Stereotypes not kind to my generation

Recently I admonished some of my senior citizen peers for emailing me stereotype cartoons and jokes concerning our generation. While sending me depictions and jokes concerning the hard-of-hearing, loss of memory, flaccid sex lives, balding men, rocking chair grannies, retirement Eden’s, et al, they failed to consider that they are contributing to validating such unwarranted stereotypes. Comedians are having a field day with John McCain’s so-called senior moments. McCain, who will be 72 in August, added fuel to the fire by appearing in several anti-aging skits on Saturday Night Live. While nothing is off-limits to the writers of SNL, I found such skits lacking in humor.

The darker side of the ledger always appears to have more impact than the positive side.

All teenagers are not foolish hotfooted drivers. All people of Irish descent are not heavy imbibers of alcohol. Our Native Americans were never savages. The generalization list is endless. The brighter side of the ledger involving our eldest citizens is out there i

n multiple rays of brilliance. Like the 22nd Annual Golden Agers Games next month being sponsored by a VA medical center in Indianapolis. Military veterans, from ages 55 to 92, will compete in fourteen sporting events. Have you ever admired the works of Anna Mary Robertson Moses who began painting in her seventies. After art directors discovered her work, including  Hallmark Cards, her famed spread worldwide. You may know her as “Grandma Moses.” Add George Herbert Walker Bush, our 41st president to the bright side. He celebrated his 75th and 80th birthdays by parachuting out of an airplane.

Famous explorer and ecologist Jacques-Yves Cousteau, at age 66 discovered the wreck of HMS Britanic and continued diving well into  his seventies. Voters 65 and older are the most reliable age group for voting and grandparents today, according to grannyvoter.org website, number 70 million and they spend more than $30 billion a year on their grand kids.

As for sex activity Swedish researchers in Gothenburg, Sweden report that satisfying sex lives among people aged 70 and older are now more common. As for you young  stereotyping your elders, one day you will look in the mirror and be in awe that senescence for you has begun and there is no escape.

It is good, and healthy, to laugh at oneself but not when it is degrading and cruel.     

I give you President John Adams’ toast: Independence forever.