Hats off to Jan Sturdivant
It worried Jan Sturdivant when she would see young riders on horseback with nothing but a cowboy hat, if that, to protect their head.
The Itta Bena horse lover and riding instructor then did something about it. She led a personal crusade to get the Mississippi State University Extension Service to mandate that those who participated in its 4-H programs would wear an equestrian safety helmet whenever they’re on a horse.
It took four years of persuasion, and the intervention of MSU President Mark Keenum, to make it happen, but it has. This commonsensical change is going to greatly reduce the chance of head injuries or even death for children in the 4-H program, should they fall or be kicked by a horse.
Reportedly there has been some pushback from young female riders and their parents who don’t think the helmets are visually a good complement to the rest of the riders’ western attire. Maybe not, but this is a case where safety has to take precedence over style.
Good for Sturdivant for pushing 4-H to keep its priorities straight.
Tim Kalich
Editor and Publisher Greenwood Commonwealth
Funeral rituals are changing
Since everything in life seems to be changing, it should be no surprise that things involving death are, too.
Everyone is familiar with the existing routine, which does provide comfort at a difficult time. First is the visitation, when people stop by a funeral home for a few kind words with surviving family members. Then comes a funeral, concluding with burial in a cemetery.
But in a world that has seen the growth of destination weddings and gender-reveal parties for expectant mothers, it’s no surprise that there also are new ideas for the treatment of death.
The Washington Post reports, “Death is a given, but not the time-honored rituals. An increasingly secular, nomadic and casual America is shredding the rules about how to commemorate death, and it’s not just among the wealthy and famous.”
The most obvious change in recent years is the growing use of cremation. More than half of all Americans who die are cremated, compared to only 28 percent in 2002. The National Funeral Directors Association predicts that the cremation rate will be 80 percent by 2035.
Part of this trend may involve available space. At some point, large urban areas are going to run out of land for cemeteries. But cremation does lead to concern about the future maintenance of cemeteries. If fewer families use them, who will pay for their upkeep?
The growing number of cremations may be providing inspiration for more creative memorials. Perhaps not having a coffin to move around has led to some unique services — a backyard cookout or a cocktail party — that celebrate a person’s life as much as they mourn the loss of a relative or friend.
Some families are even choosing destination funerals. A boater in Hawaii runs a company that performs 600 “cremains” scatterings per year in the Pacific Ocean, with up to 80 people attending. He says business is growing 15 to 20 percent annually.
This evolution of the funeral service is certain to continue as the nation’s Baby Boom generation creates a historic level of deaths.
Census figures say that by 2030, there will be more Americans over age 65 than there are children. By 2037, an estimated 3.6 million Americans will die, which is 1 million more than the number that passed away in 2015.
Perhaps the oddest development is the idea of “green” funerals, where a body is placed in a biodegradeable coffin or shroud.
The Washington state Legislature is considering a bill that would make it the first place in the country to legalize human composting. A Seattle woman’s company wants to use “wood chips, alfalfa and straw to turn bodies into a cubic yard of top soil in 30 days. That soil could be used to fertilize a garden, or a grove of trees, the body literally returned to the earth.”
Besides cremation, few of these ideas have hit Mississippi yet. Traditional funerals remain the norm. We may not be quite ready for composting, but it is clear that change is coming.
Jack Ryan, Enterprise-Journal
Why seniors are
scam-susceptible
Scam artists who use the telephone to hook their victims are well aware that their greatest chances for success occur when an elderly person answers on the other end of the line.
There are a lot of reasons for why the elderly are more vulnerable to being scammed. They may be lonely and thus happy to talk to someone who sounds nice, even if it’s a complete stranger. They may not be comfortable with technology, so they don’t pay attention to caller ID telling them that the call is coming from an unfamiliar number. They may be more trusting, since as you become physically less able, it becomes more common to depend on the kindness of strangers.
They also may be in the early stages of cognitive decline.
This week, an Alzheimer researcher released a study raising the possibility that an early sign of the memory-robbing disease could be a failure to be leery of likely scams.
The researcher, neuropsychologist Patricia Boyle of Rush University’s Alzheimer’s disease center in Chicago, studied 935 seniors, mostly in their 70s and 80s, who were enrolled in a long-running memory and aging project. Among the things they were asked to do at the start of their enrollment was to complete a scam awareness questionnaire.
Boyle found that those who started with low scam awareness had a greater likelihood of developing Alzheimer’s or other forms of cognitive impairment. The correlation was not perfect, but it was strong enough to suggest a possible link.
What should be the takeaway from this research?
First, those who have senior family members should be watch for any signs that their elderly loved ones are being scammed, whether on the phone, through the mail or in person. Don’t expect elderly relatives to tell you of suspicious overtures since they tend to be defensive about any suggestion that they can’t handle their own affairs. If they have been scammed, they also may be embarrassed to acknowledge it.
Secondly, be proactive by periodically warning senior relatives to neither answer unsolicited calls nor respond to unsolicited emails. Then discreetly monitor that they are following your warning.
Lastly, heed your own advice. The best way to avoid being scammed, no matter your age, is to hang up the phone or to use the delete key when strangers initiate the communication.
