Your Leg, Your Problem

I happened to be in the Emergency Ward of a local hospital. One of my rare attacks of Vertigo had returned after seven years, and an ambulance was the best way of getting  somewhere in the middle of the night to have it treated. My grandmother, long gone, used to be afflicted with it occasionally, too, and called it her "blind staggers".  Arriving at the Emergency Ward feeling very dizzy and queasy, I knew  it could be a long wait because the staff took folks in order of the medical dangers of their complaints. Mine was minor, and I understood, therefore, I must be patient. Not everyone seemed to get it. They were thinking, erroneously, that it was a first come, first serve situation like at the butcher shop. It's not Take A Number. While I was gurneyed in the hallway I overheard many and varied conversations. The chap sitting in a chair, his friend beside him, commented to her, that he thought his leg was broken and because he had to wait for treatment, it was the fault of "all the old people in here taking up hospital time". He made an ignorant statement that should indeed have been ignored, but it was tempting to remind him that he, too, will grow old indubitably, being mortal and all, and that his turn will come tonight when the medical people deem it appropriate. Being old has nothing to do with it. His misconception that the aging population is to blame is simply borne of ignorance and stupidity. Too many times, I have heard that it is the "aging population" that creates expensive problems in the medical system, the employment  system and the tax system among others. First of all, naturally those at both ends of the maturation curve, youngest to oldest, cost the medical system the most. Birthing and childhood problems are as costly as  life endings. Second of all, every single human being, ages. You can't stop that. Blaming elders for causing "systems" to fail is wrong. They paid for, through their many years of taxes and consumerism as well as their personal support, the birth of the systems we enjoy today. Elders, don't forget, paid for in their decades of labour and sacrifice, the base and bones of everything that provides us with the kind of education, infrastructures and social benefits  that we rely on today. Of course they aren't perfect, but they are closer to it than in many countries on the planet and there is progress. Elders pay taxes, buy services and things that provide employment for  younger populations. We support education. We volunteer. To be treated with respect for what we helped build for most of the years of our lives, is not asking too much, and we are certainly not responsible for a young man's alleged broken leg!