In 2013, I finally searched the Internet to locate an ombudsman from a social service agency. The following year, I underwent another surgery, this time for a meningioma tumor, the size of two quarters. How long, doctor? Oh, over ten years in the making! The good news was that the surgery was successful. By then, I received Social Security benefits (official Social Security early retirement at age 62 in 2016). I enrolled in Medicare the year before, 2012.
In early 2016, I was diagnosed with cancer.
My story isn't an isolated one. And the outcome for many seniors has been a far more dire one.
Seniors in the richest nation in the world have similar stories. Unnecessary hardship. Unnecessary stress. Billionaires spend billions to fly themselves above Earth's atmosphere to spend a few seconds to experience weightless "in space" when Americans are weighted down by indifference and greed. Hate. Where does that leave democracy? Is there a democracy when, according to the National Council on Aging (NCA), "15 million older adults aged 65+ are economically insecure, with incomes below 200% of the Federal poverty level." Is that life in a democratic society?
"Half of Black and Hispanic seniors aged 65+ have incomes below 200% of the Federal poverty level." And if you are wondering, those households headed by an individual aged 65+ had "debt in 2016." And that median debt was "$31, 050" (Survey of Consumer Finances, 2019).
Hundreds of dollars each month is garnered from Americans 50 years and older who are receiving Social Security benefits for disability or retirement, according to www.consumerreport.org ., resulting in many seniors pushed into poverty. Some, like myself in 2013, are eligible for a "permanent discharge." Often, like me again, in time to deal with more health problems.
In 2020, hard it were seniors when COVID came ashore. Seniors were neglected in nursing homes. Seniors died alone in hospitals. Some Americans are witnessing the suppression of voting rights by proponents of white supremacy as if it's last month's news. For Black, Latinx, and Indigenous, for seniors and the disabled, it's as if we are living once again weighted down in shackles.
The political lives of Democrats and Republicans depends on maintain the value of corporations. Consequently, either party will only offer reform measures, and reform manages to lift a few above others. Reform, however, won't dismantle inequality and injustice which capitalism sustains. Reform is a little tweaking here and there, can't correct for an absence of an effective response to a human rights crisis. Student loan debt relief, yes. But what else?
As we used to say "back in the day," and should say more often, it's the system. An economic system, called capitalism, that demands enterprises operated by profiteers, enterprises that encircle institutions, that in turn, crank out like-minded cohorts, furthering the services of an inhumane way of existence.
Toxic, sadistic, and cruel! Only a few of capitalism's faithful servants--rabid believers in the power granted to them by the system--feel the freedom of weightlessness.
We have to make up our minds. Do we want future generations of Americans to suffer and die from the continuing worship of a system of indifference? Or will we decide this is it! Democracy or nothing else matters!
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