Please Pass the Rocking Chair

WANTED ~ Baby boomers ready to enter Senior Citizen status, wishing to be left alone in a nursing home, with little to no visitation by family, poor to medium quality care from the facility by workers making $7.00 to $14.00 per hour, to pine out the last of their days on this planet in misery.

The ad above may sound like a joke but in some sense is just what we have done to the last generation of seniors for the past few decades.

Baby boomers have went through the last couple of decades as the, 60's free love hippy children, 70's militant fight the system rebels, 80's preppie's and 90's dot.com, me for me if it feels good do it generations passed through our countries political systems and health care and senior reform systems.

Now these same Baby boomers are they themselves about to enter senior status and about to join the ranks of un-wanted and sometimes abused seniors of our country and systems.

Many if not most of us grew up watching shows like "The Waltons" where you had 3 generations of the same family living in the same house, helping and caring for each others needs.

But since the time that the show went off the air our society changed. The mind-set became one of "Well (mom or dad) has become a burden, out lives are too busy to care for them, lets just stick them in a nursing home." The me for me generation and mind-set started and we became a generation of forgetting about our elderly.

I say this because last October, I had to go to one of our local nursing homes on some community business. While I was there waiting for my appointment with the director, I had an elderly man approach me. He asked me several times if I was his son and each time I assured him I was not. Finally he asked if we could just sit and talk and I said yes and he had some wonderful stories from his life.

When I was finally called away to my meeting with the director, I asked her what was the elderly mans story and she said that he had been dropped off 9 years ago. Has his bill paid regularly every month on time but had not had a visitor in the 9 years since he had been dropped off.

Although I doubt it, I sincerely hope that mans son is reading this article now. Taking care of ones father requires more that just paying his bills !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now baby boomers children have seen this life style of dropping ones parents off at the nursing home and forgetting about them. Will the trend continue? Is this the fate that baby boomers made for themselves? Children learn from what they see, and you have taught them everything you know about caring for elders!

Medicaid and Medicare and the health care system is another system that fails our seniors. Just go to the local SSI or County Welfare office and watch illegal aliens get benefits above and beyond our seniors who have worked and paid into the system all their lives. Some can not even get prescriptions covered so they end up eating pet food during the just to afford needed medications.

Now SSA (Social Security Administration) should be re-named Stupid Silly Ass's.
When they figure the cost of living index, to figure out the next cost of living increase for SSI, they do not use the 2 most expensive things in your life. Gas & Food. Seniors need to fill their cars with gas to go to doctors, pharmacies and shopping, They don't use gas as part of the index. Food also is not part of the index.

So now with the drastic increases in gas and oil seniors wallets are being pinched real tight. Since the drastic price increase in oil and its by-products deliveries to the stores have also gone up making food costs soar, this too making a seniors money get shorter because food is not part of the index.

Baby boomers had better realize that the system is f**%((ked up and they better do something to fix it before they are all retired and become another statistic at a low budget nursing home asking someone "Please Pass the Rocking Chair."

Something to Think about ~~
Just one man's opinion. As always, put the wind in your hair and keep the sun to your back. Be good and stay safe. Peace, Love and prosperity to all.
Good Journeys !
Frank WOLF TM © 2005
Watchdog taking a BITE out of corruption !
Copyright © Frank J. Ball Sr. Saturday June 7th, 2008
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