Turning back from life at Collington to the news we routinely read about or see on television ….

Every day it seems there is a new revelation of a Trump atrocity or excess. This week it was about all the money he and his family have made the past year, most of it after he was inaugurated—a net worth increase to the tune of $2.9 billion, according to Forbes (April 2025)—and we are now only at the beginning of his second term. Trump casinos, Trump championship golf courses, and Trump high rise luxury hotels seem to be on the drawing boards all over the planet, and there appears to be no end in sight. The new “Executive Branch” in Georgetown, a club just started by his oldest son, which hints of special access to the President for a mere $500,000 membership fee, is reportedly already a hot ticket item, and Trump’s bit coin business is booming. And having your own personal, multibillion dollar, luxury jumbo jet, compliments of Qatar, is shrugged off by the President as nothing unusual.  Nor has there been a peep of outrage among members of the Grand Old Party, which in days of yore has stood for good government, anti corruption, and fiscal responsibility. Fearing being “primaried out” by MAGA extremist candidates financed by Elon Musk and other billionaires, formerly moderate Republican senators and congressmen have caved.  Using Trump’s words, “The world has never seen anything like it.”

No, we haven’t.

The excesses, grifting, and pay-to-play Trump kleptocracy are not the worst of his presidency. There are more, even worse, disasters. The first is the Trump/House FY 2026 budget, fueled by more tax breaks for the rich, which if it becomes law or anything even close to its current form, will result in an increase in the deficit of the United States of between $4 and $5 trillion according to the CBO. No economist with a brain thinks that these horrendous deficits are sustainable. The deficits—due mainly to more tax cuts for the wealthy— will eventually bring us down.

Then there is the needless harm and cruelty inflicted on so many people both in the U.S. and abroad. Embry has been counseling on the phone people laid off from USAID and who live all over the world. These are good, hardworking people, people who were making a difference. A majority are not Americans. Few have any real options for a job that is anywhere near what they had at USAID. And what about all the millions of people that these programs were helping? Estimates are that thousands will die due to the AID money termination. Add to that the thousands of other federal workers and government contractors whose jobs have been eliminated.

Next is the harm caused by his targeting immigrants and the poor. We are very good friends with one undocumented immigrant family, who is terrified as are most of their undocumented friends fearing that knock on the door or the call into the office of their supervisor who has an ICE official standing beside him with a weapon in his hand. There are an estimated 12-13 million of these people in the United States. Trump has pledged to  rid the country of immigrants, an action which will destroy lives,  cost many billions of dollars to accomplish, and hurt the US economy.

What about the children, the poor, the elderly, and the disabled on Medicaid?  What will happen to them when Medicaid is crippled and the ACA subsidies vanish? How many rural and inner city hospitals, which depend on those subsidies to keep their doors open, will be forced  to shut down? What will happen to all the establishments that hire undocumented workers to do the work that no one else wants to do? To the farmers who depend on these workers to harvest the crops, to the restaurants, the hospitals, the landscaping and construction firms?

What about the millions of children who depend on SNAP ( food stamps) for a decent daily meal?

What about the tariffs, which economists tell us will surely cause inflation if enacted. Many economists believe it could throw world economies into chaos. And the attack on higher education and elite research universities? Where will this end?

This is insanity. It is as if some alien creature somehow clawed his way into the White House in the middle of the night while no one was looking. But we were looking. Our country voted for this guy. How did this happen and how do we claw our way out of this morass?

I suggest there are several reasons for Trump’s reelection:

The first is what I call “The Era of Great Discontent” caused by the increasing gap between the haves and the have nots in our country. Starting in the 1980s the income gap began to widen due to changes in the tax laws favoring the wealthy, diminished power of labor unions, technology causing disruption in the job market, and the exodus of American manufacturing to lower cost countries. A lot of people in the country are struggling paycheck to paycheck and are not happy campers. Many of these people are in the working class, or are people without a college degree. The average worker made more money (adjusted for inflation) in 1980 than he or she did in 2024. A CEO of a typical major corporation in 1980 made about 30 times the income of an average worker in that person’s company. In 2024 the number was over 300 times as much. The likes of Warren Buffet pay a lower tax rate than his secretary. Trump realized this malaise and anger and made a faux populist pitch that if elected he would be their president and right the ship that the Democrats sunk. This message resonated, even though it was a blatant lie that the Democrats were solely responsible for this. While the changes happened under both Democratic and Republic presidents, the tax cuts for the ultrarich and major corporations have been championed by the Republicans, not the Democrats, and are a major factor.

The second cause are  missteps made by Democrats. Over the last several decades the base of the Democratic Party has morphed from the working class to the “educated class.” There are lots of reasons for this –some related to the progressive thinking of people with college degrees and their (our) increased awareness of lingering racism. Whether fair or not, racism became associated mainly with working class white people. College educated, white people were perceived by many in the working class as snobs and elitists, who dissed those whom they considered racist and beneath them. Diversity, Equity and Inclusion was perceived by many in the working class as rubbing salt in the wounds of people who themselves were struggling. Shame on the Democrats for allowing Trump to get away  with proclaiming that now the Republicans are the working class party.

The third is “un-leveling” the playing field. Big money and gerrymandering are not limited to Republicans. Both parties are guilty. Yet the dark money in politics favors the Republicans. There is something basically wrong with our system when the likes of Elon Musk, Peter Thiel and other tech bros and billionaires can tip elections to right wing extremists by spending millions of dollars in races at every level they consider important.

And finally–and perhaps most important– we come to the age and health of Joe Biden. While he accomplished a lot in his first term, does anyone think (now) that he should have run for a second term? He pledged early on that he wouldn’t and clearly did not have the mental capacity or acuity to take on another four years. If he had announced at the midterms that he would not be running, there would have been time for a legitimate Democratic primary. I am an admirer of Kamala Harris but given the hand she was dealt and the limited time she had to win over a divided nation, the deck was stacked against her. It is remarkable that she did as well as she did.

So here we are, facing what could be the greatest crisis in the U.S. since World War II, not knowing how we will maneuver through these troubled waters or how our nation will recover. Stay tuned. And feel free to weigh in now in the comments section with ideas as to how we get out of this mess. That will be the subject of my next blog post.

 

 

 

I have gotten questions from several friends asking for more information as to why we moved to a retirement community, specifically a “continuing care retirement community” or CCRC, and how it is working out for us so far after a couple of months.

Here is my answer:

Last time I checked, we Homo sapiens—like all life on the planet Earth–have a beginning and an end. On average in the United States our allotted life spans are around 75 years though factors such as income, education, genes, race, gender, lifestyle, and luck affect the outcomes. It is also a fact of life that as we get older, we can’t do many of the things we used to be able to do. For some this is physical and for others it is mental, but we all slow down. And we all die. And there is great variety in how the checking out process works. For some it could be fast and quick like a heart attack or stroke. For others it could be a long, slow, and often painful slog. A continuing care retirement community provides one option that tries to make the most of the remaining years we humans have left by providing a support structure that allows people to get through the aging and checking out process, minimizing the pain and suffering that often accompanies it, along with enriching the time we have left. I call it squeezing the last drops out of the lemon.

The definition of a continuing care retirement community or CCRC (now also called a Life Plan community) is a senior living community that offers a continuum of living/care options under one roof or on the same campus—independent living, assisted living, and long term care. The concept, however, has evolved over time. When it was first “invented” in the early 1950s, it was called “life care” (started by the Pacific Homes of the Northwest, a Methodist group in California, followed soon after in Philadelphia by several Quaker life care communities), there were only two levels– independent living and long term care–but this has changed over the years due to government regulations  and a better understanding of the aging process. Long term nursing care, for example, has morphed into rehab due mainly to Medicare reimbursement regulations, which provide government financial support for up to 90 days for seniors coming out of the hospital. Also, in the early 1980s when it became evident that people who were in the natural aging process did not benefit from being in nursing homes with a hospital-like setting, assisted living emerged and became a popular alternative to the traditional nursing home. In addition, in the 1990s when it became evident that people who were physically in need of support did not mix well with people with dementia, the concept of “memory care” was invented. So today what distinguishes a CCRC from other retirement options like a Sunrise or other assisted living or residential senior living communities is providing a continuum of living options under one roof or on one campus—independent living, assisted living, memory care, and skilled nursing care, now often relabeled rehab. Some communities provide three levels of living/care on site with access to skilled care/rehab offsite, though monitored by the community. Collington falls into this category with arrangements with nearby private rehab facilities, where residents stay for up to 90 days following a hospitalization before returning to Collington. The concept of having the full support system in place distinguishes a CCRC from other options like assisted living or service enriched, independent living, senior living communities. Collington also has on site a full service geriatric medical practice, which is part of the Medstar system.

Most CCRCs require both an upfront fee called an entrance fee and a monthly fee which is adjusted annually based on the cost of providing services and care. There are all sorts of options regarding how  entrance fees work. The early entrance fees (called “founders fees”) were amortized over a five year period so that if you died after that period your estate did not receive a refund. Due to the high cost involved in developing, financing, and operating a CCRC, the entrance fees have increased considerably though the higher fees usually have a refund provision, refunding up to 90% of the initial amount.  Also, in some CCRCs (“Type A” communities), the monthly fee does not increase significantly  when you relocate to a higher level of care. There are also CCRCs which are coops or condos. These communities all provide meals, housekeeping, lots of activities, and scheduled transportation. (Usually, the cost of a daily dinner is included in the monthly fee as are the costs of these services.) The vast majority of CCRCs, like Collington, are not-for-profit communities.

Because of the high cost of developing and operating these communities (which are passed off to residents), the resident populations tend to be relatively well off financially, but certainly everyone is not rich. At Collington because of the wide range of living accommodations, there is a wide range of prices of entrance and monthly fees, and the Collington population seems to me to be, for the most part, solidly middle class–and also highly educated. Collington has a large library with several shelves displaying books by current residents and another entire section for books by former residents. (I proudly placed a copy of Hard Living on Clay Street and Civil Rights Journey in the current resident author section.)

The preferred retirement option for most people, of course, is remaining in their own homes. Moving is extremely stressful and costs money, and most people do not want to leave familiar neighborhoods where many old friends remain. The senior village movement got started a few decades ago to help seniors remain in their homes, and local senior villages provide activities, transportation, and fellowship for seniors. Some CCRCs now even offer “life care at home.” Most people will slog it out and take their chances, bringing in home health care aides or getting help from their children if they need it. While sticking it out is the option that most people follow, however, it often fails to address the challenges of loneliness and isolation; and if you need in-home care from aides, it can be extremely expensive though long term care insurance provides some cushion on the cost issue.

There is no silver bullet or right way or wrong way to manage the aging process, and there are pros and cons with all the options. Ironically, Embry was the prime motivator for our moving to Collington rather than me, even though I was the one with professional senior living experience. I think that the thought of having to take care of a cranky, aging old husband in a small apartment was too much for her, and she was right.

What struck me immediately upon moving to Collington was how many really old people there are here. Well, duh. It figures. Collington is approaching its 40^th anniversary, and someone moving in in 1986 at age 75 would be approaching 115 in 2025. While Collington does have some people over 100, a whole lot of people are  in their mid 80s to mid 90s. Since new residents coming in are typically in their late 70s, there are really two generations of old folks living here. Also, like all CCRCs, the vast majority are single, older women. Another “duh.” Men in the U.S. typically marry younger women, and women outlive men. That is just the way it is.  I was surprised by my initial reactions when I ventured into the community center and entered the main dining room the first time and looked around seeing so many people using walkers and canes, and some in wheelchairs. “Oh, my goodness,” I thought, “These people are really, really old! I am not one of them! I don’t belong here. I am too young.”

Then I heard the voice of the better angle in my brain, “Yes, you do, Joe. You are 83. You may not be as old as some, but you will be in a few years, if you are lucky, and by the way, you too now use a walking stick.”

Shame on me! Plus, over the two months we have lived here, I continue to be impressed with the energy, determination, wisdom, community engagement, and cheerfulness of those using walkers or are in wheelchairs–and others who are considerably older than me. They are an inspiration.

And yes, in a community this large with over 350 old folks, you are constantly reminded of the fact that our lives on the Earth are limited. There is a display area that posts every week or so the names and photographs of people who have recently passed away, and there are memorial services that regularly happen. But people take this in stride, and out of this I think comes a wisdom of how short, yet how miraculous life is, and how blessed the survivors are–those who have lived long enough to be in a CCRC– to have had our short time on this small, blue planet in a vast universe containing trillions of galaxies.

 

More to follow ….

When you move from DC to Maryland you need a new driver’s license and new tags for your car and have two months to do this. Naturally I have been putting off the chore, so this week, with only a few weeks to spare, I decided to go to the Maryland DMV to get the new tags and driver’s license. How hard could this be? Thousands of people probably move from DC to the Maryland suburbs every year. I went online to their website, read everything, and headed for the DMV, only a couple of miles away, carrying all the necessary documents– proof of identity, place of residence, evidence of car insurance and car title.

The line for customer service had about 50 people ahead of me, but since there were four agents behind windows answering questions, it was moving quickly. The huge office had something like 35 windows with agents helping customers who already had appointments. Scores of people were sitting in the lobby peering up at screens which showed the appointment number being called and the window to report to. The customer service line slowed down when one of the agents left for a lunch break, followed by another exit, but still in “only” 30 minutes I arrived at the desk for instructions. The first available appointment was in three days and I took it, then confirmed with the agent that I had with me all that was required– a passport, car title, DC driver’s license, and evidence of car insurance and asked if there was anything else I needed. She smiled, shook her head, saying I was in good shape, booked me, gave me an appointment sticker, and off I went back to Collington.

Three days later I arrived about a half hour before my scheduled appointment, checked in, confirmed my arrival at the appointment machine, and settled in on the first row staring up at the screen along with 50 or 60 other expectant customers. I remembered that this was the same facility I had been to years before when I took our Afghan refugee friend to get her drivers license (aided by a consultant/translator who answered every question for her.) Hey, if Mariam could get her drivers license without studying and with limited English language experience, certainly it would be easy for me to get a Maryland license, picturing that in an hour or so I would be driving back to Collington, smiling, with new Maryland tags and drivers license.

When my number popped up on the screen, I shuffled over to Window 25. Behind the glass wall was a small woman, wearing a covid mask, who greeted me with a slight accent, which sounded to me like she might have been from India.  The waiting room was  packed by this time, creating insufferable ambient noise, requiring me to ask her to repeat everything she said. With disgust in her voice, she shouted instructions to turn over all the required documents, which I proudly did—DC license, passport, car insurance, car title and two letters to me mailed to my Collington address —everything I thought I needed according to the website instructions plus more– a printout from Collington showing that I was current on my monthly fee.

“Where is your social security card?” she asked in a tone that was starting to sound hostile.

“I don’t have the card,” I replied. “In fact, I am 83 years old and have never been asked for it as far as I can remember. Not in my entire life.”

She scowled and continued looking through the other material.

“Well, without a social security card, you are not getting a license, but that is the least of it.”

“Excuse me? Why do I need a social security card to get a license?”

She did not respond to that question but followed by stating I needed to show two “proofs of identity.”

I pointed to my DC license and my passport.

“I am not able to accept either one since they do not show you live in Maryland.”

“Excuse me.”

“The big issue is that you do not have any definitive documents that show you live in Maryland.”

I pointed to the two letters addressed to me at my Collington address that were shown on the website as sufficient documentation.

“The letters addressed to you must be from a federal or state agency,” she snarled.

“Well, what about the printout from Collington showing that I am current on my monthly fee?”

“That is not sufficient. You have to provide the signed lease that you have for your apartment or a deed of trust showing you own your home. Period. No exceptions. It says so in my instructions. Now leave so I can help other customers.”

When I explained that I lived in a continuing care retirement community only a couple of miles away and that I did not have a lease or deed of trust but a “residency and care agreement” about 40 pages long, she shrugged her shoulders and scorned.

“Well,” she said “I do not know anything about a communal care community or whatever you call it, but if you do not show me a lease, you are not getting a Maryland drivers license or new tags. What is it that you do not understand about this? Now leave, and besides you also have to show  me a social security card. Until you can show me a formal signed lease—and it has to be the original, not a copy” — and can show me a social security card, no license. Now leave! And don’t even think about coming into this building without your social security card and a real lease.”

I sat there in stunned disbelief, then grabbed my cane and with hunched shoulders shuffled out the door toward my car, wallowing in self pity. But that did not last long. This is a declaration of war and I have a lot of weapons in my arsenal. Since this regrettable incident, I have meticulously studied the requirements on the DMV website and have learned that a social security card OR a 1099 social security tax statement is required–God only knows why–and I have one of those, plus I have had experiences like this before and plan to use my “I want to see your supervisor” routine, which if you keep demanding supervisors as you work your way up the corporate or governmental  ladder always gets results. Who knows, I might even get to the Governor of Maryland, who seems like a really nice guy.

So my next step is to arm myself  with the vast Collington  Residency and Care Agreement and enter the DMV prepared to fight to the finish. I am confident that I will eventually prevail. I will keep you posted.

 I know that some of you are asking the question, what is it about Joe Howell, that these kinds of things always tend to happen to him.

 I can only reply asking the same question, “Why Me, Oh Lord?”

To be continued….

 

 

Responding to complaints, I have changed the title of this series. The “Final Chapter” title had merit but was too heavy, and besides I will be interspersing life at Collington posts with other material, given the existential crisis our country is facing.

When  people have asked me what makes Collington different from other senior living communities, I have cited several things—that it has a beautiful campus including cottages, “villas,” and apartments, surrounded by a forest, yet is less than two miles away from a Metro station which provides 30-minute access to downtown DC, that it is one of the early non profit CCRCs with a long history of providing three levels of senior living including high quality supportive care for those who need it, that it has a strong value system stressing inclusion, that it is now a Kendal affiliate, and that there are a lot of interesting people who live here. And compared to many CCRCs in the area, it is more affordable and, in my opinion, a better value than most other options. Another reason that Embry and I  chose Collington, of course,  was that I did the initial market research and financial feasibility study for the proposed community and spent six years on the board (as treasurer) during a period of challenges in the early 2000s.

But that is not all. There is something else which I will call “the Collington Soul.”

Every week Collington puts out a calendar with the schedule for the week. There are all sorts of things to do every day—committee meetings, occasional concerts, Monday night movie, trips to the grocery store and museums and events downtown, all sorts of health activities, and various other gatherings. This past Friday afternoon there was a listing for “Game Day” in the auditorium. Since I am not much of an enthusiast for games, I thought I would give it a pass; but shortly after the 2:00 PM starting time, I decided I would wander down to the community center and peep in. When I opened the door, the large room was full of people mulling about, with soul and pop music blasting away, and one of the Collington food service staff was singing to a  karaoke song  on the stage in front of a huge high-def screen showing the words. It felt like I was at a carnival. All types of games were going on—corn hole, block building, bean bag tossing, tabletop bowling, and a whole bunch of other activities that were accessible to old folks.  There was a booth serving popcorn, another serving drinks, and another cotton candy—all free. But what made the event special was that the Collington staff were joyfully participating alongside the residents. Some were directing the games and others participating in them. Ann Gillespie, Collington’s CEO, was in the middle of it all, wandering about and encouraging participants. And the residents were mostly from the Creighton Center, Collington’s assisted living and memory care community. Of course, the staff were almost all people of color, mostly in their 20s and 30s, and most of the residents were old white folks in wheelchairs or using walkers. There were high fives, smiles, and hugs going around between and among staff and residents. Several of the staff were spectacular Karaoke singers and fabulous dancers, and the Collington workers seemed to be having as much fun as the residents—maybe even more. There were also a bunch of independent living residents like me there as well, observing and participating, and everyone was smiling. I only stayed about an hour, but that hour was precious and for a moment anyway seemed to bridge the barriers of race, class and age.

Who knows? Maybe events like this happen at other senior living communities. That it happened at Collington, however, is what counts for me. Bravo! Kudos to the staff and all those who made it happen. I understand that this was the first “game day” at Collington though Collington has had similar events in the past. I hope there will be more to follow. These kinds of activities are what illustrate what I call “the soul of Collington.”