OPINION

As the Beatles said, I say it’s my birthday.

If only B. Jay Cooper’s wishes could come true... if only!

B. Jay Cooper

Jun 9, 2022 — 2 min read

If only B. Jay Cooper’s wishes could come true... if only!

First published: June 2022.

I turn 72 today.

Lordy.

Let me get two things out of the way:

Getting older is way better than the alternative.
I’m luckier than most, I know. I have a fabulous, smart, loving wife. I have three great daughters who gave me six beautiful grandchildren one of whom gave me, so far, one adorable great-granddaughter.

Ok, moving along.

I had a good career with jobs that were fun, challenging and rewarding. I retired about eight years ago and adapted to retired life quite quickly. And, I’m very good at being retired; I think I found my calling!

I live in a fabulous location. I’m having a good life. I have issues all old(er) folks have: the hearing aid arrives next week; the cataracts were done a couple years ago; I had a stroke nearly 20 years ago that, thankfully, left few long-term issues.

Some prospered during the pandemic & claimed hundreds of millions of pounds from the government’s furlough scheme. PMP received nothing. Help us as we crowdfund to make sure we continue our work.

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I have more doctors than I have shoes. And my annual visits to doctors now take about a month to fit in rather than the one-and-done annual physical of years ago.

In short, lots more people have a lot more to complain about than I do.

I do have a few complaints, but they’re really not about me:

I wish our politics weren’t so divided and painful to watch
I wish there were more of us who answer policy issues with “let’s talk about it” than those who respond with immovable “yesses” or “no’s”
I wish kids weren’t brutally killed in their classrooms or anywhere for that matter
I wish people were not brutally killed while they were praying or getting groceries or, again, anywhere for that matter
I wish an 11-year-old girl didn’t have to smear herself with her best friend’s blood to survive a mass shooting

Mostly, I wish wishes came true.

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— AUTHOR —

▫ B. Jay Cooper, Former deputy White House press secretary to Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush. Also headed communications offices at the RNC, U.S. Department of Commerce, and Yale University.

Sources

Text: This piece was originally published in The Screaming Moderate and re-published in PMP Magazine on 9 June 2022, with the author’s consent. | The author writes in a personal capacity.