I am registered with the Seattle Mayor’s Office for Senior Citizens (MOSC). Last week I got a message from one of the job counselor’s I work with at MOSC. He wrote an email stating a Seattle Times reporter was looking for seniors who would tell their story as to why they are still working or are job seeking and what the economic reasons might be. I decided to volunteer and was interviewed on Tuesday of this week. Whether or not what I told the reporter will ever see the light of day and whether I will agree with what he has to write, I have no idea. I simply wanted the people in Seattle who are looking for work and are older to have a voice. I know first hand how many barriers we face to get even a low paying job.
I live in a high-end manufactured home park. My neighbors are working well into their seventies and eighties. A close neighbor was a school teachers for many, many years. She is now working in a local craft store framing pictures. She is on her feet most of the day. At 90, one of my neighbors still drives his RV and enjoys himself, while travelling in it. Almost all of my neighbors are active and healthy. They may have grey hair, but they are not sitting in a rocking chair waiting for death. They are living every moment of the life they have left. However, many of them have to work because of the high rate of lot rent we pay. It is almost double the area rate for this type of park in Washington. They have lost some of the money they invested and no longer are getting yearly cost of living increases in their social security checks. The cost of Medicare Part B has gone up and cuts into their expenses and some have student loans they are still paying. I am one of those people and will never be free of that debt.
Since I have been looking for a second part-time job teaching, I have heard every kind of discriminatory comment you can imagine. I do work part-time at Bellevue College. I had a director who hired me without concern for something as trivial as age (given the cut in state funds to the college, she has since been laid off). Most of the people I encounter say things like this for example, “…you don’t look that old.” I am still trying to figure out where that lack of knowledge about ageism is coming from. I cannot help but wonder what “that old,” really is. The bottom line in any case is, most people do not know what they are saying is ageism or discrimination. I think that is pretty profound. Why don’t they know? Why are Human Resource departments not conducting classes regarding this problem like they have for sex and race discrimination? Very possibly this is not happening because law suits are not being brought to their attention and may not be won even if they were.
I have run across an article called, “Don’t Let Them Know Your Old, ” written by Sally Harris. The article basically asks us why we are trying so hard to stay younger? I scratch my head wondering why society thinks being old is a negative thing. Why are wrinkles, those signs of a lifetime of worry, laughter and loving so despised by the young and all those growing old? Granted I don’t much care for them myself, so I too have not grown past this attitude and ageist thinking. Nor do I think coloring your hair is such a bad idea. On the other hand letting it grow grey is not that unacceptable either. In fact it can be very attractive on most people. I think the thing we may be forgetting is the simple fact that no matter what we do to prevent aging, we are still aging in the end. It doesn’t mean, however, that we are sitting around dying and getting frail so others can take care of us.
Aging in the twenty-first century doesn’t mean we are not going to school and college and learning what our younger counterparts are in those classroom, whether virtual or not. We are going back to get more schooling in increasing numbers. My best friend, since she retired, just earned her bachelors degree after many years of trying to complete it. She did it online, too. So why have the younger generations come to worship at the fountain of youth, while we are sharing classrooms with them? In the article by Sally Harris, she writes that sociology professor Toni Calasanti, a Virgina Tech faulty member, believes academics do not want to think of themselves as growing older. As a result, as our country’s people continue to hit the age of 65 in the millions or 7000 people per day and by the end of 2011–41 million, “…we are facing a battle we are not armed to fight…” she writes. I think it is time we find our voices and sound a wake up call to the world’s people. Something needs to change!
JOYSTECHTOOL 