Did you catch it? Did you happen to read the last line in the article by reporter Greta Jochem in the May 1 issue of the Gazette (“Rally Saturday to back opening”) where she quoted a line from the website of Women For America First, which was partly responsible for organizing a May 2 rally to open America in Northampton?
It read, “However, America cannot destroy the lives and dreams of the majority to protect a few.” The word “few” referred to “the most vulnerable” among us — the elderly.
I have made it a priority to try to keep myself informed during my 75 years on this planet and while doing so have read some very distressing comments about national and global catastrophes. I have noticed some in the Gazette itself. This one rises to be among the top in the list.
I suppose it’s important to know that people like this exist and to hear what they believe in order to truly anticipate and understand what exactly one has to deal with. I guess it’s the responsibility of the Fourth Estate to report it. The above statement rates right up there with some of the most terrifying words I have ever laid my eyes on.
In the May 1 issue of the Los Angeles Times, a headline read, “The pandemic has amplified ageism. It’s open season for discrimination against older adults.”
Older adults account for about 80% of COVID-19 deaths. Is this women’s group ready to throw us all under the bus? If you know your history, during economic crises, groups always look for minorities to scapegoat. Are we taking up too many hospital beds and too much room in intensive care units?
We are all part of some minority. It might do some well to remember the famous line by Martin Niemöller, a German theologian and Lutheran pastor, who said, “Then they came for me — and there was no one left to speak for me.”
Here is the result of a recent study out of Yale University that these brilliant “economists” who marched on Saturday might want to read. Ageism is likely to cost the American health care system $63 billion. That’s a lot of zeroes!
I, and many others, are pleased to see an influx of drive-up testing centers, but where are seniors who no longer drive supposed to go? I’m sure that most of us are aware by now that more than half the deaths from this current scourge appear in elderly living facilities.
Gov. Gavin Newsom of California mandated that younger people should be taken care of before older people. He was forced to withdraw that statement.
This philosophy has been part of the American scene for many years. During “W’s” administration, the Environmental Protection Agency figured out that the life of a person over 70 was worth 67% of a younger person’s life. In 1984, Gov. Richard Lamm of Colorado told the elderly that “you have a duty to die and get out of the way.” He is now 84 years old.
These elderly that you are so ready to throw out of the window today are your grandparents — and will be you someday — if you’re lucky.
Jonathan Kahane lives in Westhampton.