenty to do: A weekend of canoeing, mountain biking, swimming, mini-golfing, fishing and Pennsylvania Dutch attractions should easily create another chapter in the long family history of RVing.

Westminster photographer Susan Ruddick Bloom has led photo tours throughout the world, written a book on computer-generated fine art and taught several generations of photographers at McDaniel College and at summer workshops in Maine, Florida and New Mexico. So imagine her surprise at receiving a flurry of press attention for her latest venture: Writing the weekly "expert" photo blog for Eons.com, a new social networking Web site for Americans age 50 and older. Before the Web site sought her services, the 58-year-old photographer had never even read a blog, much less written one. Since word began spreading about Eons, dubbed a "MySpace" for baby boomers, Bloom has appeared in The Christian Science Monitor, on Retirement Living Television and even in American Way, the inflight magazine of American Airlines.