Next week Ashton Applewhite will be joining Bill Thomas & team onstage in Columbus to kick off the Midwest Swing as the Second Wind Tour’s anti-ageism Agitator in Chief!
So far the Second Wind Tour’s five-hour “nonfiction theater” experience has has centered largely around personal growth and reimagining aging. But starting now we’re taking advantage of Ashton’s razor wit and advocacy to make ending ageism a central focus of the Second Wind Tour.
Make sure you visit the Second Wind Tour Blog and especially the Tour Tumblr, where we will publish a series of graphics for the Second Wind Tour #EndAgeism Campaign.
What is the root of ageism in our society? Dr. Bill Thomas argues that our society venerates and idealizes youth while ignoring elders with real lived experience, making them invisible. It is perpetuated in the mass media by what he calls “the doctrine of youth perfection”.
Last weekend Nashville Public Television debuted an outstanding documentary “Aging Matters“, exploring the changing face of aging and what our community faces as the baby boomer generation grows the over 65 population to unprecedented numbers. Watch Bill and other experts talk about ageism in the excerpt below.
Watch the full episode here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qr1_7kIfhlA#t=678
