Seniors: A Vanishing Constituency

To the Editor:

As a “senior” myself, I was dismayed by Nancy D. Gordon’s February 20 letter, in which she advocated evicting the Children’s Adventure Center. Not satisfied with voting down two school budgets, to the severe detriment of Newtown’s children — the ones, that is, who are in their first childhood — she now has the effrontery to demand more money for herself and her contemporaries.

 I want no part of that money. Rather than reduce school services, I would address the budget crisis differently: by cutting off all services to us seniors, including, for starters, shutting down the Senior Center. Newtown’s kids need gifted programs, extracurricular activities, and reasonable school starting times more than we old folk need line dancing.

I know, I know: we’re a powerful constituency — the recent referenda proved it — and the town is afraid to antagonize us. But we’re also a vanishing constituency. Half of us will be dead by the next town election. And the rest of us won’t remember.

Martin B. Margulies

79 High Rock Road, Sandy Hook                           February 21, 2004