Should we beat our father with a stick?

THE EDITOR: About two and a half thousand years ago, Plato saw a man beating his father with a stick. When Plato asked the man why he was doing it, the man said that in their family they always beat their fathers. This is the way it has been in this country for about the last hundred years. When our great grandparents came to this country, most of them did not know the language or the customs, and it was difficult to learn them. However, their children easily adjusted. In the process the children learned their parents were not very smart, and lost respect for them. Over the lat hundred years, that lack of respect has continued.

Talking to a politician about forty years ago, I learned that it was a common practice to give precinct captains a list of older people who had difficulty paying the property taxes. When these property taxes were not paid, the home was purchased by the precinct captain’s friends at a fraction of its cost. When many older residents are forced to leave their homes, their neighbourhood is sometimes radically changed. Younger people with children usually buy the home, and this tends to overcrowd the school. Most important, when older people are forced out of their home, they often are lost. It is frequently only a short time before they are forced into a nursing home. Would it be better if we just beat them with a stick? What do you think?

ROBERT W CARLSON
PO Box 5778,
Elgin, II 60121