I was confused when I read David Ignatius’ column in The Washington Post on September 12. I thought perhaps the editors made a mistake when they titled it, “President Biden should not run again in 2024,” since the title didn’t seem to match the content. In the first three paragraphs, he lauded Biden, praising the Democratic performance in the midterms with him at the helm, his domestic and foreign policy, and especially his handling of the war in Ukraine. As I read further, I saw what was really going on: Ignatius was guilty of ageism.
Of course, I don’t mean that as a personal attack. Ignatius was simply following the data as he cited, “According to a recent Associated Press-NORC poll, 77 percent of the public, including 69 percent of Democrats, think he’s too old to be effective for four more years.” So, apparently I’m accusing 77% of Americans of ageism. Alrighty then.
According to the World Health Organization, ageism refers to the stereotypes, discrimination and prejudice that we have of others based on age. Like its more familiar cousins of sexism or racism, it is an appalling thing, and both political parties are exuding its insidious hallmarks when certain figures happen to misspeak, or take a power nap, or stumble for the right word while being hounded by the press.
Ageism hurts. I entered a Ph.D. program when I was 40, when I was 10 to 15 years older than the other students in my entering cohort. I cannot begin to capture how out of place I felt. Though only one person on one occasion alluded to the fact that I may have been “too old to be playing this game,” I still felt irreparably inadequate. And to be clear, I completely forgive that person. Why? Because I strongly believe in tolerance for error, which is my favorite principle of Universal Design, as I’ve written before in this outlet. That person misspoke. They made a mistake, and though my ego was slightly bruised, that mistake really had no negative consequences.
I’ve witnessed ageism directed at young people, too, where people have completely disregarded the expertise of medical doctors because they look too young. Think of Helen Hunt’s character in As Good As It Gets when she says, “Where I get whatever nine-year-old they just made a doctor.” Don’t make the mistake of thinking of this as “reverse ageism.” Just as “reverse racism” lacks logic, since the standard of judgment is based on race regardless of which race is doing the judging, “reverse ageism” is just as bogus.
We are not electing our leaders to run a marathon. We are not electing them to throw a football. We are electing them to lead our country, something that their extra years living in this country has beneficially informed. I enthusiastically support the campaigns of younger politicians–diversity in age is a good thing–however, I bristle at the notion of someone being “too old” to hold a job in office. What next? What if we said someone is too unattractive to hold office? Too short? Let’s not assume everyone over 80 is in rapid cognitive decline. I’m sure many of us have had grandfathers or grandmothers in their 90s who did the crossword everyday and had a savvy retort to every question asked.
With age comes wisdom. In many societies, and in particular my adopted (through marriage) Egyptian society, old people are revered. President Biden at 80 is infinitely wiser than many U.S. citizens. Our society needs to wake up and stop using age to attack people. It’s completely unfair. We should value and cherish the young. We should respect the old. But most of all, we should judge each other by what we do, not by how old we are.
Published by the Arizona Daily Star