Theater:
The Senior Theatre Resource Center is a great site with information for those who are looking to perform or write long or short plays. Sign up for the newsletter! For instance:
The January 2013 newsletter  suggests ways to Perform in the community, Teach at retirement communities, Act in commercials, and Be a model patient.
The November 2012 newsletter  suggests a long list of plays from cute to comedy to musical that range from 5 to 80 minutes. And, yes, you can buy the screenplays for not much money – after first getting a FreeView. Get ready to act!

Music:
Check out the Providence Civic Orchestra of Senior Citizens  who perform at elementary schools, nursing homes, senior centers and assisted living facilities. Musicians are from Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island!  But who said New Hampshire couldn’t have their own?
New Jersey has The New Jersey Intergenerational Orchestra “to bridge the generations through music by providing an educational and entertaining music program both for its members and its various audiences.” Players are from 6 to 93. How about that!?

Art:
Senior citizens can be critics (read this – it is amusing).  But why don’t you get out and write a critique of an art show. Do it!

Organize and exhibit your art, like they did last summer in New Jersey.

Writing:
There seem to be a zillion writing workshops and classes everywhere. Right now it is fashionable to write a memoir, so there are special classes for that – if you are interested. But don’t pay a lot for a class – there are tons of cheap ones. Also, ask to sit in a class before totally committing so that you can see if that’s the right thing for you. And be ready for critiques of your work – you just cannot be overly sensitive.

Seniors as Recipients of Arts
There is no doubt that seniors like to be an audience to the arts. So cities like New York City have a long list of arts institutions and organizations of all kinds that provide programs for seniors, and who give discounts to seniors.

You can have an auction to raise money.  Always a good idea, and sometimes necessary for a Senior Center. Or maybe a group of Seniors want to raise money for a cause in which they are interested? But first read What Not to Do at Charity Art Auction Fundraisers.

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So, in closing, if you are missing participating in the arts… or if you FINALLY (after all these years of life) want the chance to get involved in the arts… there are many ways. And if you want something which is not in your town, start talking to the powers-that-be and/or friends, and I am sure you will eventually get it done.

So what is the Chained CPI. Simply put the CPI or Consumer Price Index is a reflection of the cost of various products. The Obama proposal of a “Chained CPI” does not reflect the cost of a product rather it reflects what is spent on that product. Under the present CPI system if the cost of a loaf of bread rises the CPI determines that a COLA must also increase. The Chained CPI does not do this. If a consumer makes a decision to purchase less of a product because the cost of that product rises, the chained CPI determines that the consumer actually needs less money because they are spending less.

As an example. A loaf of healthy whole wheat bread costs $5.00 today and you, the consumer, buy one loaf a week, an expenditure of $5.00 per week. If the cost of that loaf increases to $6.00 and you, a sensible shopper, decide to cut back and so buy but one loaf of bread every two weeks you therefore only spend $3.00 per week on bread. The Chained CPI, which based on spending not cost determines that you only need $3.00 per week and not the original $5.00 per week and so the COLA, cost of Living Adjustment, would be reduced downward.

Same applies to medicine. If you spend $20.00 a week on medicines and the cost of medicines go up, but you can still only afford the same $20.00 and therefore you buy fewer medicines, the Chained CPI determines you do not need an increase in COLA to meet the increase in cost as you are purchasing fewer medicines.

The chained CPI is a downward spiral. The less product you purchase because you cannot afford to purchase what you need the chained CPI determine you therefor need less money and so you get less money in your Soc. Security cheque. Or, according to Obama, why should seniors get enough money to buy a loaf of bread when they can do with just half a loaf.

In addition, one of the dreadful side effects of this cruel plan is that seniors will be forced to purchase less nutritious foods, highly profitable junk foods in fact, which will leave them less healthy thereby increasing their already too high medical costs.

The reason given by Obama is that this will help reduce the national debt. Of course Social Security has absolutely nothing to do with the debt. Social Security is a stand alone, self sustaining Trust Fund that is not part of the General Fund used to finance the American Government.

So we need to pay attention to the craziness in Washington DC.  And the actions or non-actions of your congress-person.  Please be ready to write a letter to get the Senate and the Congress to acts as adults and to care about the lives of people of this nation.

Just in case you have not seen the 2nd Amendment, here it is.  In full.  As ratified on December 17, 1791.

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

So, let’s look at this short sentence without the special glasses worn by lobbyists.

A well regulated Militia.  Well, that could mean an army. The beginnings of the army was founded in 1775, and the U.S. Army was founded in 1784.   Or, more likely, it could mean a group like the National Guard, founded in 1903 under the Militia Act.   There is no doubt that that National Guard is a Militia, and that it is well-regulated.

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State.  There can be no doubt that our states are kept safe by the entire military both here and abroad, and various militias in the form of National Guard, the police, the FBI, the CIA, and the national security teams distributed out of Washington DC.  All of these organizations are well-regulated and necessary to the security of our free State.

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms.  I don’t think any of would quibble that the people in the organizations and institutions in the paragraph (constituting our well-regulated militia) above should have the right to bear arms.

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed. And, yes, we will not restrict those people in the Militia (mentioned above) from bearing arms.  But, remember, all of these military and militia groups make sure that the guns are registered to the person bearing that arm, and they must only use them when and where appropriate, as per the training.

So, there it is, a one-sentence amendment created in 1791 before we had created our militia in 1903.

There is nothing in that amendment that says we should not register or regulate guns.  There is nothing that says we should not have background checks.

But, yes indeed, there is attention to the issue of regulation. 

So please, attend to the regulation of these weapons so that we may all be safer.