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Show Mmims Sougirt Fop Bicontenniol ComnlGii For many of the 25 million Americans 65 and over, life has become difficult and the day to day existence is a struggle for some of the basic sustenances of life. WHEN OUR elderly watch a fixed income diminish, until the money runs out, long before the days have run their course, the effect upon their lives is one of psychological devastation. Would it surprise you to learn that one in every five of our senior citizens live in ab ject poverty or they navigate around the pitiful fringes. Thirty-five percent eat less than three meals a day. Ten Dei-cent eat once a day. MANY, many more than we can comprehend make daily forrays into the alleys and backways to gleen edibles from garbage cans; hundreds starve to death! They live in a gray world where the phrase, "The best things in life are free", is as foreign to them as the potential poten-tial for a good life in their November of years. Most are lonely, most are ill. THEY often become the unwary prey of criminal elements. These are people in whom all decency is alien and these warped individuals have made purse snatching and bunko a degenerate an. This activity picks up considerably con-siderably when the social service checks arrive. It is a fact of life that most of us under the age of 60 think of old age as somebody elses' problem. We seem slow to realize that an "old person" is just a young person who's been around a little longer. IN A world of incalculable variety, where people talk, think, act and believe differently, this aging process is perhaps the one condition 1 we share in common, like death, it's a universal certainty. cer-tainty. So, we should really stop thinking of it as "those old people because much sooner than we expect "those old people" over there will be "us old people"over here. The South Davis County Bicentennial Bi-centennial Committee for the Golden Years Center believes adequate provisions must be made for our Senior Citizens and they are in the midst of a fund raising campaign. It will be considerably more than just a place to go to mingle with your peers. A well-balanced well-balanced nutritious meal will be prepared daily and special care will be given to those in need. "THE MODERN family, in its present form, is not equipped either mentally or financially to care for their own aged", thus spake Dr. Margaret Mead, one of our most renowned anthropologists anthro-pologists and a person who has seen seven decades slip by. The greatest institu tion going is still the home and the family. It will be a sad day when we delegate that responsibility to someone else because of indifference. YOU CAN show your concern con-cern and interest by your contributions to this ""worthwhile endeavor. Make your donations payable to the Davis County Concil on aging. Bicentennial complex. Your reward is the knowledge that you will make the life of our senior citizens a little more meaningful. vk |