Old age is an education in asymmetry as the ratio of effort to result keeps worsening, as it takes many times the previous exertion to get a fraction of the results for the simplest act.
In that light, what happened yesterday at the Holocaust Museum is a reminder that the rules of nature are not so simple: An 88-year-old with the strength to press a trigger kills a young man opening a door for him, terrifies thousands in the building and brings grief to millions, including the president of the United States.
"I am shocked and saddened by today's shooting," says Barack Obama, only days after visiting Buchenwald where the world learned about the imbalance between physical power and ending lives, where a few thugs in uniform could cause mass death with no more effort than turning a few switches.
What must have been the last thought of 39-year-old Stephen T. Johns as he held the door for a man more than twice his age to enter a place where the modern mathematics of life and death are displayed in all their horror? How could he have known that the hatred in that building would be concentrated in a decrepit man and explode to end his own life?
Yesterday's shock led to the closing of the museum, canceling the performance of a play to commemorate the brutal murders of Anne Frank and Emmitt Till, but whether or not the museum shooter lives long enough to be brought to justice, his name will as surely rot with him in the grave as theirs will be remembered forever in human hearts and minds.
Showing posts with label old age. Show all posts
Showing posts with label old age. Show all posts
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Sunday, March 02, 2008
Oldest New President Ever
John McCain had a senior moment in Texas the other day. “I’m a proud conservative liberal Republican,” he said in a speech, then catching himself up, “conservative Republican. Hello? Easy there. Let me say this: I am a proud conservative Republican...”
If he wins in November, John McCain will be 72, three years older than Ronald Reagan was when elected--in his own description, "older than dirt, with more scars than Frankenstein." A Gallup Poll shows voters are worried about that.
As his senior by a dozen years, I am duty-bound to offer advice and encouragement. "Old age is a shipwreck," Charles de Gaulle once famously said, but he wasn't talking about himself. He was president of France until he passed 88 and was forced out of office for trying to marginalize the Senate that was blocking his iron whims.
New research shows that age is not disabling if you stay active, and since he got out of that Vietnamese prison, nobody has accused John McCain of being sedentary.
Moreover, another study finds that, contrary to the belief that older people are more “set in their ways,” individuals age 60 and older change their attitudes on controversial issues more significantly than people under 40. McCain himself has been living proof of that in the past year, outdone only by Mitt Romney.
So here's to the septuagenarian Senator. I won't be one of them, but grumpy old voters may come out in force for him next November--if the weather isn't too bad.
If he wins in November, John McCain will be 72, three years older than Ronald Reagan was when elected--in his own description, "older than dirt, with more scars than Frankenstein." A Gallup Poll shows voters are worried about that.
As his senior by a dozen years, I am duty-bound to offer advice and encouragement. "Old age is a shipwreck," Charles de Gaulle once famously said, but he wasn't talking about himself. He was president of France until he passed 88 and was forced out of office for trying to marginalize the Senate that was blocking his iron whims.
New research shows that age is not disabling if you stay active, and since he got out of that Vietnamese prison, nobody has accused John McCain of being sedentary.
Moreover, another study finds that, contrary to the belief that older people are more “set in their ways,” individuals age 60 and older change their attitudes on controversial issues more significantly than people under 40. McCain himself has been living proof of that in the past year, outdone only by Mitt Romney.
So here's to the septuagenarian Senator. I won't be one of them, but grumpy old voters may come out in force for him next November--if the weather isn't too bad.
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