To the editor: Thanks to UC San Francisco sociologist Stacy Torres for her op-ed on what to call seniors.
I am 90 years old and I am “old”. I don't like “old people” and I hate “old people.” I was a senior in 12th grade and my fourth year in college.
I'm lucky to be physically fit (I'm in my 46th year of ballet classes) and mentally as good as ever. Also, I hate the word “lively,” which fortunately I have never been called.
In my dance classes I join dozens of people of many ages. They treat me like everyone else in that wonderful environment. I don't claim to have wisdom, but I've lived through a lot of history.
I hope anyone who looks down on elders thinks twice. We are above all human beings.
Julie May, Los Angeles
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To the editor: I truly believe that Torres makes a mountain out of a molehill with his insistence that we change the language we use to refer to those of advanced age. (Is that inclusive enough?)
I happen to be 76 years old and I don't care if you call me old man, old man, old man or whatever. If you surveyed us seniors, you'd probably find that they mostly feel the same way.
Another thing: Since Torres suggests that the term “Latine/x” is preferable to describe Latinos, he would like to know that there have been surveys conducted within this community that have found that less than 10% call themselves “Latinx” ”.
Phil Hyman, Van Nuys
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To the editor: After hearing endless speculation about President Biden's mental acuity and fitness for office at his age, I turned to the PBS “Nature” show titled “Attenborough and the Jurassic Sea Monster.”
There was David Attenborough, 97, famous biologist, natural historian and broadcaster. He was jogging along the English coast chatting with a team of experts who were unearthing the gigantic head of an ancient predator, the pilosaur.
It was heartening to note that some of the experts hanging from a dangerous cliff, hitting the six-foot head, were also silver-haired and competent.
Whether the 81-year-old president is re-elected is far from our worst option. He is the person who counts.
Frances Tibbits, Pacific Palisades
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To the editor: Bette Davis is said to have had a couch cushion that said, “Old age is no place for sissies.”
We grew up surrounded by insults, dishing them out and taking them back, like playing cards. Few complained like people do today about hurtful comments, microaggressions, feeling unsafe, or having their feelings not validated.
Nowadays, the people who complain the loudest about microaggressions are the quickest to call others old, disgusting, incompetent, racist, colonialist, XYZ-phobic, cultural imperialist, and other such nonsense.
I will gladly tolerate insults about old age (the price of not dying young) if I never have to hear or read about microaggressions again.
Chuck Almdale, Northern Hills
