By Shirley Auman

I am offended by the biased stereotyping and sweeping generalizations about “senior citizens” present in the April 3 letter from Christian Renaudin. I find it to be a misleading letter, implying that all senior citizens in Davis would be exempt from the Measure A tax. In fact, any such exemption would only be granted to senior citizens requesting it. While it might make more sense to grant exemptions based on income, my understanding is that state law doesn’t allow that.

Not only are many senior citizens willing to “pitch in their support” to support the schools for this “current working and parenting generation,” but we are also the working and parenting generation of the past who helped make the Davis schools the fine institutions they have been and are.

Our family has been paying an additional parcel tax for the schools almost from the time we moved here with our two young children — who are now 36 and 40 years old. We have, in fact, worked hard to get some of those past measures passed. We, too, watched health care and college tuitions peak, pushing us almost to the breaking point when we still had minor children.

The “generous retirement plans” of those senior citizens who receive Social Security in the U.S. average $14,000 per year. Based on figures from the 2000 Census, about 5.4 percent of families and 24.5 percent of the population in Davis are below the poverty line, including 6.8 percent of those under age 18 and 2.8 percent of those 65 or older.

I think the exemption for senior citizens (which, remember, must be requested by those who feel they need it) was originally added to the language of the school parcel tax measures to try to lighten the burden on those older citizens who were struggling financially and whose situation might make fewer voters willing to support the measure. If Measure A passes, most of us older citizens will be able and willing to pay it — just as we have all the others.

Sorry our generation didn’t “show enough wisdom” in our planning for the future. Though I am not a double doctor (DVM and PhD) and CEO like Dr. Renaudin, I am smart enough to recognize and be proud of the accomplishments of the “senior citizen” generation. Here in Davis, I see slow-growth ordinances, sustainable-living Village Homes and the first privately organized senior-living cooperative in the U.S. I see DPNS and the beautiful Davis Art Center. I see bike paths, green belts, the Davis Food Co-op and Rainbow Park. I see the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts.

I see the people who worked hard to make all these and many more things happen; many of them are (gasp) senior citizens now. We have coached teams, led scout troops, driven on field trips, fund raised, bake saled and PTAed. We didn’t just choose to live in a great town; we built a great town. And that doesn’t even take into account larger, national accomplishments in the areas of the environment, civil rights, gay rights and women’s rights.

The current working and parenting generation stands on the shoulders of my working and parenting generation — just as we stood on the shoulders of those before us. There is no need to cast aspersions at any group; we are all in this together.

— Shirley Auman is a Davis resident and retired educator.

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