I want to start a big-scope, all-over-the-place, powerful movement. I want to call it LOLAT – Little Old Ladies Against Trump. I can practically see the headlines – LOLAT prevents an innocent immigrant from being deported; LOLAT helps restore funding for critical medical research; LOLAT is key in restoring jobs to frivolously-fired employees; LOLAT facilitates return of precious savings to people who worked all of their lives so they wouldn’t be homeless and hungry when they got old.

Wouldn’t that be great! 

The problems with this idea are numerous. First, who would listen to a bunch of old women (of which I am one) when our society tends to assign laughable, stereotyping, demeaning  behaviors, and images to all of us in the category of ‘older’- and that includes men. Second, even if some people did listen to and pay attention to LOLAT and its mission and message, how could these ideas and actions get into public view. This raises a third really important question: what exactly would LOLAT’s message and mission be? My own thinking about a mission statement is scattered and fuzzy, but it includes all of the things that are assaulting our tradition, history, and moral compass each day. Every morning there is more news about the instability that impacts us personally, nationally, and globally.

Many of us may not know people who have been threatened or actually experienced deportation, but I have first-hand knowledge that it is happening. Acquaintances – both close and distant – have or are about to lose critical grants for ground-breaking, potentially life-enhancing clinical studies. Esteemed government employees I know are in negotiations about severance packages while putting out feelers for a new income source. I try not to look too much at the steep decline in value of my personal savings that I worked hard for over forty years. Even with this financial loss, I feel lucky, that I’m unlikely to be without a place to live and will have enough money to put simple food on the table. 

There is still this issue of the name – LOLAT– because it uses the term “Little Old Lady (LOL).” I sort of agree that LOL could be a bit of a negative trigger. But, LOLAT has a certain ring and cachet to it. There is strong and immediately-retrieved imagery of a LOL so someone doesn’t have to think too much about the designation. Also, the reality is that I happen to be ‘Little,’ that I am ‘Old,’ although I have friends who are quite a bit older than I am and many who are younger. The biggest concern for me is ‘Lady.’ I don’t see myself a ‘lady’ but rather, a woman – a strong woman. I have lived through and dealt with many ups and downs as all of us older people have. We know we can manage through good and bad times, and we can be creative in how we deal with challenges. And, yes, what we are living through now is a huge, frightful challenge. 

Given this, and with my many years of accumulated knowledge and experience along with that of the rest of us ‘olds,’ what to do? I don’t know, but I am putting this out there. Maybe it will spark something, somewhere, sometime. In the meantime, I will continue to tell you what issues are on my mind – this is a gigantic one.