What's hard to understand?
Dear Editor,
What is it that George W. Bush doesn't understand about Social Security?
It's a commitment we've made to our elders that, no matter how long they
live and no matter their health, we will see to it that they live out their
days in dignity.
How hard is that? After all, it's not very different from the commitment
we make when we choose a life partner--to honor and to protect, in sickness
and in health, until death do us part.
Of course, there's an increasing number of us who prefer not to honor their
commitments. It's hard to stick it out through the good times and the bad.
And some people are so nasty to live with that they leave us no choice.
But that's exactly why society makes commitments that won't be broken.
Individuals come and go, but a society can go on for ever (over two hundred
years in the case of the United States, two thousand in the case of
Christianity and over seven thousand and counting in China), as long as it
honors its commitments and its values.
Social programs don't go bankrupt as long as the people in charge of
carrying them out are truthful and honest in doing the job they've take on.
Why is it that George W. Bush doesn't get that?