Commissioner Caputo, are these miles-per-trip numbers quoted in your article based on drives during the pandemic?

People don’t drive the same amounts during a lockdown — they don’t behave the same way, at all.

We have no evidence that the patterns you quote will continue. It would be ill-advised to form public policies based on the pandemic.

When you say around half of the car owners in the U.S. are over 60, what is your point? That we don’t matter? We don’t count?  We should hurry up and die? We should check into a rest home and get it over with?

That we should walk, even though we can’t?

Your friends from South Beach aside, are you aware that we have a graying population here in America? That people are not having children because they cannot afford them? That young people are not buying homes for the same reason?

I sincerely wonder if you realize, when you write these things, how you are impacting your constituency — those who elected you. We’re not all young, buff, rich, gay men, you know!

I used to love to run 10 miles at a time! I could leg-press 800 lbs.! We all are young once. It felt like I could run forever. I also loved walking, biking, hiking, and even field hockey. I was a gifted athlete. It felt like I would live forever.

Now, I can hardly walk, due to pain.  That isn’t because I choose it! Sometimes, I dream I am running (or walking, without pain) again. I wake up, however, encased in this prison of pain. This body, and this life, are the only ones God gave me.

As the poet writes:

“Come blooming youth, as you pass by, 

And on these lines do cast an eye: 

As you are now, so once was I — 

As I am now, so you must be: 

Prepare for death and follow me.”

I realize that my writing to you in the past has fallen on deaf ears.

I recognize, too, you have a different point of view and have been elected to office. I’m only a person — perhaps I have no right to respond, or to write you, or to say anything.

It must be a joy to be so young and fit — I vividly remember the days when I was a gifted athlete. There is no feeling better in the world!

Will you do me a favor, Commissioner Caputo, and stop being so discriminatory and insensitive? Not everyone is like you, you know. It is no secret that given the right statistics, you can prove anything you like. You can choose your statistics. You can even choose your scientists, where you get your numbers!

Please don’t rub our noses in it. We already know these things you are pointing out. What you are planning, will not in the least help us cope. You are only making life harder for us.

On the other hand, when we listen to older people, we get the wisdom of the ages.

Please stop acting as if older, straight, established business owners and homeowners have nothing to offer. Nothing could be further from the truth!

Kind regards, 

Aimee Ballantyne