AMERICA'S SKIES GOING GRAY

Early most mornings, you will find Delbert Williams climbing into the cockpit of his Air Tractor, snapping on a helmet and roaring down the runway at the Wasco Airport.

At 73 years old, Williams is an oddity. He is likely Kern County's oldest, regularly flying cropduster -- or preferably "ag pilot" to those in the business.

Age is no big deal to Williams, who commutes from his ranch in Woody to operate Tri-Star Agrinautics in Wasco. He says his hero is Al Grouleff, an 85-year-old San Joaquin cropduster who continues to fly.

But age is a big deal in an industry that has amazed us on the ground for nearly a century with its graceful aerial ballet. This air force of private pilots is getting older. Most pilots now are in their 50s and 60s. It is the exceptional pilot who is healthy enough and willing enough to fly beyond that age.

For the sake of the industry they serve, and the increasing world demand for the food they help grow, many aging pilots now wonder who will fill their seats when they finally are grounded.

"We're in the 911 business," Williams said as he prepared to take off one recent morning. "When the pest control advisor goes into a field, when all alternatives have been tried, when the bad bugs are out-eating the good bugs, they call us in."

Skimming the tops of plants while dodging power lines, skillful cropdusters plant fields, fertilize crops and drop mixtures from the air that help fight the "bad bugs." Safety rules have restricted where and how these pilots work.

Changing crop patterns -- particularly the trading of "king cotton" for tree-planting in the valley -- has reduced the need for their services. And the bigger carrying capacity of today's aircraft has resulted in doing more with less.

But still the need for cropdusters exists and the looming shortage is troublesome.

The California Agricultural Aircraft Association estimates ag pilots in the state log more than 100,000 hours in flight time a year. Terry Gage, the association's president, estimated there are 400 fully licensed ag pilots in California, but only 300 are actively flying.

Many of the old-timer pilots turned their military aviation experience into flying-by-the-seat-of-their-pants civilian jobs upon discharge. But much more is demanded of today's ag pilot. He or she must be an "applicator" first and a pilot second.

Licenses from a wide range of alphabet-soup regulatory agencies and the Federal Aviation Administration, as well as extensive training and apprenticeships, are required.

"Part of the challenge is finding the right individual," Gage said. "It's more than flying low over fields. We need people serious about agriculture."

"We don't wear ties and suits to work. We wear jeans and carry lunch buckets. But we are professional, skilled aviators," Williams said.

It's not just the education, licensing and experience requirements that keep new pilots from entering the industry. It's also the high cost of insuring a plane flown by an inexperienced pilot.

Williams learned how to fly when he was a Bakersfield High School student. He said he paid for his lessons by washing and fueling airplanes for Roy Pemberton at Meadows Field. He completed a tour in the Air National Guard. His experience in agriculture began with mixing chemicals and loading cropdusters.

But likely the professional breaks Williams was given as a young pilot he could not afford to give a newcomer today. In fact he said he advises pilots wanting to get into the business to spend some years in the Midwest, where restrictions and the physical challenges may be less and opportunities greater. Then return to California as a more seasoned aviator.

When I called to San Joaquin to check up on Williams' hero, Al Grouleff, he was out flying with his 18-year-old grandson, Greg Grouleff Jr. Greg's father, Greg Sr., answered the phone at the cropdusting business the family has operated for 67 years.

Greg Jr. has the flying bug. He wants to be a cropduster. When his grandfather isn't dusting crops or joyriding in his Stearman biplane, Greg Sr. said he is teaching the youngster the ropes.

But even with a family business to back up his dream, Greg Jr. is being urged to be cautious.

"We want him to have a backup plan," said his father, who has encouraged his only son to enroll in Fresno State and major in agriculture.

Even the old-timers worry about the uncertainty of their industry.

"I think there will always be a need for us," said Allan Bittleston, who runs Vince Crop Dusters Inc. in Buttonwillow. But he admits the need is shrinking.

This article written by Dianne Hardisty appeared first in The Bakersfield Californian in July 2009.

BILL THOMAS TARGETS MELTDOWN

Bill Thomas isn’t out to get anyone. Rather Bakersfield’s tough, smart and powerful former Republican congressman is on a crusade to get the truth.

Thomas is vice-chairman of the 10-member Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, created by Congress and President Obama to explain how the nation’s financial institutions ended up in today’s mess.

The bipartisan commission is headed by Democrat Phil Angelides, California’s former treasurer. But leadership and administrative duties are shared by both men. As the commission shifts into “high gear” next month, with the first of eight public hearings scheduled and teams of investigators swarming over Wall Street financial records, Thomas and Angelides are presenting a firm, unified front.

Innovative and complex Wall Street financial schemes brought the nation’s and world’s banks to the verge of collapse, and plunged the economy into the deepest recession since the Great Depression. People are losing their homes, businesses and jobs. Billions upon billions of tax dollars have been spent to shore up banks that are “too big to fail.”

The commission’s job is to explain how that happened, and to create a repository of information that can be used by the president, Congress and others to help fix problems and keep them from happening again.

“The fact is that late in 1929, people were throwing themselves out of windows on Wall Street. This year, they’re lining up for bonuses. There has been no serious self-examination on Wall Street of what has occurred and what should be in the future,” Angelides told economists and policy-makers at a conference in Washington, D.C., last month.

Some people on Wall Street now acknowledge that they were not comfortable about the activities they engaged in, Thomas said during a recent interview with The Californian.

“But they said, ‘The music was playing and if I had not played along, I would be out of a job because there were people who were making money on paper. We could not be highfalutin and sit it out,’” Thomas recalled being told. “So in other words, somebody had to hold them responsible. You would like to think to a certain extent there were certain morals and mores that bankers would follow. But obviously the Fed relied on self-regulation to a certain extent. People could not help themselves. ‘Stop me before I loan again.’”

The commission’s job is to examine why Wall Street firms did not stop themselves and why regulators didn’t stop them.

Both Angelides and Thomas agree that the commission’s job is to shed light, not heat on the Wall Street scandal that has left many Americans struggling just to make ends meet. But the commission’s fact-finding mission also has teeth. If corporate giants, or government regulators are uncooperative, commissioners have been given subpoena powers to compel cooperation. If evidence of wrongdoing merits it, cases can be referred to law enforcement.

“We are not out to embarrass people,” said Thomas. “We are out to find the facts. As the facts come out, a number of people will have to be embarrassed because they were in positions of responsibility and didn’t do what people in these positions should do.”

But when the commission reaches its Dec. 15, 2010 deadline, the goal is to leave Americans with a book to explain what happened and a yard stick to measure the efforts of this Congress and future Congresses to fix the problems.

Thomas is commuting to Washington from Bakersfield to get the commission up and running. He also serves as a visiting fellow with the American Enterprise Institute and a senior advisor to Buchanan, Ingersoll and Rooney, a Washington, D.C., law firm.

He sat down with The Californian during a holiday break to discuss the commission’s work and the crisis that led to its creation.

Q – Some people are comparing the Fiscal Crisis Inquiry Commission to the 1930s Pecora Commission, which investigated the causes of the Great Depression. Is that a good comparison?

A – “[Ferdinand] Pecora was a Senate staffer. It was an on-again, off-again Senate inquiry. The guy was pulling stunts. He wanted to embarrass the Wall Street folks. He wanted to make a name for himself and others. There wasn’t a lot of legislation that came out of that commission.”

Thomas contended much of the legislation credited to Pecora’s probe, such as creation of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., was already in progress before the Senate hearings. The FCIC’s work will be a wide-ranging search for causes and will be the basis for legislation beyond the commission’s life.

“Part of our job is to explain to people what happened and why,” he said. “Some people still can’t figure it out. They just know that they are in real trouble with their housing. We are going to try to write a book that will be fairly easy reading. It won’t be like the 9/11 Commission book, because they were forced to maintain a degree of secrecy. There were things they could not write about. But it will be along those lines.”

Q – It doesn’t seem important to ask “why.” The president and Congress already are proposing financial reforms. They aren’t waiting for the commission to tell them “why.”

A – “They can’t wait. They have problems to face and the president is talking about changes. If the focus is on explaining what happened, they think they know what happened, as well. We are going to try to provide a comprehensive analysis of what happened. At the time we publish, we can take it as a yardstick and measure what Congress has done.”

Noting Congress moves slowly, Thomas predicted few reforms will be in place before the commission’s reporting deadline.

“You can be very cynical and say that the reporting date in the legislation is Dec. 15, 2010, right after the election, so Congress can say it’s waiting for the commission to give up the specifics if it can’t get anything done.”

Q – Some people -- inside and outside the government -- contend the big problems are behind us. Is that true?

A – “There are a number of folks [on Wall Street] going right back to practicing, to a large extent, what they were practicing prior to the collapse. And they have short memories because they now say they didn’t need to take the TARP money. Well they took it. They still got rescued. The life ring was thrown. They grabbed it. And we pulled them out.

“They want to pay the money back and play the old game. I think it is dumb of them, frankly, to want to go back to making money the old way. They still have those instruments. They modified them slightly, but not enough. They are creating an animosity toward them not unlike the way people have felt about other institutions in the past and that has to be reckoned with.

“And it is getting more complicated now that Congress is getting some of that money returning back. Now they want to spend it, instead of regarding it as the payback of the taxpayers’ money that was used to float the loans in the first place. They just think it is found money and they are going to be using it for all types of purposes.”

Q – What new or ongoing issues should concern us?

A – “What really happened was that all these large banks were carrying these strange instruments of consolidated mortgages. And all of a sudden they weren’t worth that much. Well, how much were they worth? We didn’t know for sure. Moody’s gave them a triple-A rating so they could sell them to other people. But if you look at the rating game, you pay for the rating. So you end up hiring one of the firms that gave you a triple-A.

“It’s a lot like what happened to the accounting firms that recommended how and where you invested your money, and then went over the books and, guess what, they concluded that was a great place to invest your money. Except it blew up. You can’t have people on both sides of a ledger when they are carrying out a function.

“People were buying triple-A ratings. Maybe they weren’t triple-A. Maybe they were junk. Banks had these on their books and they didn’t know if they were worth anything. It wasn’t that they didn’t have enough money. They just didn’t know what they had.”

Thomas equated the Wall Street schemers to “mad scientists,” who were not sure what they were creating. They just knew they were making lots of money.

“One of the ways to deal with rating agencies is to say OK, if this is a triple-A document, you have to put some of your own money in so that you will be at risk. One of the biggest problems is that people with these products had no risk. They could shop the risk. And those who were willing to cover the risk thought there were no risks, so they were willing to make ‘free money.’ Everybody was making free money until reality set in.

“It is partly the job of the Federal Reserve to take the punch bowl away from the party. Clearly there was an unwillingness [at the Fed] to stop this structure because it appeared to be OK and it was very lucrative.”

Q – Should some banks be “too big to fail?”

A – Two presidents, Congress and regulators “knew if these structures collapsed, it would be like dominos. Don’t hit the first one. The others might not stay up. The time frame was such that you had to just pump money in it. It’s what you do in triage with people coming in. First you have to keep them alive. Then you figure out what their problem is. And then you figure out what you have to do to solve the problem. The massive infusion of money was to keep the patient alive. Did some of it go where it shouldn’t have gone? Of course. But it was to keep them alive. They are now back and making money. But we are concerned because we don’t fully understand them and they don’t either.”

Q – How will the commission unsnarl this financial maze?

A – “We are looking at holding eight hearings. We would like to have 20, but we don’t have time for that. We have a very short time frame.”

Thomas said the first hearing will be held in mid-January over two days at the Capitol. The chief executive officers of some of Wall Street’s major financial institutions will be called to testify. Future public hearings will be announced, with the investigation continuing and information compiled for both the final report and the repository, which will be housed in the National Archives in Washington, D.C.

The law creating the commission specified 22 areas of study. Thomas acknowledged the commission’s scope will be wide-ranging and consider both domestic and international implications.

“People were surprised that this went so quickly around the world as a conflagration. Internationally, finances are completely intermingled. Nation states are an anachronism when it comes to today’s international financial structures. So that has to be addressed, as well.”

Q – How much will this inquiry cost?

A – “The 9/11 commission started out with $3 million and ended up spending $16 million. We started at $8 million. You can always do it with what they give you, but it might take a little bit more only because of the timeframe we are in. We have a lot to do in a shorter period of time.”

Thomas said staff from other departments also will be assigned to help with the work.

Q – Why did you agree to take on this huge inquiry?

A – “It is an impossible job in an impossible time frame. But friends of mine, who are leaders in the House, came to me and asked me to do this. They said they could not think of anyone else who could do this.”

Thomas admitted he was reluctant at first. But as the other members were appointed and as Democratic Chairman Angelides voluntarily agreed to share the commission’s powers with Thomas, a Republican, Thomas has gained confidence that the inquiry will be thorough, honest and fair.

“I felt the pursuit of what happened actually had a chance.”

This article written by Dianne Hardisty first appeared in The Bakersfield Californian on Dec. 27, 2009.

LIVING TO 100 NOW 'POSSIBLE'

Babies born today stand a good chance of living to be 100 years old. That is, if they are able to dodge the unexpected truck or overcome the unexpected illness.
Their chances of living that long also will be enhanced if others in their family live long, healthy lives.

That was the conclusion of Danish researchers, who reported this fall that medical advances and lifestyle changes are causing the life expectancy in the United States and Western Europe to stretch. Today’s babies are likely to become tomorrow’s centenarians.

Ruth Strom of Bakersfield, Calif., and her daughter, Betty Jones, hope these babies will prepare themselves for the challenges of old age. They hope these babies will be able to afford to live those 100 years.

Ruth celebrated her 100th birthday in August. She says she never expected to live that long. But she should have. Her mother, a Minnesota farmer’s wife from tough Norwegian stock, lived to be 101 years old. And with the exception of family members who smoked, Ruth’s brother and sisters have lived into their late 80s and 90s.

Betty, who retired a few years ago as a Bakersfield elementary school teacher, looks after her mother, who lives in a spacious northwest Bakersfield house she shares with five elderly women. Ruth’s rent, assisted care and other expenses are eating away at her savings and pension. Ruth is fortunate. Her health is good, requiring little outlay for medicines, and she has lived conservatively, keeping money worries to a minimum.

But Betty, who is on the leading edge of the tsunami of baby boomers heading into retirement, worries that many in her generation and those younger have no clue what old age will cost and who will pay for it.

“It’s a big challenge. People need to be better prepared. They need to start putting money away for their retirements,” said Betty, who receives a teacher’s pension. Her husband, Trent, retired about five years ago, after selling his family’s plumbing company, Gundlach’s.

The MacArthur Research Network on an Aging Society this month released a report contending the U.S. Census Bureau and Social Security Administration have grossly underestimated the average lifespan of Americans.

For decades, the agencies’ life expectancy predictions have been reasonably accurate. The life expectancy of a man born in 1900 has gone from 60 years old to 74 years old for a male child born in 2005. But government analysts predicted the returns on medical advances would taper off, rather than continuing to add years to Americans’ lives at an astronomical pace.

MacArthur researchers and those at the Danish Aging Research Center disagree. Medical research is on the cutting edge of attacking even more diseases, they noted. And while the “fountain of youth” remains elusive, anti-aging research has increased.
Just this month, for example, the Buck Institute for Age in Novato, Calif., received a nearly $1.6 million grant from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine to focus on stem cell research to develop treatment for illnesses, such as Alzheimer’s disease.

Like their Danish counterparts, MacArthur researchers predict Americans are going to live from three to eight years longer than expected by 2050. While that may not seem to be a lot longer, it likely will cost government agencies and families trillions of dollars more to provide services for aging Americans.

“The economic implications for the U.S. economy are huge,” said S. Jay Olshansky, the study’s co-author, who estimated by 2050 the U.S. will be spending $3.2 trillion to $8.3 trillion more in today’s dollars than currently projected.

And by the middle of the next decade, those over 60 will outnumber those under age 15. This explosion of the elderly means new methods of transportation, medical care, living arrangements and retirement planning must be developed.

Healthy lifestyles and medical advances are a double-edged sword. While these trends are helping Americans live longer, they also are helping them live better – maintaining their quality of life, while containing the cost of providing services.

Researchers look to people, such as Ruth Strom, to help us travel the path to longer living. They contend centenarians share common traits that can become guide points for the rest of us. These include: having a family history of long life; adapting to life’s setbacks; being self-sufficient; engaging in intellectual activity; having a sense of humor; holding religious beliefs; connecting to other people; keeping blood pressure low; not smoking or drinking heavily; playing musical instruments; enjoying simple pleasures; controlling diet; exercising regularly; having a positive attitude; and looking young.

During a recent interview, Ruth discussed these traits:

Self-sufficiency – “I am sure of my decisions. I am confident something is what I want to do. I am practical and have common sense.”

Sense of humor – “I can surely catch a joke,” she said with a big grin and laugh.

Simple pleasures – “I loved working in the yard and homey things.”

Low blood pressure – “I have no physical problems. I have been very healthy.”

Smoking – “I never smoked,” she said, admitting that she tried it and didn’t like it.

Drinking – “No, I tasted it. The whole family doesn’t drink.”

Music – “I played piano, but not very well.” When she lived in Arroyo Grande, before moving to Bakersfield to be near her daughter, she and her sisters formed a singing group. “I like to sing. If there is a singing group going on, I like to be in it.”

Diet – “I fight it all the time. I seem to be always on a diet.”

Self-esteem – Betty, who called her mother humble, said Ruth usually put other people first. “We did not approve of bragging,” Ruth added.

Exercise – Before moving to Bakersfield, she and her sisters would walk together every day.

Intellectual activity – Ruth was a teacher in Minnesota, before marrying a farmer. The couple later moved to Ventura and she became Grover Beach’s part-time librarian. An avid bridge player, Ruth’s favorite topics of conversation are the news and religion.

Young looking – After studying about 2,000 people aged 70 and older over several years, Danish researchers concluded people who look younger seem to live longer. Ruth looks 10, maybe 20 years younger than her 100 years. Betty credits her mother’s youthful appearance to her daily application of Pond’s cream.

Religion – Religion and family have been central to Ruth’s life. She belongs to the First Presbyterian Church in Bakersfield.

Amazed she is alive and well at 100 years old, Ruth observed, “I’m sure glad to be alive.” But she added when God is ready to take her, she will be glad of that, too.

A version of this story written by Dianne Hardisty appeared first in The Bakersfield Californian on Dec. 27, 2009.

Foreclosure is problem for everyone

Retired city planning, John Hardisty, who now mediates settlement of civil cases in superior court, has a front row seat on the unfolding "foreclosure crisis." Day after day, he watches homeowners hauled before judges as part of a process to evict them from their homes that are being foreclosed by banks.

Most of these people have not bought about their ability to pay. These are people who have lost their jobs in this brutal economy, their homes are no longer worth what they paid for them, and banks refuse to modify their loans. In many cases, homeowners complain they cannot even get their banks to discuss loan modification.

He wrote about this recently in an opinion article published in The Bakersfield Californian (see "As Foreclosure Crisis Keeps Growing, Lenders, Borrowers Need Mediation" by John Hardisty http://tiny.cc/u71uc ) The article urges legislators to begin a program in California similar to one already implemented in more than a dozen states. It requires mediation to be a part of the foreclosure process.

Foreclosure is not just a crisis for individual home owners. Foreclosures are blighting communities. They are endangering the life of that firefighter who must rush to extinguish a blaze in an abandoned home. They are causing public health and law enforcement problems. They are lowering home values in every neighborhood.

He plans to keep writing about this national crisis and wants to hear what is happening in your neighborhood, city and state. Is the foreclosure problem growing? What should be done? Please post your comments on this journal or write John Hardisty directly at planningbeat@yahoo.com. Thanks!

YOUNG, SCARED, BUT NOT ALONE

Cassaundra Friedberg was 8 years old when she was first taken to the Jamison Center, Kern County’s emergency children’s shelter. When police arrived at her family’s front door, they found filth and little food. Cassaundra’s parents had gone out of town, leaving an older brother to care for his four siblings.

The five children were snatched away from the Bakersfield home and deposited into the Jamison Center. The two oldest boys were kept together, as were a younger sister and brother. Cassaundra, the middle child, was housed separately.

“I was very scared. I was crying. I felt isolated,” Cassaundra, who is now 22, recalled during a recent interview. “Every night, I would get my pillow and blanket and crawl under a desk in the room. That’s where they would find me in the morning. I still remember that room. I would cry and cry in school. It was very emotional.” In about a week, Cassaundra and her brothers and sister were returned to her parents. “I was relieved to go home.”

Five years later, Cassaundra and her two younger siblings were sent back to the Jamison Center. Cassaundra is a bit sketchy about the details of this incident, but she recalls police were summoned to check on conditions in a neighboring house. Instead, they went to Cassaundra’s, where they again found squalor.

By then, Cassaundra’s father, who had a lengthy criminal record, had died of a heart attack. Cassaundra’s mother was not sending her children to school. Police and social workers stepped in, removing the children from the home. After two months, the children again were returned to their mother.

Two years later, Cassaundra returned to the Jamison Center a third time, when her mother was arrested on drug charges. This final visit resulted in Cassaundra and her siblings being assigned to foster care.

“As a teenager, you are scared, angry and depressed. You are angry at the situation. You feel the social workers are picking on you. When you live in a situation, like I did, you justify it to yourself. My parents didn’t do anything wrong. Everyone’s parents did drugs.”

Cassaundra grew close to her foster parents’ adult daughter. Eventually she moved in with the woman, who adopted her last year as an adult. “She is my mom. She will always be my mom.”

Cassaundra graduated from Liberty High School and went on to earn a bachelor of arts degree in criminal justice from California State University, Bakersfield. She now is working on a master’s degree in public administration from CSUB.

And she has returned again to the Jamison Center -- this time as a staff member, helping and comforting the shelter’s children.

Why return if her memories are so painful?

“To confront my fears,” she said. “I like Jamison. We are here to do a lot of good. But it is a scary process for a child to be taken away from parents and isolated.”

Working at the Jamison Center and pursuing a career in criminal justice is her way of helping vulnerable women and children.

Conditions at the Jamison Center on Shalimar Drive in northeast Bakersfield have changed since Cassaundra was that young child hiding under a desk. No longer is the center overcrowded, with children sleeping several to a room on cots and on couches.

“We went to school in shifts,” Cassaundra said, recalling when she lived at Jamison Center there were more than 60 children living there. “It was crazy, insane.”

Jamison Center overcrowding has been relieved by the establishment of a network of emergency foster homes, explained Carl Guilford, the center’s director.

“We try to make Jamison as child-friendly as we can, but it is an institution,” said Guilford. “We try to get children into a family situation as quickly as we can.”

On the day Cassaundra was interviewed, the Jamison Center housed only 28 children. Most were in the 7- to 12-year-old age range. The center’s staff was about 50, with teachers, medical workers from Kern Medical Center and mental health personnel on site. Most children now stay at the center for a matter of hours and days, rather than weeks and months.

“If a child does get here, social workers try to quickly find them homes,” said Guilford, noting that keeping the number of children at the Jamison Center low allows fragile children to receive more individual care.

“Because I have lived here, I know where these kids are coming from and I try to help,” said Cassaundra. “These kids are going through a scary process. Jamison is better than when I lived here. But these kids are still scared.”

(In photo, above, Cassaundra comforts a small child at the Jamison Center.)

This story written by DIANNE HARDISTY was posted first on The Bakersfield Californian's Website (www.bakersfield.com) on Dec. 10, 2009. It was published in The Bakersfield Californian on Dec. 13, 2009.

HOW YOU CAN HELP

Miriam A. Jamison Center
1010 Shalimar Drive
Children who live at the Jamison Center, Kern County's emergency children's shelter, have many needs. Some cost money; some cost time. Cassaundra Friedberg, 22, and Stephanie Ortega, 20, two former center residents, and Carl Guilford, the center's director, sat down recently to discuss these needs and how people in the community can help.

Volunteer

From helping with an art project, or just cuddling a toddler, time adults spend with Jamison Center children can make a difference in the children's lives. To volunteer, call Blanca Anderson, volunteer coordinator, at 631-6717.

"Children are like barnacles," Guilford observed. "They will attach to anyone who will stand still long enough."

Friedberg and Ortega fondly remembered Pat. "He was the old guy who came twice a week," recalled Ortega, who was removed from her family when she was 6 years old because of abuse. "I loved that old guy. He knew me by my name. He was so sweet and genuine."

Gifts

Toys and other gifts are appreciated at Christmas. But not all these toys will be showered on the children in December. Guilford noted that children live at the center all year long. There are birthdays to be celebrated. Gift also are needed to stock the "KC Store," where each week children who have been good are rewarded with a prize.

"You need something to feel loved when you are here," Friedberg said.

Clothes

New socks and underwear are a constant need. Note that not all the children at the Jamison Center are small. Often living in the shelter are teenagers, who can stretch to more than 6 feet tall and weigh over 200 pounds. Lightly worn outer clothing and shoes in all sizes also are needed, as are disposable newborn diapers.

"When children come to us, it may be right from their homes, schools or a hospital," Guilford said. "They might not bring anything with them." When they leave the Jamison Center to be placed in a foster home, they are sent with three sets of clothing.

Money

Donations of money can be made to the Jamison Foundation, a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt nonprofit organization. The foundation's money is used on special projects, including building projects, and other activities not included in the county's budget. Send donations to the Jamison Center Foundation at P.O. Box 1574, Bakersfield, CA 93302.

Money can be donated directly to the Jamison Center and placed in a separate county account. This money will be used to pay the cost of such things as outings for the children. Send these donations to the Jamison Center at P.O. Box 511, Bakersfield 93302.

"It was always good to get out of here," Ortega said, fondly remembering her outings to the movies or to a fast-food restaurant. "Sometimes when I was here, I felt I was not part of the world. These trips made me feel like I was still a part of society."

GROUP TARGETS MINORITY VOTERS

Latinos are California’s fastest growing minority community and by 2042 are expected to be the racial/ethnic majority in the state.

Yet they are among the least likely to vote, allowing California’s political decisions to be made by white non-Latino voters and more organized, mobilized ethnic minority groups, researchers have concluded.

As the 2010 political campaigns already are beginning to come alive in California, the Asian Pacific Islander American Public Affairs Association has scheduled a meeting in Bakersfield on Friday [Dec. 11] to map out a strategy for encouraging minority communities to participate in Kern County’s political process.

A non-profit organization, APAPA’s mission is to educate the public, ethnic minorities in particular, about the importance of voting, explained Nia Lavulo, at the association’s Sacramento headquarters.

“It’s a matter of empowering people to get involved with their government at the national, state and local levels,” explained Danny Lee, president of APAPA’s Central Valley Chapter.

The purpose of Friday’s meeting is to develop voter participation strategies and to begin planning for a May town hall meeting in Bakersfield that will focus on the June 2010 primary election, Lee said. Friday’s meeting will be held in the second floor Tehachapi Room of the University Square Building, 2000 K St., Bakersfield from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.

Using estimated U.S. Census data, Latinos in 2008 comprised 47.1 percent of Kern County’s population, with non-Latino whites comprising 41.1 percent. Blacks were 6.4 percent, with the remainder of Kern County’s population of 800,458 being comprised of various other minority ethnic groups.

Yet, white voters have the political clout in California. The Public Policy Institute of California reported this fall that while Latinos make up about 32 percent of the state’s adult population, they are only 17 percent of the registered voters most likely to turn out in elections. Asians make up 13 percent of the state’s population, but only 6 percent are likely to vote. Blacks comprise both 6 percent of California’s population and the voter turnout.

By contrast, according to institute surveys, whites constitute 47 percent of California’s adult population, but 68 percent of the state’s likely voters.

Many Latinos and other ethnic minorities are not citizens and therefore not eligible to vote. U.S. Census estimates for 2008 indicate about 68 percent of Kern County’s 155,938 foreign-born residents – and that population figure includes children and immigrants who are legally in this country -- are not U.S. citizens.

But even removing the citizenship factor, Latinos and most ethnic minority groups in California and Kern County have a low voter turnout rate, according to researchers and political observers.

Lee explained that many new citizens come from countries that have monarchies or repressive governments. Voter participation is not understood or considered relevant.

“They are not involved. They stay within their families. They keep to themselves,” he said.

Two of Kern County’s high profile Latino politicians were asked to weigh in on the finding that minority groups are not participating in California’s political process.

“There are too many important issues affecting minority communities for people not to participate,” said Nicole Parra, who represented Kern County’s 30th Assembly District until she was termed out of office last year.

Now a Fresno-based government consultant, Parra noted that the Central Valley struggles with persistent poverty issues. These issues include the Central Valley’s average per capita income being 32.2 percent lower than the rest of the state; college attendance being 50 percent below state average; and the unemployment rate being among the highest.

To mobilize “voters, people need to feel like they make a difference, they are part of a team,” said Parra. “Most importantly, voters want to know that the elected official cares about their needs and their concerns.”

“People have to have a reason to vote, to come out and take the time to express their choices,” said Democrat state Sen. Dean Florez, who represents Kern County’s 16th District and who is running for California lieutenant governor.

“For the most part, people don’t vote because the ballot oftentimes is confusing. It’s cluttered with propositions,” he said. “I’ve spoken to people who simply feel that the ballot is too complicated and it feels like it’s somewhat of a test that you would get in school.

Recent gains by Latino politicians, who have been elected to local and state offices, should not be overestimated, warned Florez.

“Yes, you have Latinos who are taking on greater and more significant roles in government, but that was not always the case, even 10 years ago,” he said. “There is a nascent rise in political power among Latino … [but the Latino community] is growing astronomically in California.

“We are entering a period where California will become the most integrated, multi-cultural population ever in the history of the world and it’s all been accomplished relatively peacefully,” he said, crediting the nation’s Founding Fathers for creating a system that fosters integration and power sharing.

Minority participation in the political system is “a big deal because this integration is important to our survival as a society,” he said. If minority communities “give up, become isolated and don’t participate, such a situation could evolve into the type of conflicts that we have been able to avoid.”

This story written by DIANNE HARDISTY first appeared in The Bakersfield Californian and the newspaper's Web site www.bakersfield.com on Dec. 8, 2009.

RETIREES SPREAD CIVIC EDUCATION

Carol and Bill Hatcher spent decades in Kern County schools, rising to the top of their careers in education. When Bill retired in 2004, he was superintendent of the Kern High School District, based in Bakersfield in California's southern San Joaquin Valley. When Carol retired a year earlier, she, too, had been a school district superintendent, before moving to the Kern County Superintendent of Schools Office, where she coordinated the history and social studies curriculum.

After toiling away in local classrooms and dealing with the pressures of school administration, Carol and Bill were entitled to enjoy a “good life” retirement that included plenty of international travel to exotic destinations.

And that’s exactly what they have. But their idea of travel is not what most retirees have in mind. It’s certainly not what cruise lines and tour companies describe in their promotional brochures.

Their destinations include war-torn and third world nations. Their hotels aren’t “five star.” In fact, most might not even qualify for one star.

“My sister thinks we’re nuts,” said Bill, acknowledging the Hatchers’ retirement focus might seem odd to many people. “She doesn’t understand why we go to unsafe countries; why we don’t go to spas.”

Bill and Carol Hatcher are spending their retirement years spreading democracy and encouraging emerging nations to foster “civic involvement.”

“We retired, but we will never retire from civic education,” Bill said during a recent interview.

Bill is on the board of the Center for Civic Education, which is funded primarily by federal grants. Carol coordinates the center’s international programs that focus on Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Ghana. As part of the center’s international program, the couple has traveled to the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, the Philippine Islands, Mexico, Argentina, Morocco, Jordan, South Africa, Ghana, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Their travel – often requiring repeat visits to dangerous, emerging nations – is at the countries’ request. Their work in-country focuses on teaching teachers how to teach civic involvement.

As an example of their work, consider the Hatchers’ trip to the Philippine Islands, where they found a culture strong in extended family ties, but weak in civic involvement. A team from the center, which included the Hatchers, was invited to teach teachers how to get students involved in solving problems for the country’s “greater good.”

The Philippine Islands has a strong educational system, Bill explained. But there is government corruption. Unless people look beyond their extended families, the nation’s problems and corruption will not be addressed.

After the fighting ended in Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Hatchers and a team of educators from the center were invited to the region.

“Teachers there never had to teach civics,” Carol recalled, noting that “where kids were once taught how to handle a rifle, teachers were now expected to teach kids how to live in a democracy, how to live with compromise.”

The center’s team of educators worked with the region’s teachers to develop a curriculum to instill an understanding of how a democracy works and how citizens can become involved in their government.

“Citizenship and civic education are more than just hanging a poster on a classroom wall,” said Bill, explaining the need to develop an educational program to build understanding and inspire young people to become involved in their governments to solve national problems.

Similarly Bill was invited by the King of Morocco as part of a multi-country team of educators to incorporate democratic principles in the North African nation’s monarchy and elevate the status of women. Cultural sensitivity was required to craft recommendations for this predominantly Muslim nation.

“We take for granted what we have here at home,” said Carol. “It is humbling to go to a country where the people want to learn about our democracy. They are working so hard to obtain what we have.”

The Hatchers have long been involved in bringing democratic principles to life.

Through their classroom experiences – Carol’s mostly involving local elementary school children and Bill’s involving Kern’s high school students – the Hatchers learned about the Los Angeles-based Center for Civic Education and its U.S. programs.

People may be more familiar with the center’s “We the People” program, which tests high school students’ knowledge of the U.S. Constitution and how it applies to solving practical problems and controversies.

Teams of students from Kern County high schools have repeatedly won this difficult annual competition. The success can be credited to dedicated students, educators and community volunteers who spend countless hours every year preparing teams for the competition.

“I was impressed by how the program changed kids’ lives,” Bill said, explaining that even as a school administrator he spent hours helping prepare student teams. As a retiree, he now is advising his granddaughter’s “We the People” team at Bakersfield's Centennial High School, where Bill once was the principal.

Whether a student is Democrat or Republican, liberal or conservative, he or she realizes through the “We the People” program how the Constitution will affect and protect their lives, said Bill.

Carol recalled her days in the 1960s as a high school student in Indiana, where social studies was confined to “book learning.” The subject was dry and seemed to have little application to students’ lives.

“This program applies social studies and the Constitution to students’ lives,” she said. “It is much more meaningful.”

Through her involvement in the center’s international programs, Carol has arranged a teleconference between Foothill High School students in Bakersfield and their counterparts in Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina. On another occasion, she linked up Bakersfield third graders with elementary school students in Sarajevo. The students compared notes and were amazed by the differences in the everyday challenges they face.

“We have met some of the most interesting people in the world,” Bill said. “Our experiences have been heartwarming. We believe we are making a difference.”

Carol choked back emotion as she recalled an early visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina in the mid-1990s. The guns had just been silenced by a fragile peace accord. A government official thanked her for helping and told her: “Nationalism has filled our graves. Democracy has filled our souls.”

This story written by DIANNE HARDISTY first appeared in The Bakersfield Californian on Dec. 6, 2009.

CIVIC EDUCATION - GET INVOLVED

You do not have to be an educator to volunteer with the Center for Civic Education, and help teach U.S. and international students about democracy and civic involvement.

Through the center’s programs, such as “We the People,” students in this country learn about the U.S. Constitution and its application to their everyday lives. The annual competition recruits teachers and people in the community to coach teams of high school students.

The Los Angeles-based Center for Civic Education, which is funded primarily by grants from the federal government, also trains educators in emerging democratic nations to prepare citizens to get involved in their governments. The center recruits volunteers for its international teams.

For more information about the Center for Civic Education, e-mail Carol and Bill Hatcher, retired Bakersfield educators who serve on the center’s governing board and are active in the international program. E-mail cahatcher4@yahoo.com. More information about the Center for Civic Education can be obtained from the Web site www.civiced.org.

PUT LAUGHS IN CHRISTMAS LETTERS

Still picking meat from the bones of the Thanksgiving turkey and nursing the wounds we received while shopping on Black Friday, many of us may have started thinking about writing our "traditional" Christmas letter -- those dense little tales filled with all sorts of family accomplishments and perfect vacation vignettes.

However, before we write, perhaps we should embrace the spirit of my disaster-prone friend whose letters are the highlight of my holiday season. Rather than the insufferable bragging that usually fills those missives, my friend fills hers with 12 months of hysterical (to others, but maybe not her hapless husband) calamities, as well as the customary bragging.

One year she wrote about her stolen cars, and her husband and son mistakenly arrested for stealing the cars. Another year she wrote about her version of a scene from "The Godfather," involving the mauling of a rodent and her blood-splattered terrier. And still another year, she wrote about how she exploded her car when she steered it into a flooded intersection.

I can't wait to receive this year's Christmas letter, since she already has given me a sneak preview. After receiving her e-mail, I have a feeling her calamities are increasing in intensity and hilarity as this fellow boomer gets older and maybe, like the rest of us, more distracted.

She reported that her husband, Tony, a lawyer, loving husband and father, had "suffered" a few health problems.

"First, he did something to his back and has been in incredible pain for about three weeks now," she wrote. "It has been so bad I've had to get him a special cane and drive him to the Bay Area so he could catch a flight back to Illinois for a week on a case. Then I picked him up from the airport ... and we spent three days in Carmel recouping.

"He pretty much just laid around and took pain pills, which didn't seem to help at all. Anyway by the third evening, he said he thought he could sit through a movie. I yelled 'yeah' and got him ready to drive to the movies.

"As he gently walked to the garage and gently began to back into the passenger seat of my big BMW, I noticed I'd left all the windows down in the car, and it was freezing out. So being the thoughtful wife, my first instinct was to get those windows rolled up so he would be comfortable. I cut the middle finger of his left hand almost completely off in the car window.

"We both thought we were in a horror movie as blood was running down the car window and he was screaming at me."

Panic-stricken, my friend raced her husband to a nearby hospital emergency room. By the time they arrived, he wasn't speaking to her, leaving her to wonder if he had gone into shock or if he was just really angry.

At the ER entrance, she found a cluster of wheelchairs and wrestled him into one. In her frenzy to get Tony help, she forgot to release the chair's brake. One big push catapulted the poor slob into the air.

Abandoning the wheelchair, she walked Tony and his blood-spurting hand into the ER. "They got him on morphine, me on Lorazepam and got a plastic surgeon in to sew the finger back on. ... Now he's on super duper pain pills and, guess what, the finger's so [expletive] painful, the back seems better."

That happened on a Sunday evening. Despite his middle finger wrapped in an apparent profane exclamation, the following Tuesday he managed to keep 10 court appearances with a lot of help.

As for my friend, "I've been cooking a lot of home-cooked meals and keeping the house really, really clean. We're still not quite able to laugh about it all, yet."
But the trauma my friend inflicted on her husband made his back worse. An MRI revealed a slipped disc resting on a nerve. Tony was scheduled for back surgery.

While this story was funny enough, I waited a couple of weeks after the surgery to check up on Tony. I could only imagine what my friend could do to a truly helpless husband.

"I'm really trying hard not to cut anything else off," she said, reporting that Tony was on the mend and back to work. "But he's now really afraid of windows."

I'll have to wait for her Christmas letter to find out the rest of Tony's story, as well as her other 2009 disasters. But I'm betting hers will again be the most memorable Christmas letter that arrives at my house this season.

This article written by DIANNE HARDISTY appeared in the Nov. 29, 2009 Bakersfield Californian.

HOW TO WRITE A CHRISTMAS LETTER

Are you ready to begin writing your family's annual Christmas letter but don't know how to start? There are a lot of websites with writing tips and templates for publication. Do a Google search for "writing Christmas letters."

Some of the sites you will find include www.squidoo.com, www.howtodothings.com and www.ehow.com.

A compilation from these sites and comments from online contributors yields the following suggestions to consider before you begin writing:

Start with a festive greeting. Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, whatever. It's a good place to start. If you have an odd sense of humor, you may wish not to show it in this beginning line. Keep it nice.

Be yourself. Write like you speak. Maybe include quotes from family members to make your letter sound conversational. Of course, if you speak roughly, or the quotes from your family should, uhhh, stay in the family, you may wish to clean that up. Again, keep it nice.

Make a list of the highlights of the family's year. Include vacations, home renovations, births, weddings and other happy news. You might want to keep the list short. Believe it or not, no one really cares to know about everything that happened to you or your family this year.

Ask each family member for a list of five things they would like to share about themselves in the Christmas letter. Yes, it's not all about you. Be inclusive. Who knows, maybe the husband, wife and kids might have a different perspective on what happened this year.

Don't brag. It's OK to write about something good happening. But keep it low-key; don't present your life, or your family's life, as perfect. One Web page contributor wrote that her family was so fed up with bragging Christmas letters that they held a reading at the end of the season and voted on the most obnoxious letter. She and her family then burned the "winner."

Be creative. Some folks use puzzles, or multiple-choice questions as formats for letters. Others write in the "voices" of their non-speaking babies, or dogs. Of course, being too "cute" can be a turn-off.

Be colorful. Include photos or other artwork to dress up your letter. Remember, a picture is worth 1,000 words.

Have fun. Try to entertain, as well as inform. Include funny or bizarre stories if you have them.

If your year has been lousy, tone it down. It's appropriate to make reference to problems, but try to find some good things that have happened to you. One Web page contributor wrote that he spit his coffee across the room when he read his mother's Christmas letter. She wrote about his lousy love life and the fact that he had lost his job. Months later, when the mother and son resumed speaking, she agreed to show him future letters before they are sent out. Christmas letters should not be "tell all" memoirs.

It's not "all about you." Add some personal warm wishes for the recipients of your letter.

At the end, add a personal note and personal signature.

For what you really should not do, check out the book "Christmas Letters from Hell: All the News We Hate from the People We Love."

POW GROUP GETTING SMALLER

Once there were more than 30. Now there are only two. And when they are gone, likely the Cessna-Sergeant Chapter of the American Ex-Prisoners of War will cease to exist.

There is a faint hope that the Bakersfield organization of mostly World War II veterans will be "saved" by comrades stepping out of the shadow of obscurity and signing up for membership.

But the reality is that World War II veterans are dying off at a national rate of more than 1,000 a day, according to the federal Department of Veterans Affairs. It is unlikely that a veteran of that war -- a veteran who also happens to be a former prisoner of war -- is living in our midst, just waiting to join the Cessna-Sergeant Chapter.

American former prisoners of war from any conflict can join. But the majority of the U.S. captives came out of World War II, when more than 130,000 were taken prisoner on European and Pacific battlefields. In the Korean War, about 7,100 were reported captured and interned. After the Vietnam War, when 725 were reported captured, the number of American POWs dwindled to single digits in subsequent wars. The numbers are higher if "missing in action" are included.

Former World War II Army Air Corps gunner Edwin Joe and former Army infantryman James Wilson are the only remaining former POWs in the Bakersfield chapter.

Veterans' widows, sons and daughters also can be members. The Cessna-Sergeant Chapter is headed by Richard Ornelas, the son of Korean War POW Isaac Ornelas, who died five years ago. But to be recognized by the national organization (see www.AXPOW.org), the unit must have former POWs as members.

"We will keep going as long as they want to keep going," said Ornelas, explaining the chapter is like an extended family, helping and supporting veterans, their relatives and survivors.

Ornelas is convinced there are former POWs living in Kern County, but "they are taking care of their own situations on their own."

Seeking camaraderie, Joe joined the chapter in the mid-1970s, shortly after it was formed. Wilson joined in 2000, when his wife, Mary, spotted a meeting announcement in The Californian and thought the unit would be a good place for her husband to get help.

In the chapter, both men say they found the support and understanding that only can be given by comrades who have experienced the same horrors of war and imprisonment. Both say they miss their friends and brothers who have passed away.

Joe, 88, and Wilson, 87, know when they are gone, the book likely will be closed on the Cessna-Sergeant Chapter. It is a story that is being told nationwide. The Air Force Times recently reported that two to three chapters a month are closing. In addition to the loss of support, the closures mean the loss of a public reminder of the sacrifices POWs made for their country.

Born in China, Joe was brought to Bakersfield as a 2-year-old to be reunited with his father, who ran a combination pharmacy and gambling hall on 21st Street. The father and son lived in a basement under the business.

He graduated from Bakersfield High School in 1940, the same year Joe said police cracked down on gambling, prompting the pair to move to Mississippi, where his father re-established his gambling business. Joe soon moved to Houston, where he became a cook in a restaurant. After the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941, Joe joined the Army Air Corps.

Joe wanted to be a pilot. Instead he was sent to a week of training and became a tail gunner on an A-20 bomber.

As part of a three-man crew, he flew 55 missions in an airplane named Built for Action.

On Sept. 29, 1944, the crew volunteered for a mission over Bitburg, Germany. Returning to their base in England, their plane was hit by anti-aircraft guns. The pilot crashed and died in the plane. Joe and the turret gunner parachuted to safety.

Joe said the pair became separated, with the turret gunner being attacked and killed by German townspeople when he landed. Joe managed to hide for seven days until he was discovered by German troops. He and other captives were hauled in coal cars to Stalag IV, near the border of Poland, where he was held for 10 months.

As the end of the war neared, the German guards marched the POWs for 83 days before they set them free. Soon Joe and his comrades found the allied lines, and they were on their way home to the U.S.

Joe received shrapnel wounds in his leg in an earlier air battle. When he was captured, his feet were frostbitten and he had to be carried. In recognition of his injuries, he was awarded two Purple Hearts.

Although Joe reluctantly gives details about his captivity, his daughter, Kathy, notes that he was forced to sleep in a dirt trench under a metal grate and was given potato water to drink. He lost 25 pounds from his already slight frame.

"All I wanted to do is eat," Joe recalled of his release.

Joe was discharged from the service in Houston. He met his wife, Gloria, on a trip to New Orleans. After the couple married, Joe and his bride moved to Bakersfield, where he opened a grocery store. For a short time, he also operated a Hawaiian restaurant with a partner. A stroke forced his retirement and the closure of Eddie's Market on East Brundage Lane.

Gloria and her twin sister, Lorraine, also joined the service during the war. Five of their six brothers were already in overseas service.

Edwin J. Joe (also known as Jeong Shew Wing) and Gloria Toy Gim Jee are included in the book "Duty & Honor: A Tribute to Chinese American World War II Veterans of Southern California."

Gloria died last year. Edwin uses a wheelchair. The walls of his northeast Bakersfield home are filled with pictures of their three adult children, and their many grandchildren and great grandchildren.

No doubt his family's presence accounts for the nearly constant smile on his face.

This article written by DIANNE HARDISTY appeared first in The Bakersfield Californian on Nov. 8, 2009.

WAR HORRORS STILL FRESH

James Wilson can't bring himself to talk about it. He can talk about growing up in New York and enlisting as an 18-year-old in the Army infantry. He can even talk about being discharged from the Army in 1945, getting married, moving to California, raising two children and working as an auto mechanic after the war.

But the Bakersfield man just won't, or can't, talk about his experiences fighting in North Africa, being taken prisoner by the Germans, being held in Italy, escaping, being alone and hiding for seven months as he searched for allied forces. In fact, just thinking about those years makes him grimace.

Wilson's wife, Mary, says he has been having flashbacks and nightmares about his war experiences. After years of sealing his memories tightly away, the pain of his war experiences is seeping to the surface.

Like most others who returned from the war, Wilson heard his nation's applause for a job well done. But he heard few offers of help.

In a document filed in support of his application for veterans benefits, Wilson reported that combat left him with ringing in his left ear from an explosion. He has constant pain from the damage done to his back and knees from German guards striking him with the butt of their rifles.

"When I received my discharge, I told the doc about my ear, my back and about my knees," Wilson wrote. "All he said was not to worry about that. I would be A-OK. [It] never happened."

During a recent interview, Wilson said he just sucked it up and moved on with his life. But now 87 years old, Wilson's health has further deteriorated. He relies on a walker for mobility.

He will talk about the affects of his physical injuries. His wife talks about the emotional damage.

Mary and James Wilson married in 1991. His first wife had died. His two grown children were living miles away. He was soon to retire from his job in the auto shop at Sears. An advertisement he placed for a pen pal attracted Mary's attention.

She was divorced. Her two children were grown. She was living in San Bernardino County and working as a medical transcriber in a hospital. The couple exchanged letters. Then they met. Wilson said it was "love at first sight."

"The good Lord sent her to me," he said, claiming they have never had an argument in their 18 years of marriage.

After moving to Bakersfield, Mary spotted a notice in The Californian that a local organization of former POWs was meeting. She urged her husband to attend, hoping he would find the support he needed to deal with his physical and emotional problems.

His fellow veterans encouraged him to file for VA benefits relating to his injuries. She said he also received emotional support from a group of men who understood what he had experienced in the war.

But unlike some of the veterans, Wilson said he could not talk about his experiences.

"I would leave the room when they started. I couldn't understand how they could talk about it like that," Wilson said. And he still can't.

Growing quiet when he was asked about it,Wilson would only respond that when his ship landed in North Africa, "I met the enemy. I'm not going to touch on the war. It's too hard.You will have to figure that out for yourself. I was in five major campaigns."

Wilson is not alone in not wanting to talk about his war experiences, but being haunted by them. Veterans Affairs psychologists report an increasing number of elderly veterans are being identified during clinic visits with symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.

The Department of Veterans Affairs National Center for PTSD estimates that 1 in 20 of the nation's 2.5 million surviving World War II vets may suffer from the disorder. Symptoms include nightmares, flashbacks, anxiety and emotional numbness. Information about PTSD can be found on www.ptsd.va.gov.

Some believe World War II veterans suppressed their memories while they pursued their careers and raised their families. But as they age, they lose their spouses, their health deteriorates and they have an abundance of time to dwell on the past.

Their coping mechanisms are being stripped away. Dementia, which robs the elderly of their short-term memories, while sharpening their long-term memories, also is a factor.

By studying and helping World War II veterans experiencing PTSD, veterans' advocates hope they will be better prepared to intervene with the aging veterans from wars in Vietnam, the Gulf, Iraq and Afghanistan.

"So many vets thought that if they didn't think about it, didn't talk about it, in time they'd get over it," VA psychologist Edgardo Padin-Rivera told The Cleveland Plain Dealer this summer. "A lot of what we get from them is that they've been suffering in silence for 60 years."

This article written by DIANNE HARDISTY appeared first in The Bakersfield Californian on Nov. 8, 2009.

GILMORE'S TOUGH FIRST YEAR

The California state budget was awash in red ink and legislators were bitterly battling over program cuts this spring when two Bakersfield mothers walked into Danny Gilmore's Sacramento office.

One mother pushed a frail young boy in a wheelchair. The other was accompanied by her autistic daughter. They begged the first-term Republican assemblyman from Hanford not to cut critical medical services for their children and others like them.

When the mothers left, "I closed my office door and cried," Gilmore recently recalled, noting that during the height of the budget battles, "every 20 to 30 minutes I had people coming in pleading with me not to cut programs."

Gilmore is no stranger to state government. He served more than three decades as an officer with the California Highway Patrol. And he is no stranger to making tough decisions. Before retiring from the CHP, he was the assistant chief of the Fresno district.

But what he calls the "horrid" cuts he and other lawmakers have had to make to education, fire and public safety, plus his frustration with partisan bickering and Democrats' response to California's economic problems, have driven Gilmore to prayer.

"I pray every day. I have doubts about whether I am making a difference," he said. "I have sleepless nights. I wake up at 2 or 3 in the morning. I thought those nights ended when I was assistant chief."

Gilmore spends those sleepless nights with his wife, Cindi, in a 40-foot motorhome the couple set up in an RV park in northeast Sacramento. "I don't know what I would do without her," he said, explaining his appreciation for his wife's willingness to accompany him to Sacramento when the Legislature is in session.

'THE WAY THE SYSTEM WORKS'

On Dec. 1, 2008, his 59th birthday, Gilmore was sworn in to represent the 30th Assembly District, which includes parts of Kern County and Bakersfield. After a tough campaign, Gilmore defeated Democratic candidate Fran Florez, a Shafter City Council member and the mother of state Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter, to succeed termed-out Democratic Assemblywoman Nicole Parra.

Gilmore was the lone Republican in the November 2008 election to win a seat in the California Legislature previously held by a Democrat.

The Democratic leadership "doesn't get over that," observed veteran Sacramento reporter Vic Pollard, The Californian's former Sacramento bureau chief. Pollard and most other Capitol insiders were not surprised that revenge would be quickly doled out. "That's the way the system works."

Gilmore and his staff were relegated to the "doghouse" - a cramped 391-square-foot office, where staff members and the assemblyman were squeezed together and visitors had to wait in the hall. Although the office has long been used by legislative leaders to punish "offending" lawmakers, Gilmore's assignment was sloughed off as the luck of the draw.

Even Gilmore tried to take the assignment in stride. "It has heating and air conditioning. A lot of the people I represent don't have that." Gilmore moved into a bigger Capitol office recently when Assemblyman Michael Duvall of Orange County abruptly resigned in the wake of a sex scandal.

But what Gilmore doesn't take in stride is the Democrats' refusal to allow him to have a field office in Bakersfield. Gilmore established his primary field office in his hometown of Hanford. His Democratic predecessor had offices in both Hanford and Bakersfield. Most of Gilmore's legislative colleagues, even those with much smaller districts, have multiple field offices.

"I can't even get a post office box in Bakersfield," said Gilmore, who sets up tents in parks to meet with constituents. His field representatives work out of their cars, using laptop computers. Gilmore declines to use campaign contributions to fund a Bakersfield office because he believes his Kern County constituents are entitled to the same service people living in other legislative districts receive.

"I use it to show what is wrong with Sacramento," he said. "They are more interested in partisan political games than in coming together."

Shannon Murphy, Assembly Speaker Karen Bass' spokeswoman, denies the leadership's refusal to fund Gilmore's Bakersfield office is "political." It's just fiscal belt-tightening, she said.

She said spending taxpayers' dollars for Gilmore to have a second field office would be "excessive and inappropriate" in light of California's 12 percent unemployment rate, skyrocketing foreclosures and other economic problems.

"His treatment has been no different than anyone else's," she said. "The Assembly, just like the rest of the state, is doing more with less."

Political observers take another view. They note Bakersfield and rural Kern County communities have the bulk of Democratic registration in the district. By denying Gilmore a second field office in Bakersfield, 30th District constituents are alienated and Gilmore's reelection chances are weakened. Democrats are targeting Gilmore, with Fran Florez expected run again for the seat.

But former Assemblywoman Parra predicts the ploy will backfire. Parra angered leaders in her own party when she refused to vote for a Democratic budget plan last year and when she later endorsed Republican Gilmore to replace her. Speaker Bass didn't just relegate Parra to the "doghouse." She kicked her completely out of the Capitol building, assigning Parra to a small office in another building.

Parra believes Gilmore's tent meetings have received so much favorable news coverage that his image and popularly in Kern County have increased. She also gave Gilmore points for attentiveness.

"If there were two people in a meeting, he was there. This is what people care about."

Gilmore's harsh treatment has not been limited to the assignment of a small Capitol office and denial of a second field office. Some Democratic colleagues, at least initially, have been downright rude.

One Republican legislator recalled introducing Gilmore around when he first arrived in Sacramento. Some Democrats refused to shake his hand.

"He came up here very humble and hardworking," said 32nd District Assemblywoman Jean Fuller, R-Bakersfield. "It is exceedingly demanding to be in a targeted seat. I admire him. He is even-tempered and persistent. Democratic leaders have been unfair to him for political reasons."

State Sen. Roy Ashburn, R-Bakersfield, noted that denying Gilmore a field office in Bakersfield can hurt people in Kern County. "A big chunk of our job is taking care of constituent requests and problems. The voters voted. Why should people now receive less representation? It's not Danny Gilmore who is suffering. It is the people."

WORKING ACROSS THE AISLE

Gilmore said he also is frustrated by the apparent disconnect Democrats have with the struggles of small businesses and workers, and their push to impose costly regulations.

He cited one of his few legislative successes - when he teamed up with Assemblyman Tony Mendoza, D-Norwalk - to roll back a costly reporting requirement affecting struggling timber mills. Rather than submitting 300-page annual timber plans, companies now only have to submit these plans every three years. In other states, the plans are much less detailed and are submitted every 10 years.

Despite Gilmore's attempt to reach across the aisle and make Democratic friends, he admits that most of his bills have been DOA - dead on arrival. "I can whine and snivel all I want about legislation. But I know why it doesn't go forward," he said.

But the legislator who most people describe as "an awful nice guy" is quick to identify Democrats he enjoys working with. One is Fresno Assemblyman Juan Arambula, who left the Democratic Party in June to become an independent. "I love that guy," Gilmore said, admiring Arambula's independent streak.

Assemblyman Isadore Hall, D-Compton, is a Los Angeles County reserve deputy sheriff. Gilmore, who gave Hall a tour of the CHP academy, considers him a buddy. He also has worked with Joe Coto, D-San Jose. He reached out to Assemblywoman Alyson Huber, D-Lodi, who like Gilmore is in a "targeted seat." Republicans are attempting to derail Huber's reelection.

The Californian placed calls to Arambula, Hall, Mendoza, Coto and Huber for comment for this story. Three did not return calls. Two asked for questions to be sent in advance and then did not return calls.

If you think Gilmore has gotten the cold shoulder during his first year in office, it will only get worse as he seeks reelection, Parra predicted, explaining Democrats who have co-authored bills with him or who have otherwise been helpful, won't be so helpful. They will back away.

"This has been the most frustrating year of my life," Gilmore admits. "That place is far beyond anything I imagined. It is broken."

This article written by DIANNE HARDISTY appeared first in The Bakersfield Californian on Oct. 17, 2009.

NEVER TOO LATE TO GET INKED

Three years ago, Gary DeSutter made a promise to his grandson. It was a promise he hoped the Bakersfield, Calif., boy would forget. But Patrick McCord, who graduated in June from Stockdale High School, remembered and held DeSutter to his word.

DeSutter recalled, “When he was 15 years old, he asked me, ‘Papa, will you get a tattoo with me when I turn 18?'”

DeSutter, a retired truck driver, said he would. When McCord recently turned 18, he and his 66-year-old grandfather went down to the Sacred Gypsy Tattoo & Art shop on 19th Street in downtown Bakersfield, where artist Ronnie Corbitt etched a guitarist on McCord's arm and Roman numerals signifying the pair’s birthdates on DeSutter’s arm.

“That's it,” said DeSutter, who had been tattoo-free. “I won't be getting another one.”

DeSutter, who retired in 2006 and moved from Bakersfield to a senior mobile home park in Oceano, Calif., said his wife of 47 years, Beverly, was OK with him having a tattoo. But he admitted to squirming when his Bible study session recently discussed the book of Leviticus: “You shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor tattoo any marks on you. I am the Lord!” He said his pastor, who knew about his tattoo, reassured him the New Testament is more forgiving.

DeSutter has plenty of senior and baby boomer company these days when it comes to getting tattoos. A 2008 Harris poll concluded 20 percent of Americans 40 years of age and older have at least one tattoo.

Researchers involved in the Harris poll, as well as earlier ones conducted by Scripps-Howard and Ohio University, and the Pew Research Center reported the biker-lawbreaker stigma of having a tattoo is giving way to acceptance.

Rocket, who insists that is her only name, is the receptionist at the Sacred Gypsy. She reported seeing more boomer-age people coming into the shop to get their first tattoo. Many of these customers are women.

“Girls are tougher,” Corbitt said. “They can handle it better.”

Shop owner Justin Foss recalls tattooing a 90-year-old woman who always wanted to have a tattoo. She came in with her daughter and granddaughter, who also got their first tattoos as a “sort of final thing they could do together.”

“Attitudes are changing. It is much more socially acceptable,” Foss said, crediting celebrity tattoos and media exposure for the acceptance.

Retired Bakersfield junior high school teacher Susan Reep treated herself to a tattoo for her 60th birthday. She had been thinking about getting a tattoo for more than a decade and decided to do the deed at a tattoo expo at the Bakersfield Convention Center. She had the image of a blue and green gecko etched on her shoulder, which she explained is the least likely spot on her body to sag. She plans to have a raven tattooed on her other shoulder.

While she was tight-lipped at school about her tattoo, some students found out and spilled the beans at her retirement party two years ago.

How did her family react? She said her husband approved, but “my father doesn't want to look at it. He thinks it's creepy. My (adult) kids accept that mom has always been a little different.”

Neither DeSutter nor Reep have had problems with their tattoos, although Reep conceded the procedure hurt like crazy. But whether they are getting a tattoo out of love for a grandson, or to fulfill a dream, boomers are warned there could be complications.

Shops must have a permit from the Kern County, Calif., Environmental Health Department and artists must be registered. Explaining this is to assure a level of care and training, Environmental Health

Director Matt Constantine said his department has received complaints about bacterial infections and about tattoo shops being operated illegally.

This article written by DIANNE HARDISTY appeared first in The Bakersfield Californian on Aug. 10, 2009.

BOOMER DEATH 'DIFFERENT'

News stories about “selfish” baby boomers hogging scarce jobs, breaking the nation’s pension piggy bank, or throwing their weight around proliferate. Finally, along comes an industry that is downright happy to see boomers coming. However, most boomers would like to wait on its attention.

To the funeral industry, the deaths of baby boomers – people born between 1946 and 1964 – is a windfall worth lusting over. But first, the industry must survive the current “death trough,” the decline in death caused by advances in medical science, among other things.

According to federal agencies that track population and health statistics, the nation’s death rate has dipped slightly and is expected to be “stagnant” for several more years. But baby boomers won’t be able to cheat the inevitable forever. The U.S. Census Bureau projects the annual number of deaths in the United States will rise from 2.6 million in 2010 to 3 million in 2024 and 4 million in 2043. Whoopee for the undertaker.

But as they change just about every aspect of society as they trot along life’s path, boomers already are changing the way we do death.

“We are seeing people wanting much more customized, personalized services,” said Bonnie Duer, president of the Kern County, Calif., Funeral Directors Association. Families are burying loved ones in everyday clothing, rather than fancy suits and dresses. Video presentations are being prepared and played at funerals to highlight the departed’s life. When Duer’s mother died earlier this year, her “famous” oatmeal chocolate chip cookie recipe was featured on the back of the memorial card.

Duer said the personal touch even applies to caskets. To illustrate her point, Duer noted the new Dodger coffin on display in Greenlawn Mortuary and Cemetery’s showroom in Bakersfield, Calif. She predicts the Dodger blue insignias on the inside and in discreet locations along the outside edges will be a big hit in Bakersfield. Caskets can be purchased in other professional and collegiate sports motifs, as well. And if sports doesn’t rattle your bones, there’s the Star Trek coffin.

Clearly boomers’ funerals will differ from the Greatest Generation’s. Boomers and their families, who want it “their way,” are quick to question requirements and costs of traditional services. As a result, the rate of cremations is skyrocketing.

Ann Gallon of Bakersfield, a volunteer with the Funeral Consumer Alliance of Kern County, reports California is outpacing the nation. She said an estimated 60 percent of the final arrangements in California are by cremation, with 30 percent nationwide. Gallon’s group is part of a national non-profit organization (go to www.funerals.org) that advises people on alternative funeral arrangements and how to cut costs.

Since boomers reportedly have been lousy savers for retirement, you can bet they have set aside even less money for their final hurrah. But it’s more than just wanting to save money that drives people to organizations, such as Gallon’s.

“People want to spend whatever money they have left on the living, rather than on the dead,” said Nancie Edwards, a volunteer with a Funeral Consumer Alliance chapter in Florida. Counting the rich and the poor among her members, Edwards noted the section reserved for cremation ashes in her community’s new veterans’ cemetery is as large as the space for traditional burials.

But alternative funerals, including cremations, still can be pricey.

“I’ve heard of people making jewelry, where cremated remains are placed and given out to each of the kids,” Edwards said. “There’s a company that makes artificial reefs that hold cremated remains, which are lowered into the ocean.”

In Duer’s Bakersfield showroom, urns come in a wide range of motifs, from sports teams to Precious Moments. The cowboys among us even can be encased in bronze boots.

But if boomers want to dictate their “exit strategy,” they need to write it down. Consumer groups and funeral directors may disagree over whether funeral arrangements should be paid for in advance, but they agree written plans reduce family squabbles and stress.

This story written by DIANNE HARDISTY appeared first in The Bakersfield Californian on Sept. 6, 2009. See http://tiny.cc/JWNg8

BECOMING A WAL-MART GREETER

If it gets any worse, I can always look into the possibility of becoming a Wal-Mart greeter.

Retirement seemed like a good idea when I cut my goodbye cake earlier this year in The Bakersfield Californian's newsroom. But then came reports of 401(k) losses and gloomy warnings: Boomers, postpone your retirement. (Oops, too late. I retired in February as The Californian’s editorial page editor.) The greeter gig started looking good.

That is, until more gloomy stories surfaced about greeters in other cities being roughed up by cranky customers. One was trampled to death by Long Island shoppers the day after Thanksgiving.

I needed to give my greeter plan more thought.

Have you seen the "Maxine" cartoon floating around the Internet? The cranky old lady (she could be me) explains how she was bounced from her greeter job: "About two hours into my first day on the job, a very loud, unattractive, mean-acting woman walked into the store with her two kids, yelling obscenities at them all the way through the entrance. As I had been instructed, I said pleasantly, 'Good morning and welcome to Wal-Mart. Nice children you have there. Are they twins?'

"The ugly woman stopped yelling long enough to say, 'Heck no, they ain't twins. The oldest one's 9, the other one's 7. Why the heck would you think they're twins? Are you blind, or just stupid?'

"So I replied, 'I'm neither blind nor stupid, Ma'am, I just couldn't believe someone slept with you twice. Have a good day and thank you for shopping at Wal-Mart.'"

Maxine's lip got her bounced. I shudder to think what my lip would do.

To check out this greeter gig, I drove over to the Wal-Mart in northwest Bakersfield, where I found Jeanne Bowen and Pat Frye standing sentry.

After receiving a big Wal-Mart welcome, I introduced myself and explained I was writing about their jobs. Frye had worked for Wal-Mart for nine years, Bowen for four. Before that, Frye had been a cook, a waitress and a worker in a pre-sort center. Bowen had been a bottling plant manager's secretary. The plant shut down in 1999. Both needed to supplement their social security checks.

"I love this job," said Frye. "I'm a people person. I'm 71 years old and I like to stay active. And I can't live on Social Security."

Bowen said for her, the job "boils down to liking people."

Frye says one customer calls her "Sunshine," because she is always smiling. She sees some people so often that they become friends. One customer, a disabled elderly man she often helped with his electric cart, instructed his wife to return to the store after he died and tell Frye how much he appreciated her.

Even when alarms go off and she has to check a receipt before allowing a customer out the door, Frye said her exchanges are pleasant. "You learn to be polite."

I could be "polite" if I really tried. But then I asked an impolite question: "So, how much do you get paid?"

Frye said she wasn't allowed to tell anyone. I impolitely pestered. Finally she said her wages were "decent."

So, basically, all you have to do is greet people, retrieve a cart occasionally, give directions, check receipts, watch for shoplifters and be nice?

That nice thing might be a problem, too. After all, I retired as this newspaper's editorial page editor. Sometimes I ticked people off. Having strong opinions wouldn't be a plus, either. (Hey, lady, start buying diet drinks. Fella, pull up your sagging pants.) And how can I help people find stuff in a store when I can't even find my glasses at home?

Maxine lasted two hours. Maybe I could make to one. I need another backup plan.

This column written by Dianne Hardisty appeared first in The Bakersfield Californian on Aug. 9, 2009.