Editor:
(Re. things that get my goat)
The “First Annual Seniors Fair” was put on by the Home Healthcare Network. The focus of the Home Healthcare Network is understandably health, so my problem is with the name, fair, and the “Celebrating Seniors” phrase. The schedule didn’t look to me like it was celebrating seniors at all. If it was celebrating anything it was how sick we get and the services available for that.
I am not saying that we don’t get sick. Indeed, many seniors really need the wonderful care that is available. However it would be nice if seniors were celebrated properly, we are more than cash cows and pitiable old folk who need a helping hand. Many of us are far from ready to kick the bucket.
Can we not have a real Seniors Fair that celebrates the stories, the artistic achievements, the amazing lives, the health, the wisdom and knowledge that seniors possess? Are we and our lives to be reduced to what care we need, and then call that the First Annual Seniors Fair? I felt dismissed. Age discrimination, again?
Seniors are often invisible to working people and those younger “who want to help.” If there ever is a Seniors Fair again, a focus on health care available could certainly be a small portion, but please do not reduce seniors to only the needy aged again, and call it a Seniors Fair “Celebrating Seniors”… if possible.
Thea Hollett, Gibsons
