A touching essay; and moving.

And scary.

Once the boomers fade into night, who will there be to watch over the likes of us.

???

unfortunately for the elderly, you are so right…

We just celebrated my mom’s 90th birthday last week.

I’m going to give her a call.

If you like this article, then you should browse through some of Mr. Ringer’s previous posts. You’ll find many well written posts like the one above; in fact, you might even find a post very similar (almost identical) somewhere in the archives.

I believe it was General Douglas MacArthur who famously commented that “Old soldiers never die. They just fade away.” Thus, the task, indeed the ongoing and dedicated cause for those of us who are growing older, is not to fade away so silently, but rather keep communicating what we have learned along the way no matter the fences raised to contain us.

In the years we still have left, we need to speak out and keep on contributing and teaching, even when such contributions require us to shout a bit more loudly to those younger and take on a bit more stubbornly the issues we believe in so strongly.

Just as this country is tragically losing massive talent in our young who are not being educated, the country is also losing value by not listening to and utilizing the vast experience of those who are older and been through the fires of life. It’s a dangerous double whammy.

Perhaps the old and the young should combine their respective talents and collaborate. They should listen and learn from each other and then work together to accomplish new and greater things for our society.

About five minutes after I politely declined her services, she called me again, saying she had checked and found out that there was some other “plan” I could take advantage of right now, if I acted immediately. At this point I had to tell her that while I was nice to her the first time around, I generally have a short fuse when it comes to this kind of call, told her to take that for what it is worth, and hung up the phone.

My point is that there are probably 10 weasels out there for every one person who has a genuine, caring concern for people of all ages, these being con artists who steal, cheat and defraud thousands of trusting people out of their hard earned money. I see at Wiki that one of the most notorious shysters of all-time, Don Lapre, took his own life, yesterday, rather than spend the next 20-30 years in a Federal Penitentiary, which is what he was looking at.

We hardly knew ye, Donnie old boy, but better you out the door early than any of the 52,000 people it is reported, who trusted you and who bought into being your fool. If only more like you could saddle up and hit the sunset trail.

Shortly, the best retirement plan that an old person can have is going to be his or her own health and self-worth and family and friends. In the long run, Socialism doesn’t work; therefore, social security doesn’t work. Soon, most young people are going to be so saddled with debt, war and economic problems that both time are resources devoted to the elderly are going to be scarce.

As F.A. Hayek so presciently put it: The government’s social programs will inevitably pit the young against the old.

The wealth of information that older people can pass on regarding war, politics, economics, business ventures, personal relationships, advice on happiness and day to day live etc. etc. can be priceless.

Accompanying my stepfather down to Audie Murphy Veterans Hospital in San Antonio, TX is always a interesting adventure for me, because it puts me in a very reflective mood to see mankind’s mortality. Even strong, valiant men have to shrivel up and die. And in the end, when that last breath of life is about to be taken, then it’s reputation, integrity and morality that counts; That’s what the good ones have all advised me before they died.