Seniors, it's not about you

By Robert Lipsyte

I am hereby quitting my political party, the Old Party.

Now that's not the Grand Old Party, because the major divide in this country is not between Republicans and Democrats, between the rich and the poor or even, as Jon Stewart told Rachel Maddow recently, between the corrupt and the honest. It's between self-centered, shortsighted people over 65 and their children and grandchildren.

Count me out of the Geezer Greedheads, who guzzle a huge amount of taxpayers' money and don't want to share it. I want to be part of the future of America even if the price is losing a small percentage of the perks I've paid for during a lifetime of work (Social Security, Medicare, etc.). I don't want to deprive anyone else of this country's promise of equality and fair play.

I just don't understand how people of supposed experience and wisdom (the upsides of going downhill) can vote against the country's interests, and very often their own. Are they stupid, mean-spirited, confused?

The best example is the senior response to the Affordable Care Act — President Obama's health care initiative. A Kaiser Family Foundation poll found that people 65 and older were the leading opponents of health care reform. Did they all lose their glasses? Couldn't they see that, among other improvements, it closed the " doughnut hole" of drug self-payments, a particular boon to older Americans who consume pills by the mouthful?What they did see, unfortunately, was that other people — younger people — might be getting some of the same benefits they were getting. And somehow they believed those cynical politicians, mostly Republicans, who preyed on their elderly fears that more for others would deepen the deficit and cut their government support.

I'd be more sympathetic to that arguably irrational view if the codgers hadn't voted for pols who will allow war costs to run rampant and tax welfare for the rich to continue.

'Self-absorbed barbarians'

Even AARP, an organization to which I belong but do not fully trust (it seems too much like an insurance company), told its 40 million members that health care for all was a good thing. Nevertheless, 60,000 people have reportedly quit AARP,and millions more have voted for politicians who vowed to gut the reform.

Conventional punditry has the Boomers, who are about to start turning 65, as the self-absorbed barbarians poised to overload our system with their whining sense of entitlement. And behind them is the Social Network generation, which has been accused of lacking empathy, a result of spending too much time online and too little in face-to-face relationships.

But when it comes to entitlement and lack of empathy, it's going to be hard to beat the survivors of the so-called Greatest Generation (roughly 85 and up) and my own Silent Generation (65 to 85) who I'm embarrassed to admit I dubbed the Classic Generation on this page a few years ago.Some people think the Classics, who came into their own during Ronald Reagan's every-man-for-himself "Morning in America," are more conservative than the Greats, who appreciated government benefits during FDR's New Deal.

Do seniors feel vulnerable in old age, resentful of the energy of the young or just frightened of change? Or is it something darker? In his AOL column on aging, Robert W. Stock reports that researchers at Ghent University in Belgium found that the conservative subjects of a study of 60- to 97-year-olds "measured significantly higher on the self-esteem scale than the more liberal participants" because "belief in the culture and traditions of the society they were part of in years past ... makes older people feel better about themselves — and better able to cope with the negative effects of aging." Reactionary views make geezers feel good. And help them make selfish decisions.

Simple advice: Share.

What about our responsibility to future generations? My role model is an old friend, Oren Lyons, a chief of the Onondaga Nation and a former college professor. At his 80th birthday party several months ago, he reiterated the Iroquois principle that all decisions must be made with the well-being of the next seven generations in mind. And he had one word of advice for us all — "Share."

I found that powerful and inspiring. Thinking about seven generations ahead means making sure there are resources for our great-great-great-great-great grandchildren such as adequate health care, social security, clean air and water, educational opportunities and a justice system that works for everyone. And "share" includes an equable tax structure to fund those programs. These are issues that old people — with a chance to leave the planet better off than they found it — have the time and maturity to address.

Robert Lipsyte, a member of USA TODAY's Board of Contributors, is host of a PBS weekly show on aging, LIFE (Part2).

http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/fo ... 5_ST_N.htm