URBANNA — Just as I think that I have written my last opinion, someone like Don Lemon of CNN comes along and tells us a 51-year-old woman candidate just declared for president is … “past her prime.”
Here we have Grandpa in the White House stumbling through his daily messages to us and Don Lemon calls the 51-year- old Nikki Haley, the ex-governor of South Carolina and United States ambassador to the United Nations, past her prime.
Well, I guess you could say I’ve heard everything. But poor me. If Nikki Haley is past her prime at 51, I must at 81 have not just one foot in the grave, but my entire body!
But, seriously, isn’t it a shame we still in 2023 hear such blatantly ignorant and biased opinions? I wonder how many men still believe exactly as Don Lemon so unceremonially said, probably without thinking how it would sound to the rest of the country and how poorly it would reflect on him — such a shocking sentiment: that is women are apparently of little or no use when they age after they lose their youth, beauty, figure and no longer can bear children.
The irony is Nicki Haley is still very much a knockout in all categories but to Don Lemon, well, obviously he likes younger women, and in his view she is now ready along with the many millions of other aging women in America to be put out to pasture like an old cow that’s been milked for the last time.
Just think what Don Lemon must think of all the old crones still hanging around Washington, D.C. that are past their prime — Nancy Pelosi, Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar, Kamala Harris, even Hillary Clinton. Good gracious, Hillary must be in her 70s by now! Not to mention the fact what he must have thought of that poor Ruth Bader Ginsberg who served so long and so graciously as judge in the U.S. Supreme Court and even had the nerve to be sick and die in the end. What more proof could Don Lemon need to think she was “past her prime.”
The interesting part of Don Lemon’s bias is that his true feelings about women just slipped out for all to see without his being able to censor himself. It just slipped out. It lent a very ugly view into his inner thoughts.
Yet, If being “past our prime” means that older people may be more inclined to think first before they speak, are more aware of their own fallibility, think more about other people than themselves, have more ability for expansive thought than the young and have more empathy for the human condition in general — well, then, Don, I think you have proven my point. A little more years of living may be exactly what you need.
A little age and a lot of experience will improve us all. With age comes character and like a polished gem, seniors become more valuable in passing time. They certainly become less vulnerable to that reckless condition known as “inserting a shoe in one’s mouth.”
Most men I know have mellowed greatly over the years when it comes to viewing women as equals. I recall the passion and the fury of the past when Virginia Military Institute (VMI) alumni considered accepting women into the institute. One VMI grad told me, all it took for him to change his mind from “absolutely no women cadets” to “let’s bring them in!” was one thing.
“Our first born was a daughter,” he said with a grin. “And the next child was also a girl. As a dentist, I suddenly realized I wanted my girls to have the very same opportunities I had, if they so desired — at VMI, at dental school, and whatever they were willing to work for in their lives.”
Then the example of my dear late father. When I wanted to become a Rotarian (before Rotary accepted women members), I called Father and told him I wanted to join his and my grandfather’s club.
“Why, Mays,” he said, “you can’t join the Rotary Club!”
“And why not?” I snapped from my phone in Virginia to his phone in Ohio.
“Why, because you’re a woman!” he said.
In a cold fury I slammed the phone down. To think my own father had said such a thing to me, his darling daughter!
The phone rang within seconds. It was Father.
“I was wrong, Mays! You should join the Rotary Club!”
That fast. Father’s English centuries old tradition of male superiority to women vanished in a flash.
Having a daughter really does the trick, Don. For one’s daughter is never “past the prime.”
© 2023
