As the debate rages over when or how to resume public life, The Los Angeles Times reports that older adults have increasingly seen behavior and rhetoric that implies their lives are not as valuable as reviving the economy. They feel they are experiencing ageism. But what comes to my mind is a scene I saw a few years back. I regularly visited a friend in a large gated retirement community that was a top of the line facility with a chapel, a pool, four dining rooms, a pharmacy, a bank, and numerous craft and activity centers. It was set in wooded surroundings with wide carpeted halls and apartments that included crown molding and hardwood floors.
One day I visited my friend at rush hour. As I turned off the main highway onto the winding road that led to the entrance of the community, I was greeted by a large crowd of seniors all waving signs at the passing motorists who for the most part were heading home from work. The signs were all slogans against the pending Affordable Care Act. I am not up for a discussion of health care here, just an observation on age groups perceptions of each other.
The group of seniors waving signs all had health coverage from Medicare and many of them had coverage from the jobs from which they were retired. They all had money in the bank or they could not have gone into a facility where the monthly charges began at $2,000 per month per person in addition to a hefty apartment purchase price. Those at whom the signs were being waved were still in the working world, and I wondered how many of them had the comprehensive medical insurance, or indeed any coverage, that the sign wavers had. These drivers wending their way through rush hour traffic were no longer part of the defined pension generation, and were still hard at work providing for families in a more expensive world where real spending power had not risen in years. In this instance I found these particular seniors looked very self-centered and uncaring about the younger generation.
So I am not sure about this complaint of ageism. Perhaps some seniors feel they are facing discrimination based on their time in life. But then, have they never made a comment about the failings of the younger generation, or bemoaned what they see as the lost values of a time gone by? Perhaps what we need to do most is to step out of the boxes into which society has placed us, and look around at what others may be facing. Empathy heals many wounds.