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In the few months that the Texas Alliance for Retired Americans (TARA) has existed, the power of America's seniors has measurably grown. New organizations and individuals continue to sign up as soon as they find out about us. Among the newer members reported by our financial secretary, Elaine Jones in Corpus Christi, are the Texas Building and Construction Trades Council of Austin, the Lone Star Branch No. 132 of the National Association of Letter Carriers in Dallas, and the Corpus Christi Retired Firefighters & Widows Association.
Individual retirees are also joining. Community Affairs Vice President Shane Fox reports on TARA's participation in the Senior Citizens' Holiday Extravaganza in Tyler, where more members signed up. The local newspaper has now covered TARA several times.
Tyler is the center of the nationwide Steelworkers' strike against Goodyear Tire & Rubber. Management wants to close the plant, even though it would devastate the Tyler economy and put thousands of people out of work. TARA President Victor Pauly joined with progressive forces all over America in leafleting actions on December 16. Our efforts contributed to bringing Goodyear management back into negotiations.
Retiree power continued to mushroom in the November 7 elections. As usual, senior turnout was much better than that of younger voters. The National Alliance, www.retiredamericans.org, reports that a higher Percentage of seniors voted for Democrats than in 2004. Of union retirees, 72% voted for the Democrats. The margin for Democrats among all voters 60 and older was up 6% over 2004. "The Alliance was an important factor in those results," said George J. Kourpias, President of the Alliance. "Older voters knew the country was on the wrong track."
Challenges and opportunities for seniors will be even more evident in 2007. The Alliance has joined a new campaign called Change America Now (CAN), which is mounting a collective effort by nearly 40 organizations in 31 states to pass through Congress the economic elements of the "100 Hour Agenda" outlined by incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). One of the first priorities will be to allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices, instead of accepting whatever the drug companies want to charge.
--Gene Lantz, Communications Director
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