Political Activism After 60

Experience Is a Civic Resource

My conversation with Darrell Parrish Bakeman about political activism after 60 raised a question that extends far beyond politics: What do we do with everything we have learned?

By the time we reach our 60s, we have accumulated decades of experience. We have watched institutions succeed and fail. We have seen cultural changes that once seemed impossible become ordinary. We have made mistakes, changed our minds, raised families, led organizations, cared for people, built communities, and learned that meaningful change rarely happens as quickly or neatly as we would like. Whatever our politics, that experience is a resource.

Civic engagement after 60 also does not have to mean spending every waking hour arguing about the news. It can mean volunteering for a cause, attending a community meeting, mentoring someone younger, helping people register to vote, serving on a neighborhood board, writing to an elected official, or simply becoming better informed about an issue affecting your community. Research on healthy aging gives us another reason to value that participation: the National Institute on Aging notes that meaningful, productive activities with others are associated with better well-being and a stronger sense of purpose.

But Darrell and I also talked about something I think is especially important right now: engagement has to be sustainable. There is a difference between caring deeply and consuming ourselves with every headline. Burnout does not make us better citizens. Neither does believing we personally have to solve every problem. At this stage of life, perhaps we can become more selective about where our experience, energy, and voice can genuinely contribute.

I am particularly interested in what happens when generations work together. Older adults bring institutional memory and perspective. Younger people bring experiences and ideas shaped by a different world. Neither has a monopoly on wisdom. Mutual mentorship asks us to enter those relationships willing both to teach and to be taught.

Retirement may mean retiring from a job. It does not require retiring from citizenship. Our voices still matter. Our experience still matters. And there are many ways to remain part of shaping the communities we will leave behind.