John White hosted the Zoom portion of the November 10, 2021 meeting with great success. All on the meeting hope to see him in the role again.  We welcomed the news that Joe and Beth Fitzsimmons have returned for the Winter. Football was, of course, a popular topic. John closed the Zoom portion and President Susan, in the Anderson Room, rang the bell at 12:30. Tom Strode played The Star Spangled Banner.

Ebru Misirli Mansfield quoted Turkish poet Yunus Emre, who was writing in the 1200’s. The most important concept in his philosophy is the love of humanity. He was open to all. Many faiths as well as nonbelievers were welcomed, in the 1200’s.  His message was not intended to be religious. In fact, the leaders of organized religions saw him as their enemy. He used the word of love towards a friend, towards nature, towards a creator or passionate love interchangeably. In today’s world of hate and divisiveness, we need more of his thoughts. The poem Ebru read is at the bottom of this summary.

Each of the Armed Services was honored with their song, performed by Rotarians Joe Dietrich (Air Force), Deanna Relyea (Army), Kathy Waugh (Coast Guard) Steve Pierce (Marines) and Richard Ingram (Navy) Then each of our Veterans was named as their pictures flashed across the screens.

Norma Sarkar welcomed the eight new members and two transfers who were invited by the Board to join us. President Susan announced the Veterans Day celebration hosted by Fisher House Michigan this evening at Hill Auditorium.  She also announced that volunteers are needed for the HireMI Vet event on Saturday, November 13 at Concordia College.

Notes from the Program

Don Deatrick introduced our speaker, Dr. Virginia Creasman, Medical Director of the VA Ann Arbor Health System. In a rapid fire and very thorough talk Director Creasman told us of the expansion of our VA beyond just a hospital and colocated clinics.  The VA System serves 70,000 veterans a year, one third from outside of their catchment area. There are currently 20 million veterans; the number will reduce to 13 million by 2050 absent more wars.

Furthering the goal of bringing services closer to home, the System has seven offsite locations that offer special services and some community living centers, and offers virtual consultations. There are 29 outpatient clinics scattered throughout the catchment. The System takes a Whole Health Approach, and includes social programming and wrap around services,  addressing homelessness, caregiver support,  suicide prevention, justice outreach, transportation services, and food insecurity. Women veterans are the fastest growing segment of the VA clientele and there are services devoted especially to their needs.

The VA System was able to quickly respond to the covid crisis because they had staffed up before the crisis hit. As a result, they were able to offer vaccinations and other covid services to veterans who are not their patients. This is part of their outreach to the wider community.

The future VA System envisions modernizing the electronic medical health records so all the VAs in lower Michigan are working on one system. They System is working towards referral coordination with out side medical providers and support services aiming to bring services closer to veterans’ homes.

President Susan closed the meeting with this quote from Henry David Thoreau,  “The question is not what you look at, but what you see.”

Ebru Misrili Mansfield’t Inspiration is below:

For a minute, I would like to take you back to 800 years ago (to 1200) and introduce you to a humanist, philosopher, and mystic poet, named Yunus Emre who lived in Asia Minor, Anatolia or today’s Turkey!

The most important concept in Yunus Emre’s philosophy is the love of humanity. His writing style was very lean and is still clear in today’s Turkish.