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Welcome to Visitors' Voice.
To send your comment to Visitors' Voice, click here.
From Ione Apfelbaum Strauss, Haverford, Pennsylvania:
I'd like to wish Eldercountry a rousing chorus of public "Happy Birthday"s, but since copyright laws obtain [Eldercountry Lawyer, WHO OWNS "HAPPY BIRTHDAY" (WORDS AND MUSIC)?, May 2008], I'll just have to congratulate you all personally. You've produced a delightful and erudite baby. With your permission, I'd like to tell some of my friends about it. I know they'll appreciate its evergreen delights. Congratulations.
Editor's Note: Many thanks. Please do tell your friends about Eldercountry. They can see it anytime just by going to www.eldercountry.com –
no need for an e-mail from me. But if they will send me their e-mail addresses (which I will not share with anyone), I will send them a brief notice to let them know each time a new issue goes on line.
From Thomas L. Cranmer, Great Falls, Virginia:
I'll be careful about singing "Happy Birthday" near lawyers.
From Joan Edelstein, Manhattan, New York City:
Congratulations on a year's worth of thought-provoking articles. Here's to many, many more.
From Karin B. Larson, Harwich Port, Massachusetts:
The Virginian-dermatologist is exemplary. Once I get our dermatologist's e-mail address, I will forward the article to him!
Editor's Note: It's gratifying to be told that a reader will be "forwarding" an article in Eldercountry. The simplest way to do this is to send an e-mail with the Web address, www.eldercountry.com (usually automatically printed as a link to the site) and advise the recipient to click on the appropriate section. If the article appeared in an issue not currently on line, all the recipient needs to do to see a previous Spotlight feature, essay, or legal column is click on "Archives," where these are all listed and accessible with one more click.
From Victoria Hallerman, Staten Island, New York:
Your essay on aunts and uncles as benign influences [AUNTS AND UNCLES, May 2008] got me to thinking about Aunt Lottie (Great Aunt Lottie, actually, born in 1876). Married young and widowed well before I was born, she made candy and tea sandwiches for a living from her home kitchen, and kept an immaculate and intricate garden. As a young woman, she had trained to be a concert pianist, and she taught several years before marrying. My husband's and my decision to remain childless may owe something to her example as a talented, charming and actively involved childless adult. She loved all three of us girls, although I think she favored me, as the youngest – a position she knew well from her own childhood. She was the only artistic member of my family, and it is probably no coincidence that I became a poet and writer.
In my own time, I have served as "Aunt Vicki in New York" to my sister's children, who have shared secrets with me and with my husband they would never have entrusted to their parents. Where did we learn to be useful in this way? Aunt Charlotte had a lot to do with it.
From Rachel Galperin, Encino, California:
I loved Alan Oser's column on his Aunt Mona and Uncle Jesse [AUNTS AND UNCLES, MAY 2008]. Of course, grandparents may fill the same needs for approval and admiration. His essay brought to mind the poem I recently wrote when I learned that my ex-husband and his wife were treating my granddaughter to a 12-day trip abroad this coming summer.
My Place on the Totem Pole
I'm feeling lowest on the
grandparents' totem pole;
She without a partner or
proximity.
She who drops in three times a year
for one-week stays,
With insufficient funds for
grandchildren trips abroad or
generous financial gifts.
I have no choice but giving on
another plane,
Intangibles like love and laughter,
pride, and on occasion, poetry.
I'll settle for some future fond
remembrances
Of what this grandmother once gave.
From Matthew Maginley, Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey:
Quoting David Ogilvy, who said, "I've developed my eccentricities when I was young, so that as I aged people didn't think I was crazy." Having had my soul healed at a memorial service for a well-loved friend, I humbly remember to likewise develop my faith in early years to deal with the long road ahead.
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From the May 2008 issue:
From Louise Plumb, Vass, North Carolina:
I don't know where to start. How about the election? When I was in college (Penn Ed'52) I worked for Harold Stassen in the first of his many election attempts. Active in Republican affairs for many years, including co-chair of my local town committee. On the committee with me was Malcolm Baldridge, Commerce Secretary for Ronald Reagan.
Today I am a registered Democrat in North Carolina because my party was taken away from me. I am a Hillary supporter and I am afraid they are going to take her candidacy away from me. How do we stop the powers that be in each party from negating the will of the voter?
From the April 2008 issue:
From Gene Reiser, Brooklyn, New York City:
It seems to me that a discussion of reverse mortgages and related insurance and annuity scams would be of value to a senior readership.
Editor's Note: In response to Mr Reiser's comment, this topic is discussed in the "Check It Out" section of this issue. To read it, click here.
From Dr. Arthur Auerbach, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania:
The Essayist's account of his changes over time is vivid and persuasive in implying universality. It illustrates David Horwitz' statement, "When we were young we thought we were going to change society. Instead society changed us."
I suggest a motto for Eldercountry: Browning's lines from Rabbi Ben Ezra:
Grow old along with me!
The best is yet to be . . . .
From Maryanna Crawford, Staten Island, New York City:
It was great to see the essay on Romaine Gardner. a philosophy professor at Wagner when I was a student. Thanks!
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From the March 2008 issue:
From Miriam Grimes, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania:
Enjoyed the article about liability when coming to the assistance of a fallen person [ARE WE OUR BROTHER'S KEEPER (LEGALLY SPEAKING)?, February 2008]. A doctor friend told me that it is incumbent on an MD to aid a stricken person and that they do not risk law suits. Your article confirmed that. However, in the past a doctor friend said he would never volunteer to help because of possible law suits. What a world!
From the February 2008 issue:
From Harold Peterson, Nashua, New Hampshire:
One of the groups which Sen. Hillary Clinton claims she will look after if elected president is Senior Citizens. However, she has never expressed whether or not she supported her husband when, as president, he was responsible for the legislation which presently taxes social security payments. If she truly is concerned about Seniors, she should now pledge to repeal that legislation, if elected president. Otherwise, her talk is just that - talk.
Editor's Note: We welcome Mr. Peterson's comment on a matter of great interest to seniors. Would any of our other readers care to comment on this issue?
To send your comment, click here.
From Mary Jane Davis, Staten Island, New York City:
Jane Brody wrote a column [in the New York Times, "A Basic Hospital To-Do List Saves Lives," January 22, 2008] about a way to make stays in an ICU [Intensive Care Unit] safer from infections among patients, devised by Dr. Peter J. Pronovost at Johns Hopkins. I had read about him and his simple, effective plan in the New Yorker ["The Checklist," December 10, 2007] by Dr. Atul Gawande at Brigham and Women's Hospital. Made so much sense to me. Jane Brody states that the Office For Human Research Protections has recently ruled that the checklist program can't be instituted without great difficulty. Jane Brody is suggesting that we write and ask for the ruling to be reversed.
Editor's Note: The federal Office for Human Research Protections ruled that this quality-control program, involving use of a simple checklist and tracking of the results (1,500 lives saved and nearly $200 million, in a study of every ICU in Michigan) constituted "research on human subjects." Consequently, it seems that every participating hospital must first get approval for such a program from its institutional review board. The problem with this is that these boards meet monthly, bimonthly or quarterly, so that the need for their approval could seriously delay the use of hospital checklists and the tracking of the results. And it is only the tracking of results that gives impetus to the drive for the universal use of these lifesaving hospital checklists.
Drs. Gawande and Pronovist have explained that checklists need not be limited to reducing the risk of hospital-inquired infections, but could also be used to enhance the safety of surgery and anesthesia, and the treatment of patients with heart disease, pulmonary diseases like asthma, and many other conditions. Query whether a hospital's instituting of checklists as quality-control procedures, and tracking the results to demonstrate their effectiveness, could possibly be the kind of research the rule designed to institute safeguards for medical experimentation was intended to cover.
In an article on the Op-Ed page of the Times ("A Lifesaving Checklist," December 30, 2007), Dr. Gaswande outlines the wide-ranging implications the ruling of the Office for Human Research Protections could have on any efforts to improve medical quality and public health if they are undertaken in a scientific manner - that is, with tracking of results to assess effectiveness.
Dr. Gawande suggests that consumers write to their members of Congress and to the Department of Health and Human Services asking that the ruling be reversed. The address is: The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 200 Independence Avenue, S.W.,
Washington, D.C. 20201.
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