If you call me `spry,’ we’re going to have to step outside

Stec comes out against electric school buses for 2035

The American Association for Retired People has been sending me letters for some 15 years.

I resented it 15 years ago and I resent it now.

I throw them away.

I’ve always thrown them away.

Opening them would be an acknowledgement of another candle on the birthday cake that I wasn’t ready to face.

The 40-year-old me would believe that 66 is ancient.

Present-day me does not believe that anymore.

I’m a vibrant, wood-splitting, basketball-playing 66-year-old man who still mows his own lawn, balances his checkbook and is writing better than at any point in his life.

You call me spry and we will have to step outside.

I was insulted recently when a 66-year-old man accused of murder in Washington County used the “scared-old-man-defense” as justification for shooting a young girl in his driveway.

Yet, it is not unusual for me to spend a few minutes each day looking for my phone or wondering why I just walked into the other room.

Each evening while watching television with my wife, one of us inevitably asks if the guy playing the doctor is the same actor who used to be on that show on Thursday nights we watched 20 years ago right before he was in that Tom Hanks movie.

Thank god for Google.

As we have seen with our president, the aging process often manifests itself most noticeably physically.

I have not been immune, but I have faired pretty well. I never would have imagined playing basketball at the YMCA with guys half my age at this time in my life.

When I retired four years ago,I still had the passion to write.

Three books and a play later, I think this third act is going pretty well. Writing this column three times a week may be my last stand.

But concessions need to be made. I do need an afternoon nap from time to time, especially after playing basketball, and I would wager the family dog that Biden and Trump are no different.

I’m not some old codger whose only interest is the early bird special, but while I do have lapses in memory, I’m not forgetting anything important.

Perhaps the new generation of seniors is different, maybe we’re a little sharper than the parents who needed us to program their VCR or set up their answering machine.

There was a time when those life experiences of the elderly was respected as wisdom.

When my son was driving home from college in Pennsylvania the first time, I was shocked when he asked which direction he should go on the I-90 interchange: Toward Cleveland or Buffalo?

GPS doesn’t teach you geography.

I believe sometime in the near future, a massive solar flare will knock out all GPS services throughout the world and old coots like me will be in demand by their children for their  ability to read a road atlas.

My 28-year-old son has an advanced degree but we are often the ones advising him him to take care of his teeth, save more in his 401k and travel while he is still young.

You know where this is going.

The two guys running for president are old buzzards.

The president of the United States is 81. His challenger is 77.

They are mixing up names of political opponents and leaders of countries.

The younger guy once wondered aloud in a nationally televised news conference if injecting bleach might defeat the Coronavirus. And he was younger then.

My guess is the minds of these two men senior to my own senior status still work pretty well.

They both have life experiences that are valuable to them in their everyday life.

Biden knows how to work the levers of government to get important legislation passed like the infrastructure bill and understands the complicated world of geopolitical politics.

Trump’s lifetime of promoting his businesses - Trump Steaks, Trump University, Trump Airlines, Trump Vodka, Trump Magazine - was perfect training for the truth-bending world of professional politics.

They are both good at what they do and ultimately still know what they are doing, especially after an afternoon nap.

Joe Biden shuffles in and out of helicopters and limousines and occasionally muffs which leader is which, but he is surrounded by an army of experienced experts often half his age who can correct any misstep. It’s not like Biden suggested bombing the wrong country.

Remember, there were people around Trump who ultimately saved the democracy, but that wasn’t because Trump was senile, that was because of his lust to remain in power.

On Wednesday, Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters he had talked with President Biden last week about a national security threat and assured everyone there was no need to panic.

The young reporter holding the microphone missed an opportunity.

The next question to Johnson should have been: Did President Biden understand the complexity and seriousness of the situation when he talked to you about it?

It seems to me if he didn’t, Speaker Johnson had a responsibility of telling the country that the president did not know what he is doing. That silence is telling.

Electric buses

A few years ago, we were in a bus in Lucerne, Switzerland.

There was something odd about the bus. When we got off and it pulled away, there was no diesel fumes. And then we noticed, there was no sound. The buses were electric.

Recently, the state of New York enacted legislation to force school districts to make their bus fleets all electric by by 2035. The state has even made millions of dollars available to purchase the buses.

North Country Public Radio reported this week that Sen. Dan Stec, the former Queensbury supervisor, is challenging the mandate. He says it will be difficult for small, rural school districts because electric buses can’t go as far in the colder winter temperatures.

"How is the safety of children all over the state, not just in the North Country, but all over the state, when that school bus battery doesn't work in January or when they can't get to Albany to play in the NYSSMA concert that we're all going to be enjoying next month when they come here because their school bus range is only 100 miles on a good day and they got to drive 200 miles to get here," Stec said.

Of course, that is the technology of today.

What Stec is ignoring is that the technology for batteries and electric vehicles continues to evolve by leaps and bounds. By 2035, I suspect there will significant advances in technology.

Stec’s time might be better used looking for exceptions to be implemented for extremely rural schools like those in the Adirondacks and beyond rather than to ignore the threat of global warming.

The North Country Light Brigade will have a different message tonight at Centennial Circle in Glens Falls.

Friday night lights

The North Country Light Brigade will be back Friday evening with a new message at Centennial Circle in Glens Falls.

They will be assembling at 5:15 p.m. on Warren Street with the message “Support Ukraine.”

If only Elise Stefanik still had an office nearby she might be able to come out and explain why the House of Representatives refuses to fund more Ukraine aid.

Stewart is back

There was a time during the George W. Bush administration where Jon Stewart was must-see viewing.

Stewart, the host of Comedy Central’s The Daily Show before Trevor Noah, walked away from his acclaimed political satire show just before Trump took office.

He returned this past Monday to do a weekly show.

He has not lost his touch.

While addressing the age issue in politics, he showed a series of video clips of Donald Trump and his family answering questions while being deposed. Actually, they weren’t really answering because they could not remember the answers to the questions.

“It turns out, the leading cause of early onset dementia is being deposed,” Stewart joked.

Brooks frightened

David Brooks, the conservative columnist for the New York Times, has always brought a heart, soul and a healthy dose of hope to his commentary.

Last week’s column, “Trump came for their party, but took over their souls” is an exception.

“I thought I was beyond shockable, but this week has been profoundly shocking for me,” Brooks wrote while writing about Republicans refusal to approve aid for Ukraine and Israel. “I spent the bulk of my adult life on the right-wing side of things, generally rooting for the Republican Party, because I thought that party best served America.”

It appears Brooks has lost all hope of the Republican Party being saved.

He described the Republican Party as “Entertainment over governance.”

“Under Trump, the G.O.P. is less a governing party and more an ongoing entertainment complex. It doesn’t have supporters; it has audience members. The Trump show has certain story lines: Washington is an unholy mess that will never get anything right. America is in chaos. Joe Biden is an inflexible left-wing radical who will never tack to the middle. Only Trump can save us. Passing this package (Ukraine-Israel aid)  would have upended all these narratives. The package had to be destroyed in order to save the story.”

Brooks’ insight explains Trump’s popularity perhaps better than most explanations.

Trump is an entertainer.

And his supporters love his hit show.

Trolling

Anytime you invite the public into a forum, you risk trolls.

Trolls are folks get a kick out of disrupting the conversation with outrageous claims that have little if any basis in fact. You may have noticed Wednesday’s commentary drew over 200 comments. One person weighed in early in the day with comments on a half-dozen different issues while ignore the main focus of the commentary.

I tried to moderate by asking the commenter to provide clear factual evidence for his claims.

Instead, he changed the subject and never provided facts to back up his beliefs.

On Wednesday night, I emailed him directly and told him that he was “trolling” and he should refrain from doing so in the future by providing factual information to back up his arguments. I told him different points of view were welcome and encouraged, but he was clearly just trying to stir up trouble.

When he blamed others, I told him was canceling his subscription and refunding his money.

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