Miriam,
For the past 25 plus years Cathy and I have operated as private
contractors under the name, Peninsula Rehabilitation Services. The
state-wide program is called, The Independent Living Older Blind
Program.
Initially,around 1988, the US Department of Education put up money for
states to write Grants to be included. Washington State Department of
Services for the Blind(DSB)was successful in obtaining grant money
every year until the Grant was turned into funding for all 50 states.
At first the field rehab teachers were in-house. DSB had 8 field
rehab teachers already in place, serving the VRC's with initial skills
training for the Vocational Rehab Program. So they were now being
given the additional task of serving the Non VR clients. But one by
one these field positions were filled by O&M Specialists who also were
expected to double as rehab teachers for all clients. The
requirements for O&M's in Washington requires "normal" vision. Plus
the fact that there was no money for drivers for any blind RT's, and
the territories were huge.
In 1995 DSB was faced with a problem. They had the Federal dollars,
but no longer had Full Time Equivalents(FTE's)and the state
legislature rejected the request for additional positions. So DSB
offered the money to private contractors. The ILOB Program developed
over several years, growing in more and more paperwork, as government
programs are wont to do. At some point around 2005, the state's IL
manager took a position with the University of Washington, leaving a
position which could not be filled due to a freeze on hiring. DSB
decided to simply allow the ILOB Program to follow the program manager
to the U of W, and so a financial arrangement was arrived at. But
regardless of who administers this program, it is woefully under
funded and poorly managed. And yet, we, PRS, are a contact point for
newly blinded Seniors. We do group training when possible, and we do
provide some basic tools such as handheld magnifiers, talking watches,
etc. We also do outreach, and put out packets of information
regarding the large number of hidden services which do exist.
From the beginning Cathy and I agreed that our mission was to serve
the needs of clients, and not to build an institution. We could
either meet with clients or meet with potential funders, write grants
or provide folks with one on one training. We stayed small, but
probably more effective than if we'd gone the route of three
contractors that developed agencies. The biggest and oldest of these,
located in Seattle, just closed their doors after 50 years. The
Lilac Blind Foundation, which I co founded in Spokane, back in 1971,
served the Inland Empire with as many as 15 employees. They are now
struggling to support 3 or 4 staff. When we began back in 1995, we
were serving the entire four counties that made up the Olympic
Peninsula, as well as Kitsap county, a very large county lying between
Hood Canal and Puget Sound. We would schedule four or five clients
each day, doing our reports in the evenings. Saturdays were often
days we met with support groups, or did presentations.
Today I wonder how we ever did it! We serve only two counties and see
clients only three days in the week. We do our ever increasing
paperwork on Mondays and Fridays, along with our scheduling and
ordering.
The area we serve is still a vast one, but the population is only
around 150 thousand. But even so, Sequim is the state's favorite
retirement town, and Port Angeles is not far behind. Lots of older
folks.
Carl Jarvis
On 11/12/19, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
So you're individual private contractors?
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx On Behalf Of Frank Ventura
Sent: Tuesday, November 12, 2019 5:57 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Elizabeth Warren, 1 more thing
Oh forgot to answer your question as to if my union has put pressure on the
state government. As my managers like to say on a regular basis, if anyone
goes to the union or the union goes to anyone, we'll outsource every goddamn
one of you; and they most certainly would too.
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Miriam Vieni
Sent: Tuesday, November 12, 2019 5:34 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Elizabeth Warren, 1 more thing
Is that all you get now? Is that true of all state employees in your state?
Did they make any efforts to organize and put pressure on the state
government to change that? It sounds terrible.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx On Behalf Of Frank Ventura
Sent: Tuesday, November 12, 2019 5:11 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Elizabeth Warren, 1 more thing
Miriam, that is true and it would have worked if the states did not
eliminate the state pensions for some employees. To break it down to a very
simple notion the law was meant to allow public employees to get either a
pension or social security of both. Once the law went into being and public
employees lost their social security some states took away the pensions and
left employees with neither SS or a pension. Now if you think deferred
compensation is any substitute you really need to do some more research, you
only get back about 70 percent of what you put in.
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Miriam Vieni
Sent: Tuesday, November 12, 2019 3:12 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Elizabeth Warren, 1 more thing
I looked further on the web and from what I can tell, the law is supposed to
protect people who worked for a system which did not do the usual tax
withholding from their pay checks for social security. It is supposed to
ensure that they receive income approximately equivalent to what they would
have gotten from social security.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx On Behalf Of Frank Ventura
Sent: Tuesday, November 12, 2019 1:29 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Elizabeth Warren, 1 more thing
Hi Miriam, in the days after 9-11, the Bush administration amended the
social security law by inserting what is known as the "windfall elimination
provision", which allows states to take the amount of a social security
benefit out of a retirees pension or deferred compensation effectively
preventing them from collecting social security. For example if an employee
retires and gets $2000 from their deferred comensation and $1000 from social
security their deferred compensation will be reduced to $1000. See the link
below my signature. To the best of my knowledge only 6 sates do this to
their employees with Massachusetts being one. Sadly, my senator, Ms. Warren
refuses to take a stand against this provision.
As far as Obama, I found many youtube clips of his debates but I found
noting where he said that he will eliminate or reduce social security. Can
you provide a link? If he did say that it certainly will be everywhere on
the internet.
Frank
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/08/05/new-bill-would-change-social-security-rule-on-public-workers-benefits.html
P
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Miriam Vieni
Sent: Tuesday, November 12, 2019 9:38 AM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Elizabeth Warren, 1 more thing
Well Frank,
It depends on what you mean by far left. I don't understand about your
state, how it could prevent you from receiving social security. I'll have to
google that. But I do remember hearing Obama, in a presidential debate with
Romney, talk about how it would be a good idea to privatize social security
or lower its benefits or some such thing. And now that I'm reading the book,
We've Got People by Ryan Grinn, which is a detailed history of the
Democratic Party since Jesse Jackson's run, my memory of Obama being willing
to reduce our social security has been verified. So if you think that the
Democratic leadership is left wing, you've been fooled like a lot of us
were. The Clinton wing of the Democratic party is corporatist and cares only
to stay in power. There's an industry of consultants who stay in business
because the party insists that moninees raise a certain amount of money in
order to be supported in elections by the party.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx On Behalf Of Frank Ventura
Sent: Tuesday, November 12, 2019 2:29 AM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Elizabeth Warren, 1 more thing
Miriam, yours is just one of the many experiences that make me think we have
already lost the battle. I used to have a stack of my late mother's medical
bills on my desk at home. I have since put them in a file box and hid them
under my desk as I can't stand to see them. About half of my take home pay
goes to those bills and will most likely do so until I die. Thankfully I
don't have children so the cycle of inherited debt will stop. Carl spoke
about how he fears that his pension and social security will be protected.
That is a generational thing as my generation is already living in a world
where those things don't exist. Even here in my allegedly progressive state,
my union has lost access to the state pension system. Instead we have it
replaced by (nudge, wink) "deferred compensation" which is nothing more than
a zero interest savings account where I am forced to contribute 15 percent
of my paycheck to every pay period and then when I retire I get to cash it
in minus the almost 30 percent of cumulative back end charges and fees. Now
about that social security? As a state employee I am not allowed to collect
social security when I retire. Sure we pay into it but remember that piece
of paper we signed when we took the job? Yes sir that "windfall elimination
plan" law really sticks it to me as it does in the other 5 states in the
country that require state employees to sign away their social security. I
feel defeated and don't have any positive view of the future despite how
many far left podcasts I listen to as they too are part of the corporate
demigods that got us where we are.
Frank
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Miriam Vieni
Sent: Monday, November 11, 2019 9:25 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Elizabeth Warren, 1 more thing
Amy was trying to ask, what she thought was a provocative and meaningful
question, and Warren was trying to dodge it. But really, I don't see the
point of the question. I've noticed that she often does something similar,
asks public figures to comment on outrageous things that other people have
said. Trying to get someone to say something in an unguarded moment is not,
as far as I'm concerned, doing useful journalism.
As for your personal concern, I surely do understand that. As I've
explained, my income slowly decreases as municipal bonds are called and
replaced with bonds that pay a lower rate of interest. My expenses rise,
supplemental medical insurance, Medicare Prescription insurance, and other
expenses. As my physical capacities decline, and I'm not sure how long I'll
be able to walk, I'm going to have to have a different level of care. And
that's another issue. I can be empathetic toward people on the margins of
society, but it's quite a different situation when you find yourself
dependent on people who don't understand your needs, have little education
and poor training, don't speak English well, and may steal your belongings.
Now that Yaneek is leaving to join our military, I may very soon be back in
that situation again. What is most ironic is if I had the $400,000 annually
to pay for what is considered a quality nursing home here and if I wanted to
be in such a place, I'd be cared for by employees at the same level of
education, and they wouldn't be working for me, but for an impersonal
bureaucracy. When my mother was dying of cancer, she was in a well known
Catholic hospital that serves dying cancer patients. It had a modern clean
physical plant. They had her on medication which kept her free from pain.
But all her personal belongings were stolen. I also remember visiting one
Friday night. The rooms were all laid out in a circle, opening onto a
corridor, and in the center of the circle, there was a glass enclosed
nursing station. As we walked along the corridor, I could hear a woman
crying out, asking for help or something. She must have been feeling
frightened and alone. No one went to her. Those nurses acted like she didn't
exist. That was back in the late 80's. Oh, and by the way, because she
didn't die within a year of being admitted, they threw her out. She died in
the best nursing home I could get her into, with a much poorer level of
care, a few months later.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Monday, November 11, 2019 7:17 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Elizabeth Warren, 1 more thing
I heard it, both during the "debate" and on Democracy Now. I have no idea
why Amy played that up. It sounded to me as if it were simply another side
step in order to avoid saying anything provocative.
Frankly, I run hot and cold. We have a bunch of brain damaged candidates
eager to be the last president of the American Empire.
The billionaires are so greed driven that they no longer understand that
they need to working class in order to continue enriching themselves.
My current concern is wondering how long our pensions and social security
will continue. That is the source of the majority of our monthly income.
If we continue headed down the road the way we are, it won't be long before
Cathy and I will be attempting to live on half of what we need to stay
afloat.
Carl Jarvis
On 11/11/19, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Democracy Now thought that Warren's response to Amy's last question
was so significant, that they have it as a separate thing on the
website and it downloaded as a separate episode. Amy asked her to
comment on the first 2 primaries being in majority white states where
candidates would have to spend a lot of time wooing voters and then
the third in a state with a large black population. Warren said, "Are
you going to ask me to comment on that?"
and then she said, "I'm just a player in the game." I suppose that Amy
thinks this is significant, Warren refusing to comment on race?
Miriam