Page One

Old enough to make a difference

By Helen Rippier Wheeler
Wednesday November 01, 2000

Seniors will make a difference Nov. 7. There are almost 5 million of us 65 years old and older living in California.  

So I decided a ask a diverse group of seniors about their voting preferences and concerns. 

Many have bought the argument that one’s vote doesn't matter. Joe Dallas, at lunch at the senior center, firmly declared he doesn’t vote, doesn’t believe in it.  

Most seniors with whom I come in contact oppose State Proposition 38, school vouchers, but support Berkeley Measures R, the warm water pool, Y, eviction controls and County Measure B/transportation funding.  

No one mentions Bush-Gore! 

Nancy Blumenstock is a founding mother of Berkeley-based editcetera, a former UC Press editor with World War II top secret clearance.  

By absentee ballot, she’s voting for Berkeley Measures R “extremely important,” she says, Y “...although I doubt it would protect me, a project-based Section 8 tenant,” and Z/low-rent housing; State Proposition 36/drug treatment and probation instead of incarceration – “jail serves no purpose whatever,” she says and County Measure B “I am disabled and rely on taxi scrip.”  

Did she listen to the Presidential debates? “I carefully avoided them!”  

Before retiring, 57-year-old Alberta Sitlani was a Social Security Administration claims representative.  

A former Commission on Aging member, she is no longer able to involve herself in senior activities.  

“Dismayed” about people who don’t vote, she considers Measure B the most important. She will vote to continue California Assemblyperson Dion Louise Aroner.  

“I have never been politically involved,” declared Aiko Yamamoto, a Nisei – a person whose parents immigrated from Japan – who was incarcerated in a World War II relocation camp. She relies on League of Women Voters analyses. Increasingly aware of her good judgment in purchasing her home years ago, she realizes the present housing crisis would make life very difficult for her – a divorced grandmother.  

“I like what Nader says but I fear voting for him is like voting for Bush; if only Nader had been allowed to debate... I’ll vote straight democratic. I always vote Yes on schools and libraries.”  

Elvira Rose is a Berkeley-born Hispanic, a great grandmother completing her second term as president of the North Berkeley Senior Center Advisory Council.  

She opposes State Prop 33, which allows legislators’ Public Employees’ Retirement System participation.  

A Thousand Oaks home-owner, she is not sure how she will go about deciding among the four Council District 5 candidates; also unsure about Prop 38 and doesn’t want to give an opinion on Measure Y, owner move-in evictions.  

A Democrat who on occasion “does cross,” she will vote for “the library of course – it affects everyone.”  

Eighty-plus Eleanor Gibson delivers Meals on Wheels to shut-in seniors and co-chairs the Older Women’s League chapter. She owns her own Berkeley Hills home. “As a senior citizen housing advocate, I am quite discouraged. ‘Affordable housing’ does not make for low enough rents. I will vote for Measure D because it tries to prevent urban sprawl and supports infill of the present spaces in cities, and for Measure Z, for 500 units of low-income housing in Berkeley. It is a bit vague but its message is correct.” 

A Green Party member, Charlie Betcher considers County Measure B and City Measures Y and Z the most important ballot choices for disabled and aged persons; his votes for State Senate and Assembly go to incumbents Perata and Aroner. Kudos to chair Charlie for bringing the problem of elder abuse to the Commission on Aging’s table. 

As for me, I voted several weeks ago, using the new electronic voting machine at the City Clerk’s office.  

 

Helen Wheeler invites comments and suggestions: pen136@inreach.com. She is a member of the: Alameda County Advisory Commission on Aging and its Legislative Advocacy Committee, North Berkeley Senior Center Advisory Council and Berkeley Housing Authority, and a former Berkeley Commission on Aging Vice Chair.