I'm glad it's your birthday

Today marks Social Security's 81st birthday--the Social Security Act (the brainchild of Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins, the first woman to sit in the U.S. Cabinet--and how apropos that is in the year we'll elect our first woman President...) was signed into law on this day in 1935 by the Father of the modern Democratic Party, Franklin Delano Roosevelt,  It has become the most successful program in the history of the United States and is the biggest anti-poverty measure in America.

In honor of its allowing working class folks like me to have a few years of comfort after our bodies, minds, and spirits have been exhausted by the cretins of Corporate America (as well as all the good it's done for the disabled and children), I've "come (to) pipe a tune to dance to, lad..."--the second greatest birthday song ever written ("Happy Birthday to You" might be dull and common, but it's served birthday parties quite well since 1893, thank you very much).

Enjoy (and Happy Birthday, Social Security!):

Peace,
emaycee

Seventy-nine years ago today...

...Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act, the greatest and most successful social program in the history of America.  It has kept innumerable seniors out of poverty--and helped thousands of young people who have lost parents and thousands of people who have become disabled.

I can't begin to imagine where my Mom would be without her monthly check.  And being one of those people (20% of people aged 55 to 64 have no retirement savings) whose ass has been kicked by Bush the Lesser's economic catastrophe--a.k.a. The Great Recession--I know I'm thankful for it because it's probably the only thing between me and working as a Wal-Mart cashier when I'm eighty (should I be so lucky to live so long).

Social Security was originally the brainchild of Frances Perkins, the first female to be appointed to a U.S. Cabinet (she was Roosevelt's Secretary of Labor from 1933-1945).

She is responsible for the greatest good for the American people in our history.

Not a bad legacy.

Peace,
emaycee