Challenge Coin Collection Gets Challenged By Toddler

By Troy M. Olson

I have been ruminating a lot lately on my military coin collection, a tradition from service often carried onward. The more places you go, the more people you meet and interact with, the more coins you'll have. My coins from military days both at home and abroad are now augmented by new coins from civilian life in the decade since.

Recently, my son has taken to playing with these coins which I ordinarily kept nice and tight. Dress right, dress. One of the last vestiges of the hyper discipline from another life and another time. 

But alas, a toddler has goals and he was fascinated by all of these coins and has hid them all over the place in parts unknown. The first few times I took them away and just moved them higher up on the shelf... then he'd just climb up higher to get them. Reaching a bit higher each time. Until before long I relented and gave up on trying to keep the collection from him. 

Now they're all over the place. Hidden. When I asked where they are he'd say "sorry Daddy." 

The same process played out with medals as well until only one is truly out of his reach now. But it's not my medal, it's my maternal grandfather's Good Conduct medal from the Second World War. He gave it to me when I was barely old enough to throw the ball around. 

I imagine that may have been the last medal he bothered to keep around after three kids and five long decades separated him from the events it relates to. 

Maybe he went through exactly the same process of letting go of the tangible and physical, reaching out to the eternal instead. 

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Troy M. Olson is an Army Veteran, lawyer by training, and co-author (with Gavin Wax) of ‘The Emerging Populist Majority’ now available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Target. He is the Sergeant-at-Arms of the New York Young Republican Club and co-founder of the Veterans Caucus. He lives in New York City with his wife and son, and is the 3rd Vice Commander (“Americanism” pillar) of the first new American Legion Post in the city in years, Post 917. You can follow him on X/Twitter and Substack at @TroyMOlson

A Bipartisan Effort to Ameliorate Loneliness in the Elderly

 

By Frank Filocomo

I was never much of a fan of Senator Rick Scott (R-FL), who I always saw as a Paul Ryan-like, neoliberal politician. He was, for example, adamant about sunsetting Social Security, a wildly unpopular policy proposal that he later rescinded amid bipartisan blowback. 

For all intents and purposes, Scott's record, both during his time as Florida's Governor and Senator, is cookie-cutter GOP establishmentarian. 

That said, sometimes people surprise you. 

Scott, in partnership with Senator Tina Smith (D-MN), reintroduced the Social Engagement and Network Initiatives for Older Relief (SENIOR) Act, a bill that was endorsed by the Foundation for Social Connection, earlier this month.

According to a press release, the bill would:

• Promote programs that combat loneliness and support community integration for seniors by adding “loneliness” to the definition of “disease prevention and health promotion services” under the Older Americans Act.
• Direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services to prepare a report on the impacts of loneliness on seniors and propose solutions for identified impacts; and
• Through the report, analyze the relationship between the strength of multigenerational family units, loneliness, and seniors. 

On that second point, the SENIOR Act would require Health and Human Services Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who was narrowly confirmed by the Senate on February 13, to take the issue of loneliness and social isolation quite seriously. 

Regarding integration of the elderly into society and the power of multigenerational-connectedness, I'm reminded of this case study from Robert Putnam and Lewis Feldstein's Better Together. Putnam and Feldstein, as I recalled in an article for National Review:

...tell the story of Experience Corps, a program launched in 1996 that fostered intergenerational connection by bringing elderly volunteers to elementary schools to tutor reading and math. This experimental program was, in so many ways, a win-win: Students, who often felt insignificant or even dumb, learned that “they themselves are worth paying attention to,” and the elderly, retired and feeling as though they no longer served a purpose in society, proved that they still had so much to offer, in the forms of wisdom, guidance, and community.

These are the kinds of initiatives that we ought to be advocating for.  

And, between Interior Secretary Doug Burgum (Confirmed January 30), who has been an outspoken advocate for walkable cities, wherein humans are prioritized over cars; HHS Secretary RFK JR. (Confirmed February 13), who would, if the SENIOR Act were to pass, have to release a report on the impact of loneliness on the elderly; and Dr. Janette Nesheiwat (Not yet confirmed as Surgeon General), who, in an article about her experience treating patients during the pandemic, wrote, "Avoiding family, friends and loved ones was probably one of the most negligent measures forced upon Americans," a powerful team ready to promote social connection appears to be taking shape.

Fingers crossed... 

Trump's Surgeon General Must Continue the Fight Against Loneliness

 

By Frank Filocomo

The office of the U.S. Surgeon General is now vacant. 

Dr. Vivek Murthy - who served under Presidents Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and Joe Biden - has left his post as Surgeon General. 

His time there, however, has been hugely consequential. 

Murthy's leadership and passion for the job will be hard to match. 

Through his and his team's research - especially the now famous 2023 report declaring a national loneliness epidemic - Murthy has reminded the American people of the importance of social connection.

Many of you will remember this line from the aforementioned report: "The mortality impact of being socially disconnected is similar to that caused by smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day..." To my surprise, even lay people, who are largely disconnected from politics, recall something about this.

This report unleashed an avalanche of articles on the subject of loneliness and social isolation. While I started writing about communitarianism and civil society in 2022, Murthy's report the following year spurred me into action; I became almost obsessive about the problem, consuming as much literature about the harrowing effects of loneliness on individuals and communities as I could.

With Murthy now gone, it is imperative that his successor continues to sound the alarms on the loneliness epidemic.  

Last year, then President-elect Trump nominated Dr. Janette Nesheiwat, a Fox News contributor and medical director at CityMD, to serve as the new U.S. Surgeon General. 

Dr. Janette Nesheiwat

I don't know much about Nesheiwat, but after conducting some light research, I am somewhat encouraged. It appears that she was rather outspoken about the adverse effects of lockdowns during the Covid-19 pandemic. It looks, too, as though she has been focused on the nation's mental health epidemic. 

Here is Dr. Marc Seigel discussing Nesheiwat's nomination on Laura Ingraham's show in November of last year. 

One thing that they both said about Nesheiwat is that she, like Murthy, has the unique ability to communicate complex problems in layman's terms. "She truly is an amazing communicator," Ingraham remarked, "making complex issues understandable without sounding like she's lecturing us."

Nesheiwat must continue in Murthy's footsteps and champion the cause of social connection. 

Before I sign off, I highly recommend reading Murthy's reflection on his time as Surgeon General, My Parting Prescription for America, here.