Agism: The Gray Pnthers and Accomplishments in Old Age

Although I almost never engage in the public debates on the internet, recently I read a short psot about Nancy Pelosi being too old to be in Congress. It is going right along with the Republican campaign against Joe Biden because of his age. Although it is true that we all age and with age comes a variety of deteriorations: some of us (like me) have eyesight deterioration, hearing loss, sometime we have back problems and joint problems from arthritis, and some of us experience dementia, it could also be said that there are a host of problems with younger people and with people at all ages! A provable fact is that different people age in different ways and there are also many attributes that we acquire from the experience of living for a long time. We gain maturity, and from experince comes skill in every area of human endeavor. When I replied to the attack on Nancy Pelosi by recounting her many areas of success as House Speaker, her skill in unifying people (a master skill for her) and her skill in framing the goals of her party to show others the benefits to them and to the country, her political savvy in holding her place in the savage and expensive world of politics, she is a marvel. Age is no detraction for her. But when I posted a shorter version of that observation, I received a few insulting and ignorant responses mostly calling me names like idiot and stupid. In fact I am voth intelligent and well educated but their responses said more about them than about me.

But this made me think about the Gray Panther Party and Maggie Kuhn and how the social awareness that group promoted has fallen away over time. They organized in 1970 after founder, Maggie Kuhn was forced into retirement at age 65. Now, we have a president in his 70's and Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House in her 80's and there is so much complaining about the ages of these two stellar politicians. Both have demonstrated their competence and reliability, mental balance and talent, and there is no way that their ages have detracted from their performance in their work.

I just checked and The Gray Panthers are still active although not much in the news in recent decades. I feel as though we need them now more than ever!

Personally, I must admit that I do feel my age, and I really felt I had to retire to save my life as I had developed high blood pressure and I felt I was always on the cusp of a stroke when things got too adrenalin fueled in the classroom. Also, in my mid 50's, I had gone through my mother's death from stroke, and I had developed chest pains on the many trips back and forth to West Virginia to visit in her last 50 years of life.

Well, I am going to look up the Gray Panthers and see if I can join because I think we need them now more than ever! Happy Trails - Jo Ann I almost forgot to mention, you can look up accomplishments after 80 and find a whole bunch of web sites with lists of people who broke records, made discoveries, climbed Mt. Everest and did all kinds of amazing things in their last decades. I would have listed them here but there were too many! I might add there were a great many accomplishements and successes of Centenarians as well!