A Place to Sit

A few years back, a friend went to a specialist. Walking had become so difficult, she couldn’t go a full block without stopping to let her knee pain fade. She was just past 50, and even though the doctor agreed that her arthritis was bad, he felt she was ‘too young’ to have a knee replaced. He gave her a pair of knee braces to help keep the bones in proper alignment and suggest she lose weight. But the braces tended to slide down her legs, which didn’t keep anything in alignment, and without being able to use her knees for exercise, it was pretty impossible to lose weight.

About 5 years later, she returned, braced to receive shots of fake lubricant in her knees, even though that stuff had to be renewed (more shots) every 3 months. NOW he was ready to replace one of her knees, but felt she could ‘put up with’ the other one a while longer. He still wanted her to lose weight.

Today, she is doing better. Only the one knee has been replaced, but the ‘old’ knee only occasionally gives her any pain. She belongs to a gym and works out fairly regularly, but has only gotten up to 1.5 miles on a treadmill. She enjoys theme parks and shopping malls, and used to enjoy a nature walk from time to time, but she really can’t do those any more. Why not? Because a lot of these places don’t have benches in the locations where she needs them.

For instance, at a theme park, you are expected to walk from your car somewhere in a sea of a parking lot to the entry gate, stand in line to get in, and then walk some more before you come to a snack place that might have a bench. And after you’ve spent the day walking and standing in line (with only a minute here or there sitting on a ride), you are expected to walk all the way back out the gate and to your car, if you can remember where you left it.

She had a handicapped sticker for her car for 3 months while she recovered from her surgery, but now she gets to park out with the regular people, beyond the handicapped stalls, the pregnancy stalls, the taxi stalls ... and there won’t be a bench for her to catch her breath when she finally gets to the mall door, either.

I don’t think a day goes by that you don’t hear somebody mention that today’s citizens are aging, that the ‘baby boomers’ are starting to retire. So why can’t anybody install a few benches scattered along the pathway?

Entitlements

I’m sure you’ve heard this word a lot lately; the Republican candidates have assigned it a negative connotation. I’m not sure exactly what they include in the ‘foul’ embrace of ‘entitlements’, but they certainly have been pushing my buttons.

Social Security – I’ve worked over 40 years, have been paying into Social Security since my mid-teens. When I can start receiving an ss check every month, then … darn right I’m entitled to it! It’s MY money! Politicians talk about the trouble social security is in. I remember hearing – years ago – that Congress saw social security as another pocket they could dip into whenever they felt like spending. Has that money ever been put back in? It’s just like a pension plan, right? Of course it breaks down if the company dips into the pension plan to buy office furniture! But that isn’t the fault of the people who have been paying in.

Medicare – I have heard horror stories about Medicare, like a 96-year-old falls on a patch of ice and breaks a leg (at least), and Medicare argues that it wasn’t ‘necessary’ for the ambulance to take her to the hospital, and they wouldn’t pay for that. But the fact is, businesses don’t continue paying any of your insurance premiums once you retire. And buying your own insurance is not feasible. I know someone who pays over 1/3 of her pension to her mortgage. She recently got a quote for health insurance that would take another 1/3 of her pension each month. If she wants to eat, have water to drink and keep her house above freezing in winter, all her other bills would go unpaid. So she’s gambling she won’t get sick, won’t slip on any ice patches. At least, not until she can sign up for Medicare in a few years.

The fanatics who are fanning the flames against ‘entitlements’ must either be rich, or they have ‘forgotten’ that old people don’t just disappear when they retire. After working for decades, retirees are hoping for a few years of relatively good health when they can enjoy themselves. Possibly they still have one or both of their own parents who are now relying on them for assistance, a ride to the doctor’s office, or so on. What do these fanatics do when their mother falls? Do they say, “Oh, well, she’s past her prime, and we can’t expect any more productivity from her, so just leave her there.” Or do they call for an ambulance, take her to a doctor to be checked out?