Volume 7 Issue 11…Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race…March 19, 2004

Venue for an Artist
Killin' Time

By Mike Bidwell

Gather your daughters and sons

Round up all your guns.

Head down to the Wal-Mart,

The fighting's about to start.

It's Killin' Time again.

Carpet Bombs

Chemical alarms

AK47's, M-16's, bullets, bombs and grenades,

lights in the sky, little boy about to die.

Tune into CNN

the show's about to begin.

It's Killin' Time again.

It's Killin' Time again.

politician's lying,

sons and daughters are dying,

bullet to the back of the head,

another dream is dead.

It's Killin' Time again.

Who's keeping score?

Who's winning the war?

Is it NBC or CNN?

Is it the politician who's lying?

Is it the soldier who lays dying?

Is it the mother who sheds a tear,

the desert child who cowers in fear?

In the end does it even matter who wins?

We're all just Killin' Time.

About Me: Written in 2003, Killin' Time is the poetic expression of a "Desert Storm" veteran penned in light of "Operation Iraqi Freedom."

Grandparents Raising Grandchildren

Increasingly, grandparents are forced to forego retirement to serve as primary caregivers for their children's children. While the focus here is on this trend in the United States, clearly the number of grandparents thrust in the role of parent is increasing worldwide.

Statistics at www.ext.vt.edu show a 44 percent increase in the number of children living with grandparents over the decade 1980-1990. The US Census Bureau at www.census.gov, shows this number further increased 29.7 percent between 1990-2000.

A majority of the more than six million children living with grandparents are under age 6. Forty-three percent of all children being raised by grandparents live in the south. While only five percent of white children live with a grandparent, 17 and 6.5 percent of black and Hispanic children, respectively, live with a grandparent.

Factors driving this trend are varied. They include divorce, to prevent a child's placement in foster care, incarceration, illness, death, substance-abuse, financial problems, helping a parent sent overseas to work or to war and to protect a child from physical, psychological, and sexual abuse or neglect.

There are tangible and intangible rewards for grandparents rearing grandchildren that include love and affection, satisfaction and accomplishment, e.g., academic achievement, athletic awards, school plays and activities. Along with the rewards, there are health, social and financial challenges associated with the demands of rearing grandchildren.

American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) at www.aarp.org/grandparents/, www.50plus.com and other groups provide support information to help grandparents deal with the challenges and sacrifices and appreciate the rewards that come with assuming the responsibilities of parenting grandchildren.

Social Security Act (1935)

The Social Security Act of 1935 represented a dramatic change in the United States' approach to the problem of economic security. Factors that led to the law's passage include the change from an agrarian to industrial economy, structural unemployment, an aging population and the Great Depression (1929-1933), which changed public opinion about the role of government. Frances Perkins, the first woman cabinet member, accepted the office of labor secretary only with President Franklin Roosevelt's promise to support a social security program. She and other New Dealers promoted social insurance as a way to aid the unemployed and help prevent future depressions.

The Social Security Act of 1935 created four programs, i.e., Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI), Unemployment Compensation, Public Assistance, and Health and Welfare Services. For covered employees age 65 and over, OASDI provides retirement benefits. In 1938, average US life expectancy was 63½; it was 53 for blacks. Previously excluded occupations and survivors' benefits for the dependents of deceased workers were added to the program in 1939.

Employers and employees equally fund OASDI. The original act required both to pay an annual 1 percent tax on the first $3,000 of an employee's wages. Congressional amendments increased benefits, changed the tax rate, and provided for disability benefits. In 2003, a 6.2 percent tax rate was applied to a maximum wage of $87,000. The IRS collects the taxes and places them in the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust and Disability Insurance Trust Funds, which must be invested in US obligations. Benefit payments and administrative expenses are drawn from these funds.

Unemployment insurance, public assistance, and health and welfare services are administered by the states. Federal law prescribes minimum standards that assure a degree of uniformity among these programs. Public Assistance, a needs-based program, provides services for the aged, blind, dependent children, and the disabled. Health and welfare services are provided for mothers and children. A board supervises the Social Security system. In 1954, Congress extended Social Security coverage and unemployment compensation to additional workers. (Sources: Encyclopedia Americana and Current, Williams and Friedel's American History).

Medicare: Muzzles and Medicine

After twenty years of bitter debate, Congress passed and President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Medicare-Social Security Act of 1965, establishing Medicare for millions over age sixty-five. Anticipated resistance, especially in the South, where hospitals had to desegregate to obtain federal funds, did not materialize. Nearly 90 percent of southern hospitals complied, but other problems, such as rapidly rising prices, arose that made adjustments necessary. When enacted, the government's actuary projected the hospital program (Part "A") under Medicare would grow to $9 billion by 1990. It actually cost more than $66 billion.

Launched in 1968, rapidly rising costs proved problematic for the Medicaid program, which was created to provide financial assistance to persons not old enough to qualify for Medicare and too poor to pay their medical bills. Under the Medicaid law each state set up its own plan with federal financial assistance. During the first year, it cost over ten times more than had been projected. To bring costs down, Congress and the state legislatures changed the definition of 'needy' to make benefits available to fewer people.

Recent Medicare reform to include a prescription drug benefit has also engendered much debate. Signed by George W. Bush on December 8, 2003, the bill has been harshly criticized on all sides of the political spectrum for its failure to strengthen Medicare or provide senior citizens much-needed relief from the high cost of prescription drugs. According to Senator Chuck Hagel (R), the bill, which will add trillions of dollars onto Medicare's current unfunded liabilities, is "a payoff to special interest groups involved in Medicare reform."

Adding to the cost controversy, Richard Foster, chief actuary of the Medicare program, claims he was prevented from giving Congress realistic estimates of the 10-year cost of the drug benefit. Under threat of being fired by Bush administration official Thomas Scully, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Foster withheld from Congress cost projections of between $500 and $600 billion. The bill passed with a $400 billion price tag. On January 29, 2004, the White House announced the new benefit would actually cost $534 billion. Some members of Congress are calling for an investigation into the muzzling of Foster and threatening to revisit the prescription drug benefit.

By John Burl Smith

Allen Greenspan's recent appearance before Congress confirmed Social Security (SS) retirement for baby boomers is a myth. All but admitting that the system is broke, he suggested "pushing back the eligibility age to 67." Dishonoring his lockbox pledge, George W. Bush is using SS taxes as general revenue to fund endless wars and cut taxes for the wealthy. Greenspan did not suggest delaying the tax cut in order to keep benefits on schedule. His solution is to deny benefits so that the wealthy can have a tax cut.

Bush's fiscal policies presage a grim scenario in which old age becomes an intensely stressful time with grandparents competing with grandchildren for low wage jobs, needed training and dwindling resources. Blacks have struggled with the devastating impact of drug abuse and incarceration. Coupled with children having children and others dying in war, grandparents that planned for SS retirement are left with a worthless promise. Descendants of slaves and sharecroppers, most have worked hard all their lives. Paying into SS, they expected a stable source of retirement income. Bush's tax cut, which redistributed wealth from the poor to the rich, means a longer wait before retirement and no real guarantee that future benefits will be there.

SS retirement mirrors the myth of "health care for the elderly." Health care is synonymous with "wellness." Under Bush, Medicare is a drug maintenance program. There is no incentive to get people well. For the elderly, paying for drugs is like having a child whose needs only grow. Moreover, scam artists make seeing a doctor for more than pills, a risky undertaking.

As a disabled Vietnam vet, health benefits were a major concern on returning home after military service. It seemed the Veterans Administration (VA) offered health care superior to Medicare under SS. Eviscerated by Bush's reforms, the VA is a shell of its former self.

"Wellness" is VA spin used on those forced into telephone perma-hold mode. Service delays discourage veterans from seeking health care. A six-month wait to see a doctor is the rule. An appointment for an annual physical is a yearlong wait, sometimes longer. After treatment, outsourced bill collection agencies fleece vets with late fees and other out-of-pocket costs. A rude awakening for returning Iraq war vets, who leave limbs on battlefields and bring home permanent injuries, their pain is only beginning. Bearing the lost as well as cost, families must make up for reduced earning capacity.

Unfortunately, new vets are like the elderly, who expected the SS' promissory note to be honored. What will the role or response of the government be for reducing anxiety and insecurity among the elderly, now that they know SS retirement is a myth? Currently, grandparents are replacing young workers at places like McDonald's and Wal-Mart. As the number of elderly work past retirement age rises, competition for education and job retraining slots will intensify.

The shrinking US job market offers few, if any, clues as to where jobs will be in the future. Bankrupting SS, Bush is perpetrating the same kind of fraud on the elderly as Ken Lay perpetrated against ENRON employees and investors. More important, by draining the SS trust fund through privatization, Bush hopes to do as Worldcom and restructure SS so that the tax continues to be paid long after the benefits end.

Disgruntled feels: Bought! Mainstream media give George W. Bush a bye by not examining his National Guard service, Lincoln bedroom sleepovers for big campaign donors, flip-flops on the reasons for the Iraq war, when that country posed no "imminent threat" to America, etc. A consumer advocacy group, Public Citizen (www.citizen.org) recently released a report detailing the special interests that contributed millions to Bush's campaigns and what they received in return. Required reading for those interested in the direction this nation has taken under Bush, the report provides a bird's-eye view into a bought presidency.

Disgruntled wants to know: In response to the Justine Timberlake/Janet Jackson breast baring incident that ended the Superbowl half-time show, Congress rapidly responded with the passage of punitive legislation aimed at curbing 'indecency' on network television. Since the incident, Timberlake's career has skyrocketed. In contrast, Jackson, the target of an avalanche of public scorn, is still offering apologies for offending American sensibilities. Unlike the bare breast incident, which remained 'news' for weeks after it happened, the assault on ice barely lasted a news cycle. Media treatment of and public response to the two incidences beg the question, which should be more offensive to good 'Christians,' the baring of a breast or a prime time brutal assault that left a hockey player with a broken neck?

Disgruntled says: In a "surprising" upset, according to government polls, voters in Spain ousted the political party of Jose Maria Aznar. In the face of massive opposition, Aznar decided to heed Bush's call to war. Independent polls showed more than 90 percent of his people opposed the naked aggression. Prior to the election, a senseless act of violence claimed the lives of more than 200 persons and injured many more. Warmongers and Bush apologists, blaming the commuter train explosions on terrorists, claim ousting Aznar's party means the terrorists have won. Actually, the real winners are people of Spain that exercised their right to remove a government unresponsive to them from power.

Global Day of Action

On October 26, 2002, hundreds of thousands demonstrated against the pending war of aggression against Iraq. Since January 2003, millions worldwide have demonstrated opposition to the war drive. Global solidarity is the centerpiece of the new mass movement to counter the forces of militarism and colonialism. The outcome of this struggle will impact future generations.

On March 20, 2004, people worldwide will mark the first anniversary of the US/UK invasion of Iraq. In the US, major demonstrations are planned in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and many other cities.

Demonstrators will march in support of the Iraqi and Palestinian peoples' right to self-determination without condition. Marchers will join the growing numbers of U.S. soldiers and their families in calling for the troops to be brought home NOW! These soldiers are being sent to kill and be killed for a war that was based on lies and fraud perpetrated by the Bush administration.

The March 20 demonstration will demand money for jobs, education, healthcare and housing, instead of billions per week in expenditures in support of endless war! It will also demand an end to the attacks on civil rights and civil liberties with repeal of the Patriot Act!

In New York City, the demonstration will take place in Madison Square Park at Madison Avenue and 23rd Street. The masses will gather at Hollywood and Vine in Los Angeles, Dolores Park in San Francisco and Michigan and Pearson in Chicago. For information about the demonstration and events planned for your locale, log on to www.internationalanswer.org.

Email: impeach-bush@yahoogroups.com Rep. Nick Smith, R-Mich., says that sometime late Nov. 21 or early in the morning Nov. 22, somebody on the House floor threatened to redirect campaign funds away from his son Brad, who is running to succeed him, if he did not support the Medicare prescription bill. Robert Novak further reported, "On the House floor, Nick Smith was told business interests would give his son $100,000 in return for his father's vote. When he still declined, fellow Republican House members told him they would make sure Brad Smith never came to Congress. After Nick Smith voted no and the bill passed, [Rep.] Duke Cunningham of California and other Republicans taunted him that his son was dead meat."

Email: drsok1937@aol.com Time Magazine's The Great Medicare Giveaway: Exposed is a must read on the backdoor shenanigans used by the GOP in catering to their enormous pharmaceutical donors. The article contains an in-depth analysis of how drug companies, through alliances with Republican politicians who actively work to hold up prices as well as the FDA, are "raping the American people" as one dissenting, disgusted Republican put it. The article also includes a step-by-step account of how Republicans stripped everything of value from the Medicare bill in closed-door hearings against the fierce will of the Democrats.

Email www.upi.com An Operation Iraqi Freedom veteran says Army officials at Fort Knox, KY refused him medial treatment after he publicly complained about poor care at the base, which sparked congressional hearings. Lt. Julian Goodrum, hospitalized in a locked mental ward at Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington, DC, was named "Soldier of the Year" in 2001. On November 15, 2004, Dr. Vijay Jethanandani wrote, "Instead of following up on his complaints, it appears that some of his superiors on stateside may be penalizing him for reporting his superior officer in Iraq.

Email famu@hotmail.com In what has to be a sign that George W. Bush does not care one whit about the average grunt, he appointed to the position of assistant commerce secretary for manufacturing Anthony Raimondo, the chief executive of Behlen Manufacturing. Given the loss of more than three million manufacturing jobs, Raimondo had the foresight to withdraw his name from consideration. After all, his company recently announced plans to build a factory in China.

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