Former Colorado Governor Dick Lamm found himself with a bad case of "foot in mouth" disease after making his now famous/infamous remark that was attributed as "old people had a responsibility to die." Read on for a lesson in media persecution and how things taken out of context can get you in real trouble.

Lamm was invited to speak to the National Conference of Editorial Writers at the Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs back in the late 1980s. His reputation as a doomsayer or as "Governor Gloom" was part of his persona. Lamm's way with words and ideas and affinity for making his case by using an invisible two by four between the eyes made him a perfect speaker for such a group.

During Lamm's speech, he took a hit at the outrageous costs of special education, then moved on to the ethical ramifications and the astronomical costs of high-tech medicine such as for an artificial heart. Lamm's exact comment was this, "We've got a duty to die and get out of the way with all of our machines and artificial hearts and everything else like that and let the other society -- our kids -- build a reasonable life."

That remark became headline news by New York's tabloid Daily News, but was not exactly what Lamm said. "Aged are told to drop dead" was the screaming headline! The cartoonists had a field day, even portraying Lamm in a row boat using the oar to force the bobbing elderly back under water.

Once out there, just as with the town gossip monger's lies, no one cared to hear the truth, or the explanation by Lamm. Of course, Lamm's explanation that he had not been talking about the elderly but about terminally ill individuals who were being tortured by treatment that was prolonging their dying never got the mileage the tabloid headline version received.

Back to the original question -- who decides who is old? Each person seems to reach a birthday that hits him or her like an invisible two by four between the eyes, and gets our attention that time is marching on, whether it is 40, 50 or 60. For this writer, it was the half-century mark.

We of the 21st century have the benefit of oh so many anti-aging guidelines and preventives that what used to be expected as the years pass and we age is long-dead (no pun intended). You can no longer look at a man or woman and necessarily guess their age.

Well-known motivational guru Deepak Chopra is adamant that our bodies are meant to last for a hundred or more years. It is the detrimental conduct humans inflict on their bodies, and yes their attitudes toward aging, that wears the human body out, according to Chopra.

We have been coached from a young age that "old" is determined by a chronological number, but here in the 21st century, 70 is the new 50, 50 is the new 30, so that theory flies out the window.

The elixirs of youth are abundant and the industry makes its purveyors billions each year (as in $50 billion annually). The risk of some of those "elixirs of youth" also have the potential to indeed stop aging, but not in the way seekers long for. Remember, dying also stops the aging process!

Most readers have heard that put down, "act your age," but with all the advances in medical technology and the awareness of environmental health hazards, we can also throw that one out the window, too.

So, maybe now we are left with the cliché that gives the answer to the question posed at the beginning. "Age is all in your mind." Give long and hard thought to that idea. Grab hold and never let go. Realize then, you are who decides who is old!

Doris Beaver is a freelance writer who writes on a broad spectrum of issues on her website, www.dorisbeaver.com.