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Friday, December 10, 2004
Discretionary Time and Money
Which is true, that old people are rich and have a lot of time on their hands or that they are pathetic and needy? During the last election it sounded to me as though seniors in the USA were all pretty much huddled under bridges protecting the artifacts they archived in stolen shopping carts. Now the Norfolk paper claims that seniors are the backbone of local economy, gambling, going on cruises, and shopping at all the area malls. A woman almost as shockingly decayed as I, was pictured with her lips planted on a slot machine, trying to kiss it into yielding more tokens. Jolly gangs of old people tottered around the pool on a cruise ship. (Norfolk is homeport to the biggest cruise lines.) Somebody's grandma had several shopping bags from high end local emporia. Rich old people with discretionary time and money! Come to think of it, the other day I did see a homeless person and he looked to be about 35, not an old person. What's wrong with old people having advantages? Maybe nothing. On the other hand the same paper told that Norfolk area schools are in dreadful shape, except for a privileged few. Seniors were solicited to spend at least 60 minutes/week at their nearest public school, doing things for which the teachers have insufficient time. Supposedly if every able-bodied senior in this area would do an hour per week of public service in the schools all the local school problems would be moot. Hm...do I see a hoard of old people descending on the schools? Not at all. Schools are too scary. Maybe not for me, though. Maybe I should do this.
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