National Senior Citizens - Celebrate and Reflect!

Today, August 21, 2009 is National Senior Citizens Day. National Senior Citizens Day should be a day of celebration and a time for reflection - for all Americans, irrespective of chronological age. Senior citizen centers, senior citizen housing, senior citizen services, senior citizen products, senior citizen activities all are matters of national security, requiring immediate and significant national attention and well-planned, far-reaching responses.

The median age for the United States is 36.7 years. This means half of all Americans are younger than 36.7 years old and half of all Americans are older than 36.7 years old. If you are older than 36 years, ten months, 19 days old, you are an "older American."

What we, younger and older Americans alike, do to face the challenges of an aging population will determine the future of America, the Nation and America, the People. The operative word is "do" - not study the challenges of an aging population, not appoint a government task force to study it for us. The time for doing something inclusive and comprehensive, for now-senior citizens and now-younger, but all too soon senior, citizens is now.

Healthcare reform certainly springs to mind as a current, hot issue affecting senior citizens. From the alleged specious rhetoric and bombast of Obamacare to the specter of geriatric genocide, from the purported tombs of Medicare and Medicaid to the Social Security artifact, healthcare services, healthcare products, and healthcare management for an aging population is a nation-ending asteroid hurtling down from the heavens to vaporize our very survival as America, the Nation, America, the People.

Wellness and exercise, finance and investment, transportation, and human resources management for senior citizens and an aging population are other jagged faces of this aged rock of impending destruction looming larger and irretrievably closer.

As the Silver Age of America is forged in the furnace of the 21st Century, our attitudes about and toward senior citizens and actions to engage an aging population will determine whether America, the Nation, America, the People prevail, prosper, and excel. What we do now, in this, our time, will determine whether the Silver Age of America yields a strong, pure, fine Silver of lasting value and enduring worth or whether it burns up, degrades to lead, or is discarded onto the dull slagheap of unrealized brilliance and potential.

Will America meet the challenge of an aging population, lead by example, and mine this precious resource? Or will another nation, displacing an America in decline, rise to prominence and leadership to make the 21st Century their time?

Celebrate National Senior Citizens Day, National Senior Citizens, and yourself today. And reflect on your real place, your vital role in the debate on, dialogue around, and resolution of this grave threat and great opportunity in America's future.