What changes inside when the hair goes gray on the outside?
I can’t think of a thing. And yet this morning the BBC headlined a story, “Gray Power, will aging America vote McCain or Obama?”
I think it is a fantasy that aging people suddenly become conservative, or careful or stupid or silly or racist. I think we are just as we were, only perhaps more experienced and well-read, if we lived right.
As a matter of fact, I am getting a little steamed at the idea that anyone thinks my age might change my intellectual capacity or my character. I feel like what I always was only more so. Certainly the vote I cast is based on the same foundations and beliefs as always.
Tell me, young or old, what do you think? Is there a gray power vote?
October 18th, 2008 in
Uncategorized
Graying shows mellowing
Believing nothing you read
Hearing no political promise
Trusting yourself
@missjoe:
I do trust myself, jo, but someone might have a good new idea, too. I have picked quite a lot of them over time.
Judith, well said. I, too, have been bothered by this assumptiong that we old folks are doddering conservatives firmly in the McCain camp. Weren’t we the ones who protested Vietnam, originated the peace movement, marched for civil rights, began to chance conscience of the country? I think so. Then why now are we unthinking, uncommitted, self-motivated people who resist change and can’t see that change is needed?
Clearly, you hit a nerve here.
@Jane:
Actually, I recall marching through the streets with a placard many times. While I think we are the thin edge of a people spoiled by too much of everything including expectations, I also think we paid our civic dues. When people around me complain of this or that social stricture or governmental wrong move, I ask why aren’t you in the piazza about this? Shrug…
The ‘greys’ in this house are voting for Obama. Also, the not so grey kids are or have voted for Obama. Losing color in your hair doesn’t mean that you lose your power to make the right choice for the US and the World!
@Gil:
Besides that I have met and talked with McCain, found him scary and would never vote for him because of the many things that are being published only now, 20-odd years later, I have another agenda. I have suffered from this Republican government in ways I didn’t think were possible. I could not vote red for anything right now. If I, who live simply and thoughtfully and fiscally conservatively am suffering, imagine what life must be like for the person who is now 30 alone and with a kid or two.
I hope I never become one who feels, “I’ve got mine, so you don’t matter to me.”
In Italy it\’s a question of generations. The way you have lived influences what you think and do when you are greys. I agree with Gill:Losing color in your hair doesn’t mean that you lose your power to make the right choice for the US and the World!
People who do wrong when young often go on making mistakes. I’m for the right wing party but in the Us I would vote for Obama. It’s mind flexibility and objectivity. I’m more towards greys than young.
A friend says, “People don’t change as they get older, they only become more so.” I like that. Seems to be true in our house!