If we're lucky, it'll happen to all of us some day. We'll get old, and there's a chance we won't be able to care for ourselves.
So, you can understand why senior citizens are concerned about the possibility of losing their share of the state's funding pie. About 100 of those concerned citizens rallied in front of the Thompson Center on Tuesday to protest proposed cuts in senior services.
Gov. Pat Quinn's "doomsday" budget includes cutting millions of dollars from multiple agencies and service providers across the state, and it's prompting fear in the elderly who worry they are about to lose the money they need for at-home care.
Chi-Town Daily News reported this week that the fiesty oldtimers say they don't want to end up in nursing homes where, as 83-year-old Ruth Long said, they'll be "zombitized" (with medication). They want to live independently, but they just need a little help.
Protesters said that the governor's proposed cuts would eliminate at-home care for about 25,000 seniors.
“I’d probably kill myself, because I don’t want to go to a nursing home,” Long says.
The budget would also eliminate elder abuse investigations, according to the Chi-Town Daily News report.
