Over the years,
prominent people have offered different definitions of what home means.
Most have heard the Robert Frost definition: "Home is the place where, when
you have to go there, they have to take you in."
Christian Morgenstern
said that: "Home is not where you live, but where they understand you."
Joe Moore put it this
way: "Home is where you can say anything you please, because nobody pays any
attention to you anyway." He could have added the corollary that "the
General Assembly is also a place you can say anything you please, because no
matter how vanilla a statement is, someone will surely hold it against you."
Along life's road, we
all find occasions when we have to define what home means. My mother is in
a nursing home now, so I have gone through the wrenching decision process so
many families have experienced. Trying to find the right balance,
financially, medically, and emotionally. Then hoping that it is readily
available and reasonably accessible.
Dealing with such
considerations makes you fully appreciate the value of senior centers.
Among the things people complain about these days, you hear about the lack
of civility, the lack of regard for taxpayers, the lack of respect for our
older citizens and what they have done.
My advice to people is
that, if you want to see a place where good manners and solid service and
healthy respect still live, go see a senior center. The purpose of
Pennsylvania's senior centers has remained constant. To create a home-like
setting for those seeking services, activities, information, or the chance
to be sociable.
In small communities
and urban neighborhoods across the Commonwealth, the senior center has
become a vital part of the fabric, taking rank with the library, the
firehouse, and the foodbank.
Medical evidence
continues to come in underscoring things we intuitively know. Being active,
stimulating both body and mind, being social, being health conscious, paying
attention to eating right in sensible portions, these things all contribute
to longer lives, better quality lives, and help ward off debilitating
illnesses and conditions. Not coincidentally, all these things are on the
menu at most senior centers I have visited.
Particularly in these
tough economic times, when there is heavy pressure on public budgets,
taxpayers question almost everything state government does. Of course, most
prefer to throw overboard services they expect to have no need of. But you
do not see much in the way of second-guessing senior services. The need is
conceded, and the quality is recognized.
That does not guarantee
safe harbor status, mind you. State government is often criticized for
never turning out the lights on a program. But the bureaucrats are not
bashful about trying to shutter services in small communities, singing the
praises of consolidation. State officials have at times given thought to
closing what they term as "underperforming" senior centers. When a center
in my district was so targeted, the news went down like a gallon of cod
liver oil. Rallying to the cause, we found a more sensible and
community-sensitive answer. Today, that senior center is not only still
open, but more vibrant and more popular.
As we are now seeing,
virtually no area of state spending is sacrosanct anymore. But senior
centers deserve a place on the "Do Not Touch" list.
Earlier this week, the
Senate held our budget hearing for the Department of Aging. The Secretary
was peppered with questions, and few of them were happy inquiries. There
was an intensity to the questioning that was not found in most of the other
hearings. If anyone thought going in this was just political theatre, it
was apparent there was an added level of concern and caring involved here.
In an uplifting
interlude, the Secretary talked about a competitive grant program for senior
centers. That is a good thing, although the money available will cover
barely one-quarter of the needs. As we realize, it is not enough to just
sustain these facilities as they are. We need to renovate structures,
enhance programs, and increase participation.
Over the years, we have
become much more sensitive to the needs of seniors for protective services.
These might be physical, or increasingly they are financial. Senior centers
are a place where protective services can be detailed and connections made.
Troubling, however, there is no longer a state appropriation for
guardianship services, and a smaller federal grant has about run out. It is
false economy to cut small amounts of money that play a large role in the
lives of some of our most vulnerable citizens.
In these tough times,
we are reminded that the architects of the state lottery made a crucial
decision when the proceeds were to go only to benefit older Pennsylvanians.
There is no threat to the dollars produced. They go for the intended and
prescribed purposes. Without that time-tested protection, the mood of
senior advocates would be markedly gloomier these days. But anxiety is
rising over the legalized gambling binge Pennsylvania is on, for fear it
will erode the amount of money coming into the Lottery Fund.
In these tough times,
with ugly choices and difficult decisions in front of us, you find out who
your friends really are. Many will say the right words about your concerns
and priorities. Far fewer will go to the wall for you when it truly counts.
In these tough times,
health care concerns and health care costs are touching everyone and
everything. Whatever happens, or fails to happen, in Washington, we have to
continually search for ways to get quality services to more people more cost
effectively. Most people are not particular which level of government hits
the finish line on health care reform – they just hope someone does,
sometime soon.
Pennsylvania has plenty
of opportunities to act on health care, through laws and policies and
funding. In ten months, a new Administration, with a fresh agenda and
different priorities, will be in place. So for everyone dissatisfied with
funding levels, policy choices, and priority determinations, there is hope
on the horizon.
Discussions about care
inevitably focus on money. Yet, our checklist of factors for considering
includes safety, security, dignity, respect. Virtues found in senior
centers. For the interests of Pennsylvania's seniors, for their families,
and for their communities, we have a solemn obligation. We cannot afford to
short-sheet funding for senior services generally, or for senior centers
specifically. Nor should they be regarded as anything less than
indispensable facilities providing irreplaceable services with a
hard-to-match manner of caring and compassion.
