Getting Arrested at Age 75 — The Last Item on My Bucket List
Why This Old Woman Wants to Get Hauled off to Jail
Yeah, I know. Traveling to exotic locales tops the bucket list of most women my age. Congratulations to you if you have a bank account that supports such endeavors. However, my research tells me that for seniors with limited funds, the most popular items on their bucket lists are:
Explore one’s own city
Volunteer
Learn a new language
Read more books
Take a course in something out of your comfort zone — like Medieval History
Date someone from a different culture
Write a book
These are all “normal” items one would expect a reasonable adult would like to accomplish before exiting this earth forever.
I mean, once you’re gone, you’re gone. You won’t get a second chance at achieving your dreams, so why not go for it?
Then why on earth would something as shameful as getting arrested be on this old lady’s bucket list?
Because I didn’t get the chance when I was a 1960s college student. Although I was committed in theory to everything my fellow students were marching and protesting for — civil rights, voting rights, women’s rights, women’s reproductive rights — the terms of my college scholarships and loans prohibited me from marching in government protests. Such behavior would have been grounds for losing both. Therefore, my feet stayed firmly planted in my dorm room, not pounding the streets with protest signs and getting arrested.
But now, 50+ years later, much to my disbelieving shock, the human rights I supported, and my fellow students marched for and were arrested for supporting, are not just being taken away from us; they are being yanked out from under us at alarming speed and accuracy.
Laws are being passed to limit the voting rights of minorities (better known as Black people) in the guise of “keeping elections fair and honest; laws are being passed to strip LGBTQ people of their rights; laws are being passed to strip away women’s decisions over their own bodies. (Remember Roe v Wade???) I’m not going to list all the restrictive laws being passed in all the states. For your perusing pleasure, Google is full of maps designating which states passed which laws.
For this article, I will use the example of the laws passed in the state in which I reside — Florida. No further explanation is needed on that one.
Florida:
New Black Cultural Studies Course rejected as “lacking educational value”
So, I’m angry that, after 50+ years, these are rights that have to be fought for AGAIN. I don’t know how we let this happen, but this time I don’t have to sit on the sidelines.
If you’re watching the news one night, and see a 4' 10" little old lady with a flowered cane being handcuffed and hauled off to jail for participating in a civil protest — that’s ME! Checking off the #1 item on my bucket list.
If my sentence is long enough, I may have time to learn a new language or study Medieval History.
Resources:
States banning abortion-https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/us/abortion-laws-roe-v-wade.html
Voting restrictive laws -https://www.reuters.com/graphics/USA-ELECTION/VOTING-RESTRICTIONS/znvnbdjbkvl/index.html
Book bans- https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/05/10/school-library-database-book-ban/
LGBTQ Discrimination Laws — https://freedomforallamericans.org/states/
Senior Bucket Lists:
https://www.homecareassistancetucson.com/bucket-list-ideas-for-elderly-people/
https://www.holidayretirement.com/creating-the-ultimate-bucket-list-for-seniors/
©Joan Gershman 2023
Want unlimited access to all my stories — Click this link:
I get a small portion of your membership fee at no extra cost to you.