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leaves. there ought to be extended
vacations- a ll kinds of fl exible a r–
rangements. This says something
very radical to labor unions and cor–
porations and academic institutions
that scrap-pile their scholars.
5)
"Oid age is powerless." We've
been conditioned by society to ac–
cept the images society has of us; to
take ourselves o ut of any kind o f
useful place. Women like me often
say, "Well,
1
can't do that anyrnore;
you see, l 'm justan old woman. l've
do ne my turn . Let somebody else do
it for a change." How many times
have you heard tbat? " 1 deserve to
rest and play and that's what
I'm
going to do." The prevalence of
bingo, shuffieboard and the con–
struction of deplorably tasteless
crafts all show how widespread is
th is myth of powerlessness.
Sorne people are órganizing, and
new programs are being developed.
But we ha ve been conditioned so
deeply and so pervasively that it will
take an enormous amount of atti–
tudinal changing and redirecting to
accept the fact that indeed we do
have something to contribute. In–
deed that our ve ry losses and weak–
nesses and complaints and ailments
can be the most powerful Jeverage
for change that any human group
ever possessed.
Age Segregatlon
Life is a continuum but we divide it
into little segments. We need to look
at the whole sweep of human exis–
tence in order to address the
q
ues–
tion of age segregation. There's a lot
of research saying that old people
prefer to live with other old people.
But no research has been done to
show anothcr frame of mind, or to
open the door for a n option or even
to think in terms of age integration
in the way of housing.
The "Leisure Worlds" [age-segre–
gated housing communities in
Southern Ca lifornia] a re turning up
a ll over and people are buying into
them because they a re afraid to live
in thei r bornes. They can't get mort–
gages to keep their houses up, and
there are no a lternatives lo age-seg–
regated living. lt's hard to escape.
But it also is a terribly a lienating
thing. One of these commu nities
l
visi ted has a moat a round it. The
security offices check you in and out
The PLAIN TRUTH
March
1978
and there's a barbed wire fence
a ro und it. It's a sick menta lity.
1 wish ins tead of age-segregated
housing we would put sorne public
money into age-integrated housing
run on a cooperative basis. There
are empty dormitory rooms as col–
lege enrollment declines because of
cha nges in the demographic s truc–
ture. l 'd like to think that those
empty dormitory rooms could be
peopled with a new mix of people,
o ld and young, living and learning
together.
It
could begin right he re in
California.
One g roup in Boston got a smaU
founda tion grant and was able by
pressure to get the banks to lend
them money lo buy a group o f beat–
up and damaged old houses. They
rehabilitated them and a re running
them on a coopcrat ive basis, peo–
pled by a mixture of old and young
tenants.
If we persist in the age-segregated
housing that we've got and contin ue
to piJe up old people
in
high-rises.
and in the private sector continue to
bui ld posher and posher con–
dominiums and retirement commu–
nities, what of the future of o ur
society?
Credit
The banking institutions of America
are still hung up o n the old market
research tha t motiva tes the media:
the belief that the dollars are avail–
able to people from the ages of
18
to
49. who are the consumers. And 1
say tha t market research is abou t 20
years behind the times. There is
more recent indication that old
people have a larger percentage of
discretionary incorne than young
people. Tha t may seem strange, but
we have scrimped and saved and we
do know how to get a long. Young
people a re tied to the mongage of a
house. They're tied to the next car
payment. Everything they own is in
hock. And banks a nd lending in–
s titutions fa ll all over themselves to
lend money in that na rrow age
group. But once you are retired.
forget it. These policies have con–
tributed to the death of o ld neigh–
borhoods, because if you can't ge t a
loa n to pul a roof on your ho use,
you move out a nd it becomes un–
inhabitable a nd is boarded up and
vandalized. These wasteful banking
Ageism infec ts and
pervades our whole
Western society.
lt
infects us, the aging,
when we reject
ou r gray hairs, when we
take elaborate
precautions to keep
from even
recognizing that
we are getting old.
policies and practices just have to be
challenged and changed .
Health Care
I
think it's very exciting that sensi–
tive scholars a nd thinkers and policy
analysts are challenging the health
sys tem, which is really sickness care.
It's not holistic; it's fragmen ted, it's
specialized, and it's just totally inad–
equate. But together we can devise
holistic health centers. We can work
in smaJI ways to challenge and
change a nd point the way lo la rge
institutional change.
Gerontology
A lot of the research in the geronto–
logy fie ld has been highly pa terna–
listic. The caregivers have become
the caretakers, and the providers of
services have disassociated them–
selves from their own humanity. lt's
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