The Survive and Thrive Boomer Guide

Take action for peace on Memorial Day

I believe one of the most important actions citizens of the United States can take on Memorial Day is to promote peace in the world.

How can you work for peace today?

Veterans For Peace is offering peace activities in 18 cities including Boston, New York, Miami, Chicago, Minneapolis, and Portland, Ore.

The Boston event, also sponsored by Iraq Veterans Against the War, Gold Star Families for Peace, and Military Families Speak Out, begins at noon EST. It’s a ceremony for peace on Memorial Day to remember and mourn those who died, but to also call for the end to wars.

In Portland, Veterans For Peace Chapter 72’s annual event "From War to Peace" begins at noon with a short ceremony at the Memorial Coliseum in the Courtyard of the Korean War memorial. The group will then march to the Peace Memorial Park where Benji Lewis, a two-tour Marine veteran/war resister, and Cindy Sheehan, peace mom, will speak.

Other communities where Veterans For Peace are offering rallies include Pueblo, Colo., Gainesville, Fla., North Texas, Manchester, N.H., San Francisco, Bethlehem, Pa., Traverse City, Minn., St. Louis, Mo., Binghamton, N.Y., Albany, N.Y., and Houston.

Check your local newspaper and the Internet for information on peace rallies in your community.

Copyright 2009, Rita R. Robison, Consumer Specialist

Alice Waters and the locally grown, organic food movement

It brought back memories.

The movie “Food Fight: Revolution Never Tasted So Good” shows scenes from Berkeley, Calif., in the early 1970s when the Counterculture Movement was blossoming.

Baby boomers, looking great in their hippie clothes, are demonstrating against the Vietnam War, discrimination, and conspicuous consumption and gathering to support local farmers and nutritious, organic food.

The role of Alice Waters and her restaurant Chez Panisse in Berkeley are featured prominently in the film.

At the Seattle Green Festival, Waters, one of the world’s most famous chefs, was joined by “Food Fight” director Chris Taylor and organic farmer Tom Philpott to discuss the organic food movement and Edible Education.

The regional food movement

Waters, who said she was surprised to be the “star” of Taylor’s film, told about how in 40 years, the regional food movement has spread across the country.

“Now it’s beginning to coalesce,” she said.

The movement isn’t about Chez Panisse, Waters said. Since the beginning of time, people have been eating seasonal foods, shopping in marketplaces, eating with friends, harvesting food in the fall, sharing it with friends, and eating it during the winter.

After World War II, people became separated from real food as the Fast Food Nation swept them up. Now we’re coming back to our senses, Waters said.

Taylor said as he was editing his film, it became apparent that Waters and Chez Panisse were an important part of the regional food movement. “At every turn in the story, she was there.”

When she was 19 years old, Waters traveled to France. The food tasted marvelous, she said, unlike the frozen foods that tended to make up the meals she ate in her New Jersey home when she was growing up.

“I wanted to eat like that [the way the French do],” Waters said. “I wanted to have a restaurant that served that kind of food.”

She’s never stopped in her quest to find and support quality locally grown foods, she said.

Committed demand is important for farmers, Waters said. She learned when talking to small, organic farmers that they couldn’t say for sure what their crops would be. She told them, “I’m in. I’ll pay whatever it costs. I’ll figure out how to use it.”

This fresh, local food “made” Chez Panisse, Waters said.

“Food Fight” shows how many others shared Waters’ interest in healthy, locally grown food and the Northern California regional food movement was born.

Farmers’ markets, where farmers sell directly to consumers, began to spring up. By 2007, more than 4,800 of the markets were located across the country.

Consumers enthusiastically embraced the regional food movement because it gave them the opportunity to choose better tasting, healthier food.

The Slow Food movement, spawned in the 1980s, also supports the interest in locally grown, organic food products.

Edible Education

Waters is one of the national leaders in the Edible Education in the schools movement. In the program, children grow food in gardens at school and school cafeterias serve local, nutritious, organic food. Edible Education addresses the issues of childhood hunger and obesity, she said.

First Lady Michelle Obama’s organic garden sends a powerful message around the world, Waters said. The country needs to have people of power, honesty, and integrity deliver a message about stewardship and nourishment.

Waters said she never imagined Michelle Obama would bring school children in to work with her in the garden.

“I’m completely high from this,” she said.

Waters first wrote to the Clinton administration in 1992 about the importance of planting a vegetable garden at the White House. She’s been lobbying for a garden be planted there since then.

Copyright 2009, Rita R. Robison, Consumer Specialist

David Korten calls for new economy based on real values, wealth

If you like Yes! Magazine, you’ll love David Korten’s new book “Agenda for a New Economy: From Phantom Wealth to Real Wealth.”

Korten, cofounder of the Positive Futures Network, electrified his audience at the Seattle Green Festival this weekend with his plan to get America’s financial system on a more socially responsible track.

With the earth in peril, inequality tearing us apart, two wars, and Wall Street still in charge of the economy and money-driven politics, citizens need to take action, Korten said. “We can’t wait for [President] Obama to get us out of this.”

In the new economy Korten envisions, Wall Street will be shut down. President Obama can’t do that without millions of people in the streets to demand our release from Wall Street rule, he said.

The financial crisis is about phantom wealth – modern chits, which are created out of nothing and protected with the demand for no government regulation.

“It’s time to reboot,” Korten said.

Phantom wealth needs to be replaced with real wealth based on real values such as education, land, love, happy, healthy children, satisfying jobs, a sense of worth, a healthy environment, and peace.

We’ve failed to notice that making money for a few, which is supported by public policy, is destroying the wealth of many, he said. People are losing their jobs and homes while corporate executives get huge bonuses from government bailout money.

The Gross National Product is based on consumption – the faster Americans consume, the faster it grows and the rich become richer. New jobs for all are supposed to occur, in the trickle down effect. 

When using GNP to guide the economy, resources are extracted, used up, and disposed of. The country moves into bankruptcy.

What we need instead, Korten said, is to reduce overall consumption and redistribute resources.

“We need to reduce GNP,” he said, adding it’s essential to keeping our nation and species healthy, ending war and converting to peace, changing our economy, getting out of our cars, and going green.

Korten believes we need to set sensible priorities and align our resources accordingly.

The new economy needs to focus on Main Street. The logical foundation is green jobs and sound environmental practices. Healthy Main Street activities need to be accelerated.

The Wall Street economy has disintegrated, and Main Street needs to separate itself from Wall Street with a Declaration of Independence, he said. 

Korten would like to see a social credit money system adopted. Money would be issued by the government to serve the public good. This would strip Wall Street money managers of much of their profits.

No bank should be too big to fail, he said, and no bank should be at risk from the failure of others.
Korten believes large, troubled banks should be nationalized, broken into pieces, and sold to local branches, savings and loans, and credit unions. 

“There’s nothing exotic about this,” he said, adding, it’s the way banks were organized when we were growing up.

Korten also suggests that hedge funds and huge insurance companies be shut down because they serve no useful purpose. 

Korten believes Americans need to begin to have conservations about economic issues and simple living to transform America.

“We have the power to turn the world around for ourselves, our children, and future generations,” Korten said. “You are who you have been waiting for.”

Alice Waters, owner of Chez Panisse in Berkeley, Calif., also spoke at the Green Festival. Tomorrow's post will be "Alice Waters and the Locally Grown, Organic Food Movement."

Copyright 2009, Rita R. Robison, Consumer Specialist

Baby boomers and global warming

How will global warming affect baby boomers?

I thought about it a lot in the last 24 hours as I watched the snow pile up as I blogged in the library, scraped three to four inches off my car, and slogged my way to the food co-op.

Last year, when it snowed in late March, unusual for the Pacific Northwest, I wrote “Late Spring Snow Storms a Surprise.”

I wondered in the post if global warming could be causing the strange weather. It’s possible, I learned.

I found a report from the Washington State Department of Ecology that indicated recent climate modeling results indicate that “extreme” weather events may become more common. Rising average temperatures produce a more variable climate system, the report said.

For boomers, what does global warming mean?

Say, for the sake of simplicity, that boomers will live to be age 90. That means they’ll be exiting the planet between 2036 and 2054.

What changes will boomers see in that time frame?

Baby Boomer Magazine.com makes this prediction in the article “Baby Boomers Concerned About Global Warming”:

If the warming continues, we can expect catastrophic consequences. Global sea levels could rise by more than 20 feet with the loss of shelf ice in Greenland and Antarctica, devastating coastal areas worldwide. Heat waves will be more frequent and more intense, droughts and wildfires will occur more often, and the Arctic Ocean could be ice free in summer by 2050. More than a million species worldwide could be driven to extinction by 2050.

Here are some ideas on how boomers could be impacted by global warming: Boomers:

• Will need to change their consumption habits, such as buying fewer things, using less energy in their homes, driving greener cars, using public transportation, and living in walkable and other types of eco-friendly neighborhoods and communities.

• Will need to get used to erratic weather patterns and possible storm damage to their homes or in their neighborhoods or cities.

• Will become eco-activists in greater numbers.

• Face the possible collapses of living systems in their lifetimes, such as food, energy, and materials, as the world scrambles to respond to climate change and the water crises.

• Will need to use their personal, social, economic, and spiritual assets as they get older to craft ways to use their resources to respond to a changing world.

That’s a hefty list, but something to think about as the innovative Boomer Nation, who've changed every decade they've lived in, approaches the future.

Copyright 2009, Rita R. Robison, Consumer Specialist

Washington state celebrating centennial of votes for women

On Saturday, the exhibit Women’s Votes, Women’s Voices opened at the Washington State History Museum in Tacoma, Wash.

The exhibit, which will be on display in Tacoma until Sept. 27, 2009, will also travel to four cities in the state.

Women’s Votes, Women’s Voices highlights the struggle to obtain voting rights for women in the state.
 
I enjoyed the exhibit. The work of two leaders in the state, Emma Smith DeVoe and May Arkwright Hutton, is highlighted in displays.

"We Want More Than the Vote," another display, showcases the success women have achieved in the political arena. One of U.S. Senator Patty Murray's tennis shoes is included. Murray, a state legislator, first ran for office in 1989 campaigning as a "mom in tennis shoes."

An interactive display, “Women Making a Difference,” allows exhibit visitors to select famous woman from a life-size screen, including photographer Imogen Cunningham and judge Carolyn Dimmick, to learn more about their lives. Separate displays of women making difference are included for King County Councilmember Ruby Chow, Congresswoman Julia Butler Hansen, activist and NAACP founder Nettie J. Asberry, and Sisters of Providence member Mother Joseph.

Among the other displays are: “Votes for Women,” “Territorial Victory,” “The Beginnings of the Movement,” “Give Women a Fair Deal,” “Battle Lost, but War Wages On,” “The Battle Continues for Equal Rights,” “Winning the West – Sophisticated Campaign – Matter of Justice – Coalitions – Straw Votes,” “Washington Women Go National,” “November 8 – Victory in Washington – 1910,” “The New Woman,” “Extending the Vote,” “What Does It Mean to Vote?” “Who Can Vote?” “One Vote – One Voice,” and “A Sacred Right.”

Women in Washington state were able to vote in 1910. When did women in other states receive the vote? Here’s a list:

• 1890 –- Wyoming

• 1893 – Colorado

• 1896 – Utah and Idaho

• 1911 – California

• 1912 – Oregon, Kansas, and Arizona

• 1913 – Alaska and Illinois

• 1914 – Montana and Nevada

• 1917 – New York

• 1918 – Michigan, South Dakota, and Oklahoma

On the national level, the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, to extend suffrage to women, was proposed on June 4, 1919, and ratified on August 18, 1920. Tennessee was the 36th state to vote for ratification.

The Washington Women’s History Consortium, Washington State History Museum, and Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture organized the exhibit.

Copyright 2009, Rita R. Robison, Consumer Specialist

New vegetarian Web site focuses on baby boomers – Part 2

Yesterday The Survive and Thrive Boomer Guide featured Part 1 of a two-part series on PETA Prime, a new vegetarian Web site for baby boomers.

Here’s Part 2 with answers to questions from baby boomer Karen Taggart, spokeswoman for PETA Prime.

Rita: There are many vegetarian Web sites. Why did PETA create PETA Prime and what are its goals?
 
Karen: We created PETA Prime in response to feedback we received from our members and staff. PETA has had a very successful program for young people, called peta2, and they’re amazing. They’re always busy with conferences, touring with bands, gathering petition signatures, promoting online actions, and many other great things all to help young people understand the importance of animal rights.

Some PETA members and staff suggested we try and do the same for people in the “prime” of life. I thought it was a fantastic idea, because if there is anyone out there who understands the importance of compassionate and healthy living it’s baby boomers. So, we created PETA Prime to help bring together and support everyone… who’s thinking about animal issues and is part of the Dylan/Springsteen generation.

Rita: I see you have a dozen or more writers, and the Web site features blog articles rather than recipes. What was the thinking behind this format? Are your writers paid or are they volunteers? What's the response been to PETA Prime so far?
 
Karen: PETA has a very successful Web site called VegCooking.com that is full of wonderful recipes, so we didn’t feel the need to reinvent the wheel. We frequently link to recipes from this site on PETA Prime. We do have one blogger in particular, Laura Frisk, who shares her cooking tips, cookbook reviews, and party planning ideas.

The idea behind the site is to create a place where PETA Primers could really come together and share their ideas, tips, insights, concerns, and questions. We wanted to create educated and accessible articles that would be useful to a range of people; from our vegan grandmother Michelle Rivera, who has been vegan for 20-plus years to someone like my own mother, who’s not even vegetarian yet, but is always educating herself more and more on these important issues. We wanted to really concentrate on five main topic areas: Health, Family & Friends (including companion animals), Travel, Home and Garden, and Money.

All of our writers are volunteers. Some of our writers work for PETA or the PETA Foundation, but the blog writing isn’t part of their official jobs. I consider them volunteers as well. The rest of our writers are PETA members and let me tell you they are incredible.

We have a well-informed group of writers including Dr. Barry Kipperman, a vegetarian emergency vet; Elizabeth Bublitz, an animal-friendly gardening expert; Lisa Towell, a writer with a background in environmental and animal shelter issues; and the Anderlik Family, a vegan family of two 50-plus daughters and their parents who organize a local animal rights group in their community.

The writers come up with the majority of the article ideas. So far, PETA Prime has been well received. We have received a lot of great feedback, and the community continues to grow every day.
 
Rita: What's the Vegetarian Starter Kit? How does it help people switch to a vegetarian diet?
 
Karen: PETA’s Vegetarian Starter Kit is a free resource that you can order online and have it sent to your home. It’s a 20-plus-page booklet that’s full of facts about the benefits of a vegetarian diet along with tips about getting started. It has great recipes for everything from Shepherd’s Pie to Chocolate Mousse.

It also has some quotes from famous vegetarians and vegetarian celebrities, and a guide to some great vegetarian products that are now available including soy milks, veggie burgers, and vegan ice cream. I can tell you, having been vegan for a while, that vegan ice cream has come a long way. Even my non-vegan friends enjoy eating the yummy flavors and brands that are available now.

Rita: Is there anything else we should know about PETA Prime?

Karen: First, I’m so thankful for the opportunity to do this interview with your site – The Survive and Thrive Boomer Guide. I remember stumbling across your site and immediately getting excited because of all the great tips you provide boomers on living happier, healthier lives. I think we have a lot in common!

At PETA Prime, we want people to really celebrate all the ways that they can make big differences in their lives, and the lives of animals, by making simple, every day choices in a compassionate and caring way. I expect to see many boomers doing many great things for many years to come, and I hope that PETA Prime can be part of the change they bring about.
 
Rita: Thank you for the interview. It's been helpful to learn more about vegetarianism. I'll be ordering a Vegetarian Starter Kit.

Copyright 2009, Rita R. Robison, Consumer Specialist

Public Citizen working for change in Washington in 2009

Public Citizen, a citizen advocacy organization, is leading the charge to make sure citizens’ interests are a top priority in with President Obama’s administration and the 111th Congress.

Its Citizen’s Agenda includes these efforts:

• Breaking ties between lawmakers and corporations.

• Pushing for investment in a sustainable energy infrastructure.

• Ensuring the safety of toys, medicine, and other products.

• Protecting your access to government information.

• Preserving free speech on the Internet.

• Maintaining consumers’ access to justice.

Public Citizen describes these action items in the January/February issue of its newsletter Public Citizen News.

See Public Citizen’s Web site for information about the organization.

Copyright 2009, Rita R. Robison, Consumer Specialist

Academy Award nominated movies often offer violence and sadness, occasionally inspiration

Since I wrote my last post on the Academy Awards’ nominations, I’ve seen six more of the nominated movies. One of the movies is about getting older, “The Wrestler,” but I wouldn’t recommend it for baby boomers.

“Slumdog Millionaire”

The story for “Slumdog Millionaire” is good, but the movie is pretty violent. I didn’t appreciate the torture scene. I don’t think it merits a nomination for best picture.

“Frost/Nixon"

I really liked “Frost/Nixon.” I haven’t been interested in seeing the movie. I’ve never been a big Richard Nixon fan. I knew he was lying when he gave a speech from the Oval Office on television firing his top assistants John Erlichman and H.R. Haldeman. The movie was interesting, thought-provoking, and brought back memories of a president who broke the law and thought anything the president does is legal. I’m rooting for “Frost/Nixon” for best picture.

“The Wrestler”

I don’t think “The Wrestler” has much going for it. Who’s the audience? Young men who like wrestling? Why would a young audience be interesting in an aging wrestler? For baby boomers who are getting older, it may offer some messages. I don’t see how “The Wrestler” received two Academy Award nominations.

“Rachel Getting Married”

“Rachel Getting Married” is an interesting movie about a young women getting out of a rehabilitation facility to attend her sister’s wedding. Some of the monologues of the troubled characters are so long, you can hardly wait until they’re over. The writing isn’t the usual short, fast-moving bits of dialogue that you usually see in movies. Anne Hathaway gives a good performance and deserves a nomination.

“Revolutionary Road”

“Revolutionary Road” is a disappointment. In the two classes I took in scriptwriting, we were told to tell our stories “over the top.” While this movie, about the disappointments of living in the suburbs and not achieving your dreams, is over the top, it’s way, way, way too over the top. I lived in the suburbs and raised children. In addition to being a mom, which is one of my life’s greatest joys, I discovered many things to do to be engaged and make a contribution. I did volunteer work, worked on political campaigns, and ran for a city commission position.

“The Dark Knight”

I don’t like violent movies, but I went to see “The Dark Knight” because my daughter told me to. Unfortunately, the only place the movie is showing in Olympia is in an IMAX theater. I sat in the back to be further back from the violence and motion on the screen. The story was O.K., typical for an action thrilled. Much has been made of Heath Ledger’s interpretation of the Joker. While he did a good job, I think our culture has better things to do than to focus on these violent movie characters.

For me, the sound for “The Dark Knight” is a real problem. The background sound was too loud throughout. At the end, one character was talking about Batman’s role in the future. The background music was so loud, you couldn’t understand his words. It’s incredible that “The Dark Knight” won nominations for sound mixing and sound editing. The people who did the sound for the movie should be fired.

“Gran Torino"

I also saw “Gran Torino,” about a man’s man from another era, a widow, who must deal with immigrants moving into his neighborhood and life. I misplaced my list as I was seeing four movies in one day. The movie attendant at the theater said it had been nominated. It wasn’t. “Gran Torino” is a good story, and the actors played their parts well. The Clint Eastwood character is certainly over the top, but as a grouch, he is a lot like my dad, also from that era, was.

Copyright 2009, Rita R. Robison

What President Obama and Congress need to do for American consumers

In my last post, I looked at what President Obama said in his Inaugural address about consumer issues and discussed the challenges he faces in corralling the country’s strong special interests.

Here’s what I think Obama, working with Congress, needs to accomplish for American consumers:

• Find a solution to the country’s massive financial problems.

• Help consumers who are facing foreclosure of their homes.

• Find effective ways to create jobs.

• Establish a health care system that works and provides coverage for all Americans.

• Curb the excesses of the pharmaceutical industry by putting a lid on their profits, investigating the harmful side effects of prescription drugs that are injuring and killing people, and fostering the use of less harmful alternative medicine techniques.

• Act quickly to halt the excessive fees and interest rates being charged by banks and credit card companies.

• Stop poor lending practices by banks and mortgage companies.

• Establish better regulation of financial services.

• Fund nonindustry-sponsored research on approaches for clean energy and implement programs based on the research.

• Reestablish the White House Special assistant for consumer affairs and/or create a federal consumer protection agency.

• Restore the budgets of federal regulatory agencies including the Federal Trade Commission, Consumer Product Safety Commission, Food and Drug Administration, and U.S. Department of Agriculture.

• Enhance the regulatory functions of these agencies so that our food, consumer products, and drugs are safe.

• Develop creative and effective ways for citizens to be involved in the decision-making of these agencies.

• Restore trust in the work of the federal government and its processes.

• Insist on transparency in all the work of the federal government including the regulatory agencies and White House staff.

• Ban the direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription drugs on television, in magazines, and on the Internet.

• Ban, establish a moratorium, or least require the labeling of genetically modified food.

• Require irradiated food to be labeled.

• Work with Congress to develop regulatory processes that will prevent the excesses under the George W. Bush administration that caused the collapse of the housing market and the stock market.

• Enhance environmental protections.

• Adequately fund programs for seniors including Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.

• Assist local and state governments in preparing for the needs of baby boomers as they age.

• Work to eliminate poverty and homelessness.

• End the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan so that money will be available for domestic programs.

• Support a congressional investigation of the crimes of the George W. Bush administration that will lead to the filing of charges against those who broke the law.

• Review recent telecommunication laws in terms of how they meet the needs of consumers.

• Figure out whether cell phones are safe to use and, if they’re found to be harmful, mandate that they be safe.

• Improve mass transportation throughout the nation.

• Work with local governments and the states to create compact, walkable communities so that Americans can walk to work and shopping areas.

I know this is a huge agenda, but American consumers are in need of drastic assistance after the gutting of consumer and environmental protections during the George W. Bush administrations.

Copyright 2009, Rita R. Robison, Consumer Specialist

Can Obama do what's needed for American consumers?

It was great to see millions of people jubilantly celebrating President Barack Obama Inauguration. I enjoyed gathering with friends to watch the event on television.

I think that Obama was by far the best choice of the two candidates we had to vote for in November in terms of what could be expected to be accomplished for consumers. However, I viewed the Inauguration with cautious optimism rather than excitement.

The question is, Will Obama be able to stand up to the special interests that gained so much strength during the George W. Bush terms and did so much damage?

I hope so. It’s going to be a tremendous challenge for him, his new administration, and Congress.

Special interests are already regrouping to figure how to get what they want from the Obama administration. One technique already in play is the hiring of Obama’s campaign workers to lobby for big business.

Obama is a smart, talented man. However, so was Bill Clinton. Clinton, a centrist, didn’t do as much for consumers as I had hoped he would. In fact, Clinton signed the law that did away the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933, which regulated investment banks. This action contributed to the current financial crisis. See my article “What Happened to Regulations on Investment Banks.”

Did Obama address consumer issues in his Inaugural address?

Somewhat. But he only hinted how he will handle consumer issues.

The financial crisis, which happened without the mindful eye of government, was caused by greed and the failure of people to make the right choices, Obama said. He didn’t address what his plans were for turning the economy around, only saying that our tough challenges would be met.

On what consumers should do in the severe economic crisis that we face, Obama didn’t say Americans need to live simpler lives. Instead, he said, to those who see the decline of America as inevitable, the sights of the next generation will not be lowered.

On energy, Obama said our current policies strengthen our adversaries and threaten the planet. In beginning the work of remaking America, he said we need to move swiftly and boldly on environmental issues and create a new foundation for growth.

Obama mentioned the high cost of health care and that schools and colleges need to be improved to meet the demands of a new age.

On politics and how the federal government will operate, Obama said the time for petty grievances and worn-out dogma are over. The challenges are many, he said, adding, “Know this America, they will be met.”

The vital trust between the people and the government needs to be restored, Obama said. The question is no longer whether government is too big or too small. If a program works, it will move forward. If not, it will be discontinued.

On what he expects of citizens, Obama called for a new era of responsibility in which we have duties to ourselves, the nation, and the world.

Nothing is so satisfying as to give all to a difficult task, he said. It is the price and promise of citizenship.

Obama also addressed foreign affairs, which impact domestic issues because wars take so much money out of the federal budget, leaving less funding for the needs of the people.

On the role of the United States in the world, he said we are ready to lead once more. Obama said America will be the friend of nations large and small. In a new era of peace, it will extend a hand to those willing to unclench their fists. To our adversaries who want to fight, he said, “We will defeat you.”

So, can Obama do what’s right for American consumers? I hope so. I have the audacity to hope that he can.

For more information, my next article will be on “What President Obama and Congress Need to Do for American Consumers.”

Copyright 2009, Rita R. Robison, Consumer Specialist