Aging has become a political issue, tinged with the ageism that is never far behind. Although I’ve expressed reservations about how late in life government officials should remain in office, I have a lot of respect for many of our older leaders.
Besides, we need them.
In the history of the human race, grandparents are a relatively recent phenomenon. People simply didn’t live long enough to reach that stage of life. These days we routinely do so, and that is a good thing.
One of the benefits older people provide their families and friends is story-telling. Our memories may be imperfect but they reach back many decades to times when conditions were very different. And that matters.
Passing these stories on to succeeding generations brings one of the main benefits of understanding history — how to not repeat the mistakes of the past.
One of humanity’s greatest failures is repeating the mistakes of the past.
These thoughts occurred to me as I thought about the 99th birthday of our greatest former President, Jimmy Carter, and the passing of one of our prominent elders, Dianne Feinstein at age 90. But also about the 80-something politicians who remain in office — Joe Biden, Mitch McConnell and Nancy Pelosi.
It is okay to remain agnostic on the question of whether they should hold onto their positions of power, but as a society in deep trouble, we really need them to step up if they don’t step aside.
Averting a government shutdown for now was a good first step.
HEADLINES:
Congress passes stopgap bill to avert shutdown ahead of midnight deadline (CNN)
House Speaker McCarthy faces ouster threat for avoiding shutdown (Reuters)
Newsom's complicated choice in replacing Feinstein (Axios)
Newsom facing competing pressures as he decides on Feinstein successor (WP)
Feinstein’s body, accompanied by Pelosi, arrives in California on plane from president’s military fleet (CNN)
What the Writers Won (American Prospect)
Fulton County prosecutors signal they may soon offer plea deals (CNN)
Former White House lawyer: Trump has ‘no defenses’ in New York fraud case (The Hill)
A Revelation About Trees Is Messing With Climate Calculations (Wired)
The Frantic Race to Protect New Orleans’s Drinking Water (WSJ)
Putin discusses Ukraine war with top Wagner commander (Reuters)
China is flooding Taiwan with disinformation (Economist)
Russia hosts Taliban for talks on regional threats and says it will keep funding Afghanistan (NBC)
No current talks with Taliban, Afghanistan's Massoud says, promising guerrilla warfare (Reuters)
Google is betting bigger than ever on AI to sell the Pixel 8 (9to5Google)
Amazon Invests Billions in AI – and Could Become a Major Play in the AI Race (InvestorPlace)
‘AI is transformative for the geopolitical order,’ political scientist Ian Bremmer says (CNBC)
Walmart experiments with generative AI to help people shop (Axios)
Open AI exec warns AI can become ‘extremely addictive’ (The Hill)
The 19 tell-tale signs an article was written by AI (Medium)
Elderly Woman Relieved To Know She’s Tackled Last Technological Advancement Of Lifetime (The Onion)
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