GBO NEWS: Norman Lear on PBS; 9 Journalism Fellowships; GOP Senators Eye Entitlements; Major Family Caregiving Report; Latinos & Alzheimer’s; & MORE
GENERATIONS BEAT ONLINE NEWS
E-News of the Journalists Network on Generations
October 5, 2016 — Volume 16, Number 15
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. You can subscribe to GBONews.org at no charge simply by sending a request to Paul with your name, address, phone number and editorial affiliation or note that you freelance. You’ll receive the table of contents as e-mail, just click through to the full issue at www.gbonews.org.
In This Issue: Hey, Genius, Get Your Tiny Mitts Off My Wallet!
1. SCREEN GEMS: *** “Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You,” premiers on PBS’s American Masters, Oct. 25; ***A New Color: The Art of Being Edythe Boone,” produced/directed Marlene “Mo” Morris.
2. GEN BEATLES NEWS: ***Nine Reporters Chosen as Continuing Fellows for Journalists in Aging Program
3. THE STORYBOARD: *** “Wages for Home Care Aides Lag as Demand Grows,” by Paula Span, New York Times; *** “Restive GOP Freshmen Eye Entitlement Reform,” by Alexander Bolton, The Hill (Oct. 3); *** “Outlook For Older Job Seekers: Better Than Advertised,” by Kerry Hannon, Forbes/PBS Next Avenue (Sept. 22); *** “Taking on ‘The Real Power Players,’ by Spencer McAvoy (Salon.com, from In These Times); *** “The Fine Art of Blowing Up Art: Evelyn Rosenberg’s Explosive Sculptures,” by Diane Joy Schmidt, New Mexico Jewish Link/New America Media (Oct.4).
4. GOOD SOURCES: ***Families Caring for an Aging America, a new book-length report from the National Academies of Sciences; *** “But What Does the Census Say About Senior Poverty?” by Tracey Gronniger, from Justice in Aging; *** “Latinos & Alzheimer’s Disease: New Numbers Behind the Crisis,” University of Southern California’s Edward R. Roybal Institute at on Aging; *** Health IT & Aging Sources.
1. SCREEN GEMS
*** “Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You,” premiers on PBS’s American Masters, Oct. 25, 9-10:30 p.m. (check local listings). Now 94, the creator of All in the Family, The Jeffersons, Good Times and Maude is profiled by Academy Award-nominated filmmakers Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady. The release says that they “show how a poor Jewish kid from Connecticut became one of TV’s most successful showrunners” by bringing “provocative subjects like war, poverty, and prejudice to 120 million viewers every week.” PBS also posts a 69-second tribute clip worth seeing with producer Phil Rosenthal (Everybody Loves Raymond, I’ll Have What Phil’s Having), plus archival footage of Lear on CBS’ Look Up and Live (1972) discussing the use of stereotypes and racial epithets on All in the Family. It’s posted at http://tinyurl.com/zba2ct9 or https://youtu.be/_aRI6MwH8No.
PBS also provides an online press kit and a media-only online film screener (login and registration are required). A DVD screener is also available on request, from Natasha Padilla: padilla@wnet.org or 212-560-8824.
*** A New Color: The Art of Being Edythe Boone, produced/directed by Marlene “Mo” Morris, had this editor wondering–who is Edythe and why did the Sixth Legacy Film Festival in San Francisco last month chose this umpteenth profile of some creative senior for its opening night feature, rather than the intergenerational indie film staring the ever-enticing Rita Moreno.
The latter film, Remember Me, it turns out, is forgettable, except for Moreno’s smart and sassy performance. It deserves the pan Variety gave it as “an uneven trifle overly dependent on the familiar, uninspired comedy of immature man-boys behaving badly.” The clumsy feature, despite Moreno’s fine performance, involves the usual two hipster dudes, in this case cousins, bumbling about over what to do about their newly widowed grandmother.
Most reporters covering aging have seen enough film profiles of active agers to refer all the footage to the Census Bureau as a media population demographic. Call them the Filmogenically Feisty. But this time I found myself completely engaged in the infectious personality and fascinating life of “Edy” Boone. And so, by the way, were the producers of the PBS World Channel, who selected the A New Color to air nationwide sometime in 2017.
A painter, muralist and art teacher, shown teaching classes of children and older adults, Edy, who turns 80 this year, is a New Yorker who escaped that city’s perils with her children decades ago to raise them in Berkeley, Calif. Her energizing spirit and richly varied life path takes on fuller meaning for our times both through the film’s telling of events and the deep reflections of Edy’s interactions with her students, her subjects and her canvasses. We learn that she was one of the original muralists for the noted Women’s Building in San Francisco. We see her early in the film and at later points joining a next-generation restoration of the faded and peeling artwork by teaching young women artists to carry on the work as they also learn.
The turnkey from a good life story to a page or a screen is in the craft, and Mo Morris, who spent five years filming her subject, deftly toggles between Edy’s youth projects to her senior class, revealing glimpses of her painting and teaching processes through her students’ revelations, and then to her history in New York’s Lincoln projects. No one would be surprised to learn that an African American art teacher working with Oakland school children today would activate their creative passion by incorporating thematic elements of Black Lives Matter. But then comes the stunning revelation that Edy was the aunt of Eric Gardner, who died a police hands while gasping repeatedly, “I can’t breath.” We learn what happened to him in real time in cell phone calls with her sister and in background news images.
The Eric Gardner connection is a sobering chance addition, of course, but even had his death not occurred in the film’s course, Morris’ portrait of Edy captivates as it exposes her observational powers. Her insights shine through as an artist with the quiet skill of a fine teacher, and with wisdom so rarely studied on camera. We see students young or old learn to see more clearly, and experience Edy’s her own keen vision in her portraiture as she assembles them assembled for what is surprisingly her first solo gallery exhibition.
I realized well after the film that what beamed out from Edy’s strikingly colorful portraits, even on screen, is her subjects’ penetrating gaze. As it happens, it was through our eyes that Edy connected with this editor when we spoke briefly after the festival screening. I had not recalled meeting before, but she reminded me that we’d spoken a few years ago at the memorial service for a mutual friend, a celebration attended by about 200 people.
Edy said she recognized me from the event through my eyes. And as remarkable as her own vision is, it’s Morris’ accomplishment to bring the spirit and wisdom of a mature artist and educator to the screen.
GBONews readers can request a screener link from Morris at anewcolor.doc@gmail.com, or call her at 510-928-0858. Upcoming theatrical dates on the West Coast include Oct. 25, Los Angeles, Skirball Cultural Center, 7:30 p.m.;
Oct. 30, Roxie Theater, San Francisco, 3 p.m.; Nov. 1, The New Parkway, Oakland, 7 p.m.; and Nov. 3, The Rafael, San Rafael, CA, 7 p.m.
2. GEN BEATLES NEWS
***Nine Reporters Chosen as Continuing Fellows for Journalists in Aging Program Reporters: New America Media (NAM) and the Gerontological Society of America (GSA) have chosen nine mainstream and ethnic media reporters as Continuing Fellows to attend GSA’s Annual Scientific Meeting in New Orleans, Nov. 16-20. The nine are previous Fellows in the program who will receive a travel grant to continue their coverage of issues in aging. The GSA meeting, attended by 4,000 experts from around the world, will present hundreds of sessions on the latest social and scientific research on aging. The program also recently named 16 New Fellows, who will attend the conclave. They were listed in the last issue of GBONews.
This year’s Continuing Fellows include: Julian Do, Freelancer for Multiple Ethnic Media, Los Angeles; Emily Gurnon, PBS Next Avenue; Yanick Rice Lamb, Freelance contributor to The Root and other media outlets, and chair of the Howard University, Department of Journalism; Sandra Larson, Bay Street Banner, Boston; Karen Michel, Public Radio independent producer; Matt Perry, California Health Report; Encarnacion Pyle, Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch; Johannes Rosello, Mundo Hispanico, Atlanta; and Mark Taylor, freelance, Chicago Tribune and other news outlets.
In its seven years, the program has selected 118 journalists, half each in the ethnic of general-audience media, and generated more than 400 articles on issues in aging, many originating in languages such as Spanish, Chinese or Korean. This year’s nonprofit sponsors are the Silver Century Foundation, AARP, the Commonwealth Fund, the Retirement Research Foundation, and the John A. Hartford Foundation.
Besides the fellowship program, other reporters attending this year’s conference can apply for a complimentary press registration and attend daily press luncheons and a media reception. For details, contact GSA’s Todd Kluss, tkluss@geron.org; (202) 587-2839. All reporters attending the conference are invited to a Journalists Reception to be held in the meeting Press Room at the New Orleans Marriott (Studio Four) on Friday, Nov. 18, from 5-6:30 p.m. Those interested in continuing the conversations can head out for a “no-host” dinner at a nearby NOLA eatery.
3. THE STORYBOARD
*** “Wages for Home Care Aides Lag as Demand Grows,” by Paula Span, New York Times (Sept. 23): Span’s “New Old Age” column continues reporting on significant undercurrents that should be in the jetstream of American media on aging. A case in point is this story ostensibly summarizing a report on the latest federal data by the research and consulting group PHI on the status of home care workers in in the United States. Thanks to the organization’s annual number-crunch, Span writes, “The aides who care for disabled people and older adults in their homes — helping them bathe and dress, preparing their meals, doing laundry and housekeeping — earned a national median of $10.21 an hour in 2005, adjusted for inflation.” But last year they earned even less–$10.11 hourly.
Span continues, “This helps explain why Patricia Walker, 55, a certified nursing assistant who works for a home care agency in Tampa, Fla., and provides care for two older men — and hasn’t received a raise in five years — must rely on $194 in food stamps each month.”
She goes on, “Home care aides, mostly women and mostly minorities, represent one of the nation’s fastest-growing occupations, increasing from 700,000 to more than 1.4 million over the past decade. Add the independent caregivers that clients employ directly through public programs, and the total rises to more than two million,” says Span. Moreover, About a third receive food stamps; 28 percent rely on Medicaid for health insurance.”
The poor pay and working conditions, including one of the highest injury rates in the labor force, are major contributors to the looming shortage of direct care aides needed to assist the home care boom from aging baby boom. Span concludes by summarizing PHI’s key remedies for this slow-motion crisis in American eldercare.
*** “Restive GOP Freshmen Eye Entitlement Reform,” by Alexander Bolton, The Hill (Oct. 3): “Senate Republican frustrated with Washington’s spending are pushing for
dramatic reforms,” Bolton reports.
Most prominent among a group of freshmen GOP senators pursuing reforms is Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga., former CEO of Dollar General and Reebok, “who is appalled by Congress’s ability to meet deadlines or make any meaningful progress toward entitlement reform. Perdue says Congress should consider taking Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid — the country’s three biggest mandatory spending programs — off of autopilot and empowering lawmakers to reauthorize their spending levels on an annual or biennial basis.”
“In addition,” he writes, “Perdue and other freshmen are talking about creating four annual or biennial spending bills that would set not only discretionary spending levels but also spending levels for Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.” But Bolton stresses, “The move is not without risks”
“Democrats have pummeled Republican candidates in past elections for proposing changes to Social Security and Medicare and even the GOP’s nominee for president, Donald Trump, has ruled out changes to eligibility requirements for safety-net programs.” Bolton quotes Trump from last march saying, “I will do everything within my power not to touch Social Security, to leave it the way it is.” Of course, we know from Tuesday Night’s vice-presidential debate that Republican’s are reassured by every promise made by The Donald.
*** “Landlord Tries to Justify Evicting 100-Year-Old,” by Tommi Avicolli Mecca, 48 Hills (Oct. 3): The online muckraking successor to the San Francisco Bay Guardian weekly reports on the case of centenarian Iris Canada and pointedly asks in a subhead, “Isn’t a human life worth more than a condo conversion?”
Mecca writes, “Canada, who just turned 100 in July, was only five or six days short of the sheriff evicting her from the Western Addition apartment where she’d lived for half a century,” referring to one of San Francisco’s mainly African American neighborhoods. The owners claim that they initially gave her a “life estate” agreement allowing her to remain in the apartment at her rent-controlled amount of $700 per month until she dies. But they proceeded with the eviction when they decided she was living elsewhere.
However, Canada’s niece counters that her aunt did not move out, but had a hospital stay and then spent an extended period with nearby relatives in the Bay Area. The building’s owners evicted other tenants in converting the apartments to condominiums under California’s Ellis Act. That law is widely cited as a leading factor in the current wave of gentrification around the state.
*** “Outlook For Older Job Seekers: Better Than Advertised,” by Kerry Hannon, Forbes/PBS Next Avenue (Sept. 22): “Older job applicants do get hired. Yes, it typically takes longer for someone over 55 to land a job than someone younger, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (37 weeks for people 55 to 64 vs. 25 weeks for those 25 to 34). But the current unemployment rate for people over 55 is 3.5%; it’s 5.2% for those age 25 to 34 and 4.9% overall. (One caveat: Reuters columnist Mark Miller [http://tinyurl.com/js7ntrm] says if you add in workers over 55 holding part-time jobs who would rather be working full-time and the older unemployed who’ve given up looking for work, the jobless rate for this age group is 12%.)”
*** “Taking on ‘The Real Power Players’: How workers are taking pension control back from hedge funds,” by Spencer McAvoy (Salon.com, from In These Times, (Oct. 4). “How states, and employees, are saving themselves billions of dollars by avoiding hedge funds.” And, later, “The whole pension system in New Jersey is extremely frustrating.” [Must be those traffic cones.]
*** “The Fine Art of Blowing Up Art: Evelyn Rosenberg’s Explosive Sculptures,” by Diane Joy Schmidt, New Mexico Jewish Link/New America Media (Oct.4): In 1985, Evelyn Rosenberg burst on the art scene using explosives to create metal sculptures–intricate work reflecting themes of science, myth and Jewish spirituality.
4. GOOD SOURCES
*** Families Caring for an Aging America is the new book-length report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in cooperation with 15 major foundations and other sponsors. This benchmark study is available as a free download weighing in at 340 pages. National Academies tomes, unlike most other studies, tend to be prime sources for use, quotes and stats for a few years in some cases. The prestigious committee appointed to develop the study and the list of expert manuscript reviewers is a virtual Who’s Who of authorities on the issue. They worked with distinguished editors, Richard Schulz of the University of Pittsburgh and who chaired the report’s committee, and the National Academy of Science’s Jill Eden.
According to a report summary, nearly 18 million Americans care for family members 65 and older, but the pool of potential family caregivers is shrinking. It calls for system-wide health care reform “that elevates family-centered care alongside person-centered care to better account for the roles of family caregivers and support their involvement in the care delivery process.”
The research committee determined that “by 2030, 72.8 million U.S. residents – more than 1 in 5 – will be 65 or older … The proportion of older adults who are most likely to need intensive support from family caregivers – those in their 80s and beyond – is projected to climb from 27 percent in 2012 to 37 percent in 2050. Little action has been taken to prepare the health care and social service systems for this demographic shift,” the committee said.
A section on increasing diversity reports that although non-Hispanic whites remain the largest single group of older adults, “sometime after 2040, no racial or ethnic group will make up the majority of the U.S. population. These changes will bring an evolution in the values, preferences, and meanings that individuals bring to family caregiving. Over the coming decades, America’s Hispanic, Asian, and multiracial populations are each expected to more than double in number.” The study also discusses the aging of the LGBT community.
Schulz emphasized in the summary, “If the needs of the caregivers are not addressed, we as a society are compromising the well-being of elders. Supporting family caregivers should be an integral part of the nation’s collective responsibility for caring for its older adult population.” Media contacts for the report are Dana Korsen or Rebecca Ray, 202-334-2138; e-mail news@nas.edu
*** “But What Does the Census Say About Senior Poverty?” by Tracey Gronniger, Justice in Aging (Sept. 26), formerly the National Senior Citizens Law Center: The directing attorney for Justice in Aging’s Economic Security Team in Washington, D.C., Gronniger challenges the federal poverty level (FPL) for seniors, which decreased 1.2 percentage points to 8.8%, and the finding at median household income increased 4.3%, to $38,515. “We saw decreases in the poverty rates for African American, Hispanic, and Asian seniors as well.” But all is not as rosy as the official numbers suggest.
Gonniger explains, “If you dig a little deeper, however, you’ll find communities that aren’t well served by generalizations about declining numbers of poor households. Poverty remains substantial “for seniors, senior communities of color generally, and particularly for senior women of color. I’m not saying a percentage point decrease in poverty isn’t good, but when that poverty rate is still 20.1% (as it is for senior Hispanic women), there’s still much work to be done.”
She gives kudos to the National Women’s Law Center for its 2015 analysis showing, for example, that African American and Hispanic women saw poverty rates of 19.6% and 20.1%, respectively. For Native American women, the poverty rate actually went up, from 18.6% to 24.6%.
Gonniger also point to the Census Bureau’s more accurate Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM), which accounts for regional cost-of-living and housing differences, as well as health care and other expenditures. With SPM the poverty rate for seniors jumps to 13.7% (about one in seven). Her blog includes figures on the anti-poverty impact of Social Security, SNAP (food stamps), Supplemental Security Income and Medicare.
She continues noting that despite the persistent need, “the Social Security Administration is facing cuts that could shut down offices, furlough workers and increase wait times for administrative hearings, which are already a staggering 575 days.”
The blog adds that JIA will hold its “Dignity for All: Ensuring Economic Security as America Ages” forum on senior poverty in Washington, D.C., Nov. 15. For more information on this contact JIA’s Vanessa Barrington, (510) 256-1200; e-mail vbarrington@justiceinaging.org.
*** “Latinos & Alzheimer’s Disease: New Numbers Behind the Crisis” is a new report projecting that “Latinos living with AD could increase from 379,000 in 2012 to 3.5 million by 2060—a growth of 832%” without a medical breakthrough that would cures the disease or slow its progression. Just released by the University of Southern California’s Edward R. Roybal Institute at on Aging and its Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work, along with the nonprofit, UsAgainstAlzheimer’s [www.usagainstalzheimers.org], the report stresses that although Latinos are now the youngest racial or ethnic group in the U.S., averaging age of 27, between 2008 and 2030, Latinos 65 years and older will increase by 224% compared to a 65% increase for non-Latino white elders.
*** Health IT & Aging Sources: Can’t get to San Francisco for next week’s Health IT workshop by the Association of Health Care Journalists (AHCJ)? As mentioned in the last GBONews, this editor has assembled a stellar panel on Health IT and Aging and will moderate the session. If you will be on hand, please come up afterward and say Hi. The session will be at the Sir Francis Drake Hotel in the Monterey Room, Friday, Oct. 14, 10:15-11:45 a.m.
But if you’re not able to come, let me share some great linkable material with you:
David Lindeman, PhD., provided this link to his PPT from a July presentation. I know, PPT–bo-o-ring, right? But not if you’d like a relatively quick survey of what’s going on in this field. Lindeman should know. He directs the health at the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS), which, besides a gawky name has important action going on four UC campuses. And he directs UC’s Center for Technology and Aging. Reporters writing on tech and aging can include him on your Contacts list at dlindeman@citris-uc.org.
Also on the panel will be Richard Adler, longtime expert on aging at the coolly named Institute for the Future in Palo Alto. He’s one of the best minds on tech developments in aging and will focus on his recent work asking, “In 2031, who will you care for? And who will care for you?” To get an overview of Adler’s focus on tech and the future of caregiving, along with a “toolkit” designed to facilitate exploration of the scenarios, look at http://www.iftf.org/caregiving2031. It includes three short (3 mins. each) video animations, such as “Angels in the Floorboards.” Adler is at radler@digiplaces.com.
And noted in the last GBONews was panelist V.J. Periyakoil, M.D., of Stanford University Medical School. She’s produced online media and video for years for medial education and community on multicultural concerns in aging. In part she’ll be discussing her Stanford Letter Project. You can read about it in her recent op-ed for the New York Times, “Writing a ‘Last Letter’ When You’re Healthy.” Reach her at periyakoil@stanford.edu.
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