"Drugs...Another Issue..."

While doing my mid-day workout today, a conversation with a +60 year old gentleman started...

He mentioned how blessed he was to be exercising...that it keeps him directed...

Twenty years earlier, he had realized his addiction to alcohol and then recreational drugs,  and then his four children had followed in his footsteps...and then to his fortune, he started his relationship with Jesus...and with his support and direction, his family and him have been "clean" ever since!  His career changed to out-sourced counseling, and it continues...

He said the latest local issue is heroin usage...

Apparently, thirteen over-dosed deaths occurred in Delray Beach alone, last weekend.  The largest local affected group is aged 45 to 55...and the demographic isn't  what one might first suspect...professionals like the first case of the year...a Caucasian 35 year old Defense Attorney female, who was found dead in her apartment with pain killers in her system and a heroin syringe by her arm...

We discussed all of my thoughts about the early prescription drugs administration starting with pre-kindergarten, thru young adults (and particularly the Military), thru seniors...instead of prescribed exercise and arts, for example...We continued with the "big business" aspects of the pharmaceutical industry, and consequent rehab centers...

He stated that it is a society issue...people do not wan to feel bad or experience pain...they want something to make them escape and feel good! He continued in 2004, 20,000 U.S. medical school students were given financial grants to help with the cost of their education, by a developer of a new opiate drug in exchange for their agreement to prescribe it to future patients! $650,000,000 had been given to the FDA to rush approval, and to place on the  market,  their very addictive drug!   He said that where more than 50,000 blind studies may have been done, more recently the numbers are down to 8,000!  He added that Florida, and especially Palm Beach County, has become a National center for "drug treatment" centers, and that incredible amounts of money are expended on these extremely profitable centers, that usually  don't have success!

The issue should be placed in my Presidential platform random thoughts to be continued blog entries...

"2016...Random Contemporary American Presidential Platform Thoughts...Part One"

Realize that there is another existence beyond this life...

Be thankful...for those that preceded us,  for the Country that they founded and promoted...

Realize our blessings....

Allow new lives to come into the world...

If a child is not wanted by its parents, allow it  to be adopted...by another loving single, or couple...

Provide homes and schools for young pregnant women...

Promote families to stay together...

Appreciate diversity...while realizing that we can learn from all...and the whole is greater than the sum of our parts...

Frown on prejudice...

Discipline hurtful behaviors...

Pass on values...promote a love of education...

Recreate...don't medicate...

Reward our teachers...reduce our reward of administrators...

Start class day with the Pledge of Allegiance and our National Anthem

Replace alternative future career educational paths...not everyone is meant to be a technical professional, engineer, or doctor...

Replace hand-writing, basic mathematics, English comprehension, foreign and "sign" languages, physical fitness, home economics, nutrition, fitness and physical education, team and individual sports, arts, music, American and World history, contemporary culture, and religious education, and cultural field-trips...

Return to "neighborhood schools", and involve parents...reduce busing...

Set minimum standards, and reward excellence...

Make post high school education, not free, but affordable, with realistic work/study and loan repayment plans...

Redirect out of realistic athletic budgets to offset costs...

Mandate three years of military or social work,with basic living costs covered while serving...

Legal offenses...join productive work forces

Promote apprentice programs...

Return production to the U.S...

Return pride in one's work and accomplishments...

Facilitate travel within the U.S. and abroad...

Tighten immigration...if you come, and plan to stay...assimilate...

To be continued...

"Turning SIXTY-TWO..."

10:11  PM, on Monday, August 1, 2016...unbelievably 2 years since my last Blog entry...and another fifteen days before my 62nd birthday...

Other than God, I don't think that anyone could predict the current state of our Country and our World...

To say that the pace of the last two years has been hectic, would be an understatement.   Currently, my personal schedule has gotten less busy, and time for reflection exists.   For all of the "business" of these two years , I'm don't feel that I've gotten too far after reading my "Turning SIXTY" last blog entry.

Small steps...I have the same shoe collection plus an additional pair of sandals and a gift pair of casual slip-ons...I have new pillow cases on new pillows in my "summer" bedroom...my library files have been "purged" and "filled" again...my travel files and logs have been updated...my "Daytimer" has a new leather jacket...my 3 days per week cardio has increased from 30 to 40 minutes...my 3 days per week swimming 25-meter laps have increased from 70 to 100...my body weight has plateaued at 238...my waist remained at 40 (on a good day, 39.5"!)...my feet and toenails are in better shape...my gums have just undergone a "deep" (expensive but less than the recommended orthodontist $5,600 treatment) $950 cleaning...and my latest dermatology visits discovered a chest basal cell  that was treated for (the incorrect) fee of $810...last month, I gave in...no more hair dye...so far I'm getting used to the close cropped  age-appropriate "white" hair... 

Larger steps...I'm ever-more appreciative of God's daily blessings...we have lost an immediate family member...my sister-in-law at only 45 from a silent heart attack a year ago...I lost a 35 year close (often mistaken for another brother)  friend and his mother after a hidden 20-month battle with colon and liver cancer...I have a few local very close friends (and at my 40th College Reunion forever close friends)....my career is in its "twilight" years...it has "changed" so much that I feel "removed"...I have a new 2016 Acura TLX, "high-tech" automobile (at a "good deal", it was the price our next to their last Westchester County, New York family home) that was hit in its first few months by three young girls who ran a red light through seven lanes of traffic before hitting me (the police report called it "no fault"!)...the DOW Jones Average and real estate values have "artificially, some say, risen...my mortgage balance is below $29,000...my grandparents' post-Depression mentality has made my account cash balances remain high...my travel blessings continued...with multiple cruises...and most recently memorable trips to Turkey, Greece, and Croatia...and Cuba...I still resist the all too often technology updates...Society and particularly  our politics (in this, an election year with the two least popular candidates ever historically) have taken negative directions...I'm preparing to write my suggested Presidential platform...

Goals...stay tuned for a possible future blog entry...

But...at the new "forty-two", I'm optimistic that with God's lead, we are all going to "keep on keeping on"...