GBO NEWS: NAM’s 400 Ethnic Elders Stories; Grace Slick’s Acid & Wrinkles; & More
GBO NEWS: GENERATIONS BEAT ONLINE NEWS
E-News of the Journalists Network on Generations
May 24, 2013 — Volume 13, Number 9
Editor’s Note: The new “GBO News” marks the 20th year of the Journalists Network on Generations. Click through this table of contents to the full issue at www.gbonews.org. This format is “scalable” for computer, e-pad or mobile. Let us know what you think of the new format.
IN THIS ISSUE: News in the Post Position
1. 400 COLORFUL ARTICLES ON ELDERS: NAM Ethnic Elders Newsbeat Logs 400th Article.
2. GEN BEATLES NEWS: ***Not Going Gentle Into That Loud Night? – Former Acid Queen Grace Slick, to turn 74; ***Going Tirelessly Into That Tasty Time, Dr. Carroll Estes to Celebrate 75 with Iron Chef-level Barbeque and LGBT Aging Policy Briefing; ***Harris Meyer New at Modern Healthcare; ***Investigative Reporter Jim Ridgeway’s Piece on Aging Prisoners a Finalist for Major Award; ***Gerontologist/Columnist Helen Dennis Is “Shocked” By Reader Response.
3. BOOK ’EM: ***Knocking on Heaven’s Door; The Path to a Better Way of Death forthcoming by Journalist Katy Butler; ***Eric Laursen’s People’s Pension: The Struggle to Defend Social Security Since Reagan wins Gold Medal from Independent Publisher Book Awards.
4. RESOURCES: *** Grantmakers In Aging “Age-Friendly Communities” Report and Searchable Info Around U.S.; *** EPA’s 7th Annual Sense of Wonder Contest Celebrates Legacy of Rachel Carson; *** ALERT: Social Security Trustees Report, May 31; *** Social Security News Clips
1. 400 COLORFUL ARTICLES ON ELDERS
NAM Ethnic Elders Newsbeat Logs 400th Article—and Counting: Since GBO’s editor helped launch New America Media’s (NAM) Ethnic Elders Newsbeat section four years ago, the website has posted stories on just about every shade of aging, from isolated Korean elders in Atlanta to Irish seniors finding community in New York, and from Filipino World War II veterans in Seattle to Native Americans beating diabetes in the Upper Midwest.
Today, NAM posted the 400th story on aging, “Caregivers Break the Silence: Japanese Americans at Risk,” by Ellen Endo. The article, first in her series on family caregiving, explores the rising stresses of family eldercare in America in the context of Confucian-based traditions commonly understood to call on families to keep things “in house,” as one of her sources states, and not seek wider support.
Like many authors of the 400 articles now archived, Endo developed the story for her ethnic media organization, Rafu Shimpo in Los Angeles, under a NAM journalism fellowship. Endo was selected last year for the 2013 MetLife Foundation Journalists in Aging Fellows program, a collaboration between the nonprofit NAM and the Gerontological Society of America (GSA). (There is currently a July 1, 2013, applications deadline for the fourth year of this fellowship, which includes both ethnic media and mainstream press reporters.)
Whether articles are generated by NAM staff, are aggregated from ethnic media or derive from fellowships and other collaborative projects, it is essential that this nation’s marble–cake of communities learn about issues in aging from media outlets they follow and trust. As I’ve learned in editing and sometimes writing NAM’s Elders Newsbeat section, the more that people see and hear stories of aging from many vantage points, the more readily we can appreciate what we share in our cultural differences.
In our still-churning and emerging media world, I should note that we could not have developed the Ethnic Elders Newsbeat without major funding from the Atlantic Philanthropies and MetLife. We’ve also been grateful for additional direct and in-kind support from the San Francisco Foundation, California Health Care Foundation, AARP, National Senior Citizens Law Center, Mary Furlong & Associates, SCAN Foundation, Association of Health Care Journalists and Stanford’s In-Reach for Successful Aging through Education program. On to 500.
2. GEN BEATLES NEWS
*** Not Going Gentle Into That Loud Night? – Former Acid Queen Grace Slick, who will turn 74 on Oct. 30, was asked last Sunday (May 19) during a KPIX-TV (San Francisco CBS affiliate) interview whether the rocker turned painter would ever sing again? Her reply, “I don’t like anyone old flapping their wrinkles on stage.”
Now living in Malibu, Slick suffers from a condition she said makes it difficult for her to stand for 10 minutes without pain, according to the report. If she can’t rock, her paintings roll out with images of old friends like Jerry Garcia, the White Rabbit and, of course, Alice. Is Slick still the Acid Queen? “No,” she insisted with a Cheshire smile. “Acid tongue, maybe.”
*** Going Tirelessly Into That Tasty Age: She of the sharp wits, Carroll Estes, will celebrate her 75th birthday, June 2. Estes, among the more pungently progressive intellects in gerontology, is the emeritus director of the Institute of Health and Aging at the University of California, San Francisco. A recent past-president and current board member of the National Committee to Preserve Medicare and Medicaid, she is a prolific author of articles and books dissecting the disgrace called long-term care in the United States.
Estes, a first-class source on health- and income-security policy for older Americans, is a Texan with a taste for gourmet barbeque and a daughter who can deliver it. Set to cook up Carroll’s party fare is daughter Duskie Estes, the award-winning master chef at Zazu, in the Sonoma wine country. Duskie scheduled to compete next season on the Food Network’s “Next Iron Chef.” She is also co-proprietor with her husband of both Zazu and the Black Pig Meat Co. Okay, really nice roast veggies, too. (Hey, Grace, they also have chairs.)
And how is the proud and well-fed Mom celebrating that week: The next day (June 3), it’s back to work presiding over a policy briefing, “LGBT Families and Social Security—Living Outside the Safety Net,” at the University of California, San Francisco’s Laurel Heights Conference Center, 1– 2:30 p.m. Pacific. The session is expected to happen about the same time the U.S. Supreme Court will announce it’s decisions on the federal Defense of Marriage Act and California’s Proposition 8. (The National Committee and Human Rights Campaign Foundation recently release a report with the same name.) Those wishing to attend in San Francisco should reserve a spot with Elizabeth Fernandez, efernandez@pubaff.ucsf.edu.
*** The Latest Hire at Modern Healthcare is veteran health care journalist Harris Meyer. Starting this week as managing editor, Meyer returns to his hometown of Chicago after five years in Washington State. There he has freelanced on health care, particularly Medicare and Medicaid issues, for a range of major news outlets, such as Health Affairs, Kaiser Health News, AARP Bulletin and the Los Angeles Times. He can be reached at 509-833-8200; harris_meyer@yahoo.com.
*** Jim Ridgeway’s Mother Jones Exposé on Aging Prisoners, “The Other Death Sentence,” has been named a Web-media category finalist for the Media for a Just Society (MJS) Awards. (For journalists working on criminal justice issues, this recognition, by the National Council on Crime and Delinquency, is a biggie.)
The septuagenarian Ridgeway, author of more books and documentaries than you have shelf space for, earned his designation as a “legendary” investigative reporter by breaking such stories as the 1960s revelation that GM had private detectives trying to dig up dirt on Ralph Nader when the latter was proving that the auto giant knew its Corvair was death on wheels. The council will present the MSJ Award winners in San Francisco in October.
Ridgeway developed his nominated piece on the nation’s 100,000 aging prisoners as a 2012 MetLife Foundation Journalists in Aging Fellow. A shorter version ran on New America Media, which co-developed the fellowship program. (The deadline is July 1, to apply for the 2014 MetLife fellows program, including a $1,500 stipend and trip to New Orleans.)
*** Helen Dennis Reports That Her Column for the Los Angeles Newspaper Group (LANG), including such papers as the Los Angeles Daily News, Long Beach Press Telegram and Torrance Daily Breeze, now runs in editions reaching almost 2 million readers. Dennis, an expert on successful aging and retirement, is among the gerontologists who have ventured into the media realm over the years. She counts just about 560 weekly columns she’s written to date.
Dennis noted in a recent e-mail, “I am always shocked at the feedback. In some recent presentations I’ve done locally, I got hugs, tears and thank yous for columns I barely remember writing. So, the response is gratifying. Also, the questions keep me in touch with what’s going on ‘on the ground.’”
The coauthor of the 2008 Los Angeles Times bestseller Project Renewment: The First Retirement Model for Career Women (Scribner), Dennis is also an excellent source on retirement issues, especially for women in midlife and older.
Among her recent gerontology gigs was a series of 10 focus groups on “The New Life Stage and What it Means,” for faculty and staff at the University of Southern California, where she has long taught, and a retirement planning “gig” for soon-to-retire Rabbis. “How’s that for a niche,” she asked? Send your mazel tovs to her at helendenn@aol.com.
3. BOOK ’EM
*** Knocking on Heaven’s Door; The Path to a Better Way of Death is the forthcoming volume by Katy Butler. The book, her first, is the full realization of her 2010 New York Times Magazine piece, “What Broke My Father’s Heart.” To be published by Scribner in September – bound uncorrected proofs are now available to reviewers – the book eloquently recounts her parents’ deaths in recent years while also revisiting issues raised by one of her mother’s favorite books, Jessica Mitford’s 1963 classic, The American Way of Death.”
Ordained as a lay Buddhist teacher, Butler unflinchingly raises such unnerving – and recurring — questions as: When does the death of a loved one transform from a curse into a blessing? And when does extending life become prolonging dying? As a Scribner release for the book notes, Americans 85 or older have doubled since 1990—from 3 million to 6 million—since 1990, yet although three-quarters of elders hope to die at home, almost half (44%) continue to die in hospitals, a fifth of them in intensive care units.
The book is only one of a half dozen new titles for adults selected by Book Expo America for next week’s Editors Buzz Forum. Butler will be on the May 30 panel. Journalists can request an advance review copy of Knocking . . . and get book tour dates from Kate Lloyd at Scribner, 212-632-495; kate.lloyd@simonandschuster.com. Also, there’s a “Press Kit” button on Butler’s home page, www.Katybutler.com. Butler can be reached at katybutlerjournalists@gmail.com.
*** Eric Laursen’s prodigious tome, The People’s Pension: The Struggle to Defend Social Security Since Reagan, (AK Press,700-plus pages), received the Gold Medal in the 2013 Independent Publisher Book Awards (IPPYs), in the Current Events category. (Among previous winners have been Chris Hedges and Michelle Alexander.)
The IPPYs also include a category labeled Aging/Death & Dying, presumably lumped together by committee members who think they will remain young forever. While the Gold award went to a life-planning workbook called the Youlo Pages, by Carol Lasky, GBO was especially pleased to see Silver presented to Journeys With Grief: A Collection of Articles About Love, Life, and Loss, edited by Kenneth J. Doka [www.drkendoka.com/] (Hospice Foundation of America). I learned from Doka, in writing a piece some years ago, that often when seniors are ready to talk about end-of-life planning, it is their middle-aged offspring who, facing their own mortality for the first time, shudder in fear and shut down the conversation. “Oh, Dad, you’re doing great—we don’t have to talk about this now, do we?” Well, better early than—never!
4. RESOURCES
*** “Age-Friendly Communities” isn’t merely a term of gerontological hopefulness, but a national effort developed in recent years to get localities to do what most people think is already being done but isn’t—planning for our aging society. Reporters can find a treasury of story ideas (and implied questions to ask officials) by reviewing model programs and recommendations for creating safe and accessible communities (housing, health care, transportation, education/job training, and so on).
Now, Grantmakers In Aging (GIA) [http://www.giaging.org/], a nonprofit organization of foundations, has released an introductory report titled “Age-Friendly Communities: The movement to create great places to grow up and grow old in America.” The report comes from GIA’s Community AGEnda project (supported by the Pfizer Foundation), which among other things offers a searchable database of over 225 age-friendly programs around the United States. There also is a detailed section on resources and materials for planners and others called “Aging Power Tools.” (No, they don’t mean a 1985 Black & Decker drill, but they could try drilling for money to pay a copyeditor to avoid grammatical amusements, such as this.)
GIA’s project has also given grants to several community project, such as to Miami-Dade County, Fla., to work with “county parks to serve older adults better, conduct a walkability study in East Little Havana, advise local employers on hiring and retaining more older adults, and improve the county’s planning policies related to transportation, housing, land use, and community design.”
For more information, contact Elliott Walker, ewalker@aboutscp.com, phone 610-687-5495; cell 917-846-6334.
*** 7th Annual Sense of Wonder Contest Celebrates Legacy of Rachel Carson: June 10 is the entry deadline for this competition sponsored by the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Aging Initiative, Generations United, Liz Lerman’s Dance Exchange, Rachel Carson Council, Legacy Project and the National Center for Creative Aging. Entries of poetry, essays, photos, dance and, for the first time, songwriting, must be from an intergenerational team of two or more people who are younger and older. Entries should express a sense of wonder about capturing the essence of the natural environment –- the sea, streams, the mountains and prairies, a sunrise or moonlight, flowers, leaves, wildlife in its habitat.
Carson, author of the groundbreaking 1963 book, Silent Spring, was born 106 years ago this May 27. To learn more about her work, read the latest blog by Kathy Sykes, EPA’s Senior Advisor for Aging and Sustainability.
*** ALERT: The Social Security Trustees will release their annual report on the status of it health, retirement and disability insurance programs on May 31.
*** Also, a great source of e-clips on the continuing Social Security debate from a wide range of news media is the Strengthening Social Security Coalition. The staff at the progressive advocacy group (with 320 organizational members) regularly works up a stack of headlines, with a link and a paragraph for a quick take on the pieces. Click here for a current sample. Lacy Crawford at Social Security Works can tell how best to find out when they post these.
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The Journalists Network on Generations (JNG), founded in 1993, publishes Generations Beat Online with in-kind support from New America Media (NAM). JNG provides information and networking opportunities for journalists covering generational issues, but not those representing services, products or lobbying agendas. NAM is an online, nonprofit news service reaching 3,000 ethnic media outlets in the United States. GBO News readers are invited to visit the NAM website, and click on the Ethnic Elders section logo on the right side. Opinions expressed in GBO do not represent those of NAM. Copyright 2013, JNG. For more information contact GBO Editor Paul Kleyman.
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