Blog
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Mother’s Day – 2014
The original mother’s day sentiment was put forth in an anti-war poem by Julia Ward Howe.
I doubt many modern day Mother’s Day shoppers even know how this day came to be – so please take time this weekend to reflect on the original thought.
Mother’s Day Proclamation – 1870
by Julia Ward HoweArise then…women of this day!
Arise, all women who have hearts!
Whether your baptism be of water or of tears!
Say firmly:
“We will not have questions answered by irrelevant agencies,
Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage,
For caresses and applause.
Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn
All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.
We, the women of one country,
Will be too tender of those of another country
To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.”
From the voice of a devastated Earth a voice goes up with
Our own. It says: “Disarm! Disarm!
The sword of murder is not the balance of justice.”
Blood does not wipe our dishonor,
Nor violence indicate possession.
As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil
At the summons of war,
Let women now leave all that may be left of home
For a great and earnest day of counsel.
Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.
Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means
Whereby the great human family can live in peace…
Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar,
But of God –
In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask
That a general congress of women without limit of nationality,
May be appointed and held at someplace deemed most convenient
And the earliest period consistent with its objects,
To promote the alliance of the different nationalities,
The amicable settlement of international questions,
The great and general interests of peace.
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Women, Poverty, And Shortened Lives
An article, Get Rich or Die Younger: The Shrinking Lifes Spans of Poor U.S. Women, includes the following 2 conclusions…- Among men older than 55, life expectancies are growing fastest for the rich.
- Among women older than 55, life expectancies are growing for the rich and shrinking for the poor.
Being female, and being poor, is killing US women.
The only groups decreasing in life expectancy are poor women. The poorest 40% of women all lose years, and the poorer you are, the shorter your life.
No age group of poor men loses years, they may not gain, but they do not lose.
Take a look at the chart as it easy to read.
And with this scenario, the U.S. House wants to reduce aid to poor people!
Another reason I want to help older persons earn more money. We cannot rely on Social Security – it is too tenuous in the current political arena.
For more information on my ideas, go to Gray Wolf Productions.
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Moving In With Your Parents. Not Just For Young Adults Anymore
It is not just new college graduates and young adults moving back home.Now the 50-64 year olds are moving back home too.
For seven years through 2012, the number of Californians aged 50 to 64 who live in their parents’ homes swelled 67.6% to about 194,000, according to the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research and the Insight Center for Community Economic Development.
The jump is almost exclusively the result of financial hardship caused by the recession rather than for other reasons, such as the need to care for aging parents, said Steven P. Wallace, a UCLA professor of public health who crunched the data.
Another sad commentary on the economy and the futures of middle aged parents…not to mention what happens to the next generations…
And why I redesigning my main website to include information on earning more income.
[You can sign up at gray wolf productions to receive information.]
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April Tax Scams
This came from the Oregon Attorney General – but I suspect each state is getting its share of scams related to April 15th with federal, state and local taxes dues for many in the United States.Older persons are perhaps a it more vulnerable for many reasons. So if you know of anyone being pestered by phone about taxes, please help that person find the Attorney General information in their state.
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Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum is warning consumers about a sophisticated phone scam targeting Oregon taxpayers during this tax season
Victims are told they owe money to the IRS or Oregon Department of Revenue and they must pay immediately through a temporary debit card or wire transfer. If the victim refuses to pay, they are then threatened with arrest, deportation or suspension of a business or driver’s license. In many cases, the caller becomes aggressive and insulting.
“Oregonians need to be vigilant as the April 15th tax deadline approaches. The IRS and the Oregon Department of Revenue will never ask you to pay with a pre-paid debit card or make a wire transfer,” said Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum.
Other characteristics of this scam include:
- Scammers use fake names and badge numbers. They generally use common names and surnames to identify themselves.
- Scammers may be able to recite the last four digits of a victim’s Social Security Number.
- Scammers spoof the IRS or Department of Revenue toll-free number on caller ID.
- Scammers sometimes send bogus IRS or Department of Revenue emails to some victims to support their bogus calls.
- Victims hear background noise of other calls being conducted to mimic a call site.
- After threatening victims with jail time or driver’s license revocation, scammers hang up and others soon call back pretending to be from the local police or DMV, and the caller ID supports their claim.
If you get a phone call from someone claiming to be from the IRS or Oregon Department of Revenue, here’s what you should do:
- If you know you owe taxes or you think you might owe taxes, call the IRS at (800) 829-1040 and/or the Oregon Department of Revenue at (800) 356-4222.
- If you know you do not owe taxes or have no reason to think that you owe any taxes, call and report the incident to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration at (800) 366-4484.
- If you have lost money as a result of this scam, file a complaint with the Oregon Department of Justice online at www.oregonconsumer.gov or by phone at (877) 877-9392.
