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Aug 9, 2010

Social Security's 75th Anniversary On August 14

From the Sacramento Bee:
Evelyn Sekula's widowed grandmother struggled to survive during the Depression. Like millions of other elderly people, she had no pension and no savings.

"She had no income at all except for what my father gave her," said Sekula, 90, who lives at the Atria El Camino Gardens senior residence in Carmichael. "She was always looking for a way to make money. My father probably gave her $10 a month."

Today's older adults were children and teenagers when President Franklin D. Roosevelt changed the face of aging on Aug. 14, 1935, when he signed the Social Security Act into law.

They remember the difficult years when old age took place in a bleak, Dickensian landscape of need dotted with poor houses for those whose families couldn't support them. And they remember the difference that Social Security made in ordinary people's lives.

They also remember their parents' fears that Social Security amounted to socialism. Yet on the edge of the program's 75th anniversary, most of them can't imagine retirement without the small cushion of funds and dignity that Social Security provides. ...

"If it wasn't for Social Security, I'd be living under a bridge," said Jeneva Hammonds, 84 ...

"Social Security was the first government program instituting the concept that we have a collective responsibility for each other," said American River College gerontology department Chairman Barbara Gillogly. "Before that, there was no real concept of retirement.

"Most people worked until they died or were too ill, and then they were at the mercy of their family and friends."

2 comments:

  1. Our local congressperson is coming to our district office this Wednesday to commemorate the 75th anniversary of Social Security. I personally am really glad the SSA is alive and (reasonably) well in its 75th year.

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  2. I was present for the 50th anniversary of SSA 25 years ago. Our FO had a big open house, inviting people from local community agencies, served refreshments, etc.
    This time, we have half the staffing, no resources and no inclination to throw a party. The anniversary will pass largely ignored. Too busy trying to keep from smothering in the backlogs.

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