Seniors are the people who have given the world its present generation of people. Many from this new generation will be making the laws that govern how we seniors live out the rest of our lives. Will they think of their mothers and fathers when they are making these laws and decisions? We pray they do.

Seniors have helped build this country. They are the ones who started many of our businesses that provide a living for the current workforce. They were the ones who worked hard to improve existing businesses and to ensure the work place was a safe one in which to work. Seniors gave their heart and souls to their endeavours. Without their steadfast contributions this country would not be what it is today.

Some seniors fought in the armed forces to keep this country safe and free and to ensure future generations of the civil liberties they now enjoy. In the workforce seniors are the ones who fought the battle for safer work conditions and better pay.

Seniors are the people who you find volunteering at special events, helping in hospitals and nursing homes, working with children in our school systems, cleaning our houses of worship, sitting with the sick and terminally ill and watching their grandchildren so that parents can work.

Just what do seniors desire for all they have given and continue to give to our communities and country? We ask very little.

Seniors deserve to be looked upon as valuable members of the community: members who are not old but wise and mature.

Seniors ask for a voice in our community instead of people dictating to them what they will do. They ask that the voice of the poor be heard, those living below the poverty line, and not just the rich who have reached 65 years old. Many are not poor by choice but from circumstances beyond their control. But all of them are still proud. Don't take that pride away from them.

Seniors are not dead yet and they desire the health care system to not speed up that process by their idea that seniors are a drain on the system and do not deserve the same level of care as the young. They are tired of being made to feel like second class citizens when it comes to health care.

Seniors aren't asking for much in return for all they have given to this world. They just want to be able to hold their heads up high, with a smile on their faces and a spring in their steps as they walk through the book of life and the chapter called seniors.

Margaret Delaney, Marilyn Torok, Mary Doan, Connie Reaker, Joann Hopkins