GBO NEWS: Media Ageism Faces the Music; Guns and Elders; Fentanyl Killing Older Blacks; $170K Scripps Howard Awards; Long Home Care Waiting Lists; Medicare Cuts Drug Costs; & MORE
GENERATIONS BEAT ONLINE NEWS
E-News of the Journalists Network on Generations.
January 25, 2023 — Volume 30, Number 1
EDITOR’S NOTE: GBONews, e-news of the Journalists Network on Generations (JNG), publishes alerts for journalists, producers and authors covering generational issues. If you have difficulty getting to the full issue of GBONews with the links provided below, simply go to www.gbonews.org to read the latest or past editions. Send your news of important stories or books (by you and others), fellowships, awards or pertinent kvetches to GBO News Editor Paul Kleyman. [pfkleyman@gmail.com]. To subscribe to GBONews.org at no charge, simply sending a request to Paul with your name, address, phone number and editorial affiliation or note that you freelance. For each issue, you’ll receive the table of contents in an e-mail, so just click through to the full issue at www.gbonews.org. GBONews does not provide its list to other entities. NOTE ALSO: Some news links below hit paywalls and are inaccessible without subscriptions, although a number of those do allow free access to the first few stories.
In This Issue: Volume 30 begins, marking our founding in March 1993. More to come.
1. THE STORYBOARD: *** “Firearm Violence and Older Adults,” by Linda C. Degutis, DrPH, MSN, Generations Today (American Society on Aging); *** “Fentanyl Is Killing Older, Black DC Residents,” by Chelsea Cirruzzo, Axios; *** “Medicare Begins to Rein In Drug Costs for Older Americans,” by Paula Span, New York Times; *** “Community Groups Step In To Help Immigrant Elders Get Health Care,” by Nora Malacuso, Next Avenue; *** “The Doctor Won’t See You Now: Covid Winters Are Making Long Hospital Waits the New Normal,” by Lena H. Sun and Joel Achenbach, Washington Post.
2. EYES ON THE PRIZE: *** Application Deadline for the 70th Annual Scripps Howard Awards, Feb. 5, 2023: $170,000 awarded in 15 categories.
3. GOOD SOURCES: *** “Older and Disabled Americans Languish on Home Care Waiting Lists,” by Trudy Lieberman, Center for Health Journalism.
4. AGEISM IN POLITICS FACES THE MUSIC (GETTING BACK TO BACH): “Super Ager” Joe Biden, Cello Sage Pablo Casals, and Voters Wiser Than The New Yorker Pundits.
1. THE STORYBOARD
*** “Firearm Violence and Older Adults,” by Linda C. Degutis, DrPH, MSN, Generations Today (January-February 2023, American Society on Aging): Degutis, a lecturer at the Yale School of Public Health, wrote, “Each year, nearly 40,000 people die as a result of firearm violence—109 people each day. In fact, more people in the United States die from firearm injuries than from motor vehicle crashes. Nearly 60% of the deaths are due to suicide, almost 40% are homicides and the remaining deaths are unintentional. . . Firearm violence costs the United States approximately $557 billion each year.”
Her report is particularly striking during a week when, as CBS News anchor John Dickerson remarked, there have been more mass shootings in the United States than there have been days in the month. In California two Asian elders with violent pasts, one 72, the other 67, did what some desperate people have always done under stress, except now with access to have weapons of mass murder. As Gov. Gavin Newsom put it, “We’ve made the Second Amendment into a suicide pact.” Most of those killed or injured in the Golden State were 50 or older.
Degutis continued, “While firearm violence is a leading killer of young people, it also has an impact on older adults, through a direct effect, or . . . through the death or injury of a family member, friend or community member. In other words, firearm violence affects us across our lifespans, but in different ways.”
Further, she said, “Mass shootings, which are not as common as other types of firearm violence, also create a sense of insecurity and lack of safety, as well as fears of going to places where there are crowds, where people gather, where people go to relax. They can lead to a sense of uncertainty as well as fear. . . While it is unlikely that we can eliminate firearms from our society, what we can do on an individual or community level is to work to keep people safe, given that there are firearms in our environment.”
*** “Fentanyl Is Killing Older, Black DC Residents,” by Chelsea Cirruzzo, Axios(January 23, 2023): The Dek: “Fentanyl was involved in nearly every fatal overdose in the District of Columbia last year through August 31.
Why It Matters: “Black and senior residents have disproportionately been impacted by the opioid epidemic in DC.”
The Stats: “In 2017, fentanyl was involved in 72% of overdoses in DC. In 2022, that number rose to 96%, according to January-August data from D.C.’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. Black Washingtonians accounted for a majority (84%) of the opioid deaths since 2017. . . Around twice as many people between the ages of 50 and 69 have died of an opioid overdose since 2017, compared to people ages 30-49. . . Older users may not expect fentanyl to be in their drug supply, leading to accidental overdoses.”
Protections: “DC officials have expanded access to the overdose-reversing drug naloxone in pharmacies across the city in recent years. All Metro Transit Police now carry the drug. DC offers free testing strips — which can be used to see whether drugs are laced with fentanyl — and has opened sites where users can access free substance-use disorder counseling and medication-assisted treatment.”
But: “Some experts say DC needs to go further by creating 24/7 centers where people can use their own drugs safely, or a drop-in center where people can pick up free testing strips and naloxone. Both options were proposed in 2021 but didn’t land funding.”
*** “Medicare Begins to Rein In Drug Costs for Older Americans,” by Paula Span, New York Times “New Old Age” column, (Jan. 14, 2023): Dek: “Reforms embedded in the Inflation Reduction Act will bring savings to seniors this year. Already some lawmakers are aiming to repeal the changes.”
The Nutshell: “In August, Congress passed the bill, and President Biden signed it. . . The legislation establishes other requirements to lower drug prices for Medicare beneficiaries, about three-quarters of whom have Part D [prescription drug] plans.”
Quotes: “’It’s one of the biggest changes to the way Medicare deals with prescription drugs,” said David Lipschutz, associate director of the Center for Medicare Advocacy. “It signals lawmakers’ willingness to take on a very powerful lobby.’ Some provisions took effect on Jan. 1; others will phase in over several years. ‘Collectively, these represent substantial out-of-pocket cost savings, especially for those who use expensive drugs,’ said Juliette Cubanski, deputy director of the Kaiser Family Foundation’s Medicare policy program. They could also bolster Medicare by reducing its spending.’
What’s New: “Beneficiaries will see three significant changes in 2023. The first is the $35 monthly cap on insulin, which will affect more than a million insulin users who have Part D through Medicare Advantage plans or free-standing [Medigap] plans purchased along with traditional Medicare.” Span adds details about the insulin issue.
Second, she explains, “Adult vaccines covered by Part D, typically offered at pharmacies, are now free, without deductibles or co-pays, just as the flu and pneumonia vaccines (covered by Part B) have been. That will in particular improve access to the shingles vaccine, the most expensive adult vaccine. In 2018, the Kaiser Family Foundation reported, Part D enrollees paid $57 per dose out of pocket — and each recipient needs two doses.” (GBO’s editor had to shell out a total of $87 for the pair of shots last year.) Span continues, “Also free: hepatitis A and hepatitis B vaccinations, and Tdap, which protects against tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis (whooping cough).”
Third: “When prices for drugs covered under Part D, and some under Part B, increase faster than the inflation rate, the law now requires drug manufacturers to pay rebates or face stiff penalties. … Those rebates will go to Medicare, not to individuals. . . The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that this provision will save Medicare more than $56 billion over 10 years.”
And: Stating, “The changes in subsequent years will be more dramatic,” Span provides a handy summary of new limits on out-of-pocket spending for Part D beneficiaries, many of whom may now have to spend $500 or $1,000 a month each for one or more prescriptions.
She adds, “Probably the most significant policy change is that the new law requires Medicare to begin bargaining with drug manufacturers.”
Oh-Oh, Politics: “Republicans in Congress, nearly all of whom voted against the Inflation Reduction Act, have already introduced legislation to repeal the measures intended to lower drug prices, and supporters are braced for court challenges, too.”
*** “Community Groups Step In To Help Immigrant Elders Get Health Care,” by Nora Malacuso, Next Avenue (January 23, 2023): The Dek: When all people get access to health care, it’s better for the entire health care system.”
The Lede: “The U.S. health care system is complicated for most people to navigate, and those who aren’t fluent in English or have no documented residency status have extra barriers to overcome. Nonetheless, as the immigrant population ages, the demand for services is growing, and community and cultural groups around the country are stepping up to help.”
For Instance: “In South Philadelphia, home to a large population of Asian immigrants, there’s the Hansjörg Wyss Wellness Center, a partnership between provider chain Jefferson Health and the Southeast Asian Mutual Assistance Association Coalition. The center, which opened in 2021, provides primary health care and social services to immigrants in the area. About 25% of Wyss clients are from the Latino community, most of whom are in the country without documentation, said center director Dr. Marc Altshuler. He said that the center also provided services to more than half of the 600 Afghan refugees who resettled in Philadelphia last year. This year, Ukrainian refugees added to the mix.”
National Facts: “The uninsured rate among undocumented immigrants is almost five times higher than that of U.S. citizens, according to an April 2022 report from the Healthy Illinois Campaign. ‘Confusion, fear, and panic’ resulting from threats of detention and deportation beginning in 2016 have resulted in many going without health care entirely, the report said. A Kaiser Family Foundation report found similar results. . . Trump-era immigration restrictions and the pandemic likely added to the burden on non-citizens, the report said.”
What’s More: “Efforts to restrict immigration aren’t helping the market for paid home care services, a field heavily dependent on immigrants. One of every four direct care workers is an immigrant, according to PHI’s Robert Espinoza. ‘In-home care, that figure is one in three,’ he said.”
*** “The Doctor Won’t See You Now: Covid Winters Are Making Long Hospital Waits the New Normal,” by Lena H. Sun and Joel Achenbach, Washington Post (Jan. 12, 2023): The Dek: “‘I’m so sorry that you’re still in the emergency room,’ one doctor told a stroke patient who was waiting for days.”
The Lede: “As the United States enters its third full covid winter, a top administration official is warning that the permanence of the coronavirus in the disease landscape could mean brutal and long-lasting seasonal surges of cold-weather illnesses for years to come, resulting in hospitals struggling to care for non-Covid emergencies and unable to give patients timely, lifesaving treatments.”
The Nutshell: “White House covid-19 response coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha said the American health-care system may not be able to withstand the continued viral onslaught, straining the system’s ability to care for other serious illnesses. ‘I am worried that we are going to have, for years, our health system being pretty dysfunctional, not being able to take care of heart attack patients, not being able to take care of cancer patients, not being able to take care of the kid who’s got appendicitis because we’re going to be so overwhelmed with respiratory viruses for … three or four months a year,’” Jha said.
2. EYES ON THE PRIZE
*** Application Deadline for the 70th Annual Scripps Howard Awards, Feb. 5, 2023: Among the most prestigious American journalism competitions, Scripps Howard Foundation awards include prizes of $10,000 or $20,000 in 15 categories for “high-impact reporting,” says their website. The competition is open to staff and independent journalists in all media. Entries must be for work originally broadcast, published or presented online during 2022 by a media outlet based in the United States or its territories. International media outlets may also be eligible. The entry fee in most categories is $75 per category. Read about the 2021 winners and finalists.
3. GOOD SOURCES
*** “Older and Disabled Americans Are Languishing for Years on Waiting Lists for Home Care. Why Don’t We Fix This?” by Trudy Lieberman, Center for Health Journalism (Nov. 22, 2022):
The Lede: “When President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act in late August, giving seniors a much-needed break on drug prices, one important provision in the legislation was left out. It was the $150 billion in funding that would have increased and improved services for the millions of Americans who require home and community-based care — the kind of care more and more of the country’s growing elderly population and millions of younger people with disabilities typically prefer.”
Mega Thousands: “In the end, lobbying and legislative compromises squashed all hope of whittling down the waiting list of some 820,000 Americans who are being deprived of services and a chance to live independently.”
Keep It Real: “Brandie Makrin knows how challenging the waiting lists and bureaucracy can be. In 2021, her family relocated to South Carolina from Massachusetts, where her then 21-year-old autistic son was still considered a minor and living in a residential facility. He had been doing very well there, and had a part time job thanks to the state’s waiver. But getting services in South Carolina became a nightmare. He was number 13,754 on one of the state’s waitlists for home and community-based services, and number 9,548 on another. . . After five months of persistent calling. . . , her doggedness paid off.”
Got History? “The seeds of our current dilemma were sown in the 1960s when Congress created Medicare. The federal legislature decided that nursing home care was to be an entitlement, meaning that all Medicare beneficiaries who needed services were entitled to them, assuming they qualified medically and financially. But over the years, new places for care, changes in family preferences, technology and medical advances made it possible and more acceptable for families to find alternatives to nursing homes in their communities.
“In the 1980s, Congress authorized a home care benefit as part of Medicaid. It was not created as a universal entitlement like nursing home care, but as a benefit subject to restrictions states could and do impose. That benefit is provided under a Medicaid waiver the states obtain from the federal government. States can cap the number of people receiving waiver services and impose other restrictions such as the amount of income and type of disability that qualifies. Someone with high-functioning autism, for example, may not get services.”
And: “It’s been nearly 25 years since the U.S. Supreme Court decreed in the groundbreaking Olmstead decision that the unjustified segregation of people with disabilities constituted discrimination and violated the Americans with Disabilities Act, passed in 1990. That decision required states to end such segregation. . . ‘The whole point of the Olmstead decision was to deinstitutionalize folks and integrate them into communities of their choosing, but it hasn’t worked out that way,” said Tony DePalma, director of public policy for Disability Rights Florida.
Some Sources:
* At Caring Across Generations, Nicole Jorwic, chief of advocacy and campaigns for the nonprofit, noted that while the Biden administration had initially proposed $400 billion in funding for this category of care, it “would have gone a long way but still wasn’t enough.”
* The Century Foundation’s Rebecca Vallas, a senior fellow at and co-director of the Disability Economic Justice Collaborative, told Lieberman that demand for care has grown as service options have multiplied, but funding has not kept pace with the volume of Americans needing help. “The Build Back Better bill was an effort to play 50 years of catch-up in social policy,” she said.
* National Health Law Program senior attorney Jennifer Lav, said, “The economic crisis facing the disability community is huge.” She added, “Once you get services, you can’t move because you can lose those services.”
* Maryland elder law attorney Morris Klein explained, “Waiver benefits are not entitlements. If a state doesn’t have a spot for you, you don’t get a benefit even if you qualify. . . People go to a nursing home or die before they get off the waiting list.”
* “According to AARP’s current long-term care services and supports scorecard, which rates such dimensions as quality of life, quality of care, and choice of settings and providers, the 2020 list ranks states and groups them into quartiles. Florida is dead last. . . Washington state ranks number two. Not only has the state enacted a program to help residents pay for long-term care, but its residents don’t typically endure long waits for care in their homes or communities. . . ,” said Bea Rector, the assistant secretary for the state’s Aging and Long-Term Support Administration.
* At The Arc of the United States, an advocacy group for people with developmental and intellectual disabilities, Bethany Lilly, senior director of public policy for the, emphasized, “A lot of people will be trapped in institutions and others will be forced into them because they can’t find caregivers.”
* National Alliance for Direct Support Professionals President Joseph Macbeth, stated, “Medicaid has never really addressed this in a meaningful way. Workers continue to earn poverty-level wages, and it’s a job many people won’t or can’t do. . . Across all types of services agencies paid a median hourly wage of only $13.36. . . More than half [of caregivers] receive some sort of public assistance, according to a report by PHI.”
4. AGEISM IN POLITICS FACES THE MUSIC (GETTING BACK TO BACH)
The New Year began soon after Joe Biden became the first sitting president to turn 80, less to the tune of “Happy Birthday” than to continued pundit prattling from liberal politicians and media about his possible future decrepitude. Might he be vulnerable to the onset of dementia, or to losing a reelection bid due to ageist appeals to voters were he to face a GOP younger than his aged predecessor?
Whether the embarrassing discoveries of classified documents reveals a prosecutable security breach or, more likely, a mere partisan my-pillow fight, remains to grind itself out, until the news cycle hits refresh. Meanwhile, despite the president’s vigorous performance over the past two years, speculation about his potential skid toward some undefined debility continues reverberating through the media like a “Baby Sharks” earworm on a grating replay cycle that distorts what should instead be a substantive examination both of his achievements and more questionable policy decisions.
Age does matter, but the high pitch of so much media noise about the 46th president’s presumed decline ignores the more productive advantages that frequently come with mature leadership. For this observer, the dissonant cries of “Don’t run, Joe” only because of his age have been nerve-fraying. For an aural tune up, this editor decided to clear his ears by streaming into the refuge of—how about, Bach, specifically the sublime recording of the Cello Suite No.1 in G major by the late Pablo Casals.
Prompting me toward Casals was a story I was surprised to reading in Yale gerontologist Becca Levy’s 2022 book, Breaking the Age Code. In it, she recounts the experience of an elderly friend on having witnessed a concert by the Spanish virtuoso, who performed well into his 90s. Despite having trouble walking, once he sat down, Levy’s friend recalled, “Casals became as fluid and graceful as he’d been as a young man.”
Her account struck a personal chord for me; I’d heard a similar account over a half-century ago from my late uncle Theodore Ptashne, who played violin under the maestro for years at the Casals Festival, in Puerto Rico. I was attending University of Minnesota School of Journalism then, and each year on his return, I’d join other family members on a Sunday for my grandmother’s sour cream pancakes, topped with Uncle Ted’s savory tales from the epicenter of classical music.
A Solomonic Decision
Casals was approaching 90, and one year Ted set the scene for us at a welcoming event at the sage musician’s expansive home in San Juan. As orchestra members arrived from many countries, the chatter of colleagues greeting and catching up with one another was building until a sudden hush dropped its baton on the room. Casals, looking especially frail, entered holding tightly to his wife’s arm; ever so slowly they made their way to the grand piano. Ted explained that the renown cellist also played piano brilliantly, but never in concerts. From him, the stage was meant only for the cello. As in Becca Levy’s account, Ted told us, “The instant his fingers touched the keys, he was as vibrant as ever.”
Although the rigor and energy demanded of a musical performance can hardly compare with functioning in the Mount Rushmore shadows of the US Presidency, for Casals, commanding center stage in the cultural world demanded much more than sitting down to lift a bow. Not only did Casals conduct and direct his festival cabinet of administrative and musical organizers, but he traveled internationally, often meeting heads of state and, of greatest important to him, mentoring young talents.
It must have been in 1963, when my uncle returned from Puerto Rico, his eyes agleam, to tell a story that would suspend a boy’s name in my thoughts, until I’d hear it pluck with acclaim years later. Ted explained that leading figures from the world’s string sections arrived at the festival intent on asking the maestro to adjudicate a controversy. A child, whom Casals had singled out for special nurturing when he visited Israel a few years earlier, was, all agreed, “ready.”
Technically, musically, some felt, there was no reason to hold the youth back from the great concert stages of the world. Emotionally, though, others argued, he was still a teenager.
The Solomonic conundrum was laid before Casals. Ted clarified that while he was not in the room for that decisive moment, he was told quickly of Casals’ judgment: “Let him have his childhood. If he is ready now, he’ll be just as ready later.” Let him experience his youth and mature.
I learned years later from Robert Baldoch’s biography of Casals that throughout his adult years, the maestro, although he treasured his fairytale life as a child prodigy, celebrated even by Spanish royalty, he felt that the constant pressure to study and perform deprived him of opportunities to form lasting relationships with people of his own age. A vital consequence for the world of music was that, along with Casals’ acclaim on the concert stage, he became renown off stage as, his biographer notes, “the greatest teacher of the cello” and guide to young musicians.
As my family and I sat absorbed in Ted’s story, I realized he’d omitted one important detail—the boy’s name. It would hover in my mind until I’d hear it ring on the radio years later, like a violinist’s triple: No longer a boy, Pinchas Zukerman was scheduled to solo with the San Francisco Symphony. He’d begun a glorious career.
Although Casals was called on to nurture youths around the globe well into his 90s, while also honing his art to perfection, the judgement of music critics hardly matched the scrutiny endured by the Leader of the Free World.
A musician may be fairly critiqued for today’s performance, but not for what age might bring tomorrow. In politics, though, the essential flaw in defaulting to age bias, or any prejudicial speculation, is that it derails public debate from the complex examination of actual policy decisions and actions. The cacophony of media pundits and late night comedians over President’s Biden’s recent swing to 80 has overwhelmed the plain fact that all of the age-based anxiety, especially from the left, is a matter of conjecture.
Competing Ageist Narratives
Even President Biden’s most ardent Democratic critics have agreed that his performance, though sometimes tongue-tied, has been robust to date. Bolstered by a skilled and experienced staff, particularly compared with the documented mediocrity of the previous administration, the fretting over his age has been entirely provisional: What if the Republican’s nominate a younger presidential candidate in 2024, such as Governors DeSantis or Younkin, who’d be sure to make his elderhood an issue? What if the president wins a second term, which he’d end at 86—beyond the statistical average for frailty or cognitive impairment?
Even journalists who should know better, most recently The New Yorker’s otherwise brilliant Jane Mayer and Jill Lapore, have engaged in handicapping Biden’s prospects based on suppositions that his apparently slowing gait, or mumbling over forgotten names, might indicate diminished capacity—and susceptibility to defeat or future feebleness.
At one point in their discussion on the magazine’s radio podcast, Mayer bemoans today’s paucity of congressional leaders in their 40s and 50s. Washington, she says, is mired in a “gerontocracy” of entrenched office holders who won’t “get out of the way” to make way for younger politicians. I was surprised to hear one of journalism’s finest investigative reporters parroting the kind of media fretting that anti-ageism advocates decried and GBONews dissected last year and then again at exasperated length.
Oddly, journalists and political odds-makers who have bought into the elders-as-barriers narrative have failed to consider the obverse perspective. As one Northern California voter told San Francisco Chronicle columnist Joe Garofoli (Jan. 22, 2023), “With age comes experience.” She added, “And the other thing to think about is what happens when you jump the line before it’s your time.”
That constituent was reflecting on the impending competition for the US Senate seat now occupied by Diane Feinstein, 89, whose reportedly increasing frailty has lead party leaders – and electoral hopefuls – to urge her not to run for reelection in 2024. Earlier in January, Rep. Katie Porter, 49, of Orange County, took the unusual step of announcing her campaign for the office, even though Feinstein is yet to decide whether to campaign again. The next day, Rep. Barbara Lee, 76, of Oakland, a leader of the Congressional Black Caucus, tossed her African Kente-print scarf into the ring. Likely also to be in the running is January 6 House Committee member Rep. Adam Schiff, 62, of Burbank.
It remains to be headlined whether the competing narratives that old office holders are blocking young talent from rising in the Democratic Party, or that the newbies are cutting in on more experienced candidates. What’s evident, is that neither of these patently ageist memes does much to inform the public about what really matters.
Another supporter of Rep. Lee, Kimberly Ellis, told Garofoli, “This is really less about age, and really about the vitality of the agenda that the electeds are championing.” Whomever she supports, news editors and J-school professors would do well to quote her wisdom early and often.
Joe Biden, “Super Ager”
In listening to the New Yorker Radio Hour, I wondered whether Mayer and Lapore had recorded their conversation with editor David Remnick before his separate interview with John W. “Jack” Rowe, MD. Rowe, among the leading gerontological experts in the country, and who previously founded the geriatrics division at Harvard Medical School, placed President Biden among the growing ranks of “Super Agers,” well educated, married, affluent seniors, typically white, with strong social networks.
Regarding the president’s verbal gaffes, his slower gait, or his reliance on staff to devise work-arounds for his misstatements, Rowe commented, “I don’t believe that what we see, which is attributable to his age, is likely to impair his function as President of the United States. . . On balance, I think he’s a very successful and fortunate 80-year-old.”
Remnick probed further about Biden’s potentially diminished functionality toward the end of a second term “closer to 90.” Rowe emphasized, “I’m not trying to paint a picture, which is denying aging; I’m trying to clarify what it is we actually know.” And he should know. Among his achievements, Rowe, 78, long directed the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on an Aging Society and co-authored it’s benchmark 1998 study, Successful Aging, followed by years of detailed research that has revealed sharp variations in life expectancy along economic, racial and other lines.
Rowe explained that averages often cited by writers, such as the elevated percentages of those 85-plus with dementia, fail to account for demographic disparities. When Remnick questioned Biden’s long-term ability to withstand the “fire hydrant” volume of issues hosed at him each day, Rowe observed that those who reach the White House have already differentiated themselves by prevailing in the grueling test of a presidential campaign; they tend to arrive in the Oval Office annealed by experience and buffered by protective advantages of maturity.
Rowe said, “There have been a number of studies recently showing that older people fared much better during Covid than younger people. They had more emotional balance. . . They have less anger, less fear, less sadness. They react less negatively to things that happen in their environment.” He noted research has shown repeatedly that older people tend to “solve disagreements between various parties better than younger people. Younger people strive for justice—in what they view as justice; older people tend to strive for win-win situations.”
Given recent history, of course, individual variation in candidates’ psychology, older or younger, is very much in play now. In either case, a reporter shouldn’t need classified documents to grasp the intelligence of Shakespeare’s King Lear, when Fool advises his Sire, “Thou should not have been old till thou hadst been wise.” (Act I, scene 5)
Pablo Casals’ wise council about music most of a century ago applies, as well to politics, politicians and the journalists who eye them: “Music must serve a purpose, it must be something larger than itself, a part of humanity. . . A musician is also a man, and more important than his music is his attitude to life. Nor can the two be separated.”
–Paul Kleyman
The Journalists Network on Generations (JNG), founded in 1993, publishes Generations Beat Online News (GBONews.org). JNG provides information and networking opportunities for journalists covering generational issues, but not those representing services, products or lobbying agendas. Copyright 2023 JNG. For more information contact GBO Editor Paul Kleyman.
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