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The McMinn Senior Activity Center invites the community to attend a free estate planning workshop on Tuesday, January 7th, at 12:00 PM. Led by attorney Sarah Beth Locke, the session will provide valuable insights into wills, estate planning, health care documents, and asset protection. The event will take place at the Center, located at 205 McMinn Avenue in Athens. This workshop, part of the Center’s “Orientation to Aging” series, is designed to help individuals navigate key aspects of aging successfully.

Topics will include: • Ensuring loved ones are cared for according to your wishes. • Protecting assets from government claims, creditors, and scams. • Understanding the importance of passing on your legacy beyond financial wealth. “The McMinn Senior Activity Center is redefining what it means to get older. People may be surprised to learn that the joining age for the Activity Center starts at 50 and the Center is a great place to find the resources to age successfully,” said Diane Hutsell, the Center’s Executive Director.

The McMinn Senior Activity Center, open to those aged 50 and up, offers a wide range of programs to support successful aging. In 2025, the Center will host additional free workshops on Medicare, financial security, and more. Members can also explore new hobbies through art classes, chair yoga, gardening clubs, and travel opportunities, including trips to Ireland and the Grand Canyon. Pre-registration for the workshop is encouraged, and donations to support the Center’s mission are appreciated but not required. For more information or to register, call 423-745-6830 or visit the Center Monday through Friday from 8 AM to 4 PM.

The McMinn County Historical Society will meet Sunday, January 5th at 2 p.m. in the Courthouse Blue Room. The presentation will be by Frances Witt-McMahan about Growing Up in St. Mark AME Church.

Indivisible:

“Constituent power” in an imperiled democracy. Why is a road paved or an education bill blocked or a state of emergency declared? Who gives electeds the right to do that? We do -- it’s our power that we lend them for a time. Then we reclaim that power and consider who to give it to next -- we call that an election. In between elections, we make the threat of retracting or the promise of reinvesting that power -- we call that accountability. We organize to help them achieve our goals, or we organize to be an enormous pain in their ass if we don’t like what they’re doing. Taken together, and you have what we call “constituent power.” 

We all know this is not a well-functioning representative democracy for us constituents. An election-denying convicted felon who launched a bloody insurrection just escaped all legal consequences and retook the presidency. Many electeds simply will not give a damn about your constituent power over the next two years -- they’re too safe in their gerrymandered districts and too aligned with MAGA. On top of this, Trump is promising to use vast powers to limit our ability to fight back.

Against all this, it’s tempting to conclude: game over, we lost.

But here’s the first rule of fighting fascists: don’t give up your power, and don’t give them power they don’t have. The mechanisms of our elections and responsiveness to our advocacy have weakened since Trump first won office. But they still exist. We have the choice of giving our constituent power away or using it in defense of families, communities, and democracy. We choose to use it.

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