US Senator Harris Wofford: Staying Engaged In Society After 50
Aging Gratefully
Dr. Peter Brill
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Episode 24 - US Senator Harris Wofford: Staying Engaged In Society After 50

91 million people are over the age of 50 in America. As this enormous number of people reach retirement age are we simply going to waste their talents and energy. In that age group, 94% of those who were surveyed think it is important or very important to find ways to keep older Americans engaged in society either working or volunteering. We have two guests today who are doing something about it.

Harris Wofford is currently the spokesman of Experience Wave, a national campaign to widen opportunities for older Americans to stay engaged in work and volunteering.  Mr. Wofford was a U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania from 1991 to 1995. Since helping to launch the Peace Corps in 1961, Mr. Wofford has been at the forefront of the nation's service movement.   He played a key role in both crafting and working to pass the trailblazing legislation that created AmeriCorps and the Corporation for National Service.

George Ruznak came to the US as an immigrant in 1957.  Eight years later at age 26 he was the President of a computer company. After 10 years in industry, he became a management consultant with clients in over 20 countries. He started his retirement in 1993 after the sale of the firm and now works with the organization SCORE which uses the talents of retired executives to help younger entrepreneurs. Two very powerful and experienced guests on a topic close to all of us.

Transcript

Transcript

David Debin: Hello and welcome to “The Third Age” with the doctor and the man from Hollywood. I am David Debin called the man from Hollywood. The doctor, of course, is Peter Brill. And today on our show we turn the myths of aging upside down. Well we try to. We sort out the scientific, and the trendy, the medical, and the cultural, and we will tell you everything that you need to know about living in the third age.

Remember as you listen to this show, we guarantee that if you constantly listen to us every single week you will never ever grow old.

Peter Brill: And I am the doctor, Doctor Peter Brill. The third age usually starts somewhere between forty-five and fifty. It is a time when you start to feel a stronger desire for deeper meaning and fulfillment in your life. Your first stage is childhood. Your second age is building career and family. The third age is a major change or transition to a whole new set of problems, values, opportunities, and gratifications. So join us as fellow explorers in this journey to discover what brings passion, purpose and joy into this unchartered time of life.

David Debin: Hey, we are going to talk today about 91 million people who are over the age of fifty in America. Is that

Peter Brill: No, 91.

David Debin: 91

Peter Brill: How do you know it is the one?

David Debin: No, not 90 million and one. Ninety-one million, who are over the age of fifty and that includes three out of the five people in this booth. So that is only …What is that? 80, 60%

Peter Brill: 60 That is right.

David Debin:  As this enormous number of people reach retirement age we are simply going to waste their talents and energy if we don’t have them doing something vital. Now in that group 94% of those who were surveyed think it is important or very important to find ways to keep older Americans engaged in society either working or volunteering.

And today we have two wonderful excellent guests who are doing something about that.
Mr. Harris Wofford is a former US Senator and I think that we should refer to him as Senator Wofford, unless he directs us otherwise. He is working with Experience Wave a national organization dedicated to changing national policy in this arena.

 

 

And George Rusznak is working locally with the SCORE which uses the talents of retired executives to help younger entrepreneurs. Two very powerful and experienced guests on a topic close to all of us.

Peter Brill: Wow!

David Debin: This is going to be a good one.

Peter Brill: Well I hope the half million people out there listening to this show listen up and pay attention.

You know David we have our seven steps that we do in our book “Finding Your J Spot”.

David Debin: “Joy in Midlife and Beyond”

Peter Brill: J J You have to just…

David Debin: Joy

Peter Brill: Yeah joy. And I just want to…One of our steps is – We kind of is realistic have two different names for it.- One is called finding your dream and the other is realistic optimism. And in it we talk a lot about people pursing, in this stage of  life, an outlet that gives … What happens is that a lot of people have a dream for the first part of their life. Then what happens is that they either accomplish that dream or they don’t. In either case it doesn’t really matter because if you accomplish it you then are left without a dream to pursue and if you don’t accomplish it and you give up at that point you left without having fulfilled your dream. But they don’t have any more dreams, many of them. And they need that incentive to reawaken their sensibility to dream. And then they need to find a way to  pursue those things in their life realistically that they can accomplish at this point.

David Debin: And they have to do it with a great deal of optimism but always balance by knowing what the obstacles are and being realistic because we know that even though we do have a 30 year bonus- life expectancy bonus now. We are going to live to… Well Peter I think you are going to live to about one hundred and twenty.

Peter Brill: Minimum

David Debin: Limping around on that bad knee.

 

 

 

Peter Brill: Right

David Debin: But still you need to be optimistic and realistic. Neither of those is to hard, as long as you give it a little bit of thought and you work with the right people, like for instance George Rusznak at SCORE who helps people…

Peter Brill: Pursue their dreams.

David Debin: Pursue their dreams.

Peter Brill: When they are young.

Here is the question, though. It is a step up sometimes from your dream to, or your desire to contribute to, your actual ability to put it into play. And there is always a balance in society in how big that step is and if that step is to big, in other words if it is to large for people to step up there, a lot of people just can’t make it.

And society can provide structures, and programs, and help so that people can make that step and society benefits, they benefit. We wrote the book from the standpoint of an individual. We want those people , because they live longer and are happier, to fulfill their dreams. Society wants them out there doing it because they are making contributions to all of society.

So anyway, I suggest to you all; follow your dreams realistic optimism.

David Debin: Yeah, and you know the thing about it at this age- to add- is that a lot of people say at this stage of life, “Well I am to old to have a dream” or “I don’t have the time. I don’t have the energy. I don’t have…”, you know. That is not true at all. We can site example after example

Peter Brill: Absolutely!

David Debin: of people who have at various stages of life, whether fifty, sixty, seventy, or even eighty, have found knew ways to channel their energies and find fulfillment and meaning in their life.

Peter Brill: We have had people come to our workshops who just caught fire.

David Debin: Yeah

Peter Brill:  I mean, it is just amazing.

 

 

David Debin: So that step falls under today what we are going to talk about with our guests.

Peter Brill: Yeah

David Debin: There is one that we do want to talk about though. We have our news story.

Peter Brill: We have a very important news story.

David Debin: Very important segment which is a news story. This one is something that may affect someone close to you.

Peter Brill: Yeah

David Debin: This comes to us from Amsterdam in Holland. The headline that I have put on this is will Alice Keck Park be next. Dog owners don’t let this happen to your public parks. The dog owners in Amsterdam are angry. The reason is the Amsterdam town councilors agreed to clamp down on dog owners who let their pets walk without a lead in Vondelpark; which had ten million visitors a year. A spokesman for the council said that when the dogs are not kept on a leash they pee on whatever they see and they cause a lot of nuisance for the other visitors.

Peter Brill: You can understand that.

David Debin: The dogs are also prohibited from having public sex in the park. But the counselors did, however, -just to balance this out- make it legal for heterosexual and gay couples to have public sex in the park.

Peter Brill: Not the dogs, but the people.

David Debin: Not the dogs, but the people.

Alderman Paul Van Dreegan defended this decision to allow public human sex in the park. He said it isn’t a nuisance for the other visitors and gives a lot of pleasure to a certain group of people.

I love Amsterdam.

And then he warned that there are still rules. They must take their garbage with them afterwards and never have intercourse near the playground. The sex must be limited to the evening hours and night.

 

 

Peter Brill: Well I can understand why the dog owners are upset.

David Debin: They are highly upset.

Peter Brill: It is discriminatory to the dogs.

David Debin: Yeah, and I understand the dogs were having a meeting.  The dogs themselves were having a meeting to protest the ruling.

You’ve got to love Amsterdam.

Peter Brill: I do. I do. There is not place like this.

David Debin: Is there any other place in the world that would mandate public sex in a park?

Peter Brill: Well with that absolutely profound news story.

David Debin: I know. It is going to make us think.

Peter Brill: I think it really will. I think it prepare us for the gravity of what we are facing in the next segments here.

David Debin: Yes.

We are proud to have two wonderful guests with us. The first man we are going to talk to  is Harris Wofford. He is currently the spokesman of something called Experience Wave; which is a national campaign to widen opportunities for older Americans to stay engaged in work and in volunteering. Mr. Woffard was a U.S. Senator –That is pretty impressive. – From Pennsylvania, from 91 to 95. Since helping to launch the Piece Core in 61- Wow!- Mr. Wofford has been at the forefront of the nation’s service movement. He played a key role in both crafting and working to pass the trail blazing legislation that created Americorps and the Corporation for National Service.

Welcome to the show Harris Wofford.

Harris Wofford: Well I love everything that I have heard so far. I am well into my third age.

Peter Brill: Oh good.

Harris Wofford: Four score and one.

 

 

David Debin: Four score and one. Wow!

Peter Brill: Wow! Are you having a good time?

Harris Wofford I am an example of what you are talking about. I had the opportunity to have an upset election to the senate when I was 65. It would have been one of my dreams, early, but I didn’t have the guts or the location to do it until a tragedy hit the Senator Hines. I had a special election. I was 44 points behind and won.

Then Sam Dorms retired me when I was 70. Then I was drafted to be the head of the national service program for Clinton. When that administration ended General Powell persuaded me to take his place in Campaign for Children and Youth. Now at 81 I got enlisted to be spokesman for the Experience Wave; which is really a version of your third age campaign.

Peter Brill: Well tell us about Experience Wave.

Then do we want to introduce George’s part of this too.

David Debin: Yeah. Sure.

Peter Brill: Tell us a little bit about Experience Wave and why it is important.

Harris Wofford Well the wave is demographic. Baby boomers are the 91 million over fifty. But the boomers, the ones that are a little over fifty now, the boomers are hitting the shore and beginning to cash social security checks. And most of the view of them in the media and otherwise is that they are going to be a burden and a problem. In a piece that the Atlantic Philanthropies had is that if the large numbers, the healthiest longest living readiest to be active generation can be… the power there…if the atom of that power can be cracked and the knowledge, experience., and talent of those over fifty in what we have been calling the second half of life- another version of your cut. – If that can be tapped; they can be another greatest generation.

And that involves persuading the public, the legislatures, and the older people themselves to see themselves as part of the solution and not as part of the problem.

Peter Brill: Well can I just tell you what I hear from people when I talk to them about this?  There are two different things. Let me start with the volunteer half. Then I will go to the employment half.

 

 

 

I must talk to fifty people in the town here in any month who would love to do volunteer work but they can’t find a situation that matches their talents or takes advantage of the skills they have to any good use. They don’t want to just sit on a board, raise their hand, and pass resolutions or approve things. Yet, they can’t find anyway to have a life time of experience be brought to bear on that. Is there anything that we can do to help them?

Harris Wofford Yes.  I think one is to let them know the structure that does exist. You, no doubt, know about the RSVP Program. It was started way back on the war on poverty when it was just before the Vietnam War interrupted. It has about 500,000 people; I think it is, 55 and older. It is part of a national corporation service now. About 500,000 a year are placed in volunteer action programs.

The Points of Light Foundation that President Bush first started and it is now merged with Senator Sam Nuns daughter’s organization, Hands On. Points of Light & Hands On has volunteer centers, nearly 4,500 of them, around the country that place another 500,000 seniors. Both of those RSVP and Points of Light are on the website.

But you are on to something very important. Two things are needed. And by the way the White House has a website, White House USA Freedom Corps that combines the various programs that can help seniors get placed, who want to engage in volunteer work. But I think a lot more needs to be done to have the structure of  the non profit world seeing how valuable this talent and experience can be and being ready to really challenge and make use of them rather than just doing menial work.

David Debin: And it is not just America. It is the greatest challenge of the 21 st century that will be the aging of human society in general.

Harris Wofford: Absolutely!

David Debin: By the year 2025, I think the number of person age 60 will increase from today’s 590 million to Male 1:.2 billion

Harris Wofford: Yeah

David Debin: in the world.

Harris Wofford: Yes

David Debin: So this is something that everybody… and other countries are attempting now… and we have to really start dealing with.

 

 

 

Harris Wofford: You know it is on the other side of the coin of what a lot of us have been ding with youth service. The younger generation needs to be seen as people that can give back and be leaders, and be seen as that in Americorps or the Peace Corps. And at the other end of the spectrum, the same reversal of mindset, instead of seeing the problems of the young or the problems of the old, the opportunity to cap that talent, knowledge, and experience.

Peter Brill: Do you want to introduce George?

David Debin: Yeah

Harris Wofford: As SCORE does.

Peter Brill: Yeah

David Debin: Yeah as SCORE does.

And speaking of SCORE, I would like to bring in a guest who is right here with us. George Rusznak. And he came to the US as an immigrant in 1957. Eight years later, at the age of 26, he was president of a computer company. So a computer company in 1965 that is right in the very beginning.

Peter Brill: Did you have to use a crank to…?

David Debin: Were there tubes?

George Rusznak: Yeah, it started with vacuum tubes.

David Debin: After ten years in the industry he became a management consultant with clients in over 20 countries.  He started his retirement in 1993 after the sale of the firm. He is with SCORE. And George maybe you can tell us, what is SCORE?

George Rusznak: SCORE is a national organization which is defined as a resource partner for the small business administration. It has chapters in nearly 300 cities around the country, including Santa Barbara. SCORE stand for Service Core of Retired Executive. Its mission is to, on the one hand, provide and opportunity for retired people to make a contribution to society, to their communities, and to the economy; to the extent that they are assisting budding entrepreneurs and small business people. And on the hand it is proving the next generation of the basis of our economy; the entrepreneur, the business person, with help and support that is free, useful and practical, so that they have an increased chance of succeeding.

 

 

Peter Brill: Wow! That is a mouthful.

David Debin: Harris and George how do your organizations differ? Or do they?

George Rusznak: Well Senator would you like to go first?

Harris Wofford: Well go ahead. You are an example of the many many social inventions that needed to give reality the wave that it needs to engage wave.

George Rusznak: Right.

Well from what I know, your activities are creating a structure, infrastructure and enablers to the various and sundry vehicles such as SCORE, which is an example of the number of different things that people can do. So you’re doing more of the foundation infrastructure building. SCORE delivers specifically as one of the vehicles. Is that correct?

Peter Brill: We are going to have to let you answer that question Senator after  a short break here. We are going to be right back we are going to have a profound discussion. It is going to get us into, what do we need to do to tap all the power, the interest, the energy, and this next 91 million people 50 and over. We will be right back.

David Debin: We are back with “The Third Abe” on your radio dial. This is  the man from Hollywood Doctor David Debin. I don’t know how I got that confused. And the doctor

Peter Brill: And the producer from medical school

[Laughter]

David Debin: Right. The producer from medical school is Doctor Peter Brill.

We are talking to former Senator Harris Wofford who is the spokesman of Experience Wave and George Rusznak who is the man from SCORE her in Santa Barbara.

We were just talking to Harris about the Experience Wave. You said it was a campaign to spread the idea of this reinvestment and education of older people experience and wisdom in our society. How do you run this campaign? What is involved in this campaign?

 

 

 

Harris Wofford: Well you are a two person campaign for, I think, the same thing exactly. The Experience Wave Campaign was funded with a specific focus by Atlantic Philanthropies, an amazing foundation that  is a pioneer in this field, to focus on what governors, state legislatures, and the federal government can do to expand opportunities and spread the idea. But we are part of a larger campaign. Atlantic Philanthropies had the purpose prize that is part of this over all campaign in which seniors each year, now for the second year, at Powel Alto at Stanford are given- after a big competition, five of them are given $100,000 prizes for making a noble contribution to solving the problems of our society after age 60, in the second half of there lives. And they give ten 10,000 prizes.

There is also a national governors association project in eight states to give models of how state governments can move this idea.  California is one of the states which we have been working with. Governor Schwarzenegger started - with the support of Sherry Lansing formerly of  Paramount Studios executive- The Encore Teachers.

Have you heard about that?

David Debin: Nope

Harris Wofford: It is a program in which about a dozen corporations, at the invitation of the governor and Maria Shriver, have committed themselves to help recruit math and science teachers when they retire from there employees where they have engineers and others to attract math and science people to help fill what will very shortly be a 30,000 plus math and science shortage in California.

These are people the corporations will pay for the qualifying education to certify themselves as teachers. They don’t have to teach full time. They may have a half time assignment. But they would come in and they would contribute to solving a big problem for California.

Peter Brill: Senator let me go back a little bit to the broader level. What is your campaign? What are you advocating? What is your program?

Harris Wofford: We are advocating that we all see, society, government, corporations, see this talent of the 91 million-you said- over age 50 as a tremendous talent to be tapped of this country and to get the seniors themselves to see it. And retire the concept of retirement as rest and recreation. And have it a phase, as you say, in the third age where you can follow your dreams and help pursue  the common good in this country; and to realize that your needed; and to have opportunities where you can help meet  the needs of our society.

 

 

 

Peter Brill: How can the government help with that?

Harris Wofford: Well, for example,  I will tick off a few of the things.
The Peace Cores major all out effort of “50 Plus”, to get a much higher proportion of Peace Core volunteers who are over 50. That is for two years service over seas. The problem is the Peace Core is only 7,500. Bush proposed the doubling of it. Kennedy said  that it should be 100,000 a year. If the government lets it move,  in the post Iraq world, -to help us restore our standing in the world- to 100,000. Let’s say maybe 50,000 of that 100,000 could be your third age colleagues.

Peter Brill: How about retraining people? The second thing that I was going to talk to you about was that I see a lot of people who want to do career changes. They don’t know what to do and they are not qualified for what they need to be able to do next.

Harris Wofford: Right now there is before the congress the Lifelong Learning Bill to give funding to educational institutions to engage and to get free training for people that are wanting to train for a new career that can advance the common good in this country.

Peter Brill: David you were mentioning something about China.

David Debin: Well I was saying, of course, that china has this tremendous aging population. They have got third age universities with 15,000 campuses, to train and retrain people who have finished whatever career or whatever life’s work they have done, retrain them to do more things, different things. Because they realize that,- and as George mention earlier to me- because China has the  one child policy they have got a smaller population of younger people than other countries even. George?

George Rusznak: Well what I would like to bring up is the importance to recognize that the retired population among other things breaks into two major groups. One group are the fortunate ones who have a retirement cushion, a nest egg, and can live comfortably in there retirement. The other groups are people who still need an income.

I think that it is important – and I believe the Senator has various proposals put in front of various governmental agencies or representatives that would allow people to continue a productive life and earn an income in the process, either by eliminating penalties or subsidizing Medicare or healthcare or subsidizing training and education. Is that correct?

Harris Wofford: Yes, on all of those.

If we cut universal health coverage to which either the democratic candidates is proposing that would fill a gap that would…especially from your fifty and above before

 

 

Medicare comes in- it would fill a gap as to what people can do. It is an obstacle to employers hiring seniors. I agree with you that more than half of those that re over fifty that we are talking about have the need of additional income. Some need a lot more income. I mean,  a substantial proportion are under  20 , 30 thousand dollars. They need income. Now there are senior programs that could be expanded, the foster grandparents The senior companions program starting with the war on poverty for low income people to earn money for ten or fifteen hours work. One case with kids and the other case helping other seniors live independent lives, seniors and your companions. States can increase the funding for those programs. And we are seeking the federal government. In fact most of the presidential candidates have committed themselves to wanting to expand those senior core programs.

Peter Brill: Now do you think we should be suspicious of your advocacy of this senator because you are 81?

[Laughter]

Harris Wofford: NO, because I am the lucky one. I realize how lucky. My wife died at 70.

 

 

Peter Brill: Oh, I am so sorry.

Harris Wofford She would have loved to have been lucky as I am. Though I didn’t  have recurring terms of the Senate so my pension from government service is under $30,000 a year. I myself, even though I am a little lucky in that regard, would like a little extra income so I can take my grandsons, when they turn 12, as for 6 weeks around the world. In honor of my grandma took me around the world at the age of 12 on the eve of World War II and it changed my life.  I have had four of my grandsons so far that I have been luck to take these trips. Those are the kind of dreams that people need the opportunity

David Debin: Absolutely!

Peter Brill: to fulfill

Harris Wofford: to have.

 

 

 

 

Peter Brill: We are going to take a break. Senator hang on with us and we will be back with another part of “Third Age”.

David Debin: Welcome back to “The Third Age” This is the man from Hollywood David Debin. I am here with Doctor Peter Brill and Former Senator Harris Wofford with Experience Wave and George Rusznak who was the director of our local SCORE.

Peter Brill: And if those of you who are listening, not on podcast, but could here the show, you know, “Mr. I can’t get no satisfaction” , hopefully we can.

David Debin: Yeah, which reminded me, Medvedev, which is the new Russian president, is a fan of Black Sabbath and heavy medal. So anything goes.

Let me ask you a question. George why are you involved in SCORE?

George Rusznak: Good question. 

My job, my professional career, actually gave me the passion, the purpose, and the joy that the book takes about “Finding Your J Spot”.

I was wondering what I would be doing when I was no longer working. Where would I get that passion, purpose, and joy that I received from my professional work? It is different, it is person, and it is professional; but it might be instructive for some people who are in the same age group as we are, in the third age or nearing it.

And when looked at I had to ask myself the question what was it that gave me the passion and the joy to kind of decompose it. I decided that it was, in my work, the variety, the challenge, the learning, opportunity, the responses, the psychic gratification to folks that I received from the people that I was involved in. I decided that I need to find a way to replace that. To find something that gives me that variety, the challenges, the learning opportunity and the satisfaction. I realize that there my not be a single thing that is going to accomplish that. So I decided to do a number of different things, some of which were extending the thing that I did professionally and some that were new and different and provided learning opportunities that way.

But I came into contact with SCORE and it was very similar to what I  did professionally. It was, actually, a wonderful opportunity and a wonderful experience. I am excited. I am energized. I am gratified to be involved with this organization because I am seeing something that has actually made this country great. That on the one had it is showing us the citizenry, the people, the young people or not so young people, who are dreaming

 

 

 

who are taking risks, who are taking initiative and going out and reinventing this country. Which I think is so important today.  You know, General Motors is not going to remake itself.

Peter Brill: No

George Rusznak: General Motors is not going to bring back the outsourced job. It is going to be the new entrepreneur that is going to create new businesses, new industries, and the Google, and the MySpace places; that will help us to go through the transition that we need to go through to right the economy.

I am seeing these people on the one hand and it exited me. I am seeing very talented and very capable people, my fellow counselors; who are providing a great deal of  wisdom, and knowledge, and experience; people I learn from and people who are making a tremendous contribution to the success of this nre generation of people.

They are doing something that I am very excited about. I found out that the Santa Barbara High School has an entrepreneur class and I volunteered our score chapter to mentor this group of people. They are doing a wonderful job. They are running a business. They are competing nationally with their business plans. They make presentations. They are growing and teaching the next generation. It is just tremendously satisfying and tremendously exiting.

Peter Brill: How do people find…? There are two kinds of things. One is if somebody wants to be a counselor for SCORE or somebody wants to benefit how do they find you?

George Rusznak: Well SCORE has office hours every Wednesday morning at 402 East Gutierrez from 8:30 to 11:30. People can simply stop by whether they are interested in joining SCORE or whether they are looking for counseling and help form SCORE.

We have a website that people can go to under score.org, which is a national website, but you can find the local website as well.

Peter Brill: Is there a phone number too?

George Rusznak: There is a phone number which escapes me at the moment unfortunately.

Peter Brill: Ok, sorry George.

George Rusznak:  It is probably on the website.

 

 

If you want to make an effort we can be found. We could use people with functional expertise, functional experience: finance; accounting; marketing; general management; human resources; and we are always looking for replacement because by definition we are an organization whose members are going to move on to maybe the fourth stage, if there is something like that.

Peter Brill: There you go.

David Debin: Senator Wofford how do we work with and for the Experience Wave?

Harris Wofford Well we listen to an honorary spokesman of it like George. He is just a great spokesman of Experience Wave.

You can find theexperiecewave.org on the website.

There are two books that give you other more specific ways that I recommend strongly. They are part of the pitch that Atlantic Philanthropies has. The latest one is called “Encore” by Mark Freedman.

David Debin: Mark Freedman, yeah. We have had him on our show.

Harris Wofford: All of us need encores. We have a chance to, if we start planning for it. The other book by Mark- Who is extraordinary. He is based in San Francisco.- and backed by Civic Ventures, the t heads of Atlantic Philanthropies is “Prime Time: How Baby Boomers Will Revolutionize Retirement and Transform America.”. The book “Encore” is called “Work That Matters in The Second Half of Life”.

Peter Brill: Okay.

Let me ask you this. You heard George’s statement. Is this a man on fire?

Harris Wofford: I bet he has always been on fire; but I bet the fire is the best kind of fire that he has in his life. I sort of  feel that…You know, Tom Brokaw has done  this book “Boom” in which he find  that 60’s generation that was so idealistic and they were so active and turbulent; is now very  seasoned. In Tom Brokaw’s book he basically predicts that with that seasoning they’re ready to have an engaged generation that will be creative, constructive, and wiser than they were in the 60’s.

Peter Brill: Well I just want to defend that generation just a minute. We also moved to have changes in our policy regarding races, regarding sexuality. We have changed many of the institutions in society in ways that badly needed to be changed.

 

 

Harris Wofford: Absolutely!

Peter Brill: So there is already many changes the boomers have brought to this society.

Harris Wofford Yeah, they did then. I was from the 50’s on in the hear of the civil rights campaign with Doctor King. I agree with you completely; but it isn’t that he is critical of them then. He admired them enough so he spent a year or so interviewing them and finding out where they were and what they were like now and he is saying that they are ready for an encore.

Peter Brill: Yeah, I agree.

David Debin: I would like to coin a new name here. I would like for the boomers who are ready to move on and contribute and for all of them because there is a tremendous amount of energy in this group. Let’s call them “Zoomers”, from boomers to zoomers.

Harris Wofford: I love it.

David Debin: It is pretty good isn’t it?

Harris Wofford: Right

Peter Brill: It is good.

Harris Wofford: By the way there is a venture called the experience core that is now part of Americorps for  meeting the millions and millions of seniors who needed to be mentors  and tutors with at least a  growing chore of people that for  a modest income do approximately ten hours of work in school or in after school programs. It is called the “Experience Core”.

Peter Brill: Great.

Senator we want to thank you so much for giving us your valuable time and being on the show today. George we want to thank you. You have both enlightened us today and excited us.

George Rusznak: That is mutual.

David Debin: I am going to go out and get a job.

George Rusznak: You have got one.

 

 

Peter Brill: We will be right back.

George Rusznak: So keep doing what you are doing.

David Debin: Ok

Peter Brill: We will be right back.

David Debin: Welcome back to “The Third Age” where David Debin the man from Hollywood- That is me.- and Doctor Peter Brill the man from Mars.

[Laughter]

Peter Brill: Men are from Mars.

David Debin: Men are from Mars. That is right. Men are from Mars.

We had just a fabulous session just now with former Senator Harris Wofford talking about The Experience Wave and George Rusznak from our very own town of Santa Barbara who is with SCORE.

Peter Brill: And you can find the phone number by looking it up in the phone book or calling information. You can go there any Wednesday. It is listed in  the book where to go.

David Debin: It is a great organization. And it is very much in line with the way we feel and what we do.

One of the things we are doing is on May 22?

Peter Brill: March. We are in March.

David Debin: On May 22 there is something going on.

March 22 is our workshop.

Peter Brill: I am sure every day of the year there is something going on somewhere.

David Debin: Right. That is right. I can check my files.

Peter Brill: Probably check Amsterdam and see what is going on in Amsterdam.

 

 

David Debin: I’ve got to get there as soon as possible.

Peter Brill: Absolutely David!

David Debin: The other thing we should do is – we talked about in the break here- we should have a joint workshop with SCORE, Third Age Foundation with SCORE.

Peter Brill: Absolutely! Since George isn’t here to say anything we will commit him to that.

David Debin: George is here. Are you in George?

George Rusznak: I am in. I would be very happy to explore that. Tomorrow we are going to have a chapter meeting and I am going to bring this up to the chapter and see what reaction we get.

Peter Brill: We would love to do it.

David Debin: Yeah, we would love to do it.

Peter Brill: With any group out there that we can help people in this sage of life get moving, get going, find their excitement. As Senator Wofford said, it is such a valuable resource you have in your hands, a lifetime of experience, and the world needs you badly.

David Debin: You know what? You are part of the solution or you are part of the problem. It is one or the other.

Peter Brill: Going back to the 60’s.

David Debin: Yeah. Right. Well how we doing?

Peter Brill: Ok. So, we are going to have to say thank you to our guests today and Marissa Sgobassi and Lisa Headley and Les Carol.

Tune in next time for another journey into this unexplored land of the third age.