It seems that the entire motion picture and television industry is hanging onto every development concerning the fate of the Motion Picture and Television Fund (MPTF) elderly and infirm residents. Our advocates have advanced our cause to the pages of this esteemed website, and in other traditional and digital media worldwide.
On Monday, thanks to these good people, SAG will hear our plight.
The clarion call has always been that it makes no sense to endorse the closure of what is the heart and soul of MPTF care. The edifice erected by Mary Pickford and Charlie Chaplin for the care of the industry's most needy was being taken off the shelf much like a filet of sole that has gone past its sell-by date.
And while the proverbial fish might stink from the head (that being the heads of the MPTF Board of Directors that have been chastised ad nauseum in previous blogs), in this case the fish stinks from the armpit.
The "armpit" being the hierarchy that actually runs the day-to-day at our beloved Motion Picture Home. Marching to the drumbeat of a newly invented elder care paradigm dubbed "successful aging," these stalwart purveyors of woe have sold the board of directors a bill of goods.
What could be more robust and rosy than a healthy balance sheet? What their outlook is hiding is the grim reality that is about to come to pass. In a classic game of "Hide the Salami," the board is most likely being hoodwinked by medical professionals who could have earned their medical degree at Wharton School of Business.
How else can you explain a quote where a medical administrator states, “If the long-term care facility and hospital aren’t closed immediately, we will be forced to close the independent living facilities,” adding, “And when long term care is closed, we can open up a Smoothie Bar and Coffee Shop for you."
The sound you just heard is Hippocrates rolling in his sepulcher.
But it gets worse. As we descend down from the armpit to a familiar orifice, we meet another administrator who offers the following quote to Nursing Home Magazine, in August of 2007: “We want this campus to be a place for elders to live their best lives, not a place that looks at sickness but looks at the key ingredients of successful aging.”
Unbelievable. These published admonitions would scare the bejeezus out of Chuck Norris himself, had he been old and infirm and residing at the Motion Picture Home. Chuck would have risen out of that wheelchair and delivered a signature roundhouse kick that might have taken care of our problem right there -- but unfortunately it gets worse.
This dangerous take on elder care suggests a new paradigm being orchestrated
by the executive staff of the MPTF, and portends to update the famous credo of "taking care of our own" to:
“No Old Sick People."
Those words should ring in your ears like the staccato sound of hobnail boots marching to a Wagnerian anthem.
