Are Older People Useless? Does Dan Patrick Want My Husband To Die?

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My husband is 78 years old today; clearly one of the older people and Dan Patrick wants him to die. Yes, Dan Patrick, the Republican Lt. Gov. of Texas, appears to want my husband to depart from this earthly life.

My husband adroitly runs three companies and keeps several thousand people employed.

But Dan Patrick wants him to die.

With the necessary closure of his local office, my husband now has considerably upped his workload to help keep the business going and make sure his employees get paid.

Dan Patrick wants him to die.

I turn 71 this summer. I also fit squarely in the category of “older people.”

Dan Patrick also wants me to die.

I direct the charitable giving of our company. We recently made a significant contribution to a local charity that ensures school children eat and financially fragile families get help when they need it.

But Dan Patrick wants me to die.

I mentor several younger women, helping to steer them through and find stability as they wade through life crises.

But Dan Patrick wants me to die.

Together, my husband and I intentionally spend money that we could instead selfishly sock away in order to help keep the economy alive and people employed.

But Dan Patrick wants us to die.

When we go out, we seek to tip generously whenever possible so we can leave smiles on people’s faces.

But Dan Patrick wants us to die.

Because of our extensive combined family, we practically keep the birthday card industry, book stores, toy emporiums, and floral shops in business.

But Dan Patrick wants us to die.

I have a large circle of knowledgeable, healthy, energetic female friends, all older people, many of whom have either founded or run local charitable and service agencies.

But Dan Patrick wants all of to die.

That large circle of friends also look after their grandchildren, care for the weak and ill, cook for the hungry, clothe the stranger, and generally offer goodness and grace in thousands of unseen ways.

But Dan Patrick wants us all to die.

Yep, that’s the GOP solution at this moment in crisis: kill off the older people, and then everyone else can get back to work and back to “normal” again.

Seems like such a simple solution. Get rid of the vulnerable immediately, assume everyone else will get a light case of Covid-19 (that assumption, however, is more than false), and we’ll have a booming economy again.

However, the US and the world face a crisis that, because of our interconnectedness, will end up disrupting the idea of “normalcy” for every single person and for every nation. In the midst of and on the other side of the Covid-19 pandemic, we will see a nearly total reordering of everything we’ve ever known or done.

I suggest that killing off the older adults, the repository of massive amounts of wisdom and healing energy, may not be the best way to deal with this. But Dan Patrick finds us disposable and unnecessary.

May God have mercy on his soul. And may the people remove him, and anyone else who thinks that older people are useless and thus dispensable, from elected office at the earliest possibility.

Time to show real respect for human life.

The Rev. Dr. Christy Thomas is a retired clergy member of the North Texas Annual Conference. This post is republished with permission from her blog, The Thoughful Pastor, on Patheos.com.