The calendar says I will be turning 75 next month, so I am not a young man. If I was suddenly in the news for some misfortune that has befallen me, the news report would surely describe me as “elderly.” That said, most people I meet for the first time and learn my age tell me I do not “look it” or “act it” and take me for several years younger. I do not think like an old man, nor do I feel like one (minus a few early-morning aches).
While I do take modest steps to take care of my health, I attribute the way I look and feel at my advanced age mostly to a lucky byproduct of genetics. I know plenty of people years younger than me who have not had the same luck, and every day the obituary pages include stark examples.
My point here is that a person’s chronological age or health in no way follow a set pattern. All the talk of instituting age limits on office-holders — and many other professions, by the way — to me is misguided and ageist. If someone is mentally and physically able, whatever their age, to capably perform a job or task before them, why should we be deprived of that person’s contributions because of an arbitrary limit?
However, we should not be asked to allow someone to continue in a role they clearly no longer have the capacity to fill. Mental and physical competency should be a minimum standard that all people in positions of responsibility should be measured by — and for. Age-related decline often happens slowly — then all at once.
Which brings me to Joe Biden and the current controversy over whether he is up for the job of president. I do not know if he is capable of doing the job or not. The sad fact is no one knows — at least not the general public being asked to vote for him. We know he is a proud and stubborn man, and it would not surprise me to find out that the taunts about his age by those in the opposition about his “decline” have taken up permanent residence in his head and as a result he feels compelled to defend his honor rather than make what may be the better judgment and step aside.
We all have stories, or soon will, of older relatives who had to be told it was time to stop driving, or move in with the kids, often encountering angry resistance. What may be happening in today’s White House could be a similar dynamic, but on a much larger scale.
In my view, it should be law that political leaders at the highest levels — President, Senate, House, Supreme Court — be required to submit to regular mental and physical examinations by someone other than their personal doctors and the results made public. Absent that law at present, for the good of the country both Biden and Trump should go through comprehensive examinations of their physical and mental health by unaffiliated examiners and post the results immediately so that voters have a clear picture of the candidates, and perhaps even pave the way for different candidates to emerge before the election in November, if necessary.
Kirk Effinger is a Murrieta resident. He is a former opinion columnist for the North County Times and the San Diego Union-Tribune
