Friday, February 19, 2010

Dear AARP:


I’m certain that this is not the first letter of this kind that you have received, but I sincerely hope it is not the last!

I received membership materials from you today. I have to tell you that as I approached “middle age,” I actually looked forward to joining AARP. My parents were both members and I was grateful that they had an advocate…since it seems our society has been, more and more, turning its back on the elderly and focusing on the young (who unfortunately are looking less and less likely to live up to their potential – I can say this with all honesty because I work in “higher education,” and I’m constantly amazed at the illiterate and unlearned students we have here at my university).

However, now that I qualify for membership in AARP, I see that the organization has changed. It is no longer an advocate for the elderly. It has become a rubber-stamp for the dangerously progressive and radical administration that is currently in power (no pun intended on the word “power,” since they have proven in little over a year to be hell-bent on grabbing as much power as they possibly can as quickly as they can…and it looks like AARP is whole-heartedly supporting them).

Your so-called “membership benefit” of a spokesperson for my rights in Washington is such a falsehood that it makes my blood boil. Your avowed endorsement of the proposed legislative efforts to force universal healthcare on this country is a knife in the back of the very segment of society whose interests you claim to represent. The fact that, if passed, such a bill will institute massive cuts in Medicare does not seem to concern you, although it is of deep concern to your membership and other elder citizens who intelligently refuse membership. I suspect that your lack of concern about Medicare stems from the fact that you are in the insurance business yourself, and your support of the gutting of Medicare smacks of the basest, most avaricious self-serving motivation.

Shame on you for betraying your constituency in favor of your own selfish interests. I hope and pray that every one of your members will wake up, resign, and tell your officials to take a flying leap. I’m doing so…right now.