John Gomperts, head of Experience Corps, posted this on SharingWitness.org, Billy Shore's good new blog:
With the midterm elections just weeks away, get ready to hear a lot about "protecting our senior citizens." Year after year, it seems politicians only know how to talk about older adults (almost always referred to as "our senior citizens") as if they were delicate pieces of china. We owe older adults health and income security, of course. And it’s clearly worth debating how best to achieve it.
But "protecting" is hardly the entire story about the aging of America. Most people over 60 are neither frail nor elderly, most are interested in many issues beyond their own well being, and most contribute to society in ways both big and small.
All the political talk about "protecting our senior citizens" is even stranger given how many of our political leaders are themselves over 60 and showing no signs of leaving office. Those who do "retire" often do their best work after they've left elected office. For some great examples, politicians need look no further than our recent past Presidents, whose efforts are chronicled in Second Acts, a new book by Peter Updegrove.
Jimmy Carter set a high bar. When you’re building houses and observing international elections, I’d say you don’t need much "protecting." And earlier this month, Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton jointly received the Liberty Award for their work on disaster response after the tsunami in Asia and hurricanes that devastated the Gulf Coast.
Carter, Bush, and Clinton are changing the way we think and talk about older adults, as are the thousands of people engaged in their communities through programs like Experience Corps. Now, if only our political leaders would catch on…
--John Gomperts
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