OPINION

from The Mesa Tribune - Zone 2 - 10.24.2021

by Times Media Group

BUSINESS

THE MESA TRIBUNE | OCTOBER 24, 2021

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Getting older has made me look differently at aging

BY DAVID LEIBOWITZ

Tribune Columnist

The first time I poked fun at the Rolling Stones for being too old to rock-n-roll was in 1997. The band, led by then-54-year-old Mick Jagger, was in Tempe to play Sun Devil Stadium.

Lead guitarist Keith Richards was a few weeks shy of turning 54 – a couple years younger than I am today. The Stones must have torn it up that night, because news reports from the concert indicate that sparks from their pyrotechnics set off a huge blaze in some bleachers behind the stage.

So much for my jokes about that being The Depends Tour.

I raise the point out of a desire to clarify some things concerning the concept of old age. One, despite having multiple college degrees by the time I reached my thirties, I was still a naive jackass. Retrospect is startling that way, helping you know what you don’t know.

Two, the older I get, the more distant old age feels. Part of that is wishful thinking. But also, it seems to take longer to get old in the 21st century, with all our technology and science than it did back a couple decades ago. Or so I’ve deluded myself.

In addition to swabbing away some of my naivete, aging has also increased my tolerance. One example is the newfound respect I have for Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady, who at 44 is leading the National Football League in passing yards and completions while chasing an unfathomable eighth Super Bowl ring.

For context, Cardinals QB Kyler Murray was 3 when Brady made his NFL debut.

Brady peaking again this late in athletic life makes you wonder how long he can go without a noticeable decline in performance. I had the same thought a few weeks ago while listening to Don Henley, lead singer of The Eagles, hit some impossibly high notes on classics like “One Of These Nights” and “Desperado.”

At age 74, Henley sounds no different than he did back in the day. If his voice is being helped along by autotune or technical wizardry, I couldn’t tell. What’s more, I didn’t care. On a Saturday night in September in downtown Phoenix, surrounded by 15,000 other lunatics who also knew every lyric – and didn’t mind coming out in the midst of a pandemic – you could close your eyes and be transported back to 1977, when “Hotel California” first hit FM radio and shot up to Number One on Casey Kasem’s American Top 40.

That’s something age has taught me about music, movies, television and books: The best art not only captures a unique story, it helps us capture a unique state of self. Great songs are like thumbtacks affixing certain moments in time in our minds and hearts.

It’s a quality that my older self appreciates, in the same way I have a new appreciation for The Rolling Stones. I plunked down a small fortune the other day to see them in Las Vegas next month, nearly 24 years to the day after I skipped them in Tempe.

Jagger is 78. Richards and Ronnie Wood are 77. Drummer Charlie Watts passed away in August at age 80.

Used to be, I found something mortifying about the idea of Mick cavorting about bare-chested in leather pants, singing “if you start me up, I’ll never stop” at an age when most of his peers were worrying more about sitting up. Not anymore. Now I get it.

Whoever barked “act your age” was some know-it-all in his thirties who’d read a bunch of books but hadn’t really lived at all. ■

Mark Kelly may be getting tutorial in Arizona politics

BY JD HAYWORTH Tribune Columnist

If airline and orbital miles were interchangeable, Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Arizona, would never have to purchase a plane ticket. Kelly, who logged more than 22 million miles orbiting the earth as an astronaut, hopes voters will upgrade his status and grant him a full six-year term in November 2022.

Currently, he’s on “standby.”

Facing the prospect of a spirited Republican challenge next year, the freshman Democrat hopes to employ the advantage of incumbency to keep his job. That’s growing increasingly difficult, given the poor presidential record of Joe Biden.

So, Kelly welcomes the chance to focus on Arizona issues, as he can be seen an advocate for the state. That was the case earlier this month when he chaired a water and power subcommittee hearing dealing with drought in the west.

Kelly’s scripted opening remarks included a shoutout to the home folks: “We’ve got this old saying in Arizona: ‘Whiskey is for drinking and water is for fighting.’”

There’s accuracy in that anecdote, as Kelly is discovering.

An emerging controversy over water has delayed cocktail hour indefinitely, and this fight goes well beyond the Colorado River and a shrinking Lake Mead.

The radical leftists in the House who so often outmaneuver Speaker Nancy Pelosi have also thrown a monkey wrench into Kelly’s re-election plans. It comes in the form of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). PFAS, or polyfluoroalkyl substances, comprise a major class of heat-resistant chemicals found in products like nonstick pans, adhesives, wire insulation and waterproof clothes. House Democrats thrust the “PFAS Action Act of 2021” into the NDAA because it wouldn’t likely pass both chambers as standalone legislation.

As written, the PFAS verbiage is so extreme that it would derail military procurement. It was even too much for the Biden White House, which quietly pushed back, noting such a provision “would prohibit DoD from procuring a wide range of items.”

While the manufacture of PFAS has been phased out in the United States over long-term health concerns – primarily residues from fire-fighting foams – it is still produced overseas. Because our military has about 750 installations internationally, an immediate halt to buying all products that might contain PFAS would basically render the supply system useless.

Prior to his time as an astronaut, naval aviator Mark Kelly and his shipmates relied on PFAS, most notably contained in aqueous film foaming foam (AFFF). Our Navy regards AFFF as the most effective way to extinguish fuel oil fires aboard ship.

The development of AFFF occurred in the late 1960s, following the tragic fire aboard the USS Forrestal off the coast of Vietnam. That blaze was narrowly escaped by another naval aviator who later served Arizona in the Senate: John McCain. In the 2020 special election to fill the late Sen. McCain’s seat, Mark Kelly persuaded Arizona voters to favorably compare him by emphasizing similar military service, while downplaying different party labels. But while McCain relished “going rogue” in the Senate, Kelly cast himself as a “practical problem solver.”

Now that he is completing the remainder of McCain’s final term, striking a balance between environmental protection and military readiness will test that claim.

The most important principle for an of-

ficeholder to remember is what they see and hear at home. This columnist came to understand that Arizonans’ concerns about clean water and a strong national defense are not mutually exclusive. Sen. Kelly faces a similar tutorial. The bumbling of the Biden administration has turned the political skies unfriendly for Democrats. Given his considerable experience aloft, Mark Kelly knows he’ll need to keep his seatbelt fastened. There is severe turbulence ahead. ■