The Sadness of the Clint Eastwood Speech

      Last night Clint Eastwood (at the age of 84) gave a speech at the Republican National Convention. He used a prop of an empty chair as if he was speaking to Obama. Mr. Eastwood's speech was moderated as many elderly people's speech is. And his hair was a little wispy, as many elderly people's hair is. Today he is under attack for the signs of his age!
     I fear for a nation that treats their elderly as if they are not satisfactory or are handicapped because age has slowed them down a little. I fear for a nation that ignores the wisdom of it's elders for the slick presentations of youth.
     This blog comes not just from this incident with Mr. Eastwood but also the Presidential Candidacy of John McCain in 2008 at the age of 72. He was belittled for his slow speech also and for the lack of mobility that was apparent in his movements. Senator McCain had been a Prisoner of War during his military service and had been tortured repeatedly! He suffered both arms fractured, one leg, his shoulder being broken and ground by a rifle butt and bayoneted. He survived two years of solitary confinement and repeated beatings. Altogether, McCain was a prisoner of war in North Vietnam for five and a half years.
     Mr. Eastwood has been an American film actor, director, producer, composer, and politician(as mayor of a California town for 2 years). He has always been well respected for his integrity and accomplishments.
     While these examples are brought from political situations this post is not about politics! This post is about our mindset that people that aren't "Hollywood" smooth are not worthy of our time or respect. These two men have been through life and the battles that accompany it. They have gained wisdom at the expense of some of the years of their lives.
     Women are standing up and saying that they don't want to be given a physical image of a 14 year old girl model as how the average woman should appear. In the same way, we should stand up and say that just because someone speaks slowly doesn't mean that they are not as wise as a fast speaking person. I have actually always believed that a person that speaks more slowly is measuring their words and is therefore more trustworthy than someone that scatters words quickly.
     We don't make fun of a blind person for not being able to see or the deaf for not hearing. We don't ridicule people that are color blind because they don't see the same colors that we see. We accept many variants in each other but we are quickly losing our ability to accept someone's differences because of age.
     Our elderly bring a lot of wisdom and understanding to situations that our young, brash people have not had the opportunity to experience yet. Why ridicule someone because their speech lags? We are even at the point where some old people belittle someone else that is slower than them in movement or speech! How sad!
      We need to return to simple respect for each other and to allow others to be different from ourselves. What happened to manners? What happened to "respecting our elders"?

Lorna Mercer