Mandy Powers Norrell

As a child, I spent many summer afternoons with my great aunt Virginia Jones at her home at the corner of Gay and York Streets, eating Kentucky Fried Chicken on her front porch and watching the children in the Leroy Springs swimming pool across the street. Aunt Gin had a stroke one evening when I was about 6 years old, and spent her remaining years confined to her bed at the county nursing home. Although she had been fiscally responsible all her life, Aunt Gin’s savings was depleted quickly.

My father was a diabetic and relied on an insulin pump. After he retired from Springs, he began receiving his medication from the VA because he was a Navy veteran. It was common for the government to change his medication depending on which pharmaceutical company offered the lower prices. It seemed like as soon as one brand started to work, the government would switch to another. But my dad was one of the lucky ones. Because he was a veteran, he didn’t have to worry about the high cost of prescriptions faced by many of our Seniors.

My mother now lives on Social Security and her retirement savings from Springs. She’s doing okay, but like a lot of retirees on fixed incomes, she’s having to deal with the rising cost of food, gasoline, and utilities.

Since the New Deal, we have had the basic belief that if we work hard and make the effort, we can succeed. That we can find a job that pays a living wage and we can send our children to college and they can have a better life than we do. If we’re sick, we can get healthcare without having to worry about bankruptcy. And we can retire with dignity and security. This is the basis of the American Dream. But today the American Dream feels like it is slipping away.

There is a silent struggle in our community. Our economic difficulties are hitting our senior population particularly hard. You can see it in our churches and in community groups such as H.O.P.E., Carenet, and our local soup kitchen. Meals on Wheels volunteers tell stories of folks who are unable to cook or to drive to a restaurant, who count their wealth in coins and dollar bills, who may otherwise eat cereal for every meal – and for whom the Meals on Wheels lunches are the only balanced and healthy meals of their week. They also tell stories of folks who are lonely, and who look forward to the visit by Meals on Wheels as the highlight of their day. Healthy food and companionship – two of our most basic needs. Is it any wonder why this program has a lengthy waiting list of Seniors hoping to be served?

But our state government doesn’t get it. Our governor led the effort to cut $2.9 Million in funding for Meals on Wheels. I believe that people who have worked hard all of their lives have the right to dignity and security. That’s the promise that has been made to all working families, and it’s a promise that our government has kept for generations. But our leaders are more and more often people who are independently wealthy, who don’t have to worry about issues affecting regular people, and if people suffer because of their decisions, at least is not people they know and love. A secure retirement is no longer a guarantee for the middle class. It’s harder to save. It’s harder to retire. And our government doesn’t understand that.

And those most affected are our Seniors. We call them the Greatest Generation. The generation that fought WWII and saved us from Nazi oppression. The generation that gave us the highest standard of living in the world, that saw technology evolve from the lightbulb to the iPhone. And the generation that has seen the cost of a comfortable home rise from $5,000 to upwards of $200,000. This generation has seen more change than any generation before them or since. Some changes have been good, but some unanticipated changes have left many of our seniors in difficult financial struggles. For this reason, senior citizens make up the largest growing block of clients I see in my Bankruptcy practice. It is heartbreaking to counsel a senior who is having to choose between paying for groceries and her prescription medication – all the while knowing that the freedom and prosperity we enjoy today has been built on the backs of the generation before us. We owe a debt to this generation that we could never repay.

The very least we can do is provide them with a warm healthy meal, assurances of health care at a reasonable cost, and basic financial security. And yet, our governor led the effort to take away Meals on Wheels from 5,500 seniors, while at the same time state spending grew 40% across the board.

We must do better. As your Senator, I will bring to Columbia the experiences of ordinary people, our shared values, and a common sense approach to taking care of our senior adults. My parents taught me to respect my elders. And I will never turn my back on the greatest generation or give up on the American Dream.