New Seniors

No, it is not terrorists, countries possessing nuclear weapons or the street thug lurking in the shadows to take your money or possibly your life. The evil is the growing numbers of generally good people – the person next door a family member or a life-long friend – who have lost faith in the American Dream and the desire to be free and achieve.

A recent trip to my local polling place caused me to question a number of things about the waste of money and possible abuse and fraud that arises within the system. The problems extend well beyond the voting process and must be addressed if the state and municipal governments are to get their collective houses in order.

It was only two years ago that a spontaneous grassroots movement sprang up known as the Tea Party. The spark behind this was shared frustration about the high cost of government in general and specific concerns regarding the health care reform bill that was working its way through Congress. Like the ongoing union demonstrations in Wisconsin, Ohio and other states, the tea partiers gathered to protest. But that’s were the similarities end.

Back in the early ‘90s pagers were more prevalent than cell phones, the Internet was beginning to experience real growth and personal computers were the buzz. Today pagers are museum pieces, the information superhighway gives us access to more content that we can absorb and cell phones are fast becoming the hand-held version of our PCs, especially with the pace set by social networking activities.

The “Golden Years” may not be what many expected. As the US population continues to grow older, with the first of the boomers now turning 65, there’s a growing concern that many facing their retirement years are unprepared to enter this next phase of life. Will society let them fall through the cracks?

A friend recently announced at a gathering that he was unemployable. The reason he stated was because, being born in 1930, his eightieth birthday was coming up soon. The man tried to joke away his discomfort by saying that if anyone owned a mimeograph, he had tons of experience with that piece of equipment and hoped he could remember the details of operating it. Under other circumstances the statement would have been funny.

With major changes coming in Washington as well as state and local governments, the difficult task of getting America back on track is job one. There were hundreds of hard fought campaigns all around the country. Lots of promises were made by all candidates. Now we’ll have the opportunity to see who keep their promises.

Remember when the baby boomers cried out, “Never trust anyone over 30?” We pre-boomers were caught in the middle of the fight between the establishment and the young revolutionaries. The fight brought about many changes, some good and some bad, and drove a stake so deep into the country it remains divided to this day. Now, these boomers are about to turn 65 and the rhetoric is changing.

The spirit of Christmas seems to have changed over the recent decades. It was just 60 years ago when Americans were building homes, buying cars and watching TV as if they couldn’t get enough of things not even dreamed of during the great depression and the world war that followed. The country was making up for lost time, and spending money was an effective way to do it. Was this when the holiday tradition of giving was transformed into the notion that everyday should be a time to receive?

Plato, the classic Greek philosopher is credited with having made this statement several hundred years before the birth of Christ. Long before the industrial revolution, the advent of mass communications and the speed of the computer age, people were prompted to come up with better ways of doing things. This kind of creativity is needed today in order to assure a better tomorrow.