Last week, after the assassination attempt on former President Trump, I saw a meme: “Gen Z experiences its 147thworld-historic event in real-time.”

Yes, it’s been an eventful time in American history, capped most recently by President Biden’s decision to withdraw from the presidential campaign. And while Gen Z might have had a tumultuous experience over the last two decades, I'd argue that what Biden experienced tells us a lot about our shared humanity, from the most difficult truths to how we might handle them.

Late last night I posted this on Facebook:

“A final thought before I go to bed. The one thing you can’t be in America is old. In the end, they treated him like a malfunctioning thing, not a human being at all. A person with feelings and character. A person who gave his all for public service. Who bore unspeakable tragedy and grief, and came back with grace. No, he wasn’t perfect. But this? This was cold. And moneyed. Love and grief. Of course I support Kamala. But I need a moment too. Maybe no news this week? All the knives in full display. It was sickening.”

The vast majority of my friends agreed, though there were a few who mentioned Gaza, Anita Hill, and their impression that Biden was in decline, so this needed to happen. But I am not here to judge him by what I and others think were his worst moments, or laud him for what I see as his many great moments and achievements. I’m just a human being, noticing what happened, and what happened very quickly, after he had a bad debate night on June 27.

We all grow old, if we’re lucky. We may age differently, but America is not exactly kind to its elderly. Subjectively, a friend noted that he had been shunned as he aged. The World Health Organization states:

“Age is one of the........

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