Seniors by Stephanie Stearling

March 2006

Seniors, the Elderly, those wonderful people we call our Grandparents that fill us with stories from the past. Stories large and small of heroic acts that helped shape our families, our communities, our Nation.

Many of these very people are struggling to survive as you read this. These very people when they were young, strong and smart as a whip survived through the Great Depression, fought in the wars our children read about in textbooks or the wives who kept everything back at home running smoothly are making life and death decisions right now.

25 % of seniors in our country felt they have no choice but to choose between food and medical care. 30% have had to choose between buying food for themselves or paying for their heat/utilities.

The Gilman Senior center alone in Essex County serves approximately 10,000 meals a year to people 6o years of age or older along with their spouse. For Essex County residents, these are our neighbors, our family. Thank goodness for the volunteers who go to that little building in Gilman and take the time to cook, package and serve these meals. They know too well that these meals are not only helping the recipients to remain healthy but they are helping to take a little of the burden off their shoulders in having to make such hard and in my opinion unnecessary decisions.

Why does Vermont rank last in the nation in terms of assisting low-income residents with meeting the high home energy costs? Why is my state, our great State of Vermont not doing more to help our elderly live out their retirement years without having to cut pills to make their medicine last longer or having to ration their food supply? Why is it during a winter storm with expected power outages or during the summer months with no electricity to run fans or air conditioners we hear “Please check on your neighbors, especially the elderly”? We hear it because the young and the old are most vulnerable. Thing is, they are not the most vulnerable during these times alone; they are every day of the week.

I believe our state should be doing more to help the ones who have “paid their dues”. There are people in our state who find themselves in predicaments where they need assistance to get by, I understand this and I support the assistance provided when it is truly needed. For the ones who are fully capable of putting in a hard days work and choose instead to cheat the system, shame on you. You are taking away from the population that needs it the most. One way to place faith back into our system would be to weed out the laziness and allow our hard earned tax dollars to care for the ones who really need it, one of which is our elderly.

Governor Douglas, do not oppose an electric bill subsidy program. I would like to see you and our legislators find the solution to making sure our tax dollars help the ones who really need it. This is why we elected you.   As much as some of us struggle to keep up with our own electric bills, the elderly are living on fixed incomes. They have a set amount to live on and that’s it. If after reading this you too feel our state should be doing more to help our elderly, take a stand, let your feelings be known

As human beings, it is our responsibility to give back to the ones who gave to us. It is our moral obligation.

Respectfully,

Stephanie R. Sterling

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