THE GRAY PANTHER
THE GRAY PANTHER 3. The Gray Panthers is an organization composed largely of older Americans devoted to social change. Its name is a play on the infamous Black Panthers, an armed militant group representing many African Americans during the tumultuous 1960s. Go to the Gray Panthers website and click on “Information” and “History” to learn more about this organization. Note that links for new social media are included (e.g. FaceBook and Twitter). Does this contradict popular stereotypes of the elderly? http://www.graypanthers.org
The gray panther is an organization in the United States, which was founded in 1970 by Maggie Kohn in response to her early retirement at age 65. Although the organization’s initial purpose was to gather a group of intimate friends to look at common problems faced by retirees (such as loss of income, loss of contact and a job), they later discovered they were experiencing a time of freedom in which they could passionately speak and act in what they believed in. that is how today the organization a wide variety of issues such as; a single payer healthcare system, as well as an increase in welfare payments, “lifelong public educations”, pacifism; rights of workers, abolition of death penalty and environmentalism through advocacy among many others. The gray panthers vision can truly give us a picture as to what we as Americans hope for; the vision is to create a humane society that puts the needs of people over profits, responsibility over power, and democracy over institutions. Although at the beginning this organization was mainly formed of retired friends, now it’s a national organization made up of local networks. Each network consists of a leader known as a “Convenor”. People of all ages participate united by same interest in a wide variety of issues. All issues are voted on by members at periodic national conventions, the board of directors then determines how to address the priority issues and take action. Currently as in the beginning of the organization the main issue is healthcare, because the gray panthers believe it’s a human right that should have access of regardless of social class, race sex ethnicity, etc. Other significant issues include: are responsibility to protect and sustain our planet;