The Old, Cold High Road

In den USA erfrieren im Winter immer wieder alte Menschen in ihren Betten.

(Translation: In the USA, old people very often freeze to death in their beds during wintertime.)

After searching, I only found one story of a single American senior who froze to death in her home due to inability (presumably) to pay her gas bill. My eighty-four-year-old great-aunt--who, obviously, knows far more old people that I do--knows of no one to whom this has happened. However, we live in LA—though, even here, it’s often been close to freezing at night during the past few winters.

What about you folks in the north-east and the mid-west? My grandmother lives in Chicago, my grandfather in Albuquerque, and my aunt still has old friends living in New York and Oklahoma. They all seem to be okay, with no reports of home heating issues during this abnormally cold winter.

Undoubtedly, however, there are many American senior citizens who are in need of monies to defray their home heating oil costs. And, courtesy of the viewers of the German TV show Weltspeigel were generous enough to donate their Euros toward that end at the behest of the show's producers, many of them may have a few more dollars in their pockets. I say schönen Dank on behalf of the seniors in my family, even though none of them is in danger of freezing to death in subsequent winters, God willing. However, other American seniors who don’t have any younger family members who care about them and who rely solely on their meager Social Security benefits could probably use a little extra Geld. (And who am I to look a gift-horse in the mouth, especially when I won’t be the recipient of the gift?)

Along with Ray D. at Davids Medienkritik, though, I would humbly suggest to our generous German friends that they donate their funds to a recipient much closer to home--to a place in more demonstrable need and to which their form of exchange would not be subject to exchange rates. A few years ago, their neighbors to the west experienced a devastating death rate (in the tens of thousands) of their seniors due to excessive summer heat, lack of air conditioners and due to many of the seniors’ younger relatives being on holiday and incommunicado.

But the French debacle was about more than lack of funds.

Ray is inclined to view his countrymen’s gesture as ‘snobbish’ and ‘condescending.’ He’s probably correct, as far as the producers of Weltspiegel are concerned. However—unless those Weltspiegel's viewers are proactive seekers of alternative information, they are only reacting to the spun news which they are fed. The situation is often much the same right here in the US.

Therefore, I’m more inclined to attribute ‘generosity of spirit’--rather than condescenscion--to the Germans desiring to protect the aged in America. They were on reacting to a perceived problem.

Our German friends, however, should take it one step further: exhort all of us to keep an eye on our aged parents, grandparents and great-grandparents. The deaths of French seniors in such large numbers back in 2003 spoke to a larger issue than lack of environment-regulating machinery: it told the world that all too many French people just didn’t consider the fate of their living forebears to the extent that they would make sure that their parents/grandparents were safe and well.

Many Americans can’t throw stones at the French in this area.

One of the American beneficiaries of German generosity is a Boston couple—Jerry and Anne Garten. Their saga was put before Weltspiegel viewers and they gave generously. One thing, however: Jerry and Anne have six daughters. As one of Ray’s commenters notes, the Gartens’ children and grandchildren (assuming adult grandchildren exist) don’t seem to be able to kick in ten dollars a week to ensure that their forebears don’t freeze. (I’m not discounting the possibility that the Gartens are horrible parents, but making sure that they don’t die a horrible death is different from having anything to do with them; honor thy father and mother and all that.)

If it is true that older Americans in large numbers are dying due to their inability to afford heat, then it is our problem—a problem that can be solved by us. Whether the European Union countries want to use a well-noted problem of theirs and throw it back in our faces as a real or imagined American problem is, mostly, irrelevant. It is up to all of the relatively young and able-bodied fend for their parents and other older relatives. Consider it returning the favor.

(Thanks to Pajamas Media)

Comments

[karrde]

I live in an area known for long winters, with snow accumulation rising above 100 inches on a regular basis. (The snow is all "lake effect" snow; living on the edge of Lake Superior guarantees copious amounts of snow every year.)

I don't recall any stories of elderly people dying of cold during the last three winters that I lived here.

Beyond that I can't say, but if such things happened I'm sure the town's grape-vine would be full of the stories.

[Tully]

Don't know how it works in places where heating is by oil delivered to the home, but 'round here it's ILLEGAL to cut off utilities when the temperature is predicted to fall below freezing in the next week, or has been below freezing in the previous week. And there are programs for paying the heating bills for the elderly and indigent.

[skinner]

Yo dudes theGermans need to remember th seige of Leningrad Yo before they start poiting fingers Does this new generation read textbooks about ww II or just
the brothers Grimm Yo ???
I personally sent my gramma to one of the nicest Igloo rest homes
On Zodiak Island She bitched about the cold { old people do this,,YO}, so then I tell her get out of youre room and got to the
Great room where they play bingo and the big fire pit is. She said she took my advice but , she still was freezing in her room ' I sent her a case of sterno and some mucklucks . BUT NO YO!
she still didnt like it ... so that spring I sent her to the Mohave estates In eastern Ca.
Tepee living with solar fans wasnt good enough either TOO HOT
I fed exed her Ice and
she just let it melt
Ive givin up Theres no pleasing some people .... Yo!1rsb"

[Allan]

It's all because we replaced old tube type tv's with solid state devices. Those tube burners could increase the temperature in an average sized room by 20 degrees. Transistors put out heat, but they're too small to be effective room heaters.

[Gildna Radner]

I dont Know any thing about these tubes and all this nonsence
I tell my neices Im bored and they say quit Knitting and watch the tube!!!! Im on I.U.V and I dot think its funny then when I task them they say no Aunt Gildna the Boob Tube Now I went on the internet an they say the boob tube is the television
Now how am I gonna Know whether the Iuvs working if Im staring a the television?????? And yes it is cold in here

[Christopher Taylor]

Actually, the idea is to try to change perception of the US from a prosperous, powerful nation that people long to be like... to a cruel, harsh place much akin to 3rd world nations full of suffering, loss, and misery. This is part of a campaign that started just a few years ago when the EU got started up in earnest.

Look, they view the US as a competitor, we're an economic rival to the EU. Lacking the economic power, workforce, resources, or drive the US has, they have to try to compensate by lies, distortion, and personal attacks.

In the end, all they'll do is further alienate themselves from the US and collapse under divisions that are millennia old.

[Margaret Donovan]

The politicians and special interests who control Ground Zero are selling us out and we can only block them with your help.

Millions more support rebuilding the Towers than any other option -- and always have -- but the official planning process was stage-managed to prevent this from even being considered,and the mainstream media ignored this contempt for public opinion disguised as respect for it. Otherwise, they could never have pulled it off.

We want to change people's perception of what is possible. They already know what is right, but many have given up hope that we can still make it happen. The petition at www.twintowersalliance.com is designed to rekindle that hope and we need all the help we can get to drive traffic to the site.

The collapse of the Twin Towers was an enormous propaganda victory for our enemies. Our failure to rebuild them would make it permanent and would be seen around the world as civilization cowering before barbarism, but it doesn’t have to be. Only lack of will stands in the way of new Towers.

A recent New York Times editorial recognized that "the entire nation has an emotional investment" in what "replaces the two towers". What's really at stake goes far beyond emotions. The groundwork has been laid for a victory of idealism over cynicism and resolve over apathy, but we need your help now.

The will of the people has been ignored for too long -- and for no good reason.

[Gildna Radnor]

I dont understand all this talk about twins wearing trowsers ?
and why they should be honored
or somthing or other ??? My sister Gretchen had twins and they always wore trowsers and fetched water Without spilling
except watering the carrot row and
skinner would bit the carrots through the picket fence Happily
WE"LL It was a long walk and they where parched so they drank
alot of water What goes down must
replenish the carrots for crying out load !
They always came home with full buckets And Gretchen was so proud of em she bought them ....they're first dresses They made the trip much faster the carrots grew bigger and the neighbor boys plowed more feilds ! Now they have indoor plumbing and lifes no fun for skinner anymore

[xixi]

The only certainty I believe is that our congress will screw it up. No law will be passed until after the November 06 elections either. I believe Democrats see Mexican immigrants as a new "entitlement" voting block for them. I believe Republicans see them as cheap labor. Neither party has any ideas worth a damn.

[Maureen]

Huh? This has been an abnormally warm winter here in the Midwest.
(The Ohio/Indiana/Illinois/Iowa Midwest, not what Westerners call the Midwest.)

Anyway, I've never heard of anyone but homeless people without shelter or people who have accidents way out in the wayback ever freezing to death. No matter how cold it gets inside, in general it just doesn't get that cold.

Even when my darned radiator decides to stop working in the middle of a snowstorm, which it has done. :)