The long lead article in the 1/1-15/21 TPP [“Trapped Inside an Assisted Living Facility During the Pandemic,” by Ava Kofman] is misleading, angst-ridden and, IMO, pointless. Two levels of elder-service living are mentioned: assisted living and nursing home. But, in fact, there is a tripartite system: any retirement community (RC) contains independent living and assisted living, while what is called a nursing home is always stand-alone. Within the RC, assisted living is available to any temporarily laid up (independent) resident and, some may eventually be in assisted living until they die. For these latter folks, assisted living then becomes, in effect, a nursing home. RCs usually feature both apartments and standalone houses.
I see no way to use the nomenclature in the TPP article to accurately describe the reality sketched out above, and since I am living in an RC in an independent living apartment (as were my parents and parents-in-law), I am confident in my assertions. Furthermore the RC model works better than the one implied in the article. Pre-COVID, any independent living resident may, from time to time, move into assisted living for a while and yet not be away from spouses and friends. And even if their condition deteriorates to the point that they will be in assisted living until they die, community members and nearby family (if they have any) will be able to access them (again this is pre-COVID).
Of course, RC residents die, but a small death announcement shelf in the central lobby communicates the news to the community.
Are I and my friends “trapped” in our facility? Well, yes, we are now because of COVID. But, had we remained in the houses where we had heretofore lived, we would also now be “trapped.” The TPP headline is quite misleading.
Also misleading, given my current experience, is the article’s implied idea that facilities are segregated on a wealth basis in a fairly rigid way. Where I live the smallest apartment is apparently within financial reach of one who has consistently worked over the years at higher than minimum wage and has earned (even) a small pension. But we also have wealthier folks who avoid or delay going into assisted living by having one or more personal servants, or who winter in Florida.
If the folks in the article are “victims,” they are such because our culture makes it easy and sometimes almost imperative for middle-aged children to ignore their aging parents, an unfortunate trend now brutally exacerbated by the virus. These are the two “villains” that have trapped us. With so many urgent progressive matters now crying out for TPP attention, adding this faux institutional reform issue to the list is a disservice.
However counter-intuitive it may seem, the best advice for those living in the facility described in the article is to move to West Virginia.
JOHN D. PALMER, Huntington, W.V.
Prior to the 2020 presidential election, reasoned people worldwide acknowledged the apocalyptic consequences of a second term of Donald Trump. The unthinkable was avoided due to a landmark and historic voter turnout in the United States.
Although I share the euphoria of ending the reign of the narcissistic psychopath who with precision almost destroyed American democracy, that euphoria is tempered by a sobering reality. The reality – over 74 million people voted for a man whose epic incompetence, indifference and hatred for science paved the way for thousands of needless and preventable deaths in the COVID pandemic.
Seventy-four million Americans voted for a man who has told in four years over 25,000 lies. Seventy-four million voted for a man who has allegedly assaulted 47 women – the numbers may be much higher. Seventy-four million voted for a man who had four draft deferments, including paying off a physician to say he had flat feet. Seventy-four million voted for a man who openly and strategically supported racial polarization while pandering to the growing domestic movement of white supremacists who post a grave threat to the nation per the Department of Homeland Security. Seventy-four million voted for a man who has gutted every international nuclear treaty increasing a thousand fold the likelihood of nuclear apocalypse. Seventy-four million voted for a man who has systematically destroyed decades of environmental protections that offered the world a modest chance to avert environmental Armageddon in this – our time of the 6th great extinction. Seventy-four million voted for a man who initiated legislation that institutionalized income inequality for Americas growing and impoverished working class.
It’s impossible to quantify the scope – the impact of the damage that Donald Trump has wrought in his four years. His impact is akin to a toxic radioactive cloud that has descended on the whole of America. Assessing the damage will take decades. That said, civilized and reasoned Americans need to acknowledge our sobering reality. The dark forces of hatred – racial divide – misogyny and ignorance have been unleashed.
The only way to offset those forces is to achieve and maintain a total and unrelenting commitment to authentic democracy. This commitment is the ultimate in patriotism and love of country in this era and time of national polarization.
JIM SAWYER, Edmonds, Wash.
To Republican Senator Mitch McConnell: nnIn December 2017 you reduced from 50% to 0% the inheritance tax for those who pass-forward billions to their selected beneficiaries, and you dramatically lowered for all SuperWealthy the income taxes they pay as well as the corporate taxes their businesses pay, giving us trillion-dollar federal budget deficits every year thereafter, which you have predictably used as excuse to slash nutrition-support, education support, housing support, healthcare support etc. for the non-billionaires of America.
You have been a generator of massive waste when it serves corporate power, as when you and fellow rightwing yes-persons insist that emergency food worth no more than $20 (in normal retail shopping) be distributed in boxes, boxes the contents of which are selected-by and distributed-by chosen corporations to whom you pay $60 per box ... all rather than giving $60 directly to each would-be box recipient .
Full-amount stimulus checks go to people earning less than $75K per year, and NO stimulus check goes to anyone earning more than $87K per year. These recipients, all of them, are NOT the rich, and include tens of millions who are food-deficient at this moment. But you tell us you can think of BETTER ways to spend stimulus money than instant check-disbursement .
Given your haughty arrogance and history of denial of decision-making freedom to Americans who are not SuperRich, why would any adult American, about to receive a stimulus check, want YOU, Mitch McConnell, to decide how to spend his or her $2.000?
STEPHEN WOHL, New York, N.Y.
Ted Rall is obviously much younger than I, so naturally he never experienced what an oppressive police force is like. (“Hey Joe! These are our demands” (1/1-15/21 TPP).
I have. And in comparison to yesteryear’s cops, most of today’s officers are like gentle lambs.
Consider, for example, my own story: One night sixty-some years ago, while walking in a predominantly white neighborhood where I lived, two patrolmen stopped me, shoved me against a wall, and ordered me to place my hands against the wall and spread apart my feet, and then vigorously frisked me. My crime? I was walking late at night in my neighborhood which those gallant officers were sworn to protect.
Before finally releasing me, one of the officers said, “And keep your nose clean.” To them, I was not a harmless young man. No! I was a Mexican — and thus a menace to the community.
I am now almost 80 years old, and can walk anywhere and whenever I choose, without having to fear that the police will stop and humiliate me at best, or mistreat me at worst.
Yes, the police force, like every public service, needs to be made better ... but for Ted Rall to suggest firing every local, state and federal policeman because “American policing is an engine of oppression rather than protection” is, in my opinion, unreasonable and far too extreme.
DAVID QUINTERO, Monrovia, Calif.
I would like to respond to Dana Milbank’s excellent article, “Trump’s Racist Appeals Powered a White Evangelical Tsunami” (12/15/20 TPP).
Labels can be confusing. No one is born white with the color of white chalk or a white bedsheet. No Asian is born with canary-yellow skin and no Native American Indian is born with fire engine red skin. All humans are people of color, only our skin color may be of a different shade. Even Albinos have a pinkish hue.
I am surprised evangelicals focus on skin color, since the spiritual qualities of a person’s character are invisible, thus have no color at all. Indeed, racism is a contagious disease, based on ignorance, for which there is no vaccine!
GILBERT A. RUBIO, San Diego, Calif.
I concur wholeheartedly with Hal Crowther’s depiction (front page, 12/15/20 TPP) of Trump as a bastard. For most people an accident of birth. However, Trump is a self-made man!
JOHN P. DAIS, Oshkosh, Wis.
Editor replies: Don’t sell short the influence of Trump’s father.
From The Progressive Populist, February 1, 2021
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