So this little journal entry is on that topic in relation to the corona virus pandemic.
Selected to be on the literary website Passager this week:
Dotty LeMieux, Marin County, California
I’m a lawyer and a political consultant and am sheltering in my office
Journal entry May 10
Why is it the old people who are expendable?
Lived long enough Grandpa, time to die. Or just go play golf. Grandma, go play canasta with all the other old biddies. You ruined our planet now get off it. When the ethicists decide who’s to live and who’s to die, they don’t look at accumulated wisdom, years of service, present abilities to work, they look at who has the most (actuarial) years to live. That guy in the MAGA hat or that old lady whose roots have grown out? And the Lt. Governor of Texas says “There are more important things than living.” This is what happens when we treat older people like dependents, call us “seniors” like we’re in high school, only with no graduation but death. Whatever happened to “60 is the new 40?”
And shopping for food. You get to go early with all the other Seniors.
Gee thanks, but no, I’m not trundling off to the market at 6 AM to hang with a bunch of other old people who, as everybody knows, are the most vulnerable. Why do you think it sweeps through nursing homes? I’ll wait until the young and fit go shopping. Protect myself among them. So think about what this really is. Ageism. It’s the one ism facing each and every one of us.
Journal entry May 10
Why is it the old people who are expendable?
Lived long enough Grandpa, time to die. Or just go play golf. Grandma, go play canasta with all the other old biddies. You ruined our planet now get off it. When the ethicists decide who’s to live and who’s to die, they don’t look at accumulated wisdom, years of service, present abilities to work, they look at who has the most (actuarial) years to live. That guy in the MAGA hat or that old lady whose roots have grown out? And the Lt. Governor of Texas says “There are more important things than living.” This is what happens when we treat older people like dependents, call us “seniors” like we’re in high school, only with no graduation but death. Whatever happened to “60 is the new 40?”
And shopping for food. You get to go early with all the other Seniors.
Gee thanks, but no, I’m not trundling off to the market at 6 AM to hang with a bunch of other old people who, as everybody knows, are the most vulnerable. Why do you think it sweeps through nursing homes? I’ll wait until the young and fit go shopping. Protect myself among them. So think about what this really is. Ageism. It’s the one ism facing each and every one of us.
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