Age, it really is more than just a Number

04/15/2024

Have you ever overheard two people in a conversation and somehow got drawn into it? Not purposely but more along the lines that you were kind of sharing the same space and curiosity got the best of you. I was in that predicament a few months ago. The two interlocutors? Healthcare providers. The setting was in the nurse's station of an emergency room. The topic of the conversation? I believed to be a male patient. The conversation, I have to admit, took me by surprise. It wasn't that I hadn't heard snarky nurses complain about patients behind their backs before, but this seemed beyond the pale. These two angels of mercy were actually mocking an elderly patient. As they laughed, I heard them saying that the man had no idea where he was or what he was saying. After some more laughter, one mentioned how he was constantly falling down. Another round of laughter. I have to admit, hearing their callousness was starting to irritate me. I gave them a cold stare, but they were too much into their diatribe to even realize I was there. Before I walked away in disgust, I heard the older nurse say, "I liked Trump anyway. I think he did a much better job that this old fart." That's when it hit me, these ladies were talking about President Biden! 

As I walked away from this disturbing display of cruelty, I couldn't help but wonder, what happened to the days of respecting our elders? We used to revere our elderly, held them in the highest regard. After all, they had lived a long life, had witnessed many historical events, had experienced so much. I remember listening to my grandfather telling my siblings and me about how harsh life was in the early 1920s in rural Puerto Rico. I would try to picture him as a young merchant marine or my grandmother as a young bride. My grandparents meant the world to me. They were slow and God knows we had to practically yell at them so they could hear what we were saying but I figured, that's just a part of growing old. You accept it, you don't make fun of it. Now, in this age of AI, deep fakes and memes, anything goes. People will stop at nothing to make someone look horrible. Cruelty is the goal. When you live in a country that's so polarized, so divided and so full of hatred, the gloves are off. When you're living in a country where the two leading contenders for the presidency are elderly gentlemen, then suddenly age becomes the butt of all jokes. And when one party is extra cruel and the incumbent president 81 years old, there's no amount of low they can go.

While Joe Biden is up there in age and has slowed down somewhat, there's been some question regarding his mental acuity. He's suffered with a stutter for most of his life which can be extremely frustrating. I have an elderly mother who stutters. I watch her try to get the words out and see her shake her head in disappointment when she can't. It takes patience, empathy and kindness. While President Biden's stutter is not so pronounced, I think he can hold his own during a press conference or a State of the Union address. He walks slower. So what? He's fallen a few times. I'm decades younger, so have I. What the president does have is a group of aides, assistants, secretaries and speech writers. And what has the president has done for the country? The Pact Act, The Chips and Science Act, the Infrastructure bill, the Inflation Reduction Act, the safer Community Act, capped insulin at $35 for seniors (as well as a list of other medications,) and of course student loan forgiveness - just to name a few.  Not too shabby for an 81-year-old.

But hold on a minute....our contender, Donald Trump is almost 78 years old. Is there as much concern regarding his age? There didn't seem to be. Lately though, one has to wonder if karma hasn't come to pay Donny a visit. The fouled mouthed, narcissist who loves talking trash about Biden has been cognitively glitching during his "Yay me!" rallies. Slurring words, calling Nancy Pelosi, Nikki Haley, saying he's in one city while he's in another, looking more orange than ever and sometimes looking like one of his eyes is swollen. If the media asks him about one of his glitches, he'll say that he did it on purpose. What? And more importantly, why? It doesn't pass the sniff test. As each rally gets more sinister, and his groupies call out his name in reverence, no one seems to care about his malfunctions. And his policies if he were to win the White House again? To be dictator for one day (only one day? Whew, thank God!) lots of tax cuts for his billionaire buddies, terminate the Board of Education, "Drill, baby drill"(even though at the present moment the US is producing more crude oil than ever before) crack down on gender affirming care (because the trans community isn't oppressed enough) and start an enormous deportation operation (it may be time to change my last name.) There's even been talk about sundowning programs like Social Security and Medicare. Nothing says I care for my constituents like these policies. 

So, we go back to the subject of age. Is it that important if the candidates can do their jobs efficiently? Probably not but let's be fair here, why is President Biden the target of all the age jokes and memes and Donald Trump is not?  I mean, a joke here or there is fine. It's ok to have a chuckle or two. But when it comes down to it, we have 2 men over 75 running for president. One has passed some really good policies. The other wants to pass policies that would hurt people. One man is usually positive when interviewed by the press. The other is a whiner with a victim mentality, never taking accountability for his own actions. One man could be your cool grandpa. The other could be the grandpa you'd want to stay away from.  One is really just a nice old man. The other wants to be a dictator. I think the choice is pretty clear.