The Crime of Surviving

I just read a very depressing article in The New Yorker about a 90-year-old woman who tried to kill herself when her home was foreclosed upon. I'm filing it away with a depressing article in Harper's from 2 years ago about a woman in her 80s who had to glue her own dentures together because Medicare doesn't cover the replacing of dentures even though she cannot eat solid food without them. And another one that I saved but couldn't finish reading (from the Chicago Tribune) on elder abuse in nursing homes.

These people were not deadbeats. They were hardworking people who lived good lives, raised good kids, paid their bills, and expected better from the systems that they contributed to for years. What is wrong with us? Why does the richest nation in the world take such shoddy care of its elders? Forget talking about the economic downturn; these problems have been here for decades, and it is reprehensible. Why do we punish our own people when they have the audacity to survive?

And what exactly can I do in light of all of this? I'll have to get back to you on that.

-C.