Working with Seniors: Health, Financial, and Social Issues

Chapter 2: Aging and Society

The life of Colin Powell is a classic American success story. Powell’s parents were Jamaican immigrants. He was born into poverty in Harlem in 1937, the same year that African-American singer Bessie Smith died as a result of an auto accident in Mississippi. A hospital where she had been taken refused to treat her.

Powell attended New York Public Schools and the City College of New York. He also received a master of business administration degree from George Washington University. Powell served two tours of duty in Vietnam. He rose through the ranks of the United States military and served as the 12th chairman of the joint chiefs of staff under both President George H. W. Bush and President Bill Clinton. As of this writing he is secretary of state under President George W. Bush.

General Powell has been the recipient of numerous military decorations, including the Defense Distinguished Service Medal, Bronze Star, and the Purple Heart. His civilian awards include the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Congressional Gold Medal, and an honorary knighthood (Knight Commander of the Bath) from the Queen of England.

Powell describes his climb up the ladder this way: “I was born in Harlem, raised in the South Bronx, went to public school, got out of public college, went into the Army, and then I just stuck with it.”

Source: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/c/colinpowel138132.html

The life of Jane Fonda is also an American success story. Fonda’s parents were screen legend Henry Fonda and Frances Seymour Fonda, a New York socialite. Like Colin Powell, Fonda was born in 1937 in New York City. Unlike Powell, she was born into wealth and privilege. Fonda was educated at exclusive girls’ schools, Vassar College, and the Actors Studio in New York, where she studied with Lee Strasberg. The movie Cat Ballou made her a top star.

Fonda has won two Oscars, six Golden Globes, an Emmy, and numerous other awards. While she was winning awards she suffered from bulimia—living on cigarettes, coffee, speed, and strawberry yogurt.

Fonda also went to Vietnam, but as a war protestor. She was given the derisive nickname Hanoi Jane when she was photographed sitting at a North Vietnamese anti-aircraft gun, the same kind used to shoot down American planes. Many Americans have never forgiven her for this period in her life.

Fonda sums up her activist years this way: “You can do one of two things: Just shut up, which is something I don’t find easy, or learn an awful lot very fast, which is what I tried to do.”

Source: http://www.idolpleasures.com/hollywood/jane_fonda.shtm

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. . . against the backdrop of history, changes in people’s lives influence and are influenced by changes in social structures and institutions. These reciprocal changes are linked to the meanings of age, which vary over time. —Mathilda White Riley, Annee Foner, John W. Riley, “The Aging and Society Paradigm,” in Handbook of Theories of Aging, p. 327.

Introduction

The interaction of aging and society is a complex two-way exchange. Society influences the individual and the individual influences society in never-ending circles. For example, we might ask: What impact did being born in 1937 in New York have on Colin Powell? On Jane Fonda? Or we might ask: What impact did Powell, a loyal soldier, have on the Vietnam war? What impact did Fonda, the movie star protestor, have? We might also ask: What impact did Vietnam have on the lives of Colin Powell? On Jane Fonda?

In turn, what are their lives like as seniors? Most of us would agree that neither one is representative of most seniors today. For that matter, are Mary, Ben, and Lois’s lives, described below, any more typical?