shAARP Talk: Observations from AARP

I have MS, am 60 years old, and am awaiting my first Social Security disability check. Ir should keep me from living on the streets. I have to wait six months in case it turns out I'm not really disabled. I wish.

I worked until last October, until my Dr. said it would kill me early if I kept on. I could barely scrape myself out of bed in the morning at 3 AM, but it took me three hours to get showered, shaved and dressed. I was exhausted before I got to work.

The only way I am able to get about is on my electric scooter, so most jobs are unrealistic to consider anyway. I did telephone work because it was the least physically taxing and I could sit. I was a telemarketer. What can I say? People hated me.

I couldn't afford not to work - who can? - but, in every other way I am healthy, so finally I quit working for good a few months ago, and settled down to enjoy the American Dream.* Now, we can even use handicap parking. What a country!

Physical limitations are the most obvious handicap, and certainly mine are far less severe than some others like cancer or ALS or paralysis, but being handicapped by our outdated economic, political and spiritual institutions is a limitation we all face daily.

And it doesn't have to be that way. Most Americans at this point could give a fig about liberal or conservative, Republicans or Democrats. They are both sometimes right, but mostly they are both wrong.

We should never have to be so impacted in every part of our lives by the federal government This is not the country I grew up in. Sorry. Disappointed is putting it mildly. Most of us will not settle for the daily political food-fight any longer, but what can we do?

We can unite around our commonality. We want government that works, that quits lying to us and that isn't confiscating half of everything we have. The disparity between the "haves" and the "have nots" is becoming embarassing. I wouldn't mind if the elite, ruling class took its privileges, as long as it at least did its job. Apparently, the Founders assumed that the best and brightest would lead, as well as retain their honor. One out of two isn't good enough.

Thanks for what you do. Each of us has to decide if America is in decline, or if it is still possible our best days are ahead. If we can't find something to drive us to this next, new level of living besides competitive greed, then forget life, liberty and happiness. That's a big price to pay for being afraid to change.