Throwaway Society

In my Survey of Lit II class we had a discussion about what part of our society here in the United States are considered thrownaway.  This discussion was brought about because our lesson Monday night was on Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal (if you haven't read it then you need to it's wonderful , I didn't understand the meaning of it at first but once my wonderful teacher broke it down for us I did).  A Modest Proposal is about how to fix a problem that was going on in Ireland, woman didn't have a way to provide for their families because most of the men didn't work, the solution was "that you would raise Irish babies for food".  The English treated the Irish, during the Age of Enlightenment, as if they were animals.  IF you are going to treat people like animals then you might as well go all out (sell them for food like cows).  Back to the point of this blog.......my professor brought up a point that I hadn't really ever thought about and now I can't get it out of my mind.  In the United States the elderly are thrownaway.  When they get to a certain age and cannot take care of themselves they just get thrown into a nursing home.  Not all nursing homes are bad.  My best friends mom is in a nursing home for rehab after breaking a hip and everytime we go visit her all the elderly are sitting in the lobby (99% are in wheel chairs) crowded together in a circle. There is no interaction with that I see with others besides other elderly people.  A lot of these men and woman are not in "their right mind" and really don't have a clue what is going on.  And what I have observed most don't have families that come see them or maybe they just aren't there when I am.  It saddens me that the elderly are treated this way because "they don't have much longer". YES they are given their medications and they are feed (if they will eat) but most of the time there is no interaction with anyone besides the nurses.  My professor told us that a friend of his parent was in a nursing home and would not eat.  The doctor called and said that he/she would not eat and they weren't going to put a feeding tube in because he/she wasn't going to live much longer anyways.  So essentially the doctor was going to starve him/her to death.  Why?? Just because the doctor didn't feel that the elderly person was going to die.  Well the feeding tube was inserted and that person lived for another 5 years.  I personally don't understand why we do this to the elderly, why are we just throwing them away.  I pray that I can start going to nursing homes and visiting with some of the patients that don't have any family that comes to see them, recently our Sunday School ladies went to a nursing home to do actives and visit with the elderly and I just couldn't make it, yes I had other plans but deep down it was because I hadn't step foot into an nursing home since my great grandmother had passed away.  I was scared that I would get close to one of these elders and they too would die.  Maybe that is why people give up on elders, because they are going to die anyways.  I don't want to have that mindset.  They are people too we shouldn't give up on them, I wouldn't want anyone to give up on me.  My heartaches for them. 
We are held more responsible, by God, for how we treat others that cannot help themselves, than how we treat those who can stick up for themselves.