Letters: Community event to cover estate planning; Wasteful spending from insurance companies?
Community event to cover estate planning
Whatever your stage in life, it is a good idea to think about and plan for how your affairs will be handled. A few simple steps today can give you peace of mind tomorrow by ensuring that you and your loved ones are well protected.
The Centre Region Estate Planning Council invites the public to attend a free community event on Wednesday, Nov. 20th at 4:30 p.m. at Mount Nittany Medical Center’s Dreibelbis Auditorium. A panel of local estate planning professionals, Mike Degenhart, Penn State University’s Assistant VP of planned giving, attorney Cristin Long of McQuaide Blasko and attorney/CPA Doug Loviscky of Loviscky & Associates, will address important estate planning topics and recent tax law changes. Following the presentation CREPC will host a reception sponsored by Centre Care at which attendees will have the opportunity to speak with CREPC members. Please RSVP by calling 231-1391 or sending an email to Anne@lovisckylaw.com.
Wasteful spending from insurance companies?
I wish I had the money that insurance companies spend on mailings and phone solicitations for Medicare supplement plans. In addition to letters and phone calls, I have received two 150-page brochures from the same company even though I advised them that I’m not interested. Perhaps the premium wouldn’t be as much if they deducted all of their advertising costs from them and my recycle bin wouldn’t be as full.
Experiences to share
In these trying times I have had two experiences that I would like to share with our community.
First, a visit to the Museum of the American Revolution. It reminded me of the enormity of the challenge facing the colonies as well as the horrors of that war. A war fought to establish a republic governed not by a king but by three co-equal branches of government duly elected and appointed. The outcome was never a sure thing. Ten European countries provided crucial aid.
Second, watching “Servant of the People,” the Ukrainian TV show starring Volodymyr Zelensky, who is now the president of his country. Although it will make you laugh, it is a serious show. Serious about what it takes to fight the creeping privilege and corruption that too often distorts doing the right thing. Serious about the ideals that a new democracy embraced and still embraces. And it’s serious about an honorable man who is indeed a servant of his people.
Show thanks for food by treating it with respect, compassion
Before you buy that turkey for Thanksgiving dinner take a moment to consider the lives that turkeys and other factory farmed animals live. The conditions under which they are raised are heartbreaking and absolutely immoral. Just like humans, these animals feel pain and suffer when treated cruelly. They are genetically bred to grow very fast and produce large breasts. But this causes the birds extraordinary suffering and it is hard for them to walk or even breathe. Breathing is made even more difficult because they are crowded together on the floor of pens where they cannot get fresh air or sunshine and are forced to breathe dangerous levels of ammonia from their own waste. Chickens and turkeys in nature can live for 10 years but are killed in six weeks to a few months when raised in factory farms.
One way we can truly show thanks for our food is to treat it with respect and compassion. The meat industry does not want us to know how cruelly factory farmed animals are treated because they know that people would not want to contribute to the suffering of animals if they knew the truth of how they are raised. An alternative to buying factory farmed animals is to purchase those that are raised organically (“natural” or “free range” labels are not to be trusted). These humanely raised animals cost more but the benefits to ourselves and the animal world are well worth it.
