May 2, 2000

Letters to the Editor
The Daily Progress
By Hand

It happened again. Every good editor's bad dream. Tuesday, May 2, The Daily Progress wrote of "the beating death of an elderly storekeeper." He was 65. Prog staff writer Josh Barney who wrote that has no concept of elderly.

Should we call Regis Philbin, 65, elderly? Willie Nelson and Dustin Hoffman are elderly because they're 65?

Other entertainers in their mid-60s he relegates to elderly include Larry King, George Segal, Angie Dickinson, Bruce Dern, Ray Charles, Robert Duvall, Judd Hirsch, Dennis Hopper, Anthony Hopkins, Quincy Jones, Kris Kristofferson, Rich Little, Loretta Lynn, Ali MacGraw, Shirley MacLaine, Dudley Moore, Donald Sutherland, Kim Novak, Mike Nichols and Elaine May, plus a ton more.

Dick Clark is elderly? Doesn't look it, doesn't act it, yet this is the year the chin tuck and face lift poster boy turns 71.

The sports world has such mid-60 ancients as John Madden, Al McGuire, Hank Aaron, A. J. Foyt, Richard Petty, Al and Bobby Unser, plus scores more.

Say, young fella, how would you like to take on John Madden in a wrestling match? Be careful not to hurt the old man, though.

Would you prefer a battle of your wits against mid-60s wits? Best of 20 questions drawn at random from E. D Hirsh's "Cultural Literacy?" Pick a time and place.

If you followed the recent city council elections, did you notice John Pfaltz campaign less vigorously or energetically than Maurice Cox, 40, or Kevin Lynch, 37? He didn't, nor did it enter anyone's head he would, though he's 64.

One-quarter of the US Presidents were in their 60s when they were inaugurated for their first term, including three Presidents of the last five.

"Elderly" is defined as advanced beyond middle years but carries implications relating to stamina, interests, fragility, alertness, physical condition, etc. Newspapers need to be alert to implications, not just definitions.

For example: the definition of "Orphan" is surviving one's parents but more than that is implied. Someone who axe murders his parents becomes an orphan but only his lawyer would mention it. If you live beyond 80 you will almost surely be an orphan but the word wouldn't come up in that context. The implications aren't there.

Writers and editors need to be keenly aware of the baggage carried by their words. When a small town prosecutor referred to a six-year-old boy as a "young man" earlier this year on TV, thoughtful people across the country roared with laughter.

Thoughtless use of terms like elderly provoke not laughs but letters.

Rey Barry, 60-something, Charlottesville (electronic mail, May 17, 2000).