SITTING, STANDING, STRETCHING: PHYSICAL THERAPIST TO PROVIDE TIPS FOR BETTER HEALTH—March 9 AT 11:00 WEST WIND
Brian
Reardon, the supervisor of physical therapy and rehabilitation services at the
Kinnic Health and Rehab Center in River Falls will give us instruction on and
active practice in standing, sitting, walking, and stretching in ways that help
us maintain healthy postures at our next meeting. Some simple activities added to our daily
routines can make a significant difference in our quality of life.
Federal
guidelines suggest 150 minutes of moderate activity per week for older adults
to maintain good health. However,
Northwestern University researchers found that 45 minutes per week of moderate
exercise, such as brisk walking, was enough to improve or sustain physical
function for people with arthritis.
Another recent study showed that people 65 and older who exercised had
lower odds of developing dementia than those who didn’t.
For
those of us who might be a little more ambitious, weight training provides even
more benefits. Older adults who work
with weights two to three times a week increase muscle mass, preserved bone
density, and achieved greater independence.
Additionally, strength training prevents heart disease, controls arthritis,
helps to prevent Type 2 diabetes, improves sleep, and reduces depression (Amy
Osmond, “Strength Training for Older Adults,” https://tinyurl.com/hqxmtcd).
Our meeting will not involve anything more strenuous than standing and sitting! But we will get some good recommendations for better health. Mark your calendars. It should be an excellent program.
PRESIDENT’S CORNER
By Roger Hulne
vMy wife Patricia and I made our first winter snowbird
trip to Florida. We were gone for five weeks.
We purchased a used 30-foot RV, along with a tow package, to bring our
Equinox with us to Florida. We left
January 13th with a temperature of 7 degrees below zero. We spent three days in Iowa waiting out an
ice storm and one day in Missouri due to mechanical problem. The maiden trip with the RV and tow took us
eight days to reach our first destination, visiting friends in Central
Florida. It was far from a relaxing
experience plodding along at 65 mph on busy freeways towing our vehicle. We later spent two weeks in Fort Myers and
one week in the Florida Keys. I must
admit the weather was great. I miss it already.
It only took us four days to drive back to Prescott where we were
greeting with 50-degree weather. I don’t
know if we will choose this method of traveling next winter, over 4,000 miles
of driving both ways was taxing on this old man.
vThank you to Ruth Wood for chairing the February
meeting. It was suggested at that
meeting that we hold a retirement seminar in early April. I am in the process of scheduling this with
WREA to be held 4:30 PM in the RFHS library.
We will need help with publicity and at the gathering—contacting school
districts, making sure articles get in local newspapers, and helping on the day
of the meeting with registration, distribution of materials, and
refreshments. So stay tuned for more
details about volunteering.
vTony Evers the current State Superintendent easily won
the February Primary with over 60% of the vote.
I have known Tony for almost 20 years.
He is a strong advocate for public education and our children. It will be very important for those of us who
support public education to come our and support Tony Evers in the April
election, at which the voter turn out will be much higher.
TRUMP’S CURE-ALL FOR THE ECONOMY:
ONE MORE ALTERNATIVE FACT
By Bernie Brohaugh
A remarkable business
accomplishment of Donald Trump is that he knows how to make money by declaring
bankruptcy. He has done it four times, and he is proud of his success. Unfortunately, his strategy to steer the U.S.
economy will not likely bring results he can be equally proud of. Four decades of this strategy, trickle-down
economics, which George H. W. Bush called a “voodoo” system, has resulted
almost exclusively in the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. The trickle went up instead of down. Coupled with the removal of regulations on
business that are supposed to protect consumers, the downward trickle that
Trump wants us to believe will at long last occur--despite a forty-year
delay--will very probably be, like many of his “alternative facts,” a far cry
from reality. And his hot air
conjectures of prosperity become even more preposterous as he vows to lower the
taxes on the rich. Are these old
Republican chestnuts really going to “make America great again”? They’ve never worked before, so why should
they now?
One other treatment Trump
prescribes for our ailing economy is withdrawal or abstention from all trade
agreements like NAFTA and the Trans Pacific Partnership. The consensus of economists who have
commented on U.S. involvement in NAFTA seems to be that it has done more good
for Canada and Mexico than for the U. S., but that all three countries have
increased their trade revenues because of it.
The U. S. has lost some jobs, but not so many, say most of the experts,
as to affect employment significantly.
So Trump’s proposal in itself probably would do little or nothing to
restore the well-being of the U.S. labor force.
What Trump probably doesn’t realize
is that the problem with our economy is not stultifying regulation of business
or excessive taxation of the rich or inequitable trade policies. The problem is capitalist greed. Greed has caused the lopsided accumulation of
wealth of our population, and greed is a stubborn, persistent motivator not
easily dealt with. Because they control
the government, the tycoons at the top of our social ladder have been able to
rig the system to provide caviar and lobster for themselves but only cold,
nine-day’s-old pease porridge for everybody else. The incomes of the huge majority of our
population have stagnated while the cost of living has continued to rise. Why it has taken so long for most of us to
discover what has been going on is surprising.
Or is it? Richard Wolff, a Marxian economist who is now
a professor emeritus from the University of Massachusetts, provides an
enlightening discussion of the inequity in our economy, simultaneously
revealing why we have been relatively heedless of it for so long. In his book Capitalism Hits the Fan: The
Global Economic Meltdown and What To Do About It (2010), he identifies what
is essentially a duping and self-deception of those whose incomes--in terms
relative to the rising cost of living--are virtually the same as or less than
they were 40 years ago. To put it
simply, we have been misled by an extravagant supply of credit. To sustain ourselves--even to the point of
indulgence-- when our wages are not adequate to do so, we have been able to run
up huge credit card debt and to borrow in other ways with appalling ease, thus
satisfying our craving for material comforts and our lust for status. So, if we can get what we want, why worry
about wages? Why think about economic
trends? Few borrowers did, in fact, until 2008.
The irony of this situation, Wolff
points out, is that the money being borrowed was money that should have
belonged to the borrowers in the first place, money that the tycoons should
have been paying in wages. Instead, they
put it in banks, and the banks collected interest on it, much of which, of
course, was disbursed among the depositors.
What a clever way to get blood from a turnip! It amounts to charging a fee for
short-changing your employee. And it
may not end soon. If Trump and the
Republicans roll back regulations on lending, as they probably will, we may be
in for more reckless borrowing--provided suckers like those victimized in the
last crisis can be rounded up.
If the income gap between rich and
poor continues to widen--and as long as capitalism holds sway, nothing is
likely to change--we cannot expect a cure for the malady in our economy. Wolff says we need to replace capitalist enterprises
with cooperatives: businesses which are owned and run by the workers. That probably won’t happen soon. It would require far more control of greed
than we are presently capable of.
So Trump is not likely to engineer
any economic scheme that will “make America great again.“ The situation will probably get worse before
it gets better.
LEGISLATIVE UPDATES
By Bonnie
Jones-Witthuhn, Legislative Chair
PUBLIC SCHOOL FUNDING
Governor Walker has proposed a $76 billion education budget, giving schools a $200 per pupil increase. Walker also included State Superintendent Tony Evers' recommendations concerning mental health and increased financial support for rural schools. This budget is a proposal, and Republicans are not totally supportive of it. Wisconsin Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, has said that while he supports some of the budget, it probably will not match the amount in Walker's proposed budget. So, our task is to be vocal about the amount and focus of the education budget (Cap Times 9 Feb. 2017).
A recent article from the Wisconsin Budget Project points out that 11 individuals will get $22 million tax break: "The Manufacturing and Agriculture Credit nearly wipes out state income tax liability for manufacturers and agriculture producers in Wisconsin. . . . In 2017 alone the credit will cost the state $299 million in reduced revenue . . . ballooning to more than $650 million for the upcoming budget period that starts in July 2017" (Tamarine Cornelius, "Tax Break for Wealthy Keeps Growing," Wisconsin Budget Project, 3 Feb. 2017).
This is lost revenue that will not be supporting our public schools--or fixing roads and bridges, maintaining our natural resources, or meeting any of the important needs facing our state.
Tony Evers moves on to the April 4 election after receiving approximately 75% of the votes. Many of us are delighted to hear this good news. Evers has been and continues to be a strong advocate for public schools. Be ready to vote on April 4th.
UW SYSTEM FUNDING
Governor Walker has again proposed a
tuition reduction to be offset by increased state funding of $100 million
dollars. This funding may be tied more strongly to performance. While that is
not wrong, it is unsettling depending on who writes the performance criteria
and who uses that criteria and when it will be used. According to The Badger Herald, UW-Madison Chancellor Blank highlighted six
areas of concern: 1) the compensation
plan for UW employees; 2) performance-based funding; 3) faculty workload
reporting; 4) segregated fees; 5) academic freedom policy; and 6) the capital
budget (23 Feb. 2017). According to
UW-River Falls Chancellor Dean Van Galen, System campuses will see an overall
decrease again in their budgets. Despite
an increase from the legislature, the decrease in student tuition means more
cuts.
Maybe we can all find our pen and paper--or emails or telephones--and voice our collective objections to tax breaks that reduce general revenue and reduce our public schools budget--K-12 and UW System.
Governor Scott Walker
115 East Capital P.O. Box
7863
Rep. Shannon Zimmerman (30th district) Sen. Sheila Harsdorf
W10887 875th Ave State Capitol Room 122 South
River Falls WI 54022-4730 Madison, WI 53702
NATIONAL NEWS—Betsy DeVos was
confirmed as Secretary of Education. She has little to no experience with
public education. We must be clear voices of support for our public schools.
Her most recent action has been to support President Trump’s decision to
withdraw federal support for transgender individuals to be able to use the
bathroom that matches their current gender. While that may not affect finances
directly, the clear indication is that both Trump and DeVos will shift more
decisions about social and financial concerns to the states with less federal
involvement and maybe fewer federal dollars.
The
federal share of K-12 spending has risen very quickly, particularly in recent
years. sIn 1990-91, the federal
share of total K-12 spending in the United States was just 5.7 percent. Since
that time, it has risen by more than one-third and is now 8.3 percent of the
total. (US Department of Education website.
- The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) assists states and local schools in educating children with disabilities. Grants to states under Part B—the second largest federal K-12 program—would provide over $11 billion to states and local schools to assist their efforts
- Title I, the largest federal K-12 program, would provide over $13 billion to local districts to improve the academic achievement of children in high-poverty schools.
- English Language Acquisition would provide $675.8 million to states to assist schools in improving the education of limited English-proficient children by teaching them English and helping them meet state academic standards.
While
these fluctuate, and the list is only a sample, federal funding for public
schools is important. Even more vital is
the tone and direction for public education in our country. We need pay close attention in the coming
months to proposals coming out of the new administration and the Department of
Education because federal dollars—already inadequate to cover mandated
services—are likely to be cut.
HEALTH UPDATES
By Tom Possley, Health Committee Chair
From
Representative Chris Taylor on the negative effects of proposed self-insurance
for state employees:
“Not only
will public employees again be asked to pony up for more of their health care
costs, but all Wisconsin taxpayers should be worried about what self-insurance
means for the state’s coffers, for their own pocket books, and for their own
health care. Taking 250,000 individuals
out of Wisconsin’s health care market most definitely will impact the health
care premiums, provider choices and health care access of everyone else who
remains.
“The
state’s cash reserves are not even close to covering the potential risks of
self-insurance, which, at a minimum, would require the state to triple its
reserves. Some states that have moved to a self-insurance model, including
North Carolina, underestimated the amount and costs of claims and experienced a
$250+ million budget deficit due to unexpected claims. Compared to other states, Wisconsin has
larger health insurance costs, partially due to our chronic disease condition
rates being significantly higher. One
bad year will force us to redirect money towards covering health care costs
that could be going towards our k-12 schools, our roads and the UW System.”
SECRETARY’S REPORT
By Gail Possley, Secretary
Minutes of RFArea REA
Business Meeting—9 February 2017
Vice President Ruth Wood
called the meeting to order at 11:05 a.m. at the West Wind with 16 members
being present. She shared the January
Board meeting notes. She also mentioned
that two visitors were present: Collette Grothe, retired from St. Croix School
District, and LuAnn Foster, retired from the Prescott School District.
Ruth mentioned community
service and the no-bake sale coming up in April, but funds can be brought in
March. Marilyn Plansky stated that the
library still needs volunteers.
Tom Possley reported that
Medicare is being targeted by key congressional leaders for changes that would
increase healthcare costs for seniors and leave them paying more for their
healthcare while getting less. Paul
Ryan’s plan would eliminate the guaranteed level of coverage that Medicare
currently provides — e.g., covering hospital care and 80 percent of the total
cost of doctor visits — and replace it with “vouchers” with which seniors would
be directed to buy their own health insurance from the private sector. Ryan’s proposal would not affect those
currently on Medicare. However, by moving younger, healthier seniors into
private plans via the use of vouchers, those now in the traditional Medicare
program will see their own premiums rise dramatically. The Medicare benefits they’ve earned may soon
become unaffordable. Tom also reported
that Governor Scott Walker wants to change to a self-insurance program, but
legislators are skeptical because the state could end up paying more for health
care under this type of system.
Laura addressed scholarships
and also memberships. She stated that we
need to contact people to boost our numbers. She will distribute names of
people who belong to WREA but not to our local unit.
Regarding old business: Roger
Hulne will be contacting WREA to schedule a retirement meeting for area
educators planning retirement in the next few years. It is recommended that
units host such meetings every 2-3 years.
It has been three years since we hosted the last meeting, which attracted
more than 90 people.
New business:
1). We discussed upcoming
programs, such as having a physical therapist teach us how to move properly, a
Madison rep. to discuss insurance, visiting area breweries and/or wineries this
summer. A field trip has been scheduled
to tour the Prescott H.S. and see their new technology,
2). Feb. 21st –
vote for Superintendent Evers. Bonnie’s
writing an article for the River Falls newspaper.
3). Governor Scott Walker has
proposed increased funding for public education that equals what he took away
in 2011 and a decrease in tuition and public funding to the UW system. There will be a “Back-to-School” savings on
Aug. 17 & 18. Some 2 year campuses
may be closing. There have been tax cuts
in manufacturing and agriculture, but new jobs have not been created. He is not expanding the voucher program and
there will be no road building.
The business meeting
adjourned at 11:30.
SCHOLARSHIP NEWS
SCHOLARSHIPS AWARDED
Each spring RFArea REA names
two scholarship winners from high schools in our District III area. When those students have successfully
completed their first semester of college coursework, they submit their grades
and evidence of registration for second semester and are then sent their checks
for $500.
Hailey Schultz
graduated from St. Croix Central High School in May 2016. She is enrolled at Concordia University with
a major in Early Childhood Education and a minor in Adaptive Education. She has already begun taking education
courses—Foundations of Education, Exceptional Child, and a special education
clinical course along with other requirements.
She had an outstanding first semester.
Becky
Fesenmaier graduated
from Spring Valley High School in May 2016.
She is a student UW- Stout majoring in Early Childhood Education and
plans to add a concentration in Special Education. She writes, “I hope to someday work in an
elementary school, preferably at the 4-K level or 1st grade, where I
can create a safe, engaging, and inclusive learning environment for my
students. I have been surrounded by
outstanding educators in my family and in the town where I grew up who have all helped me become the person I am. I hope
to be able to do the same thing for my students someday.”
SCHOLARSHIP FUND—“NO BAKE BAKE SALE”—APRIL 2017
This year we are trying
something new. Our only fundraiser for
the scholarship fund over the years has been our April bake sale. Customarily, we asked members to drop of
baked goods to the local bank where we would sell those items to customers.
We also solicited
contributions from our members in lieu of bakery. Truth be told, those contributions counted
for more than half the fundraising over the past few years.
Since the River Falls Bank is
undergoing renovation and since the usual date for our bake sale conflicts with
our April meeting, members agreed that this year we will skip the baking and go
straight for the dough—money that is!
Over the next four weeks, please send the money you would have spent on
baking ingredients directly to the RFArea REA Treasurer, Laura Zlogar, at 729
River Ridge Ct., River Falls, WI 54022.
You can also bring donations to our March 9th or April 13th
meetings.
This year’s scholarship
applications are due on April 1st.
They will be reviewed by the Scholarship Committee, chaired by Tony
Pedriana. The two graduating high school
seniors awarded these scholarships will be named in May.
MEMBERSHIP NEWS
By Laura Zlogar, Membership Chair
Membership Lists
In a separate email, you will
be receiving a list of WREA members who belong to the state organization and
live in our district but who are not affiliated with our unit. If you know anyone on the list or if any of
the names live near you, please call them and invite them to a meeting. Or drop them a quick postcard or note letting
them who we are, when and where we meet, and invite them to join us. Personal contact is important if we are to
grow our membership.
Which Organization Should I Join?
We have heard that some newly
retired folks are sometimes confused about the various organizations
representing public education, teachers and administrators, and retired
educators. Some are particularly
confused about the difference between WREA and WEAC.
WREA (Wisconsin Retired Educators’ Association) is
the only organization specifically representing annuitants who are part of WRS
(Wisconsin Retirement System) and receive a pension from ETF. Its core mission is to promote and protect retiree
interests. This organization is
political, but not partisan. That is,
WREA monitors legislative actions that may affect WRS, retirees, and Wisconsin
public education and advocates for those interests. It is does not endorse candidates or identify
with one political party. WREA is
committed to
- Monitoring and protecting Wisconsin Retirement System (WRS) pension benefits
- Continuing an effective legislative presence
- Advocating for high quality and effective public education
- Providing relevant retirement information
- Building and retaining members
- Providing and improving member benefits (From www.WREA.net)
Our local RFAreaREA unit is a
conduit for information and initiatives from the state organization. It also
helps us to understand what is happening locally that may affect us as retired
educators, administrators, and staff or public education. We also try to have some fun!
We know that some of our
members or potential members may also be members of WEAC, which represents
public education employees, most of whom are actively employed—teachers,
counselors, librarians, support staff, and active retired members. While you might want to belong to both
organizations, retirees are only one of WEAC’s constituencies. They are WREA’s only constituency.
New Faces
We would like to welcome Collette Grothe to our unit. She was a colleague in the St. Croix School District with another one of our new members, Adrianne Lemberg, who invited her to come to our last meeting. Collette is a resident of River Falls.
We also want to welcome a visitor from Prescott School District, LuAnn Foster. She is a former colleague with members Roger Hulne and Bonnie Jones-Witthuhn. We hope that LuAnn had a good time, and we hope that she will attend future meetings.
RFAREA REA MEETING HIGHLIGHTS
Born in
Tanzania and raised in Canada, Imtiaz knew that his grandfather in Mumbai,
India, was blind, but he just could not believe that he would share the same
family illness until one evening, during dinner with a friend at the West Wind
in River Falls, he suddenly could not tolerate the light, he began seeing
spots, and when he awoke the next morning, he couldn’t see his hands. As he said, at that moment he realized, “I am
a blind guy. My life has changed
forever.” Whereas most people with
retinitis pigmentosa suffer vision loss gradually, his was sudden and
immediate.
His first
thoughts were not about the practical problems he would face—how he would read
and teach—but what people would think.
He was now “handicapped.” He
would lose standing among his colleagues and students. He would need to ask for help. This mental pain was so severe that he felt
suicidal. His mother and brother came to
be with him at this crucial moment.
Imtiaz
had an epiphany of sorts after bouts of rage.
He asked himself, “Why me?” Why
did he have to suffer through this anguish?
His life as a philosopher came to his aid. He realized that no one had done an injustice
to him. Instead, he came to the
realization, “Why not me?” As he stated,
as human beings, we crave a narrative to help explain who we are. Sometimes, that is a cosmic injustice
narrative. So, he has created a storyline for himself: “I have been chosen to suffer more than
others by the gods” (though he doesn’t believe there are gods or fate). He says that he tells himself that he has a
special destiny, thereby appeasing his anger, providing him with a sense of
direction in his journey.
“Self-pity
is deadly because then you exaggerate your pain, wallow in your pain,” Imtiaz
observes. He has pleasures. He has become much more mindful. He focuses on what he can do, not what he
cannot do. He has come to recognize that the obstacles facing him are within
rather than without. He now doesn’t worry about what others might think of
him. Though he cannot see them, he
imagines that everyone he meets is smiling at him and loves him!
Imtiaz
admits, though, that it is physically and mentally painful to have his sort of
blindness. While he has some peripheral
vision that allows him to navigate his walks through town with the help of a
cane, he is not in total blackness. He
has flare-ups of light and images that he cannot escape. With 20% of the human brain devoted to the
visual cortex, when vision is taken, that part of the brain withers away. Consequently, during this process, the brain
creates images, visions that can sometimes be terrifying. And not seeing faces or color, not being able
to read are profound losses.
Imtiaz
says that there is no point to holding onto false hope. “I am a blind man. Technology will not save me. I have mourned my seeing self.” But walking helps. He spends of time hiking around the sidewalks
and paths of River Falls. He now lives in a world of sound. He is less autonomous, but he knows very
personally that human beings are adaptable creatures. “Our quotient of happiness doesn’t change
over lifetimes. The spirit finds its
level. I have adapted.” He has taken rafting trips in the Canadian
wilderness and a safari in Africa, and he continues to teach. Imtiaz Moosa has certainly adapted well.
_____________________________________
RFAREA REA Directory Updates?
The new membership directory
is forthcoming. If you have any changes
to address, phone, or email, please send them to laura.w.zlogar@gmail.com as soon as possible.
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