Singer

Whitney Houston once sang, "I believe the children are the future, teach them well and let them lead the way." Children are our future. They will be making our laws, curing diseases, inventing revolutionary products etc. These, along with many others, are reasons why there is so much emphasis on our youth and youth in general. Without them we would cease to exist.

While youth is very important to society, the older generation plays a very significant role as well. Our elders are our teachers, our wisdom, and our key to the future. You don't know where you're going until you know where you've been. Elders can tell us where they've been and in turn we will take their wisdom to where we are going; the future. However elders aren't always treated with the respect, sometimes due to their senile and controlling behavior, and sometimes because of youth's ignorance/innocence.

American society in general sh*ts on old people. Weather it be a teenage boy heckling an old lady raking her lawn, or an adult shoving their parents in a ratty nursing home only to be straw fed and eventually led to certain death. Growing old in America isn't a very great experience. Everywhere you go you see older people trying to look younger, biggest example being dyed hair. Wearing make-up, and most disturbingly, plastic surgery is another. Advertisements suggesting that looking young is the be all end all are directed toward older people because they know that a majority of older people want to fit in and look like the ideal young person. That is why a lot of older people get flattered when you say they look younger than they really are. This is also why they will get pissed off when you tell them that they look older than they really are.

I think we, as a society should treat our elders with respect just for the fact that they've witnessed so many different events and different times than we have. They have so much knowledge in them, but they don't get too many chances to express them. Elders are a precious resource that we must value more than we do today.