GBO NEWS: Reporting Fellowship Deadline Extended; Columbia’s Age Boom Taps 22 Reporting Fellows; The Age-Unfriendly Skys; Trump’s Sad! Social Security Proposal; & MORE
GENERATIONS BEAT ONLINE NEWS
E-News of the Journalists Network on Generations — Beginning Our 24th Year.
April 14, 2017 — Volume 17, Number 4
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: Chocolate Eggs–Everyone’s Alternative Truth.
1. EYES ON THE PRIZE: Application Deadline Extended for Journalists in Aging Fellowships: Friday, April 28; Columbia U’s Age Boom Fellowship Taps 22 Reporters from ProPublica to La Opinión to NPR News.
2. THE STORY BOARD: *** “Trump’s proposal to eliminate the Social Security payroll tax,” by Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times; ***AND “Trump’s Tax Plan Could Affect Your Social Security,” by Rob Garver, Financial Times; *** “In New York City, Local Coverage Declines—and Takes Accountability With It,” by Paul Moses, The Daily Beast; ; *** “They Fought for the U.S. in Laos. Now Many Older Hmong Fight Depression,” KQED California Report/New America Media , Alice Daniel. (March 15); *** “Why I Became a Citizen at 79,” New America Media, Florencio Sunga Mallari, Sr., (April 3); *** “ ‘These Seniors Are Survivors’ — Serving Cambodian Elders in Chicago,” Diverse Elders Coalition , Mari Quenemoen, (March 26).*** “‘They’re out there—if we can find them,’” by Chelsea Conaboy. Politico, with more stories on rural aging.
3. LATER-LIFE REFLECTIONS:***United Passenger Asian and Older—Randomly Selected? *** “RE’FLECT, six half-hour documentaries profiling San Diego “successful aging” seniors involved in such areas as homelessness, LGBTQ senior housing, marathon running, and older women, KPBS-TV, produced by Heidi Rataj and Theresa Hoiles; *** “The Reunion Project” Photo Exhibition of older women by Lora Brody.
4. GOOD SOURCES: *** Study: Huge Increase in Uninsured if Medicare’s Eligibility Age Raised: Report from the National Committee to Preserve Social Security & Medicare Foundation; *** The National Foundation to End Senior Hunger Report; ***Encore.org’s “Generation to Generation” Campaign to Mobilize 1 Million Older Adults to Help Youth
1. EYES ON THE PRIZE
Application Deadline Extended for Journalists in Aging Fellowships: April 28 is the newly extended deadline to apply for Year 8 of this great opportunity. It provides a $1,500 stipend plus expenses to attend the World Congress of Gerontology & Geriatrics in San Francisco, July 23-27. The fellowship is open to reporters in any medium from mainstream or ethnic media news organizations serving communities in the United States. This program is a collaboration between New America Media (NAM) and the Gerontological Society of America (GSA), in cooperation with GBONews publisher, the Journalists Network on Generations.
This year, GSA will be the United States host for the World Congress – meeting of the International Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics, which only comes to this country every 32 years. On hand will be about 6,000 experts and professionals in aging, including those from throughout the U.S. and 75 countries.
The fellowship program will bring the eight-year total of participants in the program to 136 journalists, including both staff reporters and freelancers. To date, the fellows have posted about 450 stories in English, with many in their original Spanish, Chinese, Korean and other languages. Funding for the new program so far has been granted by the Silver Century Foundation, AARP, Retirement Research Foundation, and the John A. Hartford Foundation.
Interested reporters can see details at the fellowship program website. GBONews and NAM editor Paul Kleyman is available for questions at pkleyman@newamericamedia.org or 415-503-4170, ext. 133. Or contact GSA’s Todd Kluss can answer questions at tkluss@geron.org; 202-587-2839.
***Columbia U’s Age Boom Fellowship Taps 22 Reporters: Might Pulitzers be coming to the generations beat again, perhaps out of the Joseph Pulitzer building at Columbia University in New York City? That’s where 22 journalists will convene June 8-10, as 2017 fellows of the Age Boom Academy, cosponsored by the university’s Robert N. Butler Columbia Aging Center and the School of Journalism. Chosen reporters are from a diverse range of media outlets from ProPublica to La Opinión to NPR News.
This year’s program theme will be, “Exploring Inequities in Health, Work and Retirement.” According to the Age Boom website, “Some of the questions that will be answered are: Is there a relationship between health and how long you work? How does this relationship change for people with different backgrounds or different jobs? How does retirement affect cognitive and physical health? Does this relationship change based on education, socioeconomic status, and civic engagement? What is the relationship between the kind of work you do, health, and how long you work?”
Funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Age Boomers receive an all-expenses-paid trip to New York for the conference. Congratulations to this year’s fellows, and here’s the list:
Eileen Ambrose, Senior Editor, Money Team, AARP publications; Sandra Block, Senior associate editor, Kiplinger’s Personal Finance; Francisco Castro, Metro Editor, La Opinión Newspaper (Los Angeles); Janet Cho, Business Reporter, The Plain Dealer (Cleveland); Lois Collins, reporter and columnist, Deseret News (Salt Lake City); Lisa Gillespie, Health care and science reporter, WFPL (NPR Louisville); Peter Gosselin, Reporter, ProPublica; Gretchen Grosky, Aging & Health Reporter, Union Leader (Manchester, N.H.); Ruxandra Guidi, freelance, Fonografia Collective (Los Angeles); Emily Gurnon, Senior Editor, Health and Caregiving. PBS Next Avenue; Maria Ines Zamudio, AP NORC Fellow, Associated Press; Ina Jaffe, Correspondent, NPR News; Katie Johnston, Reporter, Boston Globe; Adrian Ma, Associate Producers, WNYC and Marketplace; Daniel Marans, Reporter, Huffington Post; Sonia Narang, Multimedia Journalist, PRI’s The World and News Deeply; Aimee Picchi, Business Journalist, CBS MoneyWatch, Consumer Reports; Joseph Pisani, Business Journalist, Associated Press; Rachel Silverman, Freelance HR & Benefits Reporter, Wall Street Journal; Ruth Simon, Senior Special Writer, Wall Street Journal; Jenn Smith, Community Engagement Editor and Staff Reporter, Berkshire Eagle/New England Newspapers Inc.; Ben Steverman. Freelancer, Bloomberg News.
2. THE STORY BOARD
*** “Trump’s proposal to eliminate the Social Security payroll tax may be his worst idea yet,” by Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times (April 10): “President Trump’s tax reform agenda is in trouble. That’s not news, but one proposal that his team has floated as a way, ostensibly, to cut taxes on the middle class is. According to the Associated Press, they’re toying with the idea of eliminating the payroll tax, which funds Social Security and part of Medicare, or cutting it drastically.”
Calling it “an absolutely terrible idea,” the Pulitzer Prize-winning business columnist quoted author and Social Security Works co-founder Nancy Altman calling the proposal “a Trojan horse.” She added, “It appears to be a gift in the form of middle-class tax relief, but would, if enacted, lead to the destruction of working Americans’ fundamental economic security.”
Hitzik explains, “The details reported by the Associated Press are sketchy and preliminary. But thus far, there’s no indication that Trump views this change as a temporary measure. If it’s designed as a permanent conversion of Social Security’s revenue stream from the payroll tax to general revenues, that’s a wide-open door to budget-cutting at the expense of retirees and workers.”
He goes on, “Already, conservatives and budget hawks repeat as a mantra that the cost of Social Security is ‘unsustainable.’ That’s their claim even though the program runs a surplus today and ensuring its fiscal stability for the future would require a modest increase in the tax rate or removal of the cap on taxable wages ($127,200 this year). Scrapping the payroll tax would make it easier for Congress to cut Social Security benefits under the guise of saving the government money. And that’s just another way to funnel more money to the rich, at the expense of the working class.”
***AND “Trump’s Tax Plan Could Affect Your Social Security,” by Rob Garver, Financial Times (April 11): “The Trump administration, at work on a new plan for tax reform, is reportedly considering a plan to cross into one of the most dangerous territories in American politics: fiddling with the Social Security system.”
*** “‘They’re out there—if we can find them,’” by Chelsea Conaboy. Politico (April 12): Conaboy, also features editor at the Portland (Maine) Press Herald, writes, ”In rural America, social isolation isn’t just a private woe. It’s increasingly seen as a public health crisis, with new ideas for tackling it.” She adds to the significant but too sparse coverage of rural aging.
Also on this subject, see “The Challenges of Safely Aging in Place in Rural America,” U.S. News & World Report/New America Media , by Michael O. Schroeder (Dec 14, 2016). Link: http://tinyurl.com/hjm5fwp. And, “Part 1 –Aging Hispanic Farmworkers Face Uncertain Future in Washington State,” Spokesman-Review/New America Media , by Tyler Tjomsland, (Jan 19, 2017). Link: http://tinyurl.com/h58dn2j and Part 2 — “Billions in Crop Value, But Few Apples for Older Latino Farmworkers,” Spokesman-Review/New America Media , (Jan 20). Link: http://tinyurl.com/jp2fljz. And the series, “AGING IN THE FIELDS” by David Bacon, (May 30-June 1, 2016) Part 1 — “No Alternative But to Keep Working,” Capital & Main/New America Media , Link: http://tinyurl.com/jxn6pwq; Part 2 — “Retirement Followed by a Return to Work,” Capital & Main/New America Media . Link: http://tinyurl.com/hu9wqls.
*** “In New York City, Local Coverage Declines —and Takes Accountability With It,” by Paul Moses, The Daily Beast (April 2): This is a story that should concern all journalists. Although it focuses on New York and is not specific to the coverage of aging, local reporting has been crucial to the development of the generations beat. This story’s subhead says it all for the declining state of journalism: “That kind of stuff, it’s not being covered nowadays. It’s going to be a field day for local corruption.”
Moses writes, “Surveying the state of local reporting in New York City now for the Urban Reporting Program of the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, I found that core news-making institutions such as police headquarters, City Hall, and courts in Manhattan and Brooklyn are still covered, as are key beats such as education and transportation. But there is a kind of journalistic version of climate change best seen on the periphery, much as global warming’s impact is most visible in distant places like the Arctic and the South Seas. The remaining New York City-based daily newspapers—three of the country’s 10 biggest—have long since receded from covering the Long Island suburbs to the east and media-parched New Jersey to the west, and now their retreat is visible within the city itself, in Queens. It’s symptomatic of a larger shrinkage in newspapers’ local coverage across the country.”
Moses adds, “It’s questionable whether online newcomers will be able to fill the gap newspapers across the country are leaving in local news coverage. For, as the comedian John Oliver said in his wonderful rant on journalism: ‘The media is a food chain which would fall apart without local newspapers.’ The Federal Communications Commission said much the same in a 2011 report, noting that newspapers do most of the reporting that holds the powerful accountable.”
*** “They Fought for the U.S. in Laos. Now Many Older Hmong Fight Depression,” KQED California Report/New America Media , Alice Daniel. (March 15, 2017. Link: http://tinyurl.com/j2by6jl. Depression haunts many older Hmong refugees, who fought for the U.S. Now in Fresno, Calif., some find help in culturally competent therapy offering even music and gardening.
*** “Why I Became a Citizen at 79,” New America Media, Florencio Sunga Mallari, Sr., (April 3). Link: http://tinyurl.com/l62qagu. The Filipino American elder writes, “To bring my wife here, I needed to become a citizen. But I didn’t speak much English and didn’t think I could afford to apply.”
*** “ ‘These Seniors Are Survivors’ — Serving Cambodian Elders in Chicago,” Diverse Elders Coalition , Mari Quenemoen, (March 26) Link: http://tinyurl.com/k5sphsk. Cambodian elders in Illinois face challenges much like other low-income seniors. But add to poor nutrition, limited transportation and poverty the trauma of war and genocide.
3. LATER-LIFE REFLECTIONS
*** GBO’s editor couldn’t help but notice that United Airline’s brutalized passenger is not only a Vietnamese American physician on his way home to see patients, but also is age 69. Old Asian guy—you know, the stereotypically compliant “model minority”—in the cheap seats. Exactly how random was that passenger selection? Did the crew presume who might go more quietly back into that good terminal? The United crew may not have been that racist—immediately ceased on by Tweeters in Asia where United advertises major routes, or ageist, as usual, less a subject of comment, but I’m not “just saying.”—these are important questions for journalists that should not get buried in the legal and economic narratives likely to dominate the coverage.
Ageism—seriously? Actually, gen-beat writers might want to check out advance review copies (online or hard) of the news book, Ending Ageism, or How Not to Shoot Old People by Margaret Morganroth Gullette, which Rutgers University Press will publish in August. I’ll be saying more about the book later, but those interested in review copies can contact Sara Henning-Stout at sara.henningstout@rutgers.edu. Also, Gullette is available at mgullette@msn.com.
*** “RE’FLECT is a six-part series of half-hour documentaries aired this past January and February on KPBS San Diego. Director Heidi Rataj and writer Theresa Hoiles profiled a half dozen “seniors who are living out loud and defying stereotypes associated with aging.” Their stories unfold through interviews, day-in-the-life footage, and archival materials.” Although the wrap-arounds are a bit pledge-break polished, the programs mostly peal back the successful-aging gloss to reveal the genuine lives and often very appealing personalities of its subjects.
The half-dozen older San Diegoans are certainly a vibrant, hard-to-keep-up-with lot as each pursues a different path of civic engagement ranging from the deeply empathetic efforts of retired painting contractor Fred Davis, 70, to assist homeless people, many of them his fellow African Americans, living in a sidewalk tent encampment, to LGBTQ activist William Kelly, 69, in his work to establish the first LGBTQ senior housing community to San Diego.
Kelly’s story also is that of the decades-long conflicts that he and his now husband, Bob, have endured, eventually to see the remarkable turn-around of acceptance and heir 2008 marriage and his feeling of being “finally free.” Kelly, who was a banker, devotes energy centers on helping San Diego county’s lower-income LGBTQ residents, and he relates the rueful experience of his grandparents stories of having once had to live in an abandoned railroad car.
Each documentary surprises viewers with its subject’s real-life struggles. While Carmen Bianchi, 69, initially seems to be living a well-coiffed life in suburban Del Mar, her work running San Diego State University’s Family Business Forum emerged from her experience—one shared by so many professional women—of being demeaned and dismissed at every turn by her former husband and employer. An immigrant from South Africa, she was “squashed,” Bianchi says, “with zero support,” while also trying to raise three children.
At 77, Luis Monge, a former building inspector in Chula Vista, epitomizes the Mexican-immigration experience too seldom shown in the media’s current focus on cross-border tensions. The gentle patriarch of a lovely family, he, like Davis, is a member of the California Senior Legislature, where he has been developing legislation to promote intergenerational programs. (The Senior Legislature actually meets at the State Capital in Sacramento and many of its proposals over the years have been introduced in the real Legislature and have become California law.) Monge’s activities have included successfully leading the fight to keep the city from closing a senior center, to developing a community garden, to being active in his grandchildren’s school.
Also shown in the series is marathon runner, Richard Williams, 80, an organizer of competitive masters track activities in San Diego, as well as an historical-society docent. And Sharon Russakoff, 71, is an avid volunteer for theater and music organizations and singer with the Pacific Coast Chorale, as she copes with a severed disability, constant back pain incurred in an auto accident.
Kudos, also to KPBS for devoting its resources and air time to this in-depth examination of active aging through these six leaders from different walks and runs of life.
*** The Reunion Project is a new exhibition by photographer Lora Brody combining her portraits or older women with images of their younger selves intended to give senior women an “opportunity to reflect back on their lives, who they were as teenagers and who they are now. The project is best thought of as a performance piece where the women participants who engage in self-reflection become the performers.”
Reporters, whether in the Boston area or elsewhere, can get a glimpse of Brody’s story concept in the 5 minute video posted on the project website. For the project’s written component, she explains on the site that after her photo session with each, her subjects “also respond in writing, but anonymously, to a series of prompts that I supply. The prompts include invitations for self-reflection such as ‘Then I was…. Now I am,’ and ‘I used to think… Now I know.’” The project’s goal, Brody says, “is to give my subjects an opportunity to look back on their lives, to have a reunion with their teenage selves, while giving them a voice to share decades of acquired wisdom with younger generations.” She included 50 women, ages 65-plus, from the exhibition’s two locations: the Brookline Senior Center’s Gallery 93, where it is on display until June 29, and Goddard House where its Gallery M has the show up through May 31. For information contact Brody at lora@lorabrody.com; 617-974-6497.
4. GOOD SOURCES
*** Study: Huge Increase in Uninsured if Medicare’s Eligibility Age Raised: A new report from the National Committee to Preserve Social Security & Medicare Foundation says that raising the Medicare eligibility age from 65 to 67, long a goal of Republican leaders.
The research, conducted by the Actuarial Research Corporation (ARC) and funded by the Retirement Research Foundation, found, “If Medicare eligibility is raised to age 67 and the ACA remains in effect, by 2019 the percent uninsured among those aged 65 and 66 will increase more than nine-fold, from less than 2% to 18.7% (1.9 million people). If the ACA is repealed the uninsured rate will increase to 37%, more than one-third of those 65 and 66, affecting 3.8 million seniors.”
According to Marilyn Moon, who chaired the National Committee task force the produced the study, “After reviewing the ARC data, it’s clear that raising the Medicare age will undermine the health security of millions of older Americans. Those who become uninsured will have greater difficulty accessing health care, and as a result these individuals are likely to experience worsening health status.”
Moon, director of the American Institute for Research’s Center on Aging and a former public trustee of the Social Security and Medicare Trust Fund, continued, “This will also impact the Medicare system because when they do qualify for Medicare at 67, their poorer health will generate increased financial demands on the program.”
The study determined that repealing ACA “would also eliminate the special protections that currently allow access to insurance without discrimination (pre-existing conditions clauses). Consequently, people with the most severe health problems would have the most difficulty in obtaining coverage and will generate significant costs for hospitals, providers and private insurers who experience ‘cost-shifting’ as a hidden subsidy for care of the uninsured.
The full report, titled “Impact of Raising Eligibility Age for Medicare” (January 2017) and headed by Principal Investigator Peter S. Arno, PhD [info@socialsecurityspotlight.org] runs 19 pages.
*** The National Foundation to End Senior Hunger says, “In 2005 nearly 1 in 9 — or 5 million older citizens — were threatened by hunger then. By 2014 those ranks had increased to an intolerable 15.8 percent, or more than 10.2 million people.” In June 2016, they released their report, “State of Senior Hunger in America 2014.” The organization, based in Alexandria, Va., is headed by founder and CEO Enid Borden, who can be reached at 571-312-2675; e-mail: nfesh@nfesh.org. (Thanks to GBONews reader Marsha Weiner for this tip.)
*** Encore.org’s “Generation to Generation” Campaign To Mobilize 1 Million Older Adults to Help Youth Thrive.” The nonprofit creator of the Purpose Prize and other civic engagement programs for older Americans launched its new “Generation to Generation” Campaign last fall “to mobilize 1 million adults over 50 to help young people thrive”: Encore.org, creator of the Experience Corps, Purpose Prize and other entities promoting volunteerism and other approaches to civic engagement for older adults, has initiated a program with nonprofit partners in 25 communities improve opportunities for youth.
The program aims to “bring together communities, employers and member associations, youth-serving organizations, funders and public agencies to collaborate and connect,” in helping people of different ages, backgrounds and social classes to “fight inequality in the next generation.”
According to the Encore.org release, “One in five children in the U.S. grows up in poverty. Half of all children in our public schools are part of low-income families, typically starting kindergarten far behind their more affluent peers. And more than 5 million young people, ages 16-24, are on society’s margins, disconnected from school or work. Additional research shows that 32 million adults 50-plus are eager to dedicate their time and energy to well-run initiatives that bring the generations together for mutual benefit.”
The campaign a website assisting people to find volunteer opportunities at youth-serving organizations specifically seeking older skilled volunteers, along with other ways for individuals and organizations to get involved.
Encore.org founder and CEO Marc Freedman emphasized in the web release that intergenerational programs “are emerging all over the country — oftentimes, hidden in plain sight.” The Encore staff can assist reporters in connecting with many of the program’s local partner organizations for their stories.” Among groups working with Generation to Generation are AARP, Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, Boys & Girls Club of America, Corporation for National and Community Service, Generations United, Girls Inc., National Head Start Association and No Kid Hungry.
The also note that efforts to develop “intergenerational impact zones” have begun in Los Angeles, San Jose, Boston, Seattle and elsewhere. For more information and interview requests, contact the program’s communications director, Sarah McKinney, (smckinney@encore.org), or Marci Alboher of Encore.org (malboher@encore.org).
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