Yes, I'm a senior citizen; I earned it

Way back what seems like a million years ago, I was a senior in high school. Fast forward in time and I was a senior in college.

Fast forward again and I was blessed with a son. He became a junior which made me a senior once again.

Many years and countless calendar pages later, I reach a magical age where I became a senior citizen.

You see where this is going.

But now a growing number of my age peers are rebelling against the term "senior citizen" as patronizing, demeaning, discriminatory and hurtful.

I discovered this age-related movement by reading a letter to the editor of a Kansas City newspaper.

An Overland Park resident penned a letter outlining her objections to the "senior citizen" label. And she's not alone.

Last year the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society began requiring its writers to use the term "older adults" when describing individuals age 65 and older.

And now, we in this age bracket are being instructed to shun senior citizen discounts and refuse the age incentive pricing unless the term "older adult" is substituted.

The letter writer pointed out that no other age group is identified with "patronizing" labels such as adolescents, young adults, middle-age adults and now older adults.

She also points out that we don't have "junior citizens" to balance the "senior citizens".

Apparently the term "senior citizen" was ingrained in our language with the Medicare Act of 1965. And it has remained in common usage since then.

But hey, the times they are a changing, according to older adult Bob Dylan.

I can find all sorts of objections with this new name movement. In many ways, I feel I have earned the senior citizen label and wear it proudly.

And just where does this name change movement end? If I am an older adult at 70, then will I be a "really, really older adult" when -- God willing -- I reach 80?

I play golf on Wednesdays with a group of older adults. Because of our age and declining skills, we are afforded the opportunity to advance to the "senior" tees, which are closer to the green.

We call ourselves "old farts" which would likely not find favor with the Geriatric Society Journal. But then again, the Journal editors are probably just a bunch of old fuddy-duddies who spend their time rearranging our language.

With full apologies to the new language police, I embrace the term senior citizen. In a way, I have earned it.

To label my age bracket as an older adult is obvious.

But to anoint me with the term "senior" somehow ups my status.

Michael Jensen is the publisher of the Standard Democrat in Sikeston, Missouri.