https://buffalonews.com/opinion/letters/letter-no-more-ageist-slurs-against-president-biden/article_405d5912-3af8-11ef-bc14-5b1da1fd8fff.html#tncms-source=login

Letter: No more ageist slurs against President Biden

Jul 8, 2024

Feeble octogenarian," "shuffling," "hospice patient lost on their way to the bathroom," are just a few of the recent escalating ageist and biased remarks about President Biden, who has dedicated 60 years to public service not to personal gain. Would you use these adjectives to describe your parents, grandparents, or a teacher or colleague?

As a career gerontological nurse specialist and an older person myself, I am both dismayed and insulted by the ageist rhetoric dominating the current public discourse across a variety of media. The Gerontological Society of America has made significant efforts to cultivate awareness of implicit bias toward older people and to influence policies and programs that benefit all of us as we age. The Reframing Aging Initiative provides evidence-based guidelines for communicating about older people and aging across all communication platforms. A place to begin is to use neutral terms such as "older people," "older adults" or "older Americans," not elderly or seniors, and certainly not frail or feeble, or similar "other-ing" terms that stoke stereotypes.

Older people are a backbone in our communities, contributing abilities and knowledge as engaged professionals, family caregivers, grandparents raising grandchildren, and serving as volunteers in every imaginable corner of our communities. Aging generates experiences that inform decision making, expand networks, and deepen relationships and judgment. Let's insist that across all communication plafforms we set our biases aside to reframe and reinforce older people as capable of meaningful responsibilities and relationships, and whose judgment reflects those to make this a reality.

Sherry Pomeroy

Orchard Park