Time to Think

Judging by the election last week, it sounds like a lot of Americans are angry. I’m angry too at the barrage of lies we’ve been told. Consider:

The ‘weapons of mass destruction’ lies. Those cost us $300,000,000,000,000 (that’s three trillion dollars) and eight years of violence and death that ultimately enhanced and spread the ideology of jihad. George W. Bush writes he received “reliable CIA information” but one wonders why he never got around to listening to Joe Wilson.

Obama wasn’t born in the USA. Seriously? That he is a communist or a socialist or a Muslim?

That universal health care is bad because death panels will decide when you are too old to receive medical treatment? (thank you Sarah Palin)

Or that those illegal immigrants will get free care? (explicitly forbidden in the bill)

And pay for abortions? Really?

That all the BP oil spilled into the gulf has been removed?

Nobody has to explain why so many people vote against their own best interests. It’s because they hear a barrage of lies endlessly on the radio, television and in print. It is really hard to sift through all the stuff we are told and find the truth.

Take the universal health care. The name ‘Obamacare’ infers a bad thing.  It’s not! The bill is a great start. It will be tinkered with for years to come but in the end, it will provide health care for all U.S. Citizens. Is it expensive? Yes. Is it worth the cost? Of course. If you don’t believe that, ask yourself what you will do if one day the unimaginable happens to you, your baby or husband or grandmother?

Social Security is a cushion for retirement. I hope my children never need it but what if they do?

Read what Bob Moos of The Dallas Morning News wrote about “one of 10 million Americans who live only on Social Security.”

Stretching a dollar is second nature to them. Long before the recession deepened, they were experts at making ends meet. Long after the recovery comes, they’ll still be masters of frugality. “We’re survivors,” says Beverly Nash of Dallas . . .

They’re also becoming models for younger Americans forced by the recession to trade in their spendthrift ways for a leaner lifestyle.

“No one goes through life striving to end up on just Social Security, but all of us could learn from these people’s resiliency and resourcefulness,” said Helen Dennis, a consultant on aging.

Retirement was supposed to be built on the proverbial three-legged stool of pensions, savings and Social Security. But life has intervened for many retirees, and two of the legs have been kicked out from under them.

Many retirees worked their entire adult lives but never qualified for a pension or earned enough to put anything aside. Others started retirement with a nest egg but never thought it would have to last 20 or 30 years.

A fifth of older Americans now survive on nothing but Social Security. A third depend on it for at least 90 percent of their income. For a retired worker, the average monthly benefit will be $1,153 this year.

Nash, who’s 74, gets $960 a month from Social Security – just a few dollars more than what the government defines as “poor.”

Lies come to us daily in print, on the radio, Facebook, Twitter and on TV. They clutter up our lives and make us unsure of what we truly want and believe. We need to be more discerning. I’m just saying . . .