Veterans' Group 60th Anniversary

Posted by Maryan Pelland Sep 14, 2006

Blog briefs 09 15 06

Paralyzed Veterans of America celebrates 60 Years. Since 1946, Paralyzed Veterans of America has been the advocates and experts on special needs of veterans with spinal cord disabilities. The group's mission includes working toward quality healthcare and excellent member-benefits. They are the driving force toward research and education in such injuries and seeking cures and treatments for diseases like multiple sclerosis. Paralyzed Veterans' communal goal is to maximize the independence of people with disabilities. Not a bad bandwagon to jump on.

In Pennsylvania, Utah and Colorado, state supreme courts have ruled in favor of grandparents seeking visitation rights. The Pennsylvania court ruled Aug. 22 in favor of the maternal grandmother whose son-in-law had restricted her to one-day-per-month visitations with her grandson. Utah took a similar stand on Aug 25. In Colorado, grandparents won the right to visit their grandson who had been orphaned, then adopted by other family members. The courts seem to be on the right wavelength for the good of the children and the good of grandparents - an extreme asset to children's lives.

There are 56 million grandparents in the United States. About 10% provide a home for grandchildren.

Our original grandparents - each of us women can trace our genes back to one woman who lived 150,000 years ago in East Africa. Men can all trace their chromosomes to a man of the same neighborhood, 60,000 years ago. Check in with National Geographic to see more and to participate in a reconstruction of that ancestral journey. This season, Discovery Channel and National Geo Channel have programming about this topic. The shows have been excellent.

Fitting in with September, Healthy Aging Month. BestLife Magazine's poll says Denzel Washington (51) is the "50ish Hollywood actor" who has gotten the most appealing with age. Alas, Indiana Jones - AKA Harrison Ford (64), doesn't rank as highly. Further down the "hot" list - Mel Gibson (head of the list of "old enough to not act like a horse's backside"), Pierce Brosnan (53), Tom Hanks (50) and Ray Liotta (51). BestLife is a health and fitness pub for men.

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Healthy Aging Month

Find out about charities including the Paralyzed Veterans.

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