Written by Hollis Stewart   

3-20-12: Friends --- The coming months and years are going to see an immense fight over the "safety net" that helps ALL Americans when they get older, when they are children, when they are in need of medical care, when they are disabled, when they are a homeless Veteran,when they are foreclosed out of their home, or when they are poor, hungry and need food or adequate shelter and are without the means to pay skyrocketing rents, surging gasoline costs, and higher food prices. It has been our national policy since the 1930s for our government, acting as our agent, to assist the people of the nation. Now the Republican Party and much of their base are attacking these very moral programs and hope to destroy them.

These are programs that exemplify best the Golden Rule, the Sermon on the Mount, and the fine teachings of all the
worlds religions that demand that we should help one another. In the modern world this is best done by the nation state --- the national government that enacts and carries out policies for the entire people. It is the 99% acting on their own behalf to take care of the commonweal. This is a script like ones I used as a community and labor organizer that can be used to talk to our children, our friends and neighbors, our co-workers, literally anyone that we can list in the fight to save and strengthen the SAFETY NET OF SOCIAL SECURITY, PENSIONS, MEDICARE AND SO FORTH. The script is written as though I am talking with my son.

RISE AS A MORAL, HUMANIST FORCE FOR GOOD
AND AGAINST THE EVIL OF GREED!

Combating the craziness of cutting pensions,
Social Security and Medicare/medicaid
Hollis Stewart

The Script Starts Here ************************************************* The Script Starts Here

“Hi Michael, (Dan, Jane, Carlos, Amad, Shawna, Betina, Tom, Dick or Harry - substitute the appropriate name). How are thing with you? I thought I’d give you a call to say hi to you and the family.”

“Hey dad, thanks for calling, I had just been thinking that I ought to give you a call cause we haven’t talked for a while. Everyone here is fine, Jane is at work but the kids are home tearing the place up as usual. Hey kids, give me some quiet I am talking to your grandpa. ... The kids told me to tell you they love you. So what else is going on with you, dad?”

“Well son not much but there is a little on my mind. You know the political climate is getting a little hot with the elections coming. Some of the stuff being talked about worries me and I am trying to think ahead a bit. I decided that I would give you a call to talk about something on my mind because it will probably effect you, too. A lot of politicians, mostly so-called social conservatives are throwing around ideas against Medicare , Social Security, programs for the disabled, education and pensions and that effects me since I am retired. I thought we ought to talk it over in case you or any of your friends were
thinking of voting for these right wingnut cases --- you know the ones who want to destroy Medicare and cut back and privatize Social Security. Because if any of you are, then what I am thinking is that if the ideas that they are pushing should come to pass then you need to know the consequences since
they never talk about that.

For example, I and your mom, (or step mom) Margie, will have to come back to live with you till we die. We’d still have some income and maybe some Medicare help available but not enough to get along and take care of our health, our living expenses, all that stuff. Anyway, you’d probably have to pick up maybe as little as $20,000 or $30,000 a year or possibly up to a few hundred thousands of dollars a year worth of our expenses.

Dad, Dad what are you talking about? $20 or 30 thou a year, maybe more?

Now I know it sounds like a lot but I am sure that the money you save each week on the Social Security and Medicare payroll taxes after they gut these programs, what’s that maybe $30 a week, will help you pay all these direct bills. I know this sounds a bit scary, you maybe having to pay most of the medical bills that Medicare and Social Security cover now but I am sure that you look forward to having your step mom and I live with you --- your step mom is still in a walker and I have my little powered wheel chair but we won’t be a burden.

Wait a minute, wait just one minute, our house isn’t handicapped accessible. It costs a big bundle to modify a house and I can’t afford it.

It will be hard, I understand that. You will probably have to pick up our car expenses, auto insurance and travel expense money to and from the clinics too. Mike, maybe you or Jane can take time from work to drive us to the clinics if we lose our car because of the cutbacks that will make us one hell of a
lot poorer. But it will be nice to have the family back living together, won’t it?”

“Why are you so quiet, son?”

“Dad, I don’t know what to say --- I am, I am upset by what you are saying --- I mean how the hell would we be able to do what you are saying, here. You know I love you, and Jane does too, but we haven’t got that kind of money. I hadn’t thought about these ideas like you are looking at them and my friends
haven’t either. When we talk about this stuff down at the Bar, no one talks about it this way, we just think about getting a few dollars more in take home pay. And Dad, my mom is living with me and the kids already, and I am not sure how it would be having my step mom living here, too, they’ve never
been real close.”


“Mike, don’t tell me you or any of your friends might be thinking about supporting these RepubliCRAT BS ideas? Of course I am sure you want us to come live with you. Maybe you think your step mom and I don’t want to live with you, well you are just wrong. We hadn’t given it consideration before because we like our independence just like you and Jane do, but it might be necessary and it might work out fine, what do you think?”

“Dad, Dad, this is crazy. This wouldn’t work. We’ve got our kids to raise and we are hardly getting along now on our household income. And you are right. We are an independent family and even though we love you guys, you and Marge are independent too. I just don’t know.”

“Mike, now, I know this would mean that you couldn’t support your own kids the way you expected but they are growing up and in a short time they’ll probably want to get out on their own, too.”

“Dad, the kids are 15, 11 and 7 --- they aren’t going anywhere soon and then there is college and all that means, too. Think about it, dad, how could this work?”

“You are right son, they will be home for a few more years too, I guess we’ll be one big happy three generational family, just like the right wing nutcases and Evangelicals like to imagine in their “perfect family” pictures. Oh darn, son, I forgot to mention that your grandparents may have to come to stay
with you, too, just for a while; they are getting old and probably won’t last too long. You don’t know them very well and they are a bit feeble, my mom, they call her batty Hattie now cause she has a slight touch of dementia but its not too bad, she’s not incontinent, yet. I am not strong enough to lift her but it wouldn’t be a problem for you and heck its all in the family, right..”

“Dad, this is just crazy, you can’t be serious about this stuff. We’ve got a family of five in our three bedroom house now, and my mom is sleeping in the living room --- there’s not room for anyone else, surely not two or four more adults.”

“Well, Mike. If you and Jane don’t want us living with you then you better start talking to all the folks you know, get on the phone, go on line, do everything that you can to discredit these anti-old folks, anti-Social Security and anti-Medicare BS ideas of some of the RepubliCRATS and their allies so that no one votes for them. And you need to mobilize to pressure the Democrats AND THE WHITE HOUSE, too, because the corporations and big insurance companies are working them over to to support this
stuff because they want the profit off privatizing.

I got to tell you, son, honestly your step mom and I don’t want to come live with you --- but young people will have themselves to blame if they buy this load of crap from these rightwingers. If we get rid of the federal government safety net: Social Security, Medicare and let the corporations screw up the
pension funds using them as investment troughs for the rich, then you will find me coming to live with you. Your mom (step mom) and I will not live out on the street homeless with no where to go, no medical care and not a pot to piss in. It is your generation and even the next younger one that’s got to
understand the situation that will be unleased by this cutback austerity on social programs platform, it is social disaster and it is all being done so the richest 1% of the people in this country can continue looting the rest of us, the 99%.”

“Dad, you can’t lay this on me and my friends. It’s not fair.”

“Son, I can and I will if you and your friends vote for the politicians pushing this stuff. Of course I hope not. But we will see how your generation votes and how your friends’ voting age kids vote. These are serious questions in hard times and we got to stop this thing of letting the GOP and the social
rightwingers turn us against each other until we are both destroyed when your family goes down in smoke. I hope you begin spreading the word and make people think about the real cost and not the few bucks that they might save in income and Social Security taxes --- a small amount that will not prevent your family from going bankrupt after Margie and I, and your grand parents come to live with you.”

“Damnit Dad --- this just sucks but I will talk to my friends, people at work and down at the softball team, church, everywhere I go about this. I guess you are right, we have to spread the word. I think I’ll copy all this down and print it out to give to people.”

“Hey Mike, that’s the spirit, spread the word every where you go, people have got to get informed and think about what this stuff means. Let’s OCCUPY the safety net, so we all live better. If things go wrong though, be like the hotel guy and keep a light on for us. Tell you what, I’ll email this to you in a couple of minutes, OK? It's also on my web page at http://www.unitethemanydefeatthefew.com/ScriptforonCutstoSafetyNet.html”

“Love you much dad, love you. Call soon --- but maybe lighten up a bit next time.”

Well, got to go, love you son, Margie says to say hi and loves you, too. This is probably as light as it’s going to get.”