In Praise of Our Elders

No, We Weren't Going to "Die Anyway"

One of the first conundrums presented to law students in criminal law classes everywhere is the case of a man who jumped off a six story building and was fatally shot before he hit the ground. Was it murder? asked our professors. Negligent homicide? Of course they were waiting for the first student to say "he was going to die anyway."

"Consider the case of the 20-year old man who survived a fall from a 15-story building," the professor might have offered. "Do we really know who will live and who will die? And if we could predict death from the fall, wasn't his life shortened by the shot gun blast? What about people in hospitals on life support? Are family members or physicians allowed to smother the victim because "'he's going to die anyway?'"

You get the drift. neither the law nor ethics permit us to decide that someone else's life is not worth living because they are old enough or sick enough to be nearing their end.

The New York Times List of the Dead

I depend on the New York Times and other mainstream media outlets to personalize the death of people killed in war (the searing One Week's Dead by Life Magazine during the Vietnam War); the 9/11 tributes by the New York Times and today's Those We've Lost.

As I was scrolling through the abbreviated corona virus obituaries this morning, my first thought was "oh no, most of the dead are over 65," a group of people who've been suggested as the appropriate sacrifices to revive the economy because, you know, "they're going to die anyway."

Having turned 68 during the pandemic, I'm afraid I take this personally, particularly since I've carefully saved and rationed our lifetime earnings to take me to 90. A first world luxury, I know, especially since the members of my grandparents' generation were considered likely to die pretty quickly after 65 - the life expectancy at the time.

Still, I've got lots of life left in me and a lot of service to render now that I'm freed up from concentrating so much on finances and able to focus more on charity, political contributions, help for our children and grandchildren when they need it, and providing low cost services to people aged 16 through 50-something as they grapple with career problems in the midst of the pandemic.

The Contributions of the Over-65 Set to the Country's Well-Being.

• having just laughed my a** off in dark times over the new Jerry Seinfeld comedy special, let me just put 65-year old Jerry at the top of the list.
• John Glenn who went to space at 77
• Nelson Mandela who took his nation from pre- to post-apartheid at 75
• Ronald Reagan who was first inaugurated President of the United States at 69
• Christopher Plummer who earned his first Oscar at 82
• Philanthropists of all kinds, who between the ages of 61 and 70 donate $155,066 to charitable ventures, those between 71 and 80 who donate $142,192 and those over 81 who donate $125,061.
• Grandparents who care for their grandchildren and who often fund those children's college or trade school educations (my mother and I did this for my nephew when mom was over 65).

We Don't Get to Decide Whose Life is Worth Living

Even if gramma or great-gramma is in an assisted living facility, nursing home, or rehabilitation hospital, we do not get to decide her life is not worth living. Even if she is poverty stricken and beyond her productive years, we do not get to decide her life is not worth living.

So if you're scrolling through the Times list of Covid deaths and think "well most of them were going to die anyway," please think again. Because you too, if you're lucky, will one day be 65.