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M a rc h 22, 2000 Page A 4 (Elje ^Jorthuift (Obseruer Articles do not necessarily reflect or represent the views of (Elie llortlanb (Mseruer £E Opinion ■■■■ m m B R H M i AntiSocialln Security Spring break and underage bt J ol K lsmjv ©1|C sportiani» <©bseruer A couple o f years back, w e addressed (m aybe undressed?) the Social Security situation. Since then, m uch m ore has been said than done about this m ajor disaster in the making. These days, as then, any politician w orthy o fth e nam e - or, in this case, the sham e - will solem nly assure you that Social Security is not "on the table” in d is c u s s io n s o f b u d g e t b a la n c in g a n d d e f ic it re d u c tio n . For once, these devious deceivers are correct - at least m etaphorically. Social Security is N O T on the table; rather, it’s on a gurney, rolling hell-for- leather tow ard a slab in the morgue! This sorry scenario is a tragic variation o f that light-hearted y am about the em peror’s suit o f clothes. W hile our elected officials and their hired minions cluck, cackle and crow about a “solem n obligation to beneficiaries” and the "basic soundness o f the concept,” nobody dares m ention the grim underlying truth that there ain ’t no m oney there - not a plugged nickel! W hat used to be a tangible, solvent trust fund has been totally depleted by governm ent spending on everything from congressional junkets to USPS 959-680 Established 1970 STA FF E d it o r P C in h ie f , u b l is h e r Charles H. Washington research on cattle flatulence. In place o fth e hard - and hard-earned - cash deposited by a huge num ber o f past w orkers, there is now only a stack o t IOU s signed by U ncle Sam, w hich will have to be redeem ed by a dim inishing num ber o f future laborers in the vineyard of Am erican life. T hese unfortunate victims are better know n as the younger m em bers o f our national society, including the children and grandchildren o f anyone old enough to be reading this. N eed 1 say it again? U nless they pony up the paym ents, now and well into the sw eet bye-and-bye, there will be no future Social Security benefits for E d i T o R Larry J. Jackson, Sr. B u s in e s s M anager Gary Ann Taylor C opy E d it o r J o v Ram os C r e a t iv e D drinking a bad mixture ir e c t o r Shawn Strahan 4747 NE Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. Portland, OR 97211 503-288-0033 Fax 503-288-0015 e-mail pdxobserv@aol.com P ostmaster : Send address changes to Portland Observer PO Box 3 1 3 7 Portland, OR 9 7 2 0 8 Periodical Postage paid in Portland, OR Subscriptions are $ 6 0 .0 0 per year ) E A D L I N E S FOR ALL SUBMITTED MATERIALS: ARTICLES: Monday by 5 p . m . anybody. NO NE! Please d o n ’t burden me w ith your protests about all the m oney you paid into this failed adventure. T hat m oney is gone! A re ya h av in ’ any fund? T he answ er is a resounding “N o !” T he “ fundy-m oney” to w hich you lay claim is as irretrievably lost as if it had fallen out o f an upset B rinks truck or been blow n on Lotto tickets. Chew (or stew ) on this: In 2007, ju st a decade from now, the first o f the baby boom ers will hit 62 and, according to to d ay ’s “not-on-the-table” rules, will becom eeligible for earlyretirem ent.F orthefoU ow ingfive years, projected tax revenues w ill be sufficient to support them and all other current recipients. T hen the you-know -w hat hits the oscillator. By 2012, according to the trustees (how ’s that for a misnom er?) ot the Social Security T rust Fund, tax revenues m ay no longer cover the “entitlem ents that will then start com ing due. Behind all the bad news is the good new s that people are living longer. W hen Social Security started in 1935, the retirem ent age w as 65, but the average life span w as 61. It d o esn ’t take an Einstein to figure out that, as long as sufficient retirem ent m oney w as collected and protected, the entitlem ents, w hen due, w ould be there for those entitled. By contrast, a girl-child b om today has about a 1/3 chance o f living to be 100 - and, unless the present Social Insecurity rubrics are put back on the table, she’ll be “entitled” to m ore years o f retirem ent than she will have higher when alcohol is involved. For instance, about 40 percent o f deaths am ong youths eor T he PoR H .\aD .O BiiLK\£B 15 to 20 years old in m otor vehicle crashes are alcohol- related. O ften the victim s are innocent drivers and Spring break in Oregon m eans different things to different passengers in other vehicles. people. M any o f us will use this year’s no-school w eek. There are several w ays to attack the underage-drinking March 20-24, to take fam i ly trips. For others, it wi 11 be a time problem. O ne is strong law enforcem ent. It’s illegal for to begin this y ear’s garden. anyone under 21 to buy or drink alcohol. And it’s illegal U nfortunately, spring break also has b ecom e a traditional for anyone over 21 to furnish alcohol to minors. If kids tim e for m any people to party, and those parties too often ca n ’t get alcohol, they in c lu d e a lc o h o l an d __ _____________________ ___ ca n ’t drink it. m i nors, a mixture that can P ublic an d p are n tal have tragic results. W e’re slowly making progress in educating parents aw areness is another, W e’re slow ly m aking andchildren about thedangersofunderagedrinking. and probably the m ost progress in educating influential, w eapon w e H ow ever, alcohol use continues to be a very p are n ts an d ch ild ren have against underage serious problem that causes avoidable inj unes and ab o u t th e d an g ers o f dri nk i ng and other drug u n d e ra g e d r in k in g . deaths every year. abuse. W e will m ake H ow ever, alcohol use Barbara Cim iglio substantial progress in continues to be a very D irector o f Alcohol and D rug A buse r e d u c in g u n d e ra g e se rio u s p ro b lem th a t drinking w hen people P rogram s in the Departm ent o f H um an causes a v o id a b le fully un d erstan d the inj uries and deaths every ——------------------------------------ — price w e ’re paying and year. are w illing to take an active role in reducing the problem . Last year a group o f revelers attending a large beach party For exam ple, it’s im portant for parents to set clear “no in Seaside got carried aw ay when they took the celebration alcohol use” rules for their children. dow ntow n. O ur culture continues to glam orize drinking through The result w as quite a scene - flying rocks and beer cans, advertising, sports sponsorships and other high-visibility broken storefront w indow s, injured police officers and m ethods w ith very little recognition o fth e risks involved. partygoers, aC oast G uard helicopter and 20 arrests. Luckily As a society, w e m ust do our best to reject those messages. no one w as seriously hurt. Alcohol use is not glam orous, and underage drinking can Some called it a melee, others called it a not. W hatever name lead to addiction problem s that last well into adulthood. you give it, underage drinking was a contributing factor, My office and the Oregon Partnership are working together and the incident was preventable. to increase public understanding o f alcohol-related I w as encouraged to learn that Seaside is planning ahead problem s during Alcohol A w areness M onth in A pril. for this y ear’s influx o f spring-break visitors and hopes to All O regon counties have local program s on alcohol return the celebration to an enjoyable fam ily-oriented prevention and treatm ent. Y our local mental health event. department will have details. I urge you to get information D espite a w ide variety o f governm ent and volunteer and talk to your kids about the dangers o f drinking. prevention efforts, I’m sure w e ’ll see scenes on television And if you or som eone you know has a drinking problem and in newspapers o f spring-break alcohol-related problems or needs inform ation, call Oregon Partnership at 1 -800- in various places. 1 hope we don’t have to w itness any B y B a r b a r a C nucLLQ serious injuries or deaths, but the risks are alw ays much spent on the job! Back in 1934, the ratio o f w orkers to retirees w as 40 to 1. T oday, it’s 3.2 to one and will be one-to-one w hen m ost o f our present grandchildren head out to pasture under existing rules. W hat for several decades had been a healthy reserve, or surplus, has since become, by som e estimates, a liability o f $515 billion - that being the amount o f “new m oney” that will have to be paid in order to retire the current IOU ’ s. This is not to m ention a reported $2.7 trillion liability for future obligations. Right now, the pols in pow er choose to ignore the ticking o f a monstrous tim e bom b that will explode in the w allets o f our kids and grand-kids - and w e ’re letting them get aw ay w ith it. A pox on us! W hat to do? W ell, first o f all, those o f us w ho are long in the tooth should face up to the fact that w hat w e alw ays regarded as a fiscally sound retirement plan is now as dead as a 1996 cam paign promise. O ur retirement m oney sw irled down the tubes m any, m any flushes ago. Therefore, those o f us who are 62-plus and still above ground should forget about “cashing in” on the “investm ents” w e m ade during our w orking years. T h ey ’re all gone, brethren and sistren - ju st as gone as those wrinkle- free faces w e used to see in the mirror. If, as we claim , we really cared about our descendants’ futures, w e’d tell those gutless goofballs in W ashington to scrap the w hole dam ned mess and pay “entitlem ents” only to those o f us w ho need it. This w ould exclude me, my first w ife, a big chunk o f my friends and, based on their current career paths, alm ost all o f my kids. Uncle would not only save the direct payments to us, but also the bureaucratic m arkup involved in delivering them. Then an entirely new program could be launched - and self-funded - to provide for the future o f those still in the w ork force, with a m ore realistic retirem ent age like 70 or even 75. Similarly, M edicare should be put on a pay-as-you-go basis for all Americans except those w ho genuinely can ’t afford it. H ear me on this: No A m erican should be w ithout a helping hand when they are old and/or sick and/or destitute; and nobody at any age should go hungry w hile our garbage cans are so w ell fed. But social services should go only to those in need - especially when th e re’s no m oney available for any “excess largess.” W ake up, folks, and smell the cesspool! Just think; Your son is b rig h t, h ea lth y a n d h e a d e d fo r college one day You love the direction your career has taken. Youte doing a tot o f the things you planned and even a few you didn't, Hying life to the fullest is easy when you ADS: Friday by noon The Portland Observer welcomes freelance iubmissions. M anuscripts and photographs ihould b ecle a rly labeled and w ill be id u rn e d faccompaniedbyaselfaddressed envelope. 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