Earlier this month, The New York Times printed a warning about me in its Sunday issue.
The editorial board for the “Gray Lady” (given that nickname long ago for its bland typography and matter-of-fact reporting) warned the nation I am old and getting older every day, along with all my friends down at the senior center. And they went so far as to list the reasons my aging is a big problem for everyone else.
With a tone that approached panic, the whippersnappers on the editorial “think tank” accused me of being unemployed and highly unlikely to assist in the production of children to fill future job openings. They said I am overburdening the health care system and will cause school closures.
They pointed out my Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and prescription drug benefits will drain the federal treasury while I am out playing pickleball or sitting in my lift chair watching “Jeopardy!” and eating Little Debbie snack cakes.
They blamed me for creating a crisis by living longer than old people did in the past. They warn that my friends and I are dying at a faster rate than our children, grandchildren and great grandchildren can produce babies to eventually pay the bills; and 10,000 more Baby Boomers turn 65 every day.
Well, pardon me. Just shoot me.
Did I tell my parents’ generation to climb out of the Great Depression and the Second World War by breeding excessively?
Did I tell President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the U.S. Congress to create Social Security in 1935 as an alternative to old folks living on the street with no food?
Did I tell President Lyndon Johnson and the U.S. Congress to create Medicare and Medicaid in 1965 to help keep me alive longer?
Did I tell President George W. Bush to sign the Medicare Part D prescription drug plan into law in 2003 to help me buy my medicine?
No, I did not. I am a victim of hate mongering by the Gray Lady. We need a national movement to stop this abuse.
If state legislatures and school boards can pass laws to keep any mention of slavery out of school books and classroom discussions, why can’t The New York Times be kept from blaming me for the high cost of me growing older?
I know, I know. We can’t go about making white children feel guilty about racism or how their ancestors may have gotten a slight leg up from preferential treatment. Children are fragile and we should not upset them with historic truth. They didn’t personally enslave anyone.
In the same way, I am not responsible for what may have been a bit too much reproduction when the soldiers returned from the battlefields of the Second World War and began filling picket-fenced cottages in the suburbs with kids.
Why should I be made to feel guilty about or responsible to try to solve aging-population problems of the 21st Century? Did I tell Mom and Dad to take that weekend trip to French Lick?
I realize stopping the Gray Lady from blaming me for being born is a strain on the First Amendment, but it needs to be done.
Our nation should not allow prejudice to fester and my generation to be blamed for what might have been the mistakes of our ancestors. I personally had no part in producing babies before 1970.
Bud Herron is the retired former editor and publisher of the Daily Journal in Franklin. Contact him at [email protected].
