GBO NEWS: Fellowship Deadline; LBGT Seniors; Granddad Keith Richards; 4.8M Elders Hungry
GENERATIONS BEAT ONLINE NEWS
E-News of the Journalists Network on Generations
April 25, 2014 — Volume 14, Number 6
Editor’s Note: GBO News, e-news of the Journalists Network on Generation publishes alerts for journalists, producers and authors covering generational issues. Send your news of important stories or books (by you and others), fellowships, awards or pertinent kvetches to GBO News Editor Paul Kleyman. If you receive the table of contents as e-mail, just click through to the full issue at www.gbonews.org.
IN THIS ISSUE: News That’s Better Improved Than Repealed.
1. EYES ON THE PRIZE: Columbia University’s Age Boom Journalism Fellowship Deadline; ***The National Press Foundation Selected 17 Reporters for Retirement Fellowships
2. LGBT SENIORS—IN SICKNESS, HEALTH & DEATH: So. Florida Sun-Sentinel’s Diane Lade publishes “In Sickness & In Health: A Couple’s Final Journey”; ***Bay Area Reporter’s Matthew Bajko Concludes Month-Long LGBT Elders Series
3. GEN BEATLES NEWS: Gerontologist-Author Bernard Starr to Hold Getting-Published Panel at NYC’s Hunter College Writers’ Conference; ***Dr. Bill Thomas’ Second Wind Bus Tour Still Not Winded (Through June 6); ***Ashton Applewhite Takes on Ageist Attitudes in Talks on Second Wind Tour and Parts West; ***The Ultimate “Gen Stones” News Item—Granddad Keith Richards’ Kids Book
4. SOURCES: ***Intergenerational Support Report Set for May 13 Release; *** New Report on Food Insecurity and Senior Americans
1. EYES ON THE PRIZE
***Columbia University’s Age Boom Journalism Fellowship Deadline: Reporters eager to get an all-expenses-paid trip to New York for an immersion course in aging have until May 2, to apply for the 2014 Age Boom Academy is a joint program of the Columbia Aging Center and Columbia Journalism School. The program, created in 2000 by Dr. Robert N. Butler’s International Longevity Center, will have the theme this year of “Over-65 Voters and the Changing Political Landscape.”
According to a program summary, “Journalists covering this year’s state and congressional campaigns need to ask fundamental questions about this rapidly changing constituency – and understand how new data and new policies are making new politics. Who are today’s older voters? How does today’s over-65 electorate differ from past generations? What issues motivate today’s senior voters? What age-related issues and policies are at stake in 2014 and 2016?”
The intensive seminar, to be held June 12-14, aims to “deepen your reporting and help you get beyond cliché to discover stories that matter — on health care, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, intergenerational justice and other issues often critical to election outcomes.”
Go to the Age Boom Academy website for more information and the application form. For more information contact: Bruce Shapiro, Acting Director, Professional Programs, bas2186@columbia.edu. Also, always watch these kinds of programs to see if they extend the deadline.
***The National Press Foundation Selected 17 reporters to attend its 10th annual Retirement Issues program in Washington, D.C., May 18-21. This year’s program will examine effects of the delayed retirement of many boomers and their development of new enterprises; the financial implications of the growing 85-plus population; options for younger workers, most without traditional pensions, who are being advised to step up their savings plans; how many Americans are financially ready to retire; and – “What’s the trend for 2014?”
Among the experts on this year’s seminar faculty are veteran retirement-finance journalists, Mary Beth Franklin of Investment News, and Susan Garland, editor of Kiplinger’s Retirement Report.
The program’s 2014 Fellows are: Brad Allen, Freelance Business Journalist/Minneapolis Star Tribune; Mark Calvey, San Francisco Business Times; Jane Clark, Kiplinger’s Personal Finance; Andrew Dunn, Charlotte Observer; Julienne Gage, International Multimedia Journalist (BBC, PBS, etc.); Dan McSwain, U-T San Diego (the newspaper formerly known as the Union-Tribune); Tom Porter, Maine Public Broadcasting Network; Jerry Siebenmark, Wichita Eagle; Joe Smith, KGW-TV, Portland, Ore.; Lindsay Thomas, Marketplace, American Public Media; Susan Tompor, Detroit Free Press; Alina Tugend, Freelance Journalist/New York Times; Kathryn Vasel, FOX Business Network; Ana Veciana-Suarez, Miami Herald; Schuyler Velasco, Christian Science Monitor; Jennifer Waters, Wall Street Journal Digital; and Chandra Thomas Whitfield, Multimedia Journalist (Ebony, American Prospect, Time.com, The Root, etc.)
Congratulations, one and all!
2. LGBT SENIORS—IN SICKNESS, HEALTH & DEATH
***Sun-Sentinel Gen-Beat Robust Again With “In Sickness & In Health: A Couple’s Final Journey”: One of the true veterans of the generations beat, Diane C. Lade of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, is back on the elders’ case after waning editorial interest in the topic at the paper and her bout with a health issue last year. Her in-depth “In Sickness & In Health” ran two weeks ago both online and in print, spanning seven pages in the paper’s “Lifestyle” section. Lade teamed up with photographer-videographer Carline Jean to produce the moving “photo-driven” (and editor-pleasing) documentary project on end-of-life care for an older, LGBT couple.
Lade e-mailed GBO News, “The most amazing thing: We have been overwhelmed with comments here from the public — almost all of them positive. We have heard from gay people and straight people. There were so many letters and e-mails, the editorial page devoted their entire ‘Letters’ section to comments on this story.”
She wrote the story of Chris MacLellan, 57, and Bernard Richard Schiffer, 83, who “never exchanged ‘for better or for worse’ vows. As a gay couple, marriage wasn’t an option in Florida. Instead, they lived together and loved each other for 11 years.”
Richard, who had two previous coronary bypasses and prostate cancer, was diagnosed with esophageal cancer in 2011. By last September the cancer has metastasized to his spine.
Lade continued, “Together, Chris and Richard confronted the challenges of being an older gay couple not recognized by law, navigating a system they feared could rob them of their ability to care for each other in sickness and in health. After all, legal rights regarding death are intricately entwined with the privileges granted when people marry.”
For example, after one dash to the emergency room, Chris told Lade, “When we first got to the ER, [the medical staff] paid 100 percent attention to Richard and didn’t really acknowledge my presence.” He recalled, “When I tried to speak up and give them more of the full story about what was happening, they said, ‘Who are you?’” It happened again later, when a lab technician “asked me what I was doing there.” (The couple did acknowledge that most of Richard’s regular doctors respected the couple’s relationship.)
If you go to the “In Sickness & In Health” web section to view the package, try to click to the end, so you can see the 5-minute video. GBO regulars can connect with Lade at dlade@sunsentinel.com, or Twitter @helpchick. (Too cute, Diane-chick!)
***LGBT Aging Coverage on the West Coast Continues this Week, with Matthew Bajko’s extensive series for the respected Bay Area Reporter (B.A.R.), where he is assistant editor. Bajko wrote the series through the MetLife Foundation Journalists in Aging Fellowships, the program of New America Media (NAM) and the Gerontological Society of America. The weekly B.A.R. has run each part throughout April, with each issue carrying a major feature and a substantial sidebar. The series started with “Trauma of AIDS Epidemic Impacts Aging Survivors,”, later cross-posted by NAM. (The NAM version of Part 1 includes links to both the original piece and other stories in the series. NAM will complete its version of the series this weekend.)
Additional mainbars explored efforts to help LGBT seniors out of isolation, common as graying makes many lonely and invisible to others in their community; San Francisco’s housing crunch; and the difficult search for affordable and LGBT-friendly assisted living. Other pieces in the series examined issues for older Latinos, African Americans and Asians in the LGBT community, and the particularly difficult struggles of older transgender people, especially those of color. Interested reporters can also reach him at m.bajko@ebar.com.
3. GEN BEATLES NEWS
*** “Enough About Self-Publishing,” says gerontologist, journalist and author Bernard Starr, who’s become something of an authority on the merits of self-publishing, having had books issued both by traditional imprints and his own efforts. (Also, his son, bestselling thrillers author Jason Starr, gives his Dad some intergenerational caché on the topic of getting books produced.) Dad Bernie was invited again to organize a panel on do-it-yourself publishing at the Hunter College Writers’ Conference in New York City, starting June 7. Instead, he reports in his Huffington Post Blog for this week, that he decided, “What authors and wannabee authors crave is feedback on their manuscripts and proposals from publishing professionals — mainly literary agents and editors.”
So to lead book writers from the shadows of being “confused and in the dark,” Starr developed a panel titled, “The Literary Road Show: Pitch to the Experts.” A bit similarly to TV’s entrepreneurial “Shark Tank,” Starr plans to invite several randomly selected attendees “to make a brief ‘elevator’ pitch of their book or proposal to a panel of three editors of major publishing imprints, a prominent literary agent, and the director of a school of journalism. Feedback from these experts in the trenches will provide sound guidance on the merits of a project, its publishing appeal, how to create a book proposal that will attract a publisher, and the best publishing route for a particular project — traditional or self-publishing.”
So, hey, Generation Beatles, brush off that ms., loosen up your pitching arm (er—tongue), and take a bite of the literary Big Apple.
***Getting Your Second Wind at the 20 Mile Mark: GBO’s editor attended the highly entertaining, engaging and often moving Second Wind book tour of geriatrician and sage Bill Thomas, MD. As we discussed a couple of issues back, Thomas, creator of the Eden Alternative and Green Houses for humanizing nursing home care, isn’t simply popping into book shops around the country. He’s bringing his own four-hour road show to 25 cities, all by a rock-n-roll style bus caravan. The downside is that it takes a full afternoon. But the program in San Francisco was worth playing hooky.
Besides Thomas—storytelling on stilts about how wise elders need to become more visible in our anti-aging culture—the nonfiction theater event includes a marvelous live performance by African musician, Samité, who has worked with Alzheimer’s patients, as well as children, and 15-minute TED-style talks by thought leaders in aging.
Check the Second Wind Tour schedule and get to it if you can. Dr. Bill’s Magical Mystery Tour hits the Midwest, West, South and East, wrapping the set in Philly on June 6.
Contact Simon & Schuster ‘s Sarah Reidy about obtaining press tickets at 212-698-7008; sarah.reidy@simonandschuster.com. She can also help reporters with review copies of and press materials for the book. Full information on the tour is available on this website.
***Ashton Applewhite Will Join Midwestern Leg of the Second Wind Tour with her presentation, “This Chair Rocks: How Ageism Warps Our View of Long Life.” She (see her website) will deliver one of those Bill (Thomas) Talks on their stops in Columbus, Ohio; May 5; Chicago, May 6; Detroit, May 7; Ann Arbor, May 8; and Minneapolis on May 9.
Applewhite will also give a free public lecture at San Francisco’s Dolphin Club (whose members swim to and from Alcatraz Island) on June 4. And the next day she’ll head across the Bay (hopefully over the water, not in it) to expound at an invitational conference on “The Future of Aging and Health” presented near Sausalito, Calif., by the Institute of the Future.
***The Ultimate “Gen Stone” News Item—Granddad Keith Richards: We know this was reported last month, but did you know the actual release date for Rolling Stones lead guitarist Keith Richards’ children’s book will be Sept. 9. The picture book, Gus and Me: The Story of My Granddad and My First Guitar (Little Brown Books for Young Readers), is illustrated by his daughter, Theodora Richards, 28, who studied at the New York Academy of Art and the School of Visual Arts.
The book was inspired by a story in Richards’ 2010 memoir, Life, about how Keith’s grandfather, Theodore Augustus “Gus” Dupree, a member of a jazz band, tuned him in to music.
Rolling Stone recently quoted Keith, “I have just become a grandfather for the fifth time, so I know what I’m talking about. The bond, the special bond, between kids and grandparents is unique and should be treasured.” Oh, and the Stone’s Stone interview, headlined “Grown Up Right: Keith Richards Recalls Childhood in Kids’ Book” (March 11), was penned by — Kory Grow. (Please, spare me the groan.)
4. SOURCES
***Intergenerational Support Report Set for May 13 Release: Generations United (GU) and the Alliance for Children & Families will release it’s new study, “Intergenerational Family Connections: The Relationships That Support a Strong America,” at the National Press Club in Washington D.C., May 13, 9:30 to 10:45 a.m. EDT. Says the GU website, “The notion that Americans are ruggedly independent, forging alone into the horizon, just isn’t true . . . Find out how extended families – grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins – as well as the community play a critical role in our resiliency and success as a people.” For information contact Alan King, 202-777-0116; aking@gu.org.
*** Food Insecurity and Senior Americans is the focus of a University of Illinois study released in March showing that “one in 12 seniors do not have access to adequate food due to lack of money or other financial resources.” The research project, titled Spotlight on Senior Health: Adverse Health Outcomes of Food Insecure Older Americans, finds that food-insecure seniors are more likely to have lower nutrition and “to be at a higher risk for chronic health conditions and depression” than those 60-plus who are “food secure.”
According to the report, released by Feeding America and the National Foundation to End Senior Hunger, compared to food secure seniors, those who are food-insecure seniors are:
- 60 percent more likely to experience depression;
- 53 percent more likely to report a heart attack;
- 52 percent more likely to develop asthma; and
- 40 percent more likely to report an experience of congestive heart failure.
Feeding America CEO Bob Aiken said in a statement, “Among our client households with seniors, about 30 percent have had to choose between paying for food and paying for medical care.”
Lead author of the study, Craig Gundersen of the University of Illinois, noted in a release, “In 2011, 8.35 percent of Americans over age 60 faced the threat of hunger—that translates to 4.8 million people.”
Gunderson, who coauthored the study with James P. Ziliak of the University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research, added, “Seniors who are food insecure reported higher incidence of diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, heart attack, gum disease, and a host of other health problems than adults their age who are food secure.” In addition, food-insecure seniors have worse general health outcomes, more daily activity limitations, and are more likely to suffer from depression.” The researchers also found that senior food insecurity rates and nutrient intakes were almost triple the level among grandparents in the same household as their grandchildren compared to those without grandchildren present.
Gundersen said, “We think this may be because adults in households with grandchildren are foregoing healthy diets in order to make sure their grandchildren have enough to eat.” He called on policymakers and program administrators to work toward increasing participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as the Food Stamp Program).
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