Gazette Seniors

It's October once again, and time for the annual migration of old timers to Montgomery for the annual session of the Alabama Silver-Haired Legislature.

On October 21, representatives of Alabama's 67 counties will converge on the Capitol City to study, comment on, and eventually approve resolutions, which will be passed along to the Governor for his study, and possibly on to the Legislature for consideration and, perhaps, enactment into law.

Some of the more recent of which have been resolutions pertaining to elder abuse, the revival of the Alabama Ethics Commission, voter ID legislation, creation of the Silver Alert system,and the provision of affordable prescription drugs for seniors, to name but a few.

Since the last session, senior legislators have been busy in their districts listening to the expressed needs of their constituents, working to insure enactment of legislation beneficial to their constituency, and writing resolutions relating to the needs of senior citizens throughout Alabama--which they hope will attain some sort of reality in the following legislative session.

For those who are not already aware of the ASHL, it operates much the same as the regular legislative body, except that it is a unicameral entity; meaning that the ASHL consists only of a House of Representatives; no Senate. This tends to insure a more speedy enactment of resolutions.

It meets for only three days each year—usually in October.

The ASHL is a non-profit group comprised of

Alabama citizens over the age of 60, who have volunteered to devote the time and energy needed to serve the needs of their constituency.

The ASHL generally holds its session in the House Chamber of the Alabama State House. The senior legislators begin converging on Montgomery on Sunday and open the session early the following Monday. By Wednesday they will have identified five top issues directly affecting seniors, and three more of a more general nature, which are then passed along to the Governor for his consideration.

Also, during each General Session of the Legislature, ASHL members work actively with their counterparts in the regular Legislature; but solely in an advisory capacity. They strive diligently never to be misconstrued as lobbying.

The ASHL was established August 8, 1991, by Joint Resolution SJR 101, which was signed into law as PL91-727. Its first elections were held in 1993, and its first session occurred in the same year.

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Days To Remember...

How the mighty have fallen.

In December Americans will be remembering, in the words of the late Franklin Delano Roosevelt, “a day that will go down in infamy.” Americans still remember, but how times have changed.

In October we also remembered the date: 9/11. On September 11, 2001, an enemy force wreaked havoc on the American continent, a date that would go down in history.

For those Americans who were around for both dates some interesting parallels come to mind.

Immediately in the wake of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, Americans rallied with a historic vigor. We put together an impressive war machine and took decisive action to right the wrongs that had been heaped upon us by foreign powers.

And in the aftermath, and even during the period of our heroic response, Americans were respected and revered. Those people who at first despised Americans came to love and respect the men and women in Europe and Asia who had either invaded or liberated their

respective countries.

Today, American servicemen and women dare not be seen in public in their once proud uniform. They are despised, they are threatened, they are even murdered, often by the people they had come to aid.

Then we look at our present leader: indecisive, confused, pathetic in his inability to respond decisively to foreign aggression.

We gaze aghast as we see the mantle of strength and power that was worn by the American president, is now on the shoulders of foreign leaders who once bowed to our strength; it's draped over the shoulders of tin pot dictators who we once bribed in an effort to curry favor. Leaders of countries that once came to us with hat in hand, now mock us and laugh in our faces as second-rate bureaucrats in our government lie to the American people and scurry about to save their own incompetent skins. Nations that Americans liberated, rebuilt, and aided in innumerable ways are now spitting in our face.

And regrettably, America has passed the baton of power it once held with pride to the hands of those who once groveled at our feet.

In the year 2013, we remember Pearl Harbor; we remember 9/11; we also sadly remember what was once a proud and mighty nation.

Quod erat demonstrandum.

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What Has Become of Our Country

When most of us old timers were trudging through elementary and secondary school we learned about the history of our country. We studied many of the travails that went with the building of our once great nation. At this time we learned to honor those who fought and died for their their flag.

We celebrated many historic occasions, we sang our National Anthem, and we said a silent prayer for those who gave their lives for their land. We were a proud people; a patriotic lot who revered our heroes.

So it stunned many of us on the 19th of this month when 15 U.S. Congressmen, who patriotic Americans elected to office dishonored the families and the memory of two American heroes who gave their lives for their country in a distant land.

During a hearing into the infamous Benghazi disgrace on September 11 of this year, as the mother of U. S. Information Officer Sean Smith, and the father of Navy SEAL Tyrone Woods, who were killed in the Benghazi attack, were about to testify before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing that day, 15 Democrats stood up, turned their backs on the parents of these dead heroes and left the hearing rather than listen to their testimony.

This is the depth to which our nation has fallen.

Our own elected representatives to the U.S. Congress figuratively spit in the faces of grieving parents whose sons gave their lives in the defense of their nation.

What has become of our country?

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A Closer Look...

As senior citizens view the national and international picture and take a closer look at what has happened abroad, they may begin to ask themselves: What if?

On December 8 of 1941, What if the U.S. would have had the present White House incumbent at the helm; would he have told the electorate that it should view the experience at Pearl harbor in Hawaii as just a case of misplaced foreign military exuberance, and would he then have embarked on an Asian tour to apologize to the Japanese people for America's arrogance?

Would he, then, have set sail for the European continent to apologize to the German people and their axis allies and sympathizers for our aggressive military reaction to Der Fuehrer's Lebensraum excuse for the invasion of otherwise peaceful European nations as an effort to allow the German people greater breathing room?

As Mr. Hitler so eloquently explained, the German people needed greater room in which to breathe. Would he also have contended that Dachau, Dora Nordhausen, Belsen, and other concentration camps he had established were merely facilities in which wrong thinking would be set aright and misguided Europeans would be sent there to ruminate over their shortsightedness?

Would our president have asked the German people to forgive our military leaders for their shortsighted aggressiveness toward them? Would he have apologized to them and begged them for their indulgence for our aggressiveness?

And would he have glossed over all the Nazi military activity in Europe, and the Japanese atrocities in Asia as just a struggle by an oppressed society?

Might he not have encouraged them to look toward our own shores and welcomed them to seek refuge in America? After all, didn't we have more than sufficient room and abundant natural resources beyond our needs that we could share with them.

If Franklin Delano Roosevelt would have tried something like this in 1941, most likely the American people would have drummed him and his liberal cabal out of Washington in a thrice.

Why, then, do we put up with the same sort of nonsense now?

Are the American people really this dense?

How times have changed in seven decades. It gives the old folks pause.