Don't tread on Miss Ramey

It's a heckuva thing to be older than 50 in a culture where the most prized and praised citizens , born sometime after my favorite pair of shoes was made, are gorging themselves on pop culture and pre-digested popular opinion like baby birds in a nest. People who conduct telephone surveys designed to find out what canned drinks you identify with often hang up on you and if you're a woman over 50 who doesn't realize that she's the most marginalized creature on the planet and dares to act outside the role assigned her by the Kid Culture narcissists - you're an object of mockery. You're Granny.

Now if you're Clint Eastwood and you defend your home against robbers who think you're too old and timid to stop them, you're seen at least as being macho and treated with some respect, but if you're Venus Ramey, Miss America 1944; if you're a patriot who sold war bonds to help the war effort and whose image flew missions over Nazi Germany on the nose of a B-17 -- you're Granny and isn't Granny funny for not being defenseless?

Ms. Ramey of course doesn't seem to have bought in to the notion that a defenseless person is a safe person and has been around long enough to understand that calling the sheriff and waiting for him to arrive is just another form of suicide. She doesn't seem to have preferred the only option allowed in some states which is to hobble away from intruders on her walker. She may have been old and feeble, but she knows how to use a .38 and was able to shoot out the tires of the intruder who is now in custody.

The bigots at CNN of course, just had to title the story "Granny's packing heat" and so soon after chastising Don Imus for his "nappy headed" comment. We have to face it, no matter what you've done in your life; no matter how smart, wise, experienced and educated you are, your role as assigned to you by the people who think they know best because they're so young, is to sit in a chair and drool.