Posted on Nextdoor today
I'm embarrassed to admit I complained about Seniors Inc before going to their home pages and learning they target people in their 50s and 60s. When I was in my fifties I did not think of myself as a senior, more like late middle aged. However, around 72 or 3, I noticed things breaking down and realized ah this is what they are talking about when they say aging gracefully. Back in the 1980s and '90s I worked for a non-profit called Humboldt Connections, a unique and creative charity, yes charity, in Eureka; as the title implies, they filled the gaps. We'd get calls from, say, a school saying a student has holes in his shoes, and we would call the Lions Club and they would meet and buy shoes for the child. There were no Grant applications or cumbersome bureaucratic Hoops for the anyone to jump through, we just took one phone call and made another phone call and connected, connected with a Capital C. We served mainly at risk children, who were defined as those who were in a state of near neglect, not bad enough to be put into another home, but with parents who are kind of iffy and so the kid wasn't getting a new jacket in the winter. A phone call to Humboldt Connections and we would find someone in the community to buy the child a jacket. It's hard to believe such a simple and successful organization existed just 30 to 40 years ago because today you'd have to have lawyers and administrators and social workers who work in administration approve anything that you try to do, and as a result pretty much nothing is getting done. I know personally of a senior woman who was sexually assaulted in Barton Hospital and nobody did anything about it. There is no structure to address the issue of institutional neglect and abuse of seniors nearby even though it is a growing problem nationwide. I live in senior housing in South Lake Tahoe and I know people who need dental work, eye surgery, who need rides and recreation, who need check-ins because they are shut-ins and sick and never go out or have a visitor. If we were children, there would probably be several nonprofits and government organizations that would address our needs. Instead we're old people- senior seniors age past 75, who wake up every morning to some new part of the body that is starting to not function. We are in a whole new passage in life, and I think there used to be organizations that looked out for us, but long before the Trump Revolution, services for broke old people were getting cut and now, just this morning I found out another thing our HUD housing managers used to help us with that they can’t anymore. So, I just got this idea, why not start an adjunct group to Seniors Inc and call it Senior Seniors Inc for those over 72. I think that's about the age when body parts start falling off and you just sit in your chair and sigh and ride it out to the end. Anybody else want to start an organization for Fogies of South Lake Tahoe? Any ideas of what they can do? I'm thinking one idea is they could get churches to find volunteers to come out and help old shut-ins. I look forward to seeing what kind of response I get to this Nextdoor post.
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