April 22, 2020
The Long Haul
Day 34
Old lives matter!
This blog post is about, well, this blog. Why I write it, why it is so often dark and why I am very careful not to mince words.
Some background!
Before the coronavirus turned the world upside down, I had decided to write a column about aging and the confusing, often mind-numbing, day-to-day decisions older Americans face in retirement.
I planned to focus on practical issues and offer pragmatic solutions. For example, seniors are easy pickings, prey really, for sharp-tongued, fast-talking salespeople flogging the latest, better-buy-it-today cell phone plans or Medicare supplement.
If you doubt me, consider this:
Late September, I sat in a storefront trying to buy an iPhone 10 for my wife, the day before the iPhone 11 was released. As I waited for my wife’s new phone to be cloned, I heard the following conversation at the next table. It is reconstructed here:
70-plus-woman - “My son told me to buy an iPhone 10.”
Salesman - “The 11 is so much better, faster, better storage, a really great camera. You can order it today and we’ll have it all ready for you in the morning. It is a much better deal.”
Woman - “He said I should get a 10, it is cheaper and all I need.”
Salesman - “But the 11 is so much better, and .. let me look at your plan, there may be a way to design a new plan, a better deal that means you pay almost nothing for the new phone.”
Right there at the mention of “plan” and “deal” she was lost, her son’s sound, solid counsel abandoned. Easy pickings and not a one off! It happens to seniors everyday.
The coronavirus intervened and changed the world. The column became a blog, about family, the disease and related issues as they evolve. As the disease rages and the debate evolves, I feel there is a greater need than ever to write bluntly and pragmatically about the risks and challenges seniors face in the weeks, months and years ahead.
Blunt is an important concept. For example, I will never write “die” if the proper verb is “kill.” Consider this from this morning’s New York Times:
The GOP-controlled Wisconsin legislature refused to postpone the election or expand voting by mail, instead ordering the state’s primary be held April 7th. Lawmakers rejected arguments that it would not be safe to congregate at the polls. Two weeks later we have learned that seven voters and one poll worker in Milwaukee contracted the coronavirus at the polls on election day. If they die, I will write that Wisconsin legislators killed them.
Did the Republicans in charge of the legislature in Madison consider whose lives they were risking when they demanded, what was essentially a Democratic primary, be held in dangerous conditions?
They made a partisan decision that put, old people, seniors, grandmothers and grandfathers at risk.
If you doubt me, next time you vote look carefully at the poll workers, managing checklists and guiding you to the ballot box. Poll workers all have grey hair. Look around you at the other people in line, they are all old too. Older Americans vote. Younger Americans do not.
The LIBERATE protesters presumably have grandparents, older friends that they care about. No one was supposed to be protesting in large groups the day they swarmed statehouses across the country. But thoughtless thousands ignored stay-at-home orders, and marched shoulder-to-shoulder to demand their rights. They do not have the right to kill anyone. If anyone dies because of their foolishness, they should be charged with a crime. If you have HIV, it is a crime to knowingly spread the disease. The LIBERATE knuckleheads should be held to the same standard.
I have another big problem with the Covid-19 lexicon, specifically the term “vulnerable populations.” What a dehumanizing term! It is meant to capture more than just seniors but it is a classification that has evolved to mean just that: old people. For the record, some old people are vulnerable. Some are not. Some young people are vulnerable, some are not. Let avoid silly, meaningless niceties in our choice of words ‘and opt instead for respect, clarity and truth.
Some among my “legions” of readers have urged me to lighten up. I hear them but I see my blog as stark as opposed to dark. The future is not bright at the moment. When it is, I will brighten up. I promise. For now, dear readers expect more of the same.
This brings me back to the beginning:
“Grey lives matter.“
I start everyday looking at the grim overnight Covid-19 statistics. And as the death toll rises I try to get my head beyond the numbers. Every senior killed by the coronavirus had a life and was a rock star to someone, somewhere at some time. Going forward seniors should be respected and protected and the dead remembered and honored, especially by those pressing foolishly to get on with their own lives before it is safe for all.
In my ideal world, everyone would look beyond the grey hair.
My retired 70-something-friend Nancy here in Vermont, a former journalist who wised up and became a teacher, made this point beautifully with this online post recently.
“Your grandma wore:“
“Mini skirts, hot pants, go-go-boots, bell-bottoms and no bra.”
“She listened to Led Zeppelin, the Beatles, Hendrix, Janis Joplin and the Rolling Stones.”
“She smoked slim cigarettes, rode on fast motor bikes and scooters.”
“Drank gin and tonics and tequila shots.”
“Came home at 4 am and still went to work in the morning.”
“So you will never be as cool as grandma.”
Be safe!
The Long Haul
Day 34
Old lives matter!
This blog post is about, well, this blog. Why I write it, why it is so often dark and why I am very careful not to mince words.
Some background!
Before the coronavirus turned the world upside down, I had decided to write a column about aging and the confusing, often mind-numbing, day-to-day decisions older Americans face in retirement.
I planned to focus on practical issues and offer pragmatic solutions. For example, seniors are easy pickings, prey really, for sharp-tongued, fast-talking salespeople flogging the latest, better-buy-it-today cell phone plans or Medicare supplement.
If you doubt me, consider this:
Late September, I sat in a storefront trying to buy an iPhone 10 for my wife, the day before the iPhone 11 was released. As I waited for my wife’s new phone to be cloned, I heard the following conversation at the next table. It is reconstructed here:
70-plus-woman - “My son told me to buy an iPhone 10.”
Salesman - “The 11 is so much better, faster, better storage, a really great camera. You can order it today and we’ll have it all ready for you in the morning. It is a much better deal.”
Woman - “He said I should get a 10, it is cheaper and all I need.”
Salesman - “But the 11 is so much better, and .. let me look at your plan, there may be a way to design a new plan, a better deal that means you pay almost nothing for the new phone.”
Right there at the mention of “plan” and “deal” she was lost, her son’s sound, solid counsel abandoned. Easy pickings and not a one off! It happens to seniors everyday.
The coronavirus intervened and changed the world. The column became a blog, about family, the disease and related issues as they evolve. As the disease rages and the debate evolves, I feel there is a greater need than ever to write bluntly and pragmatically about the risks and challenges seniors face in the weeks, months and years ahead.
Blunt is an important concept. For example, I will never write “die” if the proper verb is “kill.” Consider this from this morning’s New York Times:
The GOP-controlled Wisconsin legislature refused to postpone the election or expand voting by mail, instead ordering the state’s primary be held April 7th. Lawmakers rejected arguments that it would not be safe to congregate at the polls. Two weeks later we have learned that seven voters and one poll worker in Milwaukee contracted the coronavirus at the polls on election day. If they die, I will write that Wisconsin legislators killed them.
Did the Republicans in charge of the legislature in Madison consider whose lives they were risking when they demanded, what was essentially a Democratic primary, be held in dangerous conditions?
They made a partisan decision that put, old people, seniors, grandmothers and grandfathers at risk.
If you doubt me, next time you vote look carefully at the poll workers, managing checklists and guiding you to the ballot box. Poll workers all have grey hair. Look around you at the other people in line, they are all old too. Older Americans vote. Younger Americans do not.
The LIBERATE protesters presumably have grandparents, older friends that they care about. No one was supposed to be protesting in large groups the day they swarmed statehouses across the country. But thoughtless thousands ignored stay-at-home orders, and marched shoulder-to-shoulder to demand their rights. They do not have the right to kill anyone. If anyone dies because of their foolishness, they should be charged with a crime. If you have HIV, it is a crime to knowingly spread the disease. The LIBERATE knuckleheads should be held to the same standard.
I have another big problem with the Covid-19 lexicon, specifically the term “vulnerable populations.” What a dehumanizing term! It is meant to capture more than just seniors but it is a classification that has evolved to mean just that: old people. For the record, some old people are vulnerable. Some are not. Some young people are vulnerable, some are not. Let avoid silly, meaningless niceties in our choice of words ‘and opt instead for respect, clarity and truth.
Some among my “legions” of readers have urged me to lighten up. I hear them but I see my blog as stark as opposed to dark. The future is not bright at the moment. When it is, I will brighten up. I promise. For now, dear readers expect more of the same.
This brings me back to the beginning:
“Grey lives matter.“
I start everyday looking at the grim overnight Covid-19 statistics. And as the death toll rises I try to get my head beyond the numbers. Every senior killed by the coronavirus had a life and was a rock star to someone, somewhere at some time. Going forward seniors should be respected and protected and the dead remembered and honored, especially by those pressing foolishly to get on with their own lives before it is safe for all.
In my ideal world, everyone would look beyond the grey hair.
My retired 70-something-friend Nancy here in Vermont, a former journalist who wised up and became a teacher, made this point beautifully with this online post recently.
“Your grandma wore:“
“Mini skirts, hot pants, go-go-boots, bell-bottoms and no bra.”
“She listened to Led Zeppelin, the Beatles, Hendrix, Janis Joplin and the Rolling Stones.”
“She smoked slim cigarettes, rode on fast motor bikes and scooters.”
“Drank gin and tonics and tequila shots.”
“Came home at 4 am and still went to work in the morning.”
“So you will never be as cool as grandma.”
Be safe!
Keep on blogging, great read and reality is reality in the senior world!
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