Disturbing News

I've been sitting here at the computer for awhile trying to decide what to write.  It seems like this first blog posting should be given considerable thought because it might set the tone for all that follow after it.  Writing is not as easy as some people might have you to believe.  There are so many choices to consider like audience, style, tone and approach. Who am I writing to?  Do I want to be serious?  Do I want to try humor, which is often so hard to pull off on the printed or web page that what the author thought was funny, the audience finds dull, pedantic or just downright offensive?  This isn't academic or professional writing, however, so maybe I ought not think about it too much.  

I normally might want to try to write about something not very serious, but if you're supposed to "write what you know," then I suppose I ought to choose a topic that I already know a lot about...

But where would the fun in that be?  I would normally write about comic books or something literature related, but I keep getting these disturbing news alerts on my phone. I really should turn those blasted news alerts off because they only inform me about horrible things that I can do nothing about.  But every time I go to delete them, or at the very least silence them, I find that I am ultimately unable to do so because my desire to know about the world proves stronger.  It is good that people are so curious; when we start turning off our curiosity buttons, we stop being able to grow as people.  Self-knowledge is the most important kind of knowledge, but we cannot have that if we don't know the world, too, and our place in the world.

That's why when I saw the news article discussing President Obama and the debt crisis facing the US, I was dumbfounded.  When he was asked if the Social Security checks may not be able to go out next month because the money may not be there, I thought of every time I have had to pay a bill, and the money simply was not there.  It is a terrifying concept, and while I feel for the people who have to sort through that mess, I am more afraid for people like my dad who depend on Social Security.  It seems like the people who are so free with government money, who send it all around the world, don't care all that much for the people who are here.  I suppose if you have never really wanted for the essentials, then the fact that many people depend on Social Security for food, clothing and shelter doesn't really phase or upset you.  I can't help but think that it must be nice to have so much that the day to day concerns of real people aren't a concern after all.  We're not talking about lazy people who don't want to work; we're talking about people who worked all their lives but because of the value that people placed on their jobs, their hard work went unrewarded.  

I worked with a young lady at Macy's who also worked full time at Wal-Mart.  So, she worked one full-time job and one part-time, and she only had one child.  Even though she worked nearly 60 hours a week, she still qualified for government assistance because her income still below the poverty line.  The politicians don't seem to care much about people like her.  She will likely work herself to death, and never have health benefits, retirement benefits, or any other benefit other than a dead-end job.  And when she reaches retirement age, they will tell her there is no Social Security for her.  What did she do that was so wrong that she deserves to live in poverty?  Why is it so easy for politicians to create fear by telling people who live so close to the edge already that they are going over that proverbial edge?

I am not saying that I completely understand this issue, so it seems like I need to do more research.  A while back, the government threatened to shut itself down, which means that no government worker would get paid.  Soldiers are government workers, too, and I can't imagine what they and their families thought, especially those currently serving overseas, when they found out that their hard work might not be rewarded after all.  Even the politicians in some states have come under fire for accepting their paychecks when the state or local governments were threatening to shut down.  Well, I ask you, what exactly are they supposed to do?  If you are not independently wealthy, then you probably work.  People work, not for the sheer joy of it all, but because they need that money to sustain their lives.  Food, clothing and shelter does not come cheaply anymore.  And if all we can afford is food, clothing and shelter with no luxuries whatsoever, what kind of country are we living in?  What kind of country are we living in when the President of the United States tells all of the elderly who depend on Social Security, some so that they can continue living in Assisted Living or nursing homes, that they will not be seeing anymore money--money they themselves paid into the system for decades?

It seems like the word "security" in Social Security is a misnomer; if the government can shut down, then none of us are really safe.