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Rejecting Modernity
By Andrew Walsh on Thursday, April 17, 2008.
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Word of Mouth is a show about new ideas and new trends. We often keep our sights fixed on the horizon, trying to figure out what's coming around the bend. But sometimes we come across someone who isn't so hot on our modern world -- someone who would rather look back than look forward. John Coffer is that kind of guy. He used to live a typical modern life with all the amenitites that go along with it, until one day, when he decided to turn his back on contemporary culture. Producer Megan Martin has his story.
Click here to check out Megan Martin's work on the Public Radio Exchange.
Believe it or not, John Coffer does have a website. Click here.
(Photo by Cindy Seigle)
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Word of Mouth is all about what's new. Online and on-air, the show takes the latest ideas and trends from every aspect of our culture and puts them under a microscope. Word of Mouth covers everything from healthcare and the environment, to technology and the internet, to books, movies, music and TV. The show airs Tuesdays and Thursdays at noon and is hosted by Virginia Prescott.
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Your story domonstrates continuing prejudice towards older people by making fun of them and acting as if it's a joke that they like to sing interesting music in a group setting. Why wouldn't they? Don't most other people like to sing together in groups? Your reporter seemed amazed that this could actually happen, since the singers were so "old"!
She repeated several times that some singers had died during filming, as if that was the main point of the story and was cause for incredularity and humor.
Until our society stops making fun of older people and accepts that they are just another group of grown-ups who are interested in life like most other grown-ups, we will continue to discriminate against older people simply because of their age. Isn't that what we used to do to blacks, women and Jews? If we have raised our conciousness of those groups, is it still OK to continue to make fun of older people? No,it is not acceptable to make elders the subject of derision and jokes because they are older. Older people, even very old people, are no different from anyone else. They have needs, desires, humor and sensitivities as we all do. There really was no story here. This is just another small group of people doing what makes them happy and is not a unique event. Leave them alone to be happy, not to be the subject of your bias and jokes.
I disagree. The story was interesting, cute, and thoroughly inoffensive.