Why do old people get cranky

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by Glenn Mollette, Guest Commentator

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I hear you already. All old people aren't cranky.

I have a friend who is 96 years old and is the delight of all who know her. She is independent. She works in her garden every summer. She drives herself to church and the grocery store. She exercises a couple of times a day. She lives in a very small, humble house but it's her place and she takes care of her home.

Too often my wife and I are out and "hear" crotchety old people. Often they are battering the waitress about the service or the food. Often we get out of their way at the grocery store in fear of being maimed for life by a grocery cart. When visiting in Florida, we look both ways when crossing the road more than once because on several occasions we've almost been run over by a senior.

Let me move quickly here and say most of my friends are senior adults. I guess I have become one chronologically speaking, but mentally I don't want to really embrace reality.

However the other day at McDonald's I was expecting to get the senior adult coffee rate and the cute young lady at the register said, "I'm sorry sir but you don't look like a senior."

I paused a moment and almost smiling replied, "Uh, well, just how old am I," I asked.

"I guess about 42," she said. I handed her the full $1.06 gladly for the coffee. "Well sir, am I right?" I replied, "Honey, you are good. You nailed it," I said as I happily walked back out to my car to tell my wife about my pleasant coffee buying experience.

Oh, and by the way, my wife just shook her head when I relayed the conversation to her.

I don't know for sure why some old people get cranky but I can just imagine.

Lots of things change. Hearing changes, eyesight changes, hair grows in weird places, the body is simply no longer 18. For some reason Alice Cooper's song, "I'm 18 and I don't know What I Want," just does not relate any longer. Cooper should come out with a new song, "I'm a senior adult and I don't know what I want." Now, that would be another platinum record for Cooper because many seniors are still a lot like they used to be growing up - trying to figure it all out.

Seniors face reality that their longevity is running out. Often, money is tight because many haven't saved much if any money for their golden years and Social Security isn't enough to cover the modest of living standards in a country with rising health care costs. The aches and pains are often only calmed by prescriptions and retirement quickly becomes something they had not envisioned decades earlier.

Adult children factor into senior's attitudes as well. Adult kids who still need the financial help of their old parents are a drag for everybody. Or, the adult children who simply still use mom and dad for merely babysitting or solving life's crises take a bit of the spark out of the senior years as well.

Now let's go back to my 96 year old friend.

Recently her family invited her to go on a vacation with them for a couple of weeks. They said, "Mom, we are going to rent a condo for vacation and we want you to go with us on vacation and cook for us."

She smiled. She thanked them but said, "I don't want to do that."

There, in that one sentence could be the secret to happy senior adult living - longevity with the independence to still make choices.

Good luck!

----------------------------------------------------------- Dr. Glenn Mollette is a syndicated American columnist and author of American Issues, Every American Has An Opinion and ten other books. He is read in all 50 states. The views expressed are those of the author and are not necessarily representative of any other group or organization. -----------------------------------------------------------

This article is the sole opinions of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of PhotoNews Media. We welcome comments and views from our readers.

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Rapid Rundown: Uni wins shootout, Colvin huge in first half effort

Uni-High Sweeps Annual Shootout
August 26 - The Illineks tallied three victories in their annual soccer shootout on Saturday. Uni battled past Blue Ridge 2-0 in the opening match of the day. Later in the mid-day contest against Fisher, the University Lab School soccer team ground out a win in a 3-1 finish.

A post shared by PhotoNewsWire (@photonewswire) on Aug 29, 2017 at 5:10pm PDT

Uni-High's Paul D'Angelo fires a shot on the Oakwood goal past Comet defender Caleb Lashuay during the final game of the University High Boys Soccer Shootout. See more photos from Saturday's match on the PhotoNews Instagram feed. (Photo: PhotoNews Media/Clark Brooks)

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In the shootout finale with two wins under their belt, Uni cruised to a 6-0 win over Oakwood/Salt Fork Coop. Paul D'Angelo scored the opening goal of the match with an assist from fellow Illinek senior Albert Lee. The pair found the net again reversing roles with Lee putting the ball between the post on a feed from D'Angelo.

Rahi Miraftab-Salo slalomed and slashed his way through the Comet defensive effort to then give a Uni a 4-0 lead going into the half with assist from Isandro Malik and later his brother Omeed Miraftab-Salo.

The scoring effort continued with Omeed crashing the box on a tap from Lee. Junior Alex Higgs closed out the Illinek scoring effort with goal on a pass from Will Hechler.


Colvin gallops through STM defense for a big night
August 25 - St. Joseph-Ogden rolled to a 54-7 win over St. Thomas More in their season and new conference opener on Friday night. Dwight Colvin, who collected 103 yards on his first three touches, ran for 312 yards in the first half and retired to life of leisure on the sidelines the remainder of the game. The junior found the end zone four times on runs of 7, 4, 67 and 18 yards.

Not to be outdone, Adam Frerichs, like Colvin a junior, scored three times on just five calls finding the end zone on two 7-yard dives and 9-yard scamper. Senior Jason Bowman (3 carries, 10 yards) chipped in a TD from four yards out.

In a five-way tie for first after the opening week, the Spartans travel to Rantoul for the Week 2 conference game against Rantoul.


Unity's Migut Put Up Impressive Numbers
West Point commit Steven Migut made sure his Unity team made a huge splash in their debut game in the Illini Prairie Conference on Friday. The senior led the Unity Rocket football team to a season opening 41-8 drubbing on the Grey Ghost from Illinois Valley Central.

Migut, who had a hand in all six Unity TDs, rushed for 92 yards on 10 carries scoring on two of them. He completed 14 of 25 pass attempts for 235 yards connecting with Jake Reno (5 catches, 92 yards) and Cale Shonkwiler (4 catches, 90 yards) for two scores.

The Rockets will host Pontiac on Friday at Hicks Field to continue their pursuit of the first IPC football title.


Unity Blasts Georgetown
August 29 - Kenny Mantell scored three first half goals to lift the Unity soccer team over Georgetown-Ridge Farm, but it was a balanced scoring effort in the period that sealed the W for Rockets. Evan Bachert put two shots between the posts and was instrumental in two other scores in the 8-0 win over the Buffaloes.

Unity also benefited from solo offensive strikes from Woolcott (Mantell assist) and Micah Freeman (Alex Stahl) in the first half and Andrew Cook put the ball away on a feed from Bachert in the final half of the shutout.

Keeper Nate Reitmeier performed just four saves thanks to the Rockets' ability to control the ball.


Uni Knocks Fisher Off
August 29 - Uni-High's Kristin Wang tallied 5 blocks in her team's 2-1 volleyball win over Fisher. After dropping the first game to the Bunnies, 21-25, the Illineks recovered and came back swinging to finish off the match with two wins, 25-10 and 25-22. Maya Greer lead the team with 5 kills while Kathryn Dullerud posted 12 assists on Tuesday.


St. Joseph-Ogden 2, Cissna Park 0
August 29 - Abbi Burnett and Emory Erickson delivered six kills each in SJO's first home volleyball game of the season. Bree Trimble added five more and Hannah Lewis chipped four in the Spartans' 25-21, 25-20 win. Last year's Class 2A runner-up improved to 3-0 on the season.




*** Coaches submit your match or game scores and results via email to editor@iphotonews.com.

Illini say happy trails to war chant

The drum cadence used football games and other sports during critical game situations has been officially retired at University of Illinois athletic events. Kent Brown, Associate Director of Athletics for Media Relations, told radio station WDWS "It been brought up by each administration, at least the last three if not further back than that, concerns about the War Chant at our events."



According to news reports and several posts on Facebook,a representative of the athletic department asked to stop playing the Native-American inspired drumming at Thursday evening's women's home soccer game against Washington University. The Illini fell 2-1 to the visiting Huskies.

The move has many loyal Illini fans ready to hit the warpath. Many of the responses and reactions in the comment section of a post on the story published by The News-Gazette feared that Three-In-One, the traditional halftime show music, may also be on the chopping block.

Brink Grismer wrote in one of the post, "I will STOP my financial support of Illinois athletics as of today." Dave Holzner shared the same sentiment writing, "Stop attending games, I know I won't be spending any more money on U of I athletics, make a stand."

Brown said the move was made to make Illinois sporting events more inclusive however the new video board did a much better job at getting fans on their feet and making noise during games when the Illini needed the boost from their fans. Prior to yesterday's announcement the sports department had been diminishing the use of the War Chant for its eventual retirement.

Despite the University distancing athletics use of Native American imagery, which students and faculty for the last two decades fought rid from campus, Brenda Ponton-Spaulding wrote: "I'm part Native American and I am in NO way offended by any of this STUPID BS! I'm honored that the school had picked my heritage to use as their mascot!"

Today, we live in an amazing time in American history where the freedom to interpret and display cultural values is taboo. Words like cultural appropriation, racism, and stereotypical cliches roll off the tongues of academics, the well-educated and liberal left like noodling, NASCAR and Natty Light of those who see their grasp over traditions viewed as cultural appreciation slip away.

If diehard Illinois fans truly appreciated Indian culture and the education they earned on campus, you would think they would put equal if not more effort (and monetary contribution) in building a world class Native American Studies program at the University of Illinois. The pride of these proud Illini extends about 10 to 15 yards outside the doors of Memorial Stadium and the State Farm Center, and nowhere close to the American Indian Studies Program or their staff of 12.

It probably doesn't seem the least bit awkward that the University does not offer an undergraduate degree in Indian or Native American studies yet has fans and alumni who are still seething about the loss of a halftime display that bears no resemblance to a traditional dance from any First Nation tribe; attracted to feathered headdresses; and athletic wear embolden with various illustrations central to the culture only a handful of people can minor in on campus.

It is 2017 and not one of the many indigenous languages of the America is taught at the University or in any Illinois high school. With a nickname like Illini, you would think the University would require every freshman to take just one discovery or pass/fail course on Native American culture and history.

While it was sad to see Chief Illiniwek retired years, the direction the University of Illinois is one of least resistance and sensible as we become a more modern, civilized society in the poorest state in the country. The cost of building a strong Indian studies program, as well as offering scholarships to bring bright, talented Native American high school students to campus and increasing the number of students whose ancestors once owned the land would be too high. Although, that could easily be rectified with a statewide sugary drink tax.

As for the War Chant, why let it die? The athletic department should simply rebrand it as Irish Battle Drums or Roman War Chant. After all, we do live in a wonderfully inclusive world.

Will our war in Afghanistan ever end

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by Glenn Mollette, Guest Commentator

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October will mark the 16th year since President George W. Bush announced the first strikes against Afghanistan. In June of 2010 we surpassed Vietnam as the longest conflict in U.S. history. President Obama tried to end the combat mission in Afghanistan in 2014, but the U.S. and Afghanistan governments reached an agreement to keep some American troops in country even after the combat mission ended. Various contingents of coalition troops remain in the country as well.

Three Presidents now have their hands tied to Afghanistan. President Bush addressed the nation from the White House to announce the first airstrikes in Afghanistan on October 7, 2001. Obama made major prime-time addresses to announce both troop build-ups and withdrawals. And now President Donald Trump used his first prime-time address from the White House to announce the number of troops serving in Afghanistan, approximately 8,400 prior to the televised speech, would be extended a little more than 12,000.

Then United States has lost 2,403 soldiers in Afghanistan. 2010 was the deadliest year with 499 U.S. soldiers and 711 members of coalition forces were killed in action. By comparison 4,523 U.S. troops have been killed since the Iraq war began in 2003.

The citizens of Afghanistan have paid a heavy price. Tens of thousands are thought to have died since 2001. The United Nations recently reported that 3,498 Afghan civilians were killed in 2016 alone and 7,920 were injured, making it the deadliest year for civilian casualties since he U.N. began counting in 2009. At the half year mark of 2017 in July there had been 1,662 deaths and 3,581 injured.

Brown University has a Cost of War Project. The group estimates the total cost of the war to be $783 billion through fiscal year 2016. That numbers swells to 1.8 trillion when factoring in long-term spending like veterans' care interest on debt, researchers found. One Congressional Research Service Report estimated the operational cost of the war in Afghanistan was $686 billion through 2014.

When will it end?

President Trump said he does not want to stay in Afghanistan to build a Nation. He wants to stay only to eliminate the terrorists. If this is the plan then I don't think we will ever leave Afghanistan. There are always new terrorists raised thanks to our presence in their country. We may kill more and have more control in the nation of Afghanistan but there seems to be a root of evil that will never be eliminated. Children are being taught by ISIS and the Taliban to hate; especially America, Christian nations, and countries were women and people are treated equally.

Sadly people in Iraq, Afghanistan and other Middle Eastern nations have fought among themselves for centuries. While we don't want Afghanistan to be wide open for terror cells to once again topple and control towns, just how long will we stay to fight this enemy?

While I like President Trump's vision to eliminate all the bad guys and then we will get out of the country, I personally don't see it happening. Because as soon as we leave the terrorists who have been hiding out somewhere else will return and we will back in Afghanistan again. This means for the rest of our lives we will work in America to pay taxes to maintain military bases in Afghanistan so we can keep several thousand troops present and ship more soldiers there quickly as the tide of violence returns.

By the way, just a medium size military base costs about $1.553 billion to operate a year. A Small base costs about $828 million more or less to operate each year. One spokesman for the U.S. led International Security Assistance Force says there are nearly 400 U.S. and coalition bases in Afghanistan including camps, forward operating bases, and combat outposts. In addition, there are at least 300 Afghan National Army and Afghan National Army and Afghan National Police bases, most of them built, maintained or supported by the United States. So do the math and you can see why somebody in America has to work just to keep these mega money drainers operating.

Now you know why you can't have your full Social Security retirement check at 65. Your money is going elsewhere and will be for a long time - probably forever.

Will our war in Afghanistan ever end? The end is not in sight.

----------------------------------------------------------- Dr. Glenn Mollette is a syndicated American columnist and author of American Issues, Every American Has An Opinion and ten other books. He is read in all 50 states. The views expressed are those of the author and are not necessarily representative of any other group or organization. -----------------------------------------------------------

This article is the sole opinions of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of PhotoNews Media. We welcome comments and views from our readers.

-----------------------------------------------------------

Rapid Rundown: Unity, St. Joe win season openers

Unity 7, Schlarman 0
Evan Bachert led Unity to a 7-0 victory over visiting Schlarman Academy with two unassisted first half goals in the Rockets' home season opener on Monday.

Unity notched four additional solo strikes from midfielder Alex Stahl, Andrew Cook and junior Micah Freeman in the first half. Freshman Andrew Miller later notched another UA and the first goal of his prep career in the second half after senior Wyatt Bailey put one between the posts on an assist from Stahl.

"Dominating possession of the ball and working together as a team," head coach Michel Stringer said, was the key to his squad's prolific scoring and starting the season with a 1-0 record.

The Rockets host former Okaw Valley Conference rival St. Teresa this afternoon and travel to Oakwood to take on the Comets on Thursday.


Spartans Open With A Win
St. Joseph-Ogden's Chase Stiner was credited with both goals in his team's 2-0 road win over the Oakwood Comets on Monday. Stiner scored in the first half giving the Spartans 1-0 lead at the break. SJO picked up a second goal when a Comet inadvertently put the ball inside the goal in the final half. Keeper Joel Branson rejected six attempts on the Spartan goal.

SJO plays another road match today starting at 5pm when they will face the Cornjerkers of Hoopeston Area. Thursday, the team will play their first home match of the season hosting University High School in their annual non-conference rivalry contest.


*** Coaches submit your match or game scores and results via email to editor@iphotonews.com.