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. A ll
:reatcd design display ads becom e the sole
jrop e rt y o f the newspaper and cannot be used
mother publications o r personal usage w ithout
¡he w ritte n consent o f the general manager,
unless thecltent has purchased the composition
i f such ad. © 1996 T H E P O R T L A N D O B
SERVER A LL RIGHTS RESERVED,
REPRODUCTION IN W HO LE OR IN
P ART W IT H O LT PERMISSION IS PRO
HIBITED
The Portland O b s e rv e r-O e g o n 's Oldest
M ulticu ltu ra l P ublication—is a member o f the
National Newspaper Association-Founded in
1885. and The National A dvertising Represen
tative Amalgamated Publishers. Inc, New York.
N Y . and The West Coast Black Publishers
Association • Serving Port land and Vancouver
923-HELP.
Put your business
in the
worlds eye
advertise on the weh at
www.portlandobserver.com
Cali 503.288.0033
have family behind y o u Am erican
Family Mutual
Insurance. Call and talk to one of our helpful, friendly agents
You'll find out w h y we’re consistently rated A+ (Superior) by A.M.
Best, the insurance rating authority Then, go on. Dream Plan.
What you do next is up to you and w e ll be here to help you.
have family behind you.
Your Protection Under One Roof.
' a&sa
American Family Mutual Ineuranco Company and Its Subsidiaries, Madison, WI 53783-0001 wwwamfam.com