Social Security -- personal narratives. Here's my story. What's your's?

[nashville_brook]

Bush's numbers stink on his Social Security privatization tax-cut bailout scheme. It doesn't add up to bailing out Social Security -- it only bails his ass by letting him make the tax-cut permanent. He even has to borrow money to get it started. On it's face, it's a ridiculous proposal.

On the other end of the rhetorical spectrum is the subjective angle on privatizing Social Security. This is the side of the debate where babies get sick and war veterans die from exposure waiting for housing. The world is our oyster here, in terms of steering the debate.

Everyone has something to say about Social Security and I think we need to start speaking up. It's not called "Personal Security." "Social" implies it's directed at us as a group, not as individuals. Coincidentally, that's a basic principle of Civilization; to organize life in a such a way as to provide for the many as well as the great. When you begin to share your stories you can feel extra good about participating in this exercise -- it's about no less than preserving Civilization, and it's easy. I'll start.

My experience on Social Security:

I was abandoned by my mother when I was born. My Grandmother took me home from the hospital and eventually adopted me. My grandfather/adopted-father was a pharmacist, and managed a drug store in Leesburg, Florida. It was 1966.

My a-father was a world-class alcoholic. As a young man in the 20s, he had served on the Board of Mayor and Alderman of Boca Raton, if that gives you any idea to his manner. Well-educated. Status-seeking. Grandmother was abandoned herself as a child, which is why I think she took me in even though she was recovering from a laminectomy when I came along.

After my grandfather went completely belly-up on a bad business deal, my grandmother was keen enough to get her real estate license and soon acquired seven rental properties -- almost all of which were intended as "a place for my mother to stay." She has the alcoholic gene too, but something else has rattled her cage. Abuse. Birth defect. Madness. It's been impossible to say exactly what her problem is. She's brilliant, though -- consumed with greek mythology, romantic poetry and pure grain alcohol. This is why she abandoned me in the first place. She was incapable of taking care of herself, let alone a baby.

About the time I turned six, my grandfather had a heart attack and open-heart surgery. He couldn't return to work, and was a couple of years away from retirement. Social Security paid a small amount of disability and luckily, we had those rental properties generating a little income (not much tho, as they were still greatly leveraged). Grandmother sold what she could to cover hospital bills and kept a couple that produced cash. With the Social Security checks and the rental income we were able to get by.

Then something happened and they cut off the checks -- my grandfather mysteriously fell through some bureaucratic hole and we were left HANGING for months. That's when my biological mother came back -- with a new kid. I had a half-brother.

It's never good when someone shows up at your door step with a child and no visible means of support, but it's especially bad when your Social Security has been cut off. Two senior citizens: one with a cracked-open chest, the other with a broken back, and a six-year old child. How are we going to support two more?

It wasn't easy. We drove to Ocala to get "Commodity Foods" every other week. Theyy gave us nasty orange drink powder, powdered milk, olio, peanut butter (it was gross), some frozen mystery meats and lots of vegetables. My mother collected Aid To Families With Dependent Children. So, with Social Security, Commodity Foods, and AFDC, we were able to stay afloat. We had gone from being a professional family (albeit with some typical Irish drinking problems) to a Welfare Family in a matter of months.

I only made it "out" because of Pell Grants and Stafford Loans. I've since been able to go back and help my biological mother. I do what I can from a distance. I can't think about life without Social Security. I know I wouldn't be sitting here at my laptop agitating. I wouldn't have made it to college.

I'm sharing this story because I know the greatness of Social Security isn't in the generosity it extends to individuals. Social Security is for US, as a society and culture. We don't want to live in a world where most seniors can't afford to live. If you lived in Florida, that would be most everyone you see. They already can't afford their healthcare as it is. We don't want to live in a world where the sick, old and disabled have no support. That is not the America I grew up in. We don't want to live in a world where the insane have no access to healthcare or housing. That isn't a world worth living in. These things affect everyone of us.

I don't care how much you've managed to sock away for your golden years -- if you're going to be surrounded by sick, homeless people, your life is going to suck too.