This morning, I read an article posted on BMEWS that is so incredible and so irritating, I am finding it hard to respond here in any type of polite language. The gist of the article is that an Internet company in Britain is denying service to anyone over 70 unless they bring a younger person with them who can explain the fine print. In that case, their ability to get an Internet account can be at the discretion of the company. This is the most ludicrous and blatant prejudice and age discrimination I've ever heard about.
My Mother was 85 when she purchased her first computer and went online. In the nine years before her death, she mastered CAD software, Photoshop, and a host of other things that brought joy into her life. She began to do all her shopping on line, she belonged to an online bridge club, she played email Scrabble with me and 2 others I know about, she kept in touch with many old friends, some dating back to her childhood. She typed up all her handwritten journals and helped an older cousin compile his life history into book form. She began to make all her own greeting cards. She used accounting software and began to track all her finances, keep her bank account, and her stock purchases on her computer. She tracked medical records and test results for her friend who had diabetes. She planned a trip to China and Japan (much like the woman in the article), only she used online resources, and then booked all her travel through online agencies; she was 88 years old and I have pictures of her hiking along the Great Wall on her 89th birthday. She considered her computer the best purchase she ever made. When she discovered Amazon.com, she thought she'd died and gone to heaven. I still remember the day she called me long distance to tell me about this wonderful book service she'd discovered online. She loved the computer age.
And think about it ... if this 70 year old rule had been in place, Ronald Reagan would have been barred from using the Internet while he was president. Antonin Scalia, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Anthony Kennedy, and John Paul Stevens, current Supreme Court Justices, would be barred from using the Internet. John Glenn would have been barred from using the Internet when he made his last trip into space on the Space Shuttle. Ted Kennedy, John Murtha, Diane Feinstein and Robert Byrd would be barred from using the Internet (something that wouldn't bring tears to my eyes, but makes my point nonetheless). Basically anyone alive today born before Sept. 2, 1936 would be barred. John McCain, Donald Rumsfield, Robert and Elizabeth Dole, Warren Buffet, the Queen of England, PM of France Jack Chirac, and Barbara and George HW Bush would be barred from using the Internet now. On the celebrity side there would be Burt Reynolds, Mary Tyler Moore, Kris Kristofferson, Woody Allen, Julie Andrews, Charles Grodin, Judd Hirsch, Diahann Carroll, Pat Boone, Sophia Loren, Gene Hackman, Paul Newman, Robert Wagner, Ed McMahon and Joanne Woodward, just to name a few. I'm sure readers can list dozens, maybe hundreds more.
Sorry, You Can’t Have The Internet…
You’re Over 70
(DAILY MAIL-UK) - 2nd September 2006 - 10:00pm GMTAfter walking the Great Wall of China and making plans for a trip to Russia, Shirley Greening-Jackson thought signing up for a new internet service would be a doddle. But the young man behind the counter had other ideas. He said she was barred - because she was too old. The 75-year-old would only be allowed to sign the forms for the Carphone Warehouse’s TalkTalk phone and broadband package if she was accompanied by a younger member of her family who could explain the small print to her.
Mrs Greening-Jackson, who sits on the board of several charities, said: “I was absolutely furious. The young man said, ‘Sorry, you’re over 70. It’s company policy. We don’t sign anyone up who is over 70.’ “Later a young lady said company policy is that anyone over 70 might not understand the contract. She said, ‘If you would be prepared to go to the shop in town and take a younger member of your family we might give you a contract.’
“I have just completed a visa form to go to Russia. Last year we did one for walking the Wall in China and here is this person saying I would not be able to understand a basic form - and it was basic. It is pure ageism. “Somebody has decided when you turn 70 you lose a lot of your mind. I find this is ridiculous.” When her case came to light on Radio 4’s You And Yours last week, Carphone Warehouse admitted it had adopted an over-70 rule.
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THE AIM OF EDUCATION IS TO TEACH US HOW TO THINK, NOT WHAT TO THINK.
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