Geezer Forum returns on Nov. 9

For anyone wanting to learn more about Medicare Enrollment for 2022, here is some possible good news: The Geezer Forum delayed from Oct. 12 is now re-scheduled for Nov. 9.

Noreen Brisson, from SHIBA, will be our speaker. We will meet in the Columbia Bank’s Community Room, 2:30 to 4 p.m.

She will focus on changes in 2022 Medicare benefits (and costs), plus good tips on how “first-timers” to Medicare can get through the Medicare Maze. Additionally, she will speak to the misleading TV advertisements about Medicare we’re all been subjected to.

I have a few other matters I wanted to call your attention to besides the Geezer Forum: Voting, COVID, Caregivers.

VOTING – Next Tuesday is the last day to vote in our local elections! Traditionally, voters don’t take these off-year elections very seriously. If you happen to be one who dismisses next week’s election as unimportant, please let me try to persuade you otherwise.

As a man who was an elected official in the late 1990s and early 2000s, I learned first-hand just how important it is to have men and women in public offices who are committed to making our communities stronger. This fall’s elections certainly represent the need for officials who will work to make our communities better places to live.

My wife and I have already voted at the County Elections Office. The ballot was not long: School District board of directors, Dover mayor and city council members, Sandpoint city council members, and a Sandpoint Local Option Tax.

It took less than a minute for me to fill out my ballot. But it was an important minute in my life, because I was standing up for whom I felt would best lead us in the coming years. Take this election seriously, folks! Let yourself be known as caring for our communities of Bonner County.

COVID – So much could be said about the drain that COVID-19 has brought to our communities. Much of my personal weariness comes not from the virus or the inconveniences it has brought into our lives – great as they are for so many of us. My weariness comes mostly from slogging through the dissension, disinformation, and disrespectful political posturing brought on by people using COVID as the rope in multiple ego-centered tugs-of-war. When it’s easier for people to fight to “save face” or win points (with whom?) than to work together to reduce COVID’s serious impact on our general community, I’m at a loss to know what to do. But I know we all need to take a big breath (masked or unmasked!)

CAREGIVERS – We’ve had recent occasions to be in medical clinics of one kind or another, and the hospital. So, we’ve witnessed first-hand some of the extra efforts that medical personal made in order to take care of people like us who seek medical attention. From front-office workers to nurses to doctors to technicians, all of these people are pushing themselves to serve those who seek their help.

Hospital, clinic, nursing home, assisted living facility – each place is staffed by weary but determined caregivers. Please find some simple way to say THANK YOU to whatever caregivers you might see this week. You just may give them the encouragement they needed in that moment!

Paul Graves, M.Div., is lead geezer-in-training for Elder Advocates, a consulting ministry on aging issues. Contact Paul at 208-610-4971 or elderadvocates@nctv.com.