Don't let them take our Social Security
President Trump said he is going to allow employers to stop deducting "payroll taxes" and if re-elected, he could eliminate "payroll taxes."
He is talking about the taxes that fund Social Security. If you are collecting Social Security benefits or if you hope to collect Social Security some day, you should be very worried about this.
If the government stops collecting Social Security taxes, the Social Security Trust Fund will soon run out of money. When this happens, do not think for a minute that Trump and his rich, right-wing friends will propose resuming Social Security tax collections. All of them will claim that the system is bankrupt and must be abandoned, leaving millions of senior citizens without the Social Security benefits they have earned and depend on to pay their expenses.
If you do not want to lose your Social Security benefits, please do not let this go unchallenged.
Jim Olson
Democrats must do whatever it takes
The following is not intended as a refutation of John Lewis' method. He chose the only means that might enhance chances for human rights advances during his era, which required great courage. He is truly one of few great persons in our history.
Democrats are too fair-minded and noble and ethical to respond in kind to looming Republican dirty tricks. We must never lower ourselves to their level, of course, even though we could perish maintaining our character.
No. The end can justify the means. We can remain basically ethical retaining our principles when resorting to out-of-bounds behaviors undergone for good causes.
Goodness! How horrible! I was taught better. Why, if we cling to ethical behavior, we can be winners while we are being buried. Wonderful consolation.
In the coming election, we will be facing a merciless group of sociopaths who will ignore and flout as many legal boundaries as they can. The results will probably determine whether our democracy survives and if the mass murder of our people continues. We must win, whatever it takes. Then we can continue being wonderful moral humans - live ones.
Dr. A. Sheldon Gelburd
Have Americans lost their moral compass?
Are we there yet? The tipping point I mean. On the fulcrum of right vs. wrong, how's our balance?
Eighty years ago if you did wrong, you knew it. Society knew it. The "right" path was the norm and you learned it as much by osmosis as by written rule.
You did what was right because it was right and an occasional wrong was ostracized if not punished. Wrongdoing was less prevalent. Today? Oh my! Our leaders lie, cheat and steal openly, even some "religious" leaders. What examples!
When a lobbyist buys a vote, which party is more guilty? How many have not sold their vote and reasoned, "It really doesn't matter that much." In D.C. congressmen accumulate wealth quite rapidly; few if any leave with an empty purse (if they leave at all). Where else can you do so little and get so much?
So, are we there yet?
Woe unto them who call evil good and good evil ... "when most prefer and practice evil, that is the 'tipping point.'" When evil people are right "in their own eyes" and society tends to agree, when our moral compass has no "true North," no star to steer by, ... your "Redemption draweth nigh."
Lift your heads.
Richard Barger, Monteagle, Tennessee