By Ernie McCray / Op-Ed San Diego Union-Tribune / Dec. 28, 2023
I’m but one of America’s nearly 60 million senior citizens, an 85-year-old. That’s an age filled with concerns, all kinds of concerns, concerns about walking into a room not knowing why, concerns about aches and pains that come in several degrees and recent concerns about rises in ageism.
Oh, the list of concerns could go on and on, ad nauseum, but I have a particular concern that has, for a while now, bothered me tremendously, one that stands high on my list of worries.
It’s a concern I have with my peers. My fellow old folks. The concern being that we will exit this beautiful Earth without having made up with our grandchildren and great-grandchildren for our huge role in supporting a man who nearly brought our precious democracy to its knees, still bent on leaving destruction in his wake like a category 5 hurricane.
We supported him more than any other age group when we should have seen through him like people with X-ray vision, simply based on how he doesn’t represent the values of decency we grew up with. Not even close, as he’s like a poster boy for just about everything our parents taught us not to do.
And the rules were exceedingly easy to comprehend, as they were a straightforward list of “Nos,” among them: No making fun of people. No lording over people. No lying to people. No hanging out with unsavory characters. No hugging the flag like it was a long-lost lover or going around acting as though you don’t know that “It’s better to shut your mouth and look stupid than open it and remove all doubt.”
Doing any one of those things would have gotten us practically knocked out.
How did we, with the way we were raised, give this guy the keys to the White House, knowing that there was no iota of “Be kind” or “Do onto others what we would want them to do onto you” or “Lend a helping hand” anywhere in his being?
What in the world were we thinking, especially when our progeny were much cooler to him at the polls?
How could we be so far apart from them?
And, the bigger question is how can we be of great assistance to them now as they face a future with way more uncertainties than we ever faced?
We certainly can’t be there for them if we, as we’ve generally done all our lives, just throw up our hands to social and political problems with “whatever” postures, leaving the heavy work for change in our society to the freedom-fighter types who dared to take on Jim Crow, who marched to stop wars and strove for basic human rights for all our citizenry, be they people of color or straight or gay.
We didn’t quite give it the old college try in all of that, I would say.
But, somehow, as progress moves slowly, our descendants, in spite of us, have found places in themselves that allow them to open their hearts to diversity, to different ways of looking at things, to ideas that can lead to more togetherness, more community building.
They are hope personified.
And we should regard them with pride considering how they brought to life a vision that shows how people can change, a sight featuring them gathering in the streets after a Black man, like many such men in our country throughout our history, had lost his life to police brutality, a protest that rallied folks around the nation and the globe to take the same action.
To a troubled world that was a godsend, as such as that had never been. And that spirit still lives in the hearts and souls of our kin.
But the president we chose chimed in, drawing battle lines between them and his agenda to make everything about him, promoting violence with talk about unleashing police dogs, a symbolic nod to White supremacy, and sending in the military, with “ominous” weapons, to make them put their megaphones down — and they had protested peacefully.
And he’s running again. And, the way things are, he could win.
So I can’t think of a better way to show our love and support to them than not voting for him or anyone like him ever again.
What a way that would be to make amends to our offspring for our past sins.
That would keep hope for a better world alive: a major concern of this senior citizen.
Ernie McCray is a retired elementary school principal, a frequent contributor to the OB Rag, and a resident of University City.
I’m not sure I fully agree with the concept of this. I didn’t vote for him. My now 93 year old mother didn’t. Nearly every senior I know didn’t either. I don’t know what the median age make up of his voters were, but plenty of people far younger than me did vote for him. A good chunk of the participants in the Jan 6 fiasco you young enough be my kids. A majority of his voters were either white and rural blue collar or white and white collar conservative. I really don’t think it’s as much of a generation thing as more of political leanings.
The elderly did not elect Donald Trump president, neither did independents, nor Green Party supporters, nor blue collar workers, nor white men in their 50’s; for that matter neither did Americans. The electoral college elected him President 304-227.
Getting caught up in this BS argument hasprivided the subterfuge necessary for the hereditary meritocracy that has been robbing us blind and sentenced the impoverished to die in the streets.
We continue, like mindless sheep, to be gullible enough to buy into the divisional nonsense tearing us apart, despite what we all learned in 8th Grade and again in US History in High School: the popular vote does not elect a President. the electoral college does.
All politics are local. Class, please open the OB Rag to Page 1, read Geoff Page’s brilliant investigative journalistic piece “The Shield The City of San Diego has Built Around Itself”, close your mouths, and start paying attention to what is really killing democracy, and get involved!
The electoral college is still based the majority of voters in individual states. So with the fact that more “states” voted for Trump than Clinton, demographics and how they vote is still an important factor.
In theory, you should be correct Chris. However there exists no clear cut constitutional requirement for state electors to side with the democratic majority of their voting constituents. (See Al Gore and Hilary Clinton)
John Quincy Adams
Rutherford B. Hayes
Benjamin Harris
George W. Bush
Donald Drumpf
All won the electoral college and lost the popular vote.
Thank you, Ernie McCray!
I am an octogenarian and I most certainly did not vote for Trump.
I am holding any decision making about the next presidential election
to see who actually ends up on the ballot.
At this stage in my life, I will vote my conscience.
I’m from New York but I’ve lived here since 1976.
I, like my fellow New Yorkers never thought Trump
was any more than a schiester con man.
Never voted for him will never will.
Bravo, Ernie! Great column.
Oh Ernie, if only it were so easy. He could be elected because our octogenarian president is denying the humanity of Palestinians and offering more military aid as Israel commits mass murder. Some of us can’t stomach that. Then there are the candidates like RFK and Cornel West drawing off votes from the already weak Genocide Joe. The only thing that might get Biden elected IS fear and loathing of Trump.
Both sides share some fault in that.
“Genocide Joe” is quite a stretch, even for you Boris.
Is it Sam? Is it? If the shoe fits wear it, in this case shoes…
Biden, the HUD and his Democratic National Committee minions continue to profit from the legislatively accelerated corporate monopolization of housing driving Americans into the street to die to advance the profit agenda of the Democratic politico-real estate complex.
To be clear I am pro Israel. However I am anti Netanyahu. He is an autocrat, pure, plain, and simple. As a matter of fact two recent polls conducted in Israel found that over 80% of Israelies want Netanyahu removed from power. Israelis can be anti Netanyahu without making them antisemitic, or anti Israel by default.
That being said, Biden just bypassed Congress, altogether, to supply more weaponry and arms profiting the warhawks of the military industrial complex and enabling Netanyahu to advance what can arguably be referred to as war crimes against civilians in a bloodthirsty vengeance crazed attempt to thwart the threat from Hamas, a very dangerous real world terrorist organization. Wars, up unto this point were generally referred to as conflicts between two militaries. Not between a U.S. armed IDF military and civilians. (admittedly though the U.S. blurred that line quite a while back.)
We might also take into account the astounding fentanyl epidemic coming directly from south of the border in response to an apathetically anemic response to any discernible increase in security action at the border by the Executive branch.
We can hold “the Party” and Biden accountable without somehow making us pro-Trump by default.
If there’s one thing human being love about is (with the exception of those who participated or were victims of it) that it makes good internet battles.
Interestingly enough, two contractors where I work learned the hard way just how much social media posts can come back and bite you. They opined about the atrocities Israel is committing and were let go because of that. And they have the audacity to claim victim hood.
Ok my typing sucks as I’ve mentioned before so my above post I’ll admit makes no sense. Basically, disregard lol.
This sounds like a bunch of pablum that a sophomore in college would spew. Grow up, the world is far more complex than your tiny minded view as a Russian propagandist.
One thing Trump can do well is live rent free in people’s heads. I’ve never seen a guy outside of sports who is loved by so many and hated by so many .
Everybody, for him or against him, let it go. Move on, vote for somebody else, use your energy elsewhere.