Have you ever watched closely as an ice skater spins? She focuses on one spot as her body turns, and then suddenly turns her head and focuses on another. If she kept her gaze constantly spinning, she’d get dizzy. But by shifting her focus from spot to spot, she can maintain her equilibrium. That same principle can help you survive this madly spinning world.

Focus on the important

If you try to take it all in—all the news, all the latest gizmos, all the health problems, all the changes in weather—it would definitely make you dizzy. But you also just can’t throw your hands up in the air and give up. So like the skater, you have to focus on just a couple of spots. It’s true you’ll miss some things, but better to keep your sanity than try to absorb it all.

Let’s take computers (or tablets) as an example of what I mean. Computers allow you to open up all sorts of windows onto the world that you can explore endlessly. But opening all those windows takes a certain amount of skill to master. Many people end up saying that it’s too much for them and don’t even try. But if you adopt that attitude, you’d be missing an important window. Video chatting, for instance, allows you to both talk to and see your family members who may live far away. You may have heard of Skype, which is a software program that allows you to do that, and best of all, it’s free.

So forget about wishing to step off this madly spinning world. Instead, look for areas on which to focus and in that way you can continue to enjoy the ride.

1. Do good and feel good. Instead of a typical beach or golf getaway, take a volunteer vacation. Sheryl Kayne (immersiontraveler.com), author of Immersion Travel USA: The Best & Most Meaningful Volunteering, Living & Learning Excursions, says there are many ways to see the world and make it a better place. A few of her recommendations: Head to Point Reyes National Seashore in California to help count the elk population, join a reef monitoring team in Florida or Hawaii, or hike and lend a helping hand on the Appalachian Trail.

2. Be your own tour guide. If you’ve got a mobile device like an iPad or Android, you may be able to swap pricey tours for inexpensive “apps” that will lead you to local points of interest. Ken Dodelin, CEO of Mobile Surroundings, recommends an app called It Happened Here (ithappenedhere.com). For $2.99, Dodelin says tourists can use the app to find spots like the restaurant in Washington, D.C., where JFK proposed to Jackie Onassis or the building in New York that was used to film exterior shots for the television show Seinfeld.

3. Find freebies. Travel writer Lydie Thomas penned an entire book on the subject Your Guide to Visit Paris for Free (visitparisforfree.com). Thomas says top tourist attractions like the Notre Dame Cathedral and the Louvre usually offer free admission on certain days. Do some research and plan your visit accordingly. Another budget-friendly travel tip: skip the overpriced buses and hop on the regular city bus with the locals instead.

4. Do the math. One of the biggest costs of travel is, well, the traveling. Comparing the cost of several tanks of gasoline and roadside meals versus the price of an airline ticket and baggage fees can be tricky. But, Jon Lal, founder of cash back and coupons website BeFrugal.com, says you can eliminate some of the guesswork by using his site’s “Fly or Drive” widget (http://www.befrugal.com/tools/fly-or-drive-widget/). Punch in your beginning and ending addresses and the handy (and free) online tool will calculate the cost and time it will take you to get to your destination in a car and on a plane.

5. It never hurts to ask. It’s true that many airlines and hotels aren’t offering the same deep discounts they were a few years ago when the travel industry was crippled by the recession. But that doesn’t mean there are no more deals to be had. Catherine Ross, executive director of the Winter Park-Fraser Valley Chamber of Commerce (playwinterpark.com ) in Winter Park, Colo., says sometimes all you have to do is ask. Aside from senior discounts, which you should always take advantage of, Ross says many lodging properties, restaurants, and tourist attractions are still struggling and may be willing to knock off a few bucks to win a customer.

meghan.streit@erickson.com

School lunches made headlines again in 2012. In January, the U.S. Department of Agriculture updated the standards for the meals served in public and nonprofit private schools across the country for the first time in more than 15 years. This is particularly good news given the fact that childhood obesity is at an all-time high. According to the Centers for Disease Control, obesity now affects 17% of all children and adolescents in the U.S.— triple the rate from just one generation ago.

What’s on the new menu?

Nearly 32 million children eat lunch at school every day; more than 20 million of them are low-income children whose families are struggling to make ends meet. The school lunch program offers free or reduced-price meals to children who qualify, but any child in a participating school may purchase a lunch. The meals received at school are the only solid meals some children get all day long.

“As parents, we try to prepare decent meals, limit how much junk food our kids eat, and ensure they have a reasonably balanced diet,” says First Lady Michelle Obama. “And when we’re putting in all that effort the last thing we want is for our hard work to be undone each day in the school cafeteria.”

The new standards make the same changes that many parents are already encouraging at home, including regular offerings of both fruit and vegetables; serving more whole grains; offering only fat-free or low-fat milk; limiting calories through portion size; and focusing on reducing the amount of saturated fat, trans-fat, and sodium in school meals.

A centuries-old tradition

The concept of providing children with a nutritious meal at school is centuries old. In 1790, Munich, Germany, developed a program that combined teaching and feeding hungry, vagrant children. Back then, the meal consisted mainly of soup made from potatoes, barley, and peas. Meat was not included because of its high cost.

In America, small programs developed in cities like Boston and Philadelphia as early as 1894, but soon after the seminal book Poverty by Robert Hunter was published in 1904, the U.S. effort to feed hungry children at school intensified. In Poverty, Hunter estimated that there were as many as 70,000 hungry children in New York City alone. “If it is a matter of principle in democratic America that every child shall be given a certain amount of instruction,” Hunter said in the book, “let us render it possible for them to receive it, as monarchial countries have done, by making full and adequate provision for the physical needs of the children who come from the homes of poverty.”

During the Great Depression, cities and states found it impossible to fund their school lunch programs and turned to the federal government for help. The government responded with New Deal programs that both fed the nation’s schoolchildren and simultaneously employed many adults to prepare school meals.

A matter of national security

World War II military leaders saw firsthand how important nutrition was when they were forced to reject scores of recruits suffering from stunted growth and malnutrition. The problem was of such concern that military leaders lobbied Congress to find a way to ensure that American youth would be strong and fit for service. In 1946, the National School Lunch Program became law.

In 2012, the military is still concerned about the fitness of American youth. “Today we face a similar crisis—only it is not malnourishment, but improper nourishment, that threatens our national security interests,” says retired four-star Air Force General Richard E. Hawley. Hawley is also a member of Mission: Readiness, a non-partisan group of retired military leaders.

“Considering that many children consume as much as 40% of their daily calories during school hours, improving the nutritional value of school meals will have a profound impact on their future health,” says Hawley. “Efforts to improve school nutrition and get junk food out of schools are critical to reducing childhood obesity and ultimately improving national security.”

michele.harris@erickson.com

Since the Constitution’s ratification in 1787, it has gone without saying that the federal government has the authority to regulate its borders and dispense citizenship—key powers at the core of a nation’s sovereignty. However, in 2010, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer signed what was, at the time, the most stringent immigration law ever enacted at the state level.

The Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act—better known as SB 1070—carries more than half a dozen provisions that crack down on the state’s massive illegal immigrant population. The statute’s most controversial section requires that Arizona police investigate a person’s immigration status during a “lawful stop, detention, or arrest” when there is a “reasonable suspicion” that they are in the country illegally.

If their presence is unlawful, local officials hand the case off to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

A Rasmussen Reports poll taken shortly after Arizona enacted the law reported that 60% of Americans support legislation that empowers state and local police to verify the status of individuals that they reasonably believe are here illegally. That same year, a study by the Pew Research Center found that 11.2 million unauthorized immigrants were living in the U.S., eight million of them holding down jobs.

Federal vs. state

Nonetheless, SB 1070 invited a firestorm of criticism, most notably from the Obama Administration, which argued that the law infringed on federal territory in violation of the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause, sparking a debate over a state’s right to dabble in matters of immigration.

“When considering the legality of Arizona’s SB 1070, you have to look closely at the text of federal immigration law,” says Ben Winograd, a staff attorney with the American Immigration Council in Washington, D.C. “Federal law authorizes officers and employees of the Department of Homeland Security to do a series of things, one of which is interrogating people about their right to remain in the United States.”

According to Winograd, this power extends to border patrol agents, deportation officers, immigration inspectors, and immigration enforcement agents, not state and local officials.

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals agreed. In response to a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Justice Department in July 2010, the court barred several of the Arizona law’s provisions from taking effect—including those pertaining to local law enforcement—on grounds that federal statutes preempt state law.

Gov. Brewer appealed the ruling to the Supreme Court, and some believe that when the justices hand down their decision this June, it will be in Arizona’s favor.

“In this case, there’s no question that the Constitution gives the federal government power over immigration,” says Hans von Spakovsky, a senior legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation. “What that means is that states don’t have the power to control the nation’s borders, deport people, or grant and deny citizenship.

“But there is nothing wrong with a state assisting the federal government in the enforcement of immigration law, and that’s precisely what you have with the Arizona statute.”

In fact, a number of states have enacted similar laws on the heels of SB 1070, some of them with tougher regulations than Arizona’s.

Alabama’s Beason-Hammon Alabama Taxpayer and Citizen Protection Act (HB 56), for instance, criminalizes a non-citizen’s failure to obtain or carry an “alien registration document” provided by the federal government; requires police officers to investigate an individual’s immigration status in cases of “reasonable suspicion”; and makes it a felony for an unlawfully present non-citizen to enter into a business transaction with the state of Alabama.

A federal district court judge refused to bar these provisions in a separate lawsuit filed by the U.S. Justice Department.

“A big part of the problem is that these state laws are more severe than their federal counterparts,” argues Winograd. “For example, if an unlawful non-citizen is caught working in Arizona, he faces a felony punishable by up to six months in jail under the state law. Under the federal statute, it’s a civil offense with no prison time.

“It’s pretty clear that there is a conflict between state and federal law, and constitutionally, federal trumps state.”

State-level frustration

Still, as Spakovsky notes, much of the backlash at the state level has occurred out of frustration with the U.S. government’s failure to enforce its own policies.

“The best example of this goes back to the 1990s,” he says, “when Congress amended the Federal Immigration Act to prohibit states from offering in-state tuition to illegal immigrants unless they also provided in-state tuition to citizen students from other parts of the U.S.

“Despite that federal law, we now have 12 states that are violating the provision, and the Justice Department hasn’t done anything about it.”

Several states have joined Arizona and Alabama in drafting statutes that assist with the federal enforcement of immigration policy. Spakovsky predicts that many of them will be the targets of lawsuits spearheaded by the Justice Department.

Until then, state legislators and legal experts alike anxiously anticipate the Supreme Court’s decision in the Arizona case, which they hope will help settle the conflict over federal and state immigration laws.

michael.williams@erickson.com

Job tasks vs. extra services

What I don’t understand is the need to tip for housekeeping. Tips to me are for extra services and not just because that is the social thing to do. The room is being cleaned as I am paying to have that done as an implicit part of my daily hotel room bill. Same thing with taxis. Why should they get a tip when you are paying them to deliver you somewhere—it is part of their job.

I never expected a tip for doing the job that I was paid to do, so why should I tip someone to do their job?

—John O., email

Concierge service

Our experience with concierges: They send you where they get kickbacks! Perhaps a warning would be helpful.

—Bob R., Leawood, KS

“Can a green car go the distance?” March 2012 issue

Green cars the future

Since I have been driving a Toyota Prius for three and a half years, I was interested to read your article on the Chevy Volt. I am firmly convinced that these green cars are the wave of the future and am curious as to how many residents of the various Erickson Living communities have made the decision to purchase and drive one.

—Mary Jane W., email

Bullish on the Volt

I too have a Volt and concur with your observations. I wanted to alert you to a website dedicated to the Volt as well as other hybrid and electric cars. It is called GM-Volt.com and can be found at http://gm-volt.com/2012/03/12/mpg-comparison-2012-volt-vs-2010-prius-vs-2013-prius-plug-in/.

—Ray I., Amherst, N.H.

“America’s oldest art form—keeping the spotlight on jazz” April 2012 issue

Who do you listen to?

I’ve been an ardent Stan Getz follower since approximately 1945. Stan will always be number one.

—Nick V., email

I enjoy the music of Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Benny Goodman. I also enjoy the best of the big bands—Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, Artie Shaw. And I like to listen to Dixieland music.

—Irv S., email

Throughout the month of May, events will spotlight the important role older adults play in sharing their experience, wisdom, and understanding, and passing on that knowledge to other generations in a variety of significant ways. Celebrations will recognize the value seniors bring to our nation through spirited participation in social and faith groups, service organizations, and other activities.

Life-changing contributions

Today, an increasing number of people age 60-plus are making significant contributions to the nation through their involvement in community service groups, faith-based organizations, and arts and recreational clubs. This kind of lifelong participation in social, creative, and physical activity has proven health benefits, including retaining mobility, muscle mass, and cognitive abilities.

Seniors are not the only ones who benefit from their engagement in community life. Studies show that intergenerational interactions with family, friends, and neighbors enrich the lives of everyone involved. This is especially true for young people. Teens who have significant relationships with a grandparent or elder report that these relationships helped shape their values, goals, and life choices and gave them a sense of identity and roots.

To learn more about Older Americans Month 2012, contact your local Area Agency on Aging by visiting eldercare.gov or calling 1-800-677-1116.

Comparing gas/EV hybrids

Is the [Chevy] Volt really cost “efficient” when compared to the purchase/operating costs of other gas/EV hybrids? Absolutely not!

My 2006 Toyota Prius is still getting 50 mpg and the 2012 Prius purchase price is $17,000 less.

Here are more gas/EV hybrids that are as powerful but far cheaper than the Volt, and have more interior/trunk room:

• 2012 Kia Optima or Hyundai Sonata Hybrid (avg 37 mpg); $15,000 cheaper buy price.

• 2012 Toyota Camry Hybrid (avg 40 mpg); $8,000 – $16,000 cheaper buy price.

• 2012 Ford Fusion Hybrid (avg 39 mpg); $8,000 cheaper purchase price.

Why aren’t Chevy Volts selling well? Pure economics; many alternatives are more cost “efficient.”

—Ralph H., email

Living faith: “Faith and politics” March 2012 issue

Faith motivating political involvement

Thank you for your interesting column “Faith and politics.” Perhaps I have been with you on some marches in D.C.

I particularly noted your mentioning of Wesley and Wilberforce as being highly influential in abolishing slavery. Actually, Thomas Clarkson, his wife, and later his younger brother, John, were ahead of Wilberforce, and, in fact, influenced Wilberforce. See Bury the Chains by Adam Hochschild, as one reference, although there are many, including the movie Amazing Grace.

—Ann T., Silver Spring, MD

Bookmark: “Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With the Wind” February 2012 issue

The writer and college professor

Your article on Margaret Mitchell took me back to my college days when in the 1950s I was a student of Edwin Granberry, who, with his wife, had been close friends of Margaret Mitchell. It was Dr. Granberry to whom she sent her chapters of Gone With the Wind for his critique. I believe she made him promise to destroy her letters but he never could.

Dr. Granberry was the creative writing professor at Rollins College as well as the coauthor of the Buz Sawyer comic strip.

—Mimi M., Hingham, MA

]]> http://ericksontribune.com/2012/03/letters-to-the-editor-13/feed/ 0 http://ericksontribune.com/2012/03/the-chevy-volt-a-lightning-rod-of-controversy/ http://ericksontribune.com/2012/03/the-chevy-volt-a-lightning-rod-of-controversy/#comments Tue, 20 Mar 2012 17:00:15 +0000 mmargulies http://ericksontribune.com/?p=18092 In last month’s issue, I wrote about my new Chevy Volt. Since I purchased the electric vehicle (EV) with the gasoline back up at the end of 2011, the price of gas has gone up 10%. Experts warn that it could reach $5 a gallon by summer.

With my fuel consumption averaging 101 mpg, I have no regrets about my purchase. Despite the fact that owners like me made the Volt number one in customer satisfaction (according to Consumer Reports), the car has come under heavy attack from a variety of sources.

Up in flames?

Last year, while testing the vehicle for safety, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) intentionally crashed a Volt. That crash damaged the vehicle’s battery and ruptured the coolant line, leaving the car “un-driveable” by any standard. Three weeks later, the car caught on fire, which made headlines everywhere. What didn’t make headlines is that the car received an overall five-star safety rating.

Concerned about the fire, NHTSA performed three more tests on the car’s lithium ion battery and coolant system, purposely impacting them and then rotating them to simulate a real crash. One of the batteries sparked, but again, it was long after the impact.

The Volt has taken a lot of “heat” for these crash test fires. Even after the NHTSA released a statement saying that the Volt posed no undue risk of fires, the controversy hasn’t cooled. Of course, gas-fueled vehicles catch on fire too. In the past two years, Honda, Ford, BMW, and Mazda recalled over half a million vehicles due to potential fire hazards, with little or no media attention.

The tax break and incentives

The cost of a Volt is high at $39,145, but the federal government and many states offer tax incentives, in the same way they offer incentives for purchasing energy-efficient appliances. More efficient products benefit everyone so giving them a push in the market-place is one way to ensure that green products have a chance to catch on. Ideally, once the new technology becomes more available and accepted, the cost goes down and incentives are phased out.

There’s been a lot of griping about incentives for the Volt and other EVs but as a car buyer, I wouldn’t have purchased the Volt if the tax break didn’t exist. In fact, I bought my car in the last week of 2011, out of concern that the $7,500 federal tax break would be discontinued in 2012. Maybe I should have waited a week because now it’s possible that the federal tax break may be increased to $10,000.

Politics

A lot of the criticism directed at the Volt seems to be politically driven. Rants against the car can be found all over the Internet. People are upset that GM received millions of dollars of federal funding to develop the Volt; they see the tax incentives as a way of unfairly subsidizing one product over another and, of course, there’s the issue of the GM bailout.

While all that makes great topics for talk radio, as a consumer I simply wanted a car that gets me where I’m going cheaply and efficiently. I didn’t consider which administration funded its development (Bush) or which administration stands to look good if it succeeds (Obama). I bought the Volt because it’s kind to the environment and costs less to operate than my old gas-guzzler. One thing I know for sure: when I’m behind the wheel, I’m not thinking about politics, I’m only thinking about all the money I’m saving by not relying on gas.

michele.harris@erickson.com

Not everyone is so concerned about facts when it comes to religion, however. Many draw a distinction between reason and faith, elevating reason to the higher realm of objective truth, and relegating faith to the “whatever works for you” realm of personal experience.

Is faith really a blind leap in the dark?

Several world religions trace their roots to historical persons and events. Consider Abraham, Jesus, Mohammed, Buddha, and Confucius, who are not mythological characters, but real flesh-and-blood individuals. Their teachings and the events of their lives were recorded by various writers, some of whom knew them personally and witnessed the same events.

Archaeologists have excavated over 25,000 sites that corroborate many of the persons, places, and events of the Old Testament. Examples include Solomon’s astounding number of chariots and the Moabite Stone inscribed with a reference to Israel’s defeat by the king of Moab, now on display at the Louvre in Paris. “There can be no doubt that archaeology has confirmed the substantial historicity of Old Testament tradition,” wrote Dr. William F. Albright of Johns Hopkins University.

Passover and Easter, which commemorate historical events, remind us that faith, as Professor Paul Little writes, “goes beyond reason, but not against it.”

No amount of physical evidence can prove the existence of God or the accuracy of every sentence in a sacred scripture, but with substantial grounding in history and archaeology, faith is a leap into the light, not the darkness.

As a market researcher, my job is to provide evidence for selecting the most effective marketing strategies and tactics. I approach matters of faith in the same way. I could not orient my life around a belief system without adequate evidence that it is credible. What are your reasons for believing? Please mail your letters to me at 703 Maiden Choice Lane, Catonsville, MD 21228, or email to bill@ericksontribune.com.

“Finding full-time jobs is pretty difficult for the great majority of people coming to our website, so we have had many people ask about starting small businesses or working from home,” says Art Koff, founder of RetiredBrains.com, a website that provides job information and other resources for older adults.

Striking out on your own can be ideal because you can be your own boss, work when it’s convenient, and possibly explore an interest you didn’t have time to pursue when you were punching a clock. Koff says his readers have found all sorts of ways to parlay hobbies and unique skills—from cooking to gardening to caring for animals—into lucrative businesses.

Koff says one woman was even able to turn her love of bargain shopping into cash by marketing her services to people who are too busy to shop for gifts and home goods. Another retiree, Koff says, always had a knack for organizing and he now earns cash helping people get their garages in order.

The business of art

Art is another popular hobby. Whether you paint, knit, or take photographs, you may be able to turn your passion into profit. Carolyn Edlund is the director of The Arts Business Institute (artsbusinessinstitute.org), a Baltimore-based organization that provides artists with training and resources to manage the business end of their craft. Edlund says artistic hobbies can be a great way for retirees to generate income—if they do it right.

“They have to take close look at what their costs are and what their time is worth to determine if they are actually going to make money,” Edlund says.

Artists can sell their goods through local shops and galleries, at arts and crafts fairs, or online via their own website or sites like Etsy.com, where crafters can set up virtual “shops” to sell their wares to the site’s large audience in exchange for a small fee. Edlund’s tips for turning an art hobby into a business: Understand your customer base, offer something unique, create a collection of related items that you can cross-sell, and post professional photos if you’re selling goods online.

Don’t go it alone

Michael Chodos, associate administrator of the Small Business Administration’s Office of Entrepreneurial Development (sba.gov), says virtually any hobby, from golf to woodworking, has the potential to become a business. However, he says the most successful ventures start with solid plans. The SBA offers resources like networking groups, business plan development, and financing information.

“The best way to decide if a hobby would work for you as a business is hooking up with an [SBA] mentor to develop a business plan,” Chodos says.