By the time you get this newspaper, Easter of 2022 will be in the past. I hope you had a blessed Easter.
This past Monday I was at a City Council meeting. There was a SLFRE fund that a Resolution was made for. I went afterwards to inquire just what SLFRE was. It stands for State Local Fiscal Recovery Funds. The Resolution is to evidently finding a place to spend it. How much longer can these “free” funds keep coming? I’m thinking these will not go toward the swimming pool to keep the cost down and where families can afford to come. Sioux City pools have increased their wages and admittance but have two levels. A family of four that makes under $100,000 a year can qualify for reduced rates. If that be the case, most of our kids would probably get in free.
The Marcus Police Department will be hosting an Iowa Carry & Permit to Carry class on wed. April 20 at 6:30 p.m. at the Marcus Community Center. This class will update of what police officers can and can not do as well as citizens having gun permits. I wonder if they will be discussing “ghost guns”? These have been in the news recently where parts of guns are put together to make a “gun”. Of course, they don’t have any number on them but they are still able to sell these to people. There is a RSVP listed in the Council notes to call.
The front page of Sunday’s S.C. Journal had a big write up about all the shootings they have had in Sioux City so far this year. Some have been drive-by, others in a house or a business, and others on the street. It is scary and makes a person feel they should be glad they don’t live there.
A new “Peanuts” special debuting on Apple TV+ on Friday celebrates the environment and highlights that even tiny changes can help the Earth. “It’s the Small Things, Charlie Brown” also has an original new song by Ben Folds. We celebrate Earth Day on April 22.
This is a 40 minute film where Charlie Brown’s hope to finally win the neighborhood championship baseball game is derailed when his little sister, Sally, tries to protect a “dandelion” growing on the pitcher’s mound! Soon everyone is cleaning up the ballfield.
Charlie Brown kind of represents probably 90% of the population and doesn’t really want to take on any challenges with the world. But, on the other hand, there’s Sally, who represented the new generation that really does care about the small things (like dandelions!) that can make a difference.
It’s one of several ways the cartoon gang is celebrating the Earth this year. “Peanuts” is also opening its vault to release one of its classic cartoons_1976, “It’s Arbor Day, Charlie Brown,” on Apple TV+ on April 29 that is Arbor Day. There is another new original short video, “We Need Our Trees,” is at Peanuts’ YouTube channels in the U.S. and abroad, and GoNoodle.com. (We probably cannot get anyone of these.)
The project is a part of Peanuts Worldwide’ recent “Take Care With Peanuts” initiative, which encourages global citizenship through three key effort: Take care of yourself, take care of each other and take care of the Earth. What better way for kids to understand Earth’s problems by having Peanuts come to view!
All of the “Peanuts” content springs from the 18,000 strips that Charles M. Schulz left behind when he died. In it are stories of failure and frustration but also friendship and kindness, both to people and the planet.
Then we switch from kids to grownups. The U.S. homeless ranks graying as more retire on streets. A story tells where a 55-year-old planned to use her $800 a month disability check to get an apartment after back surgery. She soon was sleeping in her old pickup protected by her German Shepherd mix, Scrappy. She was unable to afford housing in Phoenix, where median monthly rents soared 33% during the pandemic to over $1,220 for a one-bedroom, according to ApartmentList.com.
She is one face of America’s graying homeless population, a rapidly expanding group of destitute and desperate people 50 and older suddenly without a permanent home after a job loss, divorce, family death or health crisis during a pandemic.
The largest shelter, where older people make up about 30% staying there, had been on the up rise. They are people who are not necessarily people who have mental illness or substance abuse problems. They are people who are being pushed into the streets by rising rents.
In the next decade, their numbers will nearly triple, challenging policy makers to imagine new ideas for sheltering the last of the baby boomers as they get older, sicker, and are less able to pay spiraling rents. More housing is needed. Navigating sidewalks on wheelchairs and walkers, the aging homeless have medical ages greater than their years, with mobility, cognitive and chronic problems like diabetes. Many contracted COVID-19 or couldn’t work because of pandemic restrictions.
A 2019 study of aging homeless people led by the University of Pennsylvania drew on 30 years of census data to project the U.S. population of people 65 and older experiencing homelessness will nearly triple from 40,000 to 106,000 by 2030, resulting in a public health crisis as their age-related medical problems multiply. (I’m going to have more on this next week.)
I have to close as I have supper almost ready. Of course, the other two cannot find time to help! But they will find time to eat!
Remember in your thoughts and prayers those who have lost friends and loved ones to death, have had to change their lives because of this, are trying to make ends meet even though they are working, encourage others to find a job as their government checks are being reduced, and help those who are trying to make a bridge instead of a wall to get back to their families and friends.
I will close with this quote from John F. Kennedy (1917-1963): “Too often we…enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.”