(ThyBlackMan.com) President-In-Waiting Elon Musk, not to be confused with a president-elect, who assumed the US Presidency in a bloodless coup, recently suggested that all elective officials over a certain age should be tested to ensure they are mentally fit to remain in office. He made the suggestion after reports surfaced that Texas Republican House of Representatives member Kay Granger had been secretly living in a nursing home. According to published reports, she was admitted to the nursing home after being found wandering aimlessly.
Congressional voting records show she had not voted in six months. Presumably the voters of her district were unaware that she was in a nursing home when they voted for her re-election in November.
Some might find the notion of the Congresswoman wandering aimlessly amusing. However, it is not amusing when it is one’s loved one. It is not amusing when that person wandering aimlessly is themself.
Would it have made a difference in how those voters casted their votes? Probably not. For some voters all it takes is an “R” or “D” next to the person’s name that is the extent of their reasoning as for voting for or against.
Some might suggest that it is probably safer when Congress as it has been for some time now is collectively cognitively challenged. If the Congress was fully cognitive it would probably not be safe for man, woman, child, dog or cat.
A decline in a person’s cognitive abilities is not a subject for mockery, derision or joking. It should be handled with compassion and support. It should not be a political attack ad or talking point.
During the recent presidential campaign, Republican political strategists and their flunkies in the media were successful in convincing a significant number of people that President Joe Biden had experienced a drastic decline in his cognitive abilities. A decline so severe that having him in the White House would endanger and jeopardize the national security of the nation.
None of those political strategies and flunkies were doctors equipped to make such a declaration. But it did not stop them from doing so.
A similar type of campaign was successfully used against immigrants and transgender persons to convince a majority of voters those two groups were committed to ushering in the apocalypse. The strategies and media flunkies went into overdrive with misinformation, disinformation and lies. They were successful. There is also a place called hell.
Nevertheless, it did force the nation for at least a minute to think about the cognitive abilities of elected officials who were advanced in age. The focus however was short lived, misfocused and discriminatory.
Perhaps there should be a law that no one over the age of 65 should be allowed to be elected to any office, some suggested. Some even went as far as to suggest that 65 should be the mandatory retirement age for all jobs, public and private. Such a notion is arbitrary and discriminatory.
I would not have any problem with such a law if included in that law was the prohibition for those under the age of 40 from holding public office as well as a public or private job. Whereas there may be a decline in cognitive abilities after 65 there clearly is a cognitive deficiency which exists among individuals 40 and younger.
It seems many individuals in this country don’t really mature and have good sense until after they are 35. Let’s be real. “They be young and dumb.”
As an attorney once said before a jury when giving her summation, “Look my client is guilty. All the evidence points that way. There is no question that he did it. Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles both can see that he is guilty. We did not call one witness nor did we cross examine any witnesses. We refuse to waste your time.
“My client is young and dumb. He has a young and dumb card which we would like to use at this time. Those of you on the jury who are older than 35 have been there and understand fully where my client is.”
Under the proposed law only individuals 40 to 65 would be eligible to work. They would be the only ones allowed to hold an elected office. They would be the only ones to be able to vote.
Furthermore, they would be the ones to serve in the military. Military service would be mandatory without exception age 40 to 65.
If other countries had a similar law of mandatory military service age 40 to 65, and those holding elected office were 40 to 65, more than likely there would not be wars. Why? Because the only people required to fight in the war would be those responsible for declaring war. If nothing else it would deter people past military service age from sending individuals in their 20s and 30s to fight and die in some godforsaken war.
The drinking age and the age when an individual would legally be allowed to consume alcohol and use recreational drugs would be 40.
The age when an individual could legally obtain a driver’s license would be 40. After age 65 an individual would not be legally permitted to have a license or drive.
There would be a radical drop in automobile accidents. Individuals under 40 who love to text and drive as well as multi-task as they race nowhere important would no longer be on the road. Individuals over 65 who might forget what they were doing and where they were at would also be off the road.
Included in such a sweeping law would be a provision that restricted childbirth until 40 years of age. At birth all children male and female would be surgically prevented from being able to reproduce until age 40. When they reached 40 the procedure that prevented them from being able to reproduce would be reversed.
No longer would there be children giving birth to children. Such a restriction should also radically reduce emotional, maturity or economic considerations which often factor into abortion.
To provide a certain degree of security, cognitive tests should be mandatorily administered to all individuals in the US regardless of age or occupation. With the legalization of cannabis and probably not too far from now other stimulants perhaps cognitive testing and drug testing should be a daily requirement for all.
Most people would be alarmed and disturbed if the person flying the plane which they were on was high on some potent stimulant. They might be just as upset as having placed a significant sports bet only to find out later one of the players or players were on the court or field physically, but their minds were on Mars.
Finally, not only should there be cognitive tests there should also be literacy tests for voting. Just prior to the person entering the polling booth to cast their vote they would be subject to a quick true and false as well as multiple choice test.
There would be a couple of questions reading conspiracy theories for which a wrong answer would disqualify the person from having their vote tallied. It might cause the process of voting to take a tab longer. It would probably significantly reduce the number of votes tallied. It might result in a cadre of more enlightened and sane elected office holders.
Hopefully when President Elon Musk officially takes office, he will consider cognitive testing for all sectors, public and private. Put in place the technology to prevent someone who is impaired from operating a vehicle of any type.
As for what would individuals 65 and old do? Well, they would do what they do now, talk about the good old days and repeat word for word the same old stories they have told a hundred times or more. As for those 40 and under, what they could do would be what they do best now and that is kick rocks.
Staff Writer; Al Alatunji
