Pandemic Should Signal the End of Stereotypes.

• Position: AGEISM

The pandemic is still here, and it seems we all have installed our own sets of personal survival skills, from instituting isolation techniques to ignoring that COVID-19 even exists.

Erica Baird and Karen Wagner, a pair of retired lawyers who cofounded Lustre.net--an online portal dedicated to redefining women's retirement--wish to talk about life experiences and the value that older people offer during these trying times.

"Life spans are getting longer, but the pandemic is greatly affecting older people," says Baird. "It's time to confront the outdated stereotypes that surround older individuals."

Older people are people, too. "According to the World Health Organization, ageism affects at least 600,000,000 people worldwide. Ageism, the last acceptable 'ism,' serves only to legitimize stereotypes of older people and leads to views, such as those articulated during the pandemic, that maybe the pandemic is not so bad if it only affects older people (which of course it does not). It is time to ditch those false assumptions. Older people are living longer and better than ever. Every lucky person will, in fact, one day be older. Long before that day, everyone needs to understand that older people are people, too," emphasizes Baird.

Boomers have skills that help them handle the pandemic. "Boomers have solved many problems in their time--especially women, who have to solve problems at home, at work, and everywhere else," notes Wagner. 'They also know that crises can bring about positive change. They lived through the dawn of modem feminism, the birth of the civil rights movement, the Vietnam War protests, and the AIDS crisis. So, while they hate...