March 2012 Howard County Beacon Edition

The Howard County

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VOL.2, NO.3

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Recently, Governor O’Malley appointed McPherson to a four-year term serving on the Maryland Commission on Aging. “I’m interested in services for the aging because I’m one of them,” he said. He sees “aging in place” — allowing older adults to remain in their own homes and receive needed services in their community rather than having to move to retirement communities or nursing homes — as a growing and crucial issue. One concern is that the current recession and growing federal budget deficits will lead to reduced federal and state funding for senior programs, said McPherson. “The big fight by advocacy groups is to provide more home services to the elderly, not to have them reduced,” he said. “Although Howard County is considered

MARCH 2012

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A commitment to aging issues

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Proud to be a political activist By Robert Friedman Michael McPherson’s devotion to Democratic politics began with his first job — at the age of 6 — in his home town of St. Louis. “My family’s next door neighbor was the Democratic ward committeeman, and he was arranging for a meeting in his back yard,” McPherson recalled. “He was paying kids 10 cents to distribute hand bills about the meeting. In 1937, for a kid, 10 cents was a lot of money.” But while it may have all started for pay, McPherson has maintained his allegiance to political activism throughout his life as a volunteer. He has worked on numerous presidential campaigns, even earning the dubious distinction of being placed on Richard Nixon’s “enemies list” after campaigning for the McGovern-Shriver ticket. And today, at 80 (though he looks much younger), McPherson heads the Howard County Democratic Party, putting in about 30 hours a week “just for the love of politics,” he said. In addition to his party work, McPherson has chaired the Howard Cable Advisory Committee for the last four years, and has spent the last 10 years as a member of Maryland’s Advisory Council on Prevailing Wage Rates, which mediates the rate of compensation for workers on state construction projects.

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Michael McPherson heads Howard County’s Democratic Party and serves on the Maryland Commission on Aging, among numerous other public service volunteer positions. The Columbia resident’s career also included jobs as a legislative political director with the AFL-CIO and assistant executive director for the national U.S. Conference of Mayors.

wealthy, we have a lot of lower-income seniors who could be affected” by funding reductions. His goal on the aging commission, he said, is “to allow seniors to continue living with the quality of life similar to what they had during their working days, while not having to worry about the basic essentials.” With all these commitments — all done on a volunteer basis — what does McPherson do in his spare time? “I don’t have any!” he said, without rancor. “I’ve had a good life, I’m in good health, and this is my way of giving back.” Ask him about retirement, and he doesn’t hold back. “Keeping active and making a

contribution help me live longer,” McPherson said. “Mandatory retirement is mandatory senility. If I want to work, let me work.”

A life in politics McPherson started his career in government in the mid-1950s at the National Geospacial Intelligence Agency, where he worked as a photo analyst and cartographer in the agency’s St. Louis office. “We dealt with images, analyzed them, and sent the interpretations to the White House.” he said. Overseas photos taken by America’s U-2 spy planes were involved. See ACTIVIST, page 28

ARTS & STYLE

Toby’s Dinner Theatre’s sparkling production of The King and I will have you whistling a happy tune or three page 27

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