Youth vs Elderly
I typed up this entry a while ago, and submitted it on my old wordpress blog but I thought I’d submit it here too as this is a subject I feel strongly about.
I’ll start off with a quote from comedian, Lee Evans:
Young people and old people are always having a go at each other, like, teens and pensioners but actually, they are very similar. For instance, they are both taking lots of drugs. You wouldn’t trust either of them with your car, and little old grannys and teens are very similar as they have got loads of bumfluff.
All good in humour but as you are all probably aware already, I am somewhat ashamed of the generation I have unfortunately landed in. Of course, not all young people are uncontrollable tyrants who get a thrill by tormenting and being aggressive. I’m certainly not one of them people and I know there are others about, too. But I do wish the elderly get more respect than they do these days.
I’m sick of reading in the papers of elderly people getting robbed, assaulted and one particular case which sticks in my mind is when a young person battered an elderly woman to death on her way home from her fish shop for £1 or something silly like that. How do these people live each day. How would they like it if someone beat they’re grandmother to a pulp? How would they like it if, when they are elderly, they are treated in this way?
These people, from 70+ have lead such long and full lives they deserve to enjoy the rest of the time they have left and not to be victimised by the scum of the earth. It makes me so angy to hear of the elderly being scared to leave their house because of the way things are today. Isn’t that awful? These people, who have lived for 70 plus years, are now scared to leave the ’safety’ of their own home, and sometimes it isn’t even ’safe’ inside they’re home. As people get older they can become more vulnerable, their body isn’t what it was and some people lose their hearing and their sight, some get some sort of dementia and they are taken advantage of. Robbed and abused within their own home or in nursing homes, the places where they should feel safe and secure but unfortunately, that doesn’t always happen and it just makes me so angry.
Younger people get it into their minds that all elderly people do is nag, nag, nag, knit and all those other stereotypical things but that is so not true. I have had a lot of experience being with elderly people, I also did some volunteer work in a Care Home a few years ago and elderly people can be such a breath of fresh air. Full of life, and that child inside them doesn’t escape. I can sit next to an elderly person and they tell me stories about their family or their life and I find it interesting. Also have a few jokes here and there and let me just say this, not all elderly people are prudes!
They deserve more respect. After being on this Earth for so long, they deserve to lead their life in peace and enjoy the remainder of their days.
Of course, it’s not all one sided. Some of the elderly have no time for young people too and that results in trouble. “One bad apple spoils the barrel” an’ all that. We’re not all bad. I personally have a lot of respect for the elderly. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t despise the generation I’m a part of, there are some good people and I know some good people around my age. It’s just people always ‘focus’ on the bad people. It’s like school all over again. The chavs in some classes get most of the attention because the teacher is trying to settle them down and get them back under control whereas the students who have potential and are doing their work don’t always get the help they should -not all the time, depends on the class, but I’ve seen it happen.
Incase anyone has a go at me by saying, “well, it’s not only the elderly who get assaulted etc, people of all ages do”, I know that, it shouldn’t happen – period. I hate crime committed on people of all ages.
There’s good and bad in every generation, it isn’t a case of one being better than the other because there’s a mixture. The ‘war’ between the younger generation and the older generation will probably never end, but there’s so many misunderstandings and it’s the misunderstanding and stereotypes that are probably the main causes in this mess.
Anyway, that’s my view on things. =)