The first thing you need to know is that I’m 92 years old

Americans over 80 have lived through more than a third of our nation's 250-year history. We asked them why this moment feels different. Barbara, 92, is one of those elders. Here's what she has to say.

My name is Barbara Green, and the first thing you need to know is that I’m 92 years old. Which means I’ve lived through not so far from forty percent of American history. That includes a lot of hard things—the Second World War, the Cold War, the Vietnam War. Did I mention the McCarthy era? But the current time is the worst time. 

All my life my generation kept working to make America a better place. For instance, we built the hospice movement, to help people in the last days of their lives. The one I organized in Lansing Michigan is still going strong, 40 years later. They call me the ‘mother of hospice in Lansing.’

Now I live in an apartment on a busy corner in Washington DC. I wake up every morning with a feeling of dread, wondering what the president has done or said while I was sleeping. It’s not normal. But if it’s designed to make us shut up, it’s not working. I’m a part of Third Act. We’ve organized in our building, turning out lots of people to hold signs on the street corner and take part in the big protests. I phone bank every week to turn out voters. We’re even working to change the law in the District of Columbia so we can have solar panels on our balconies. Every morning my sense of patriotism calls on me to get up and get dressed and get started on the things I have to do. 

All this craziness will end when enough of us say “No.”