My two-cents worth and then some. An online journal by LP Brown.

A Blast From The Past For Colored Girls

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Sometime during the 1970’s, I saw Ntozake Shange’s feminist era play for Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf (sic). The production had an impressive run on Broadway and won a Tony award.  Because of my familiarity with the play, I decided that I had to see Tyler Perry’s movie, because I could not for the life of me figure out how he could dramatize a play comprised primarily of women reciting poetry and create a quality dramatic production. Well, OMG!  I saw the movie and cannot stop saying OMG!  My high-spirited reaction could be the result of having seen the play and being familiar with the script.  Anyone who did not see the play might have a less enthusiastic reaction and they might not understand that some of the lengthy monologue spoken by several of the women in the movie is stanza straight out of the play. But I think that any mature woman who goes to see the movie whether or not she saw the play can definitely relate to some of the characters or knows someone who is like one of the women. Many props to Tyler Perry.  The New York Times review referred to Tyler’s film as “a thunderous storm of a movie.” It is Tyler’s  best movie yet. Two thumbs up for him.  He pulled it off in a big way.

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Boomer Reality: When The Checks Are Not in the Mail – Part II

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Read Part I

To supplement meager unemployment checks, a number of older workers who exhaust their savings are cashing in their 401k or other retirement investment plans, and are filing prematurely for social security, despite the consequential penalty of a reduction in future benefits. Although liquidating a pension plan or drawing social security too early enables unemployed citizens to stall a financial crisis, they lose in the long run by forfeiting hundreds of thousands of dollars; because the money received, less the penalty, is not adjustable to the original amount calculated for the recipient at full retirement age. What you see when you file that application is what you will get thereafter, excluding any cost-of-living increases that may be applicable in the future. When the unemployment checks stop coming to the near-retirement-age  boomers, many out of desperatation opt for the reduced social security benefits over no income at all. Undoubtedly, some would say without hesitation, “Damn the penalty. Show me the money!”

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what discerning boomers know — that some will die before receiving social security benefits. Subsequently, their demise leaves a little more change in an already bleeding kitty, and those who survive long enough to draw the funds can still look forward to a shaky future.

According to recent media reports, in 2011, for the third year in a row, 58 million Americans who are currently receiving monthly social security benefits will again be denied a cost-of-living increase. Furthermore, reports by various retirement research groups predict that social security funds will run out around 2037.

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Boomer Reality: When The Checks Are Not In The Mail — Part I

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Until recently, many baby boomers never considered filing for social security benefits before reaching their full retirement age. Various surveys reveal that boomers who are healthy and relatively content on their jobs plan to continue working indefinitely, but as more middle-aged workers become victims of recession-related budget cuts, plant closings, downsizing, and layoffs, many are being forced out of the workplace. For those who are already living paycheck-to-paycheck, having the financial rug snatched from beneath them causes a devastating wake-up “fall” into economic mayhem. Add to the job loss, the subsequent forfeiture of health and life insurance, and then subtract — the different is loss of economic stability and peace of mind.

Contrary to what skeptics believe, most boomers dutifully and frantically job hunt while collecting unemployment benefits.  Not only is it implausible to think that the majority of people drawing unemployment are complacent, the reality is that in today’s economy the meager unemployment check, no matter how many ways you stretch the dollars, is not enough to cover basic necessities. The jobless are losing their homes, moving in with relatives and some, having been pauperized, are living on the streets or in their cars. When the job hunt has proved futile and the unemployment benefits are nearly exhausted, some boomers are turning to “last resort” resources for their livelihood. (Read Part II.)

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You’ve Got A Friend

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Did you know that many people celebrate the first Sunday in August as Friendship Day? Some philosophers theorize that strangers enter our life for a purpose and maintain a presence for as long as we need them, and eventually the strangers may become our friends. “Your friend is your needs answered,” wrote Kahlil Gibran in The Prophet published in 1923. 

Friendships that develop early in life can create a bond closer than that shared by some blood relatives. In the pre-Internet days when a best blood-brother-buddy-friend moved far away with his or her family, and you lost touch with that friend, tears flowed for days as you realized that the promise of “Friends to the end” was inadvertently broken. Facebook and other social networks have remedied that problem for today’s generations.

Sometimes a dear, life-long friend dies at a relatively young age. The passing of that person with whom you have shared experiences of school days, dating, marriage and child birth, leaves a void in your heart.

Then, there are a few fortunate people who have friendships that last a lifetime.  In honor of friendship, many wonderful songs have been devoted over the years.  Boomers may remember a tune sung by The Beatles in 1967, “Oh, I get by with a little help from my friends.”

In 1975, James Taylor created a hit with “You’ve Got a Friend.”  “You just call out my name and you know wherever I am, I’ll come running.” 

Andrew Gold’s 1978 song about friendship is memorialize as the theme song for “The Golden Girls”, a television program that boomers and even Generation X’ers who watch the reruns cannot get enough of, “Thank you for being a friend, travel down the road and back again. You’re heart is true, you’re a pal and a confident.”

Another touching song about friendship was co-written by Pattie LaBelle and first performed in 1978. “You Are My Friend.” That song has become a staple at all of Pattie’s live performances. “You hold my hand. You might not say a word. But I see your tears when I show my pain.”

Then in 1986, Dionne Warwick and Friends (Elton John, Gladys Knight, and Stevie Wonder) crooned a friendship melody that is now heard in numerous musical greeting cards and music boxes. “For good times and bad times, I’ll be on your side forevermore. That’s what friends are for.”

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