SEPTEMBER 13th IS ABOUT GRANDPARENTS RIGHTS TO CELEBRATE

Each year Grandparents day comes at the end of summer. What an appropriately symbolic time as we go into autumn. A time for Celebration, a time of Color, a time of Change. All of these also say some things about grandparents.

Grandparents, all 70 million of us, are not the stereotypical sit on the porch grandparents of old. We are a force for good, a force for change and a force to be heard.

According to The Huffington Post, Robert Reich, Secretary of Labor during the Clinton Administration wants all grandparents to stand and be counted on Grandparents Day. He is calling for a march on Washington to challenge Congress to pass meaningful Health-Care Reform. Mr. Reich advocates the current administration’s idea for the “Public Option”. This, of course draws the criticism that Reich, a new grandparent himself, is exploiting Grandparents Day for political purposes. I like what Grandparents.com had to say about that. They say, “It’s about time”. This issue affects grandparents even more than any other group and we have to speak up now or it may be a long time until we get this kind of awareness to the issue of HealthCare. The Insurance and Health industries are spending lots and lots and lots of money to try to stem these changes and get the American people to settle for the “Status Quo”. Of course they do (duh). This approach is shortsighted at best and profit mongering at worst. This is not a matter of opinion or political ideology, this is a statement of the mathematical reality. The word unsustainable is an understatement when it comes to this issue. It was Albert Einstein who said “the definition of insanity is continuing the same behavior and expecting a different outcome”.

Now, before you accuse me of a drunken rage (I don’t drink anyway), I will admit that this is a complicated issue and I am sure there are intelligent folks that can help us through this. However, we can’t let the fact that it is complex be used as an excuse to tell 70 million people to just “Trust us”, especially when the “us” are industry representatives and politicians that are funded by that very industry.

It is my hope that regardless what you do this Grandparents day that you will celebrate the power you have. I am not talking just about political power, but the power to use your hard earned wisdom for the good of all. A good deal of my energy has gone into a blog that I write, www.CaringGrandparents.com. Life has treated me so well that I want to share the joy of so many wonderful experiences of the past 6 plus decades in the hope that I may encourage and enrich someone else along the way.

Happy Grandparents Day!!