(Rewind, 10+ years ago...)
I remember about the only true "argument" I ever got into with Dad was over Social Security. I loved and respected Dad dearly; he was always my hero,
so a true fight was something notable. I forget the exact line of the discussion, but at one point he got really frustrated and asked me point
blank...
"So, am I to understand that you don't believe Social Security will be there for you??? Do you actually believe that???"
and I told him...
"I have exactly
zero confidence that Social Security will be worth the paper it is printed on when I retire!"
He literally came unscrewed (upset), I mean he was snarling/raving mad! In fact, I don't think I ever saw him so mad. It took me a few minutes to
understand why he was so upset.
I tried to calm him down and understand why he was just so furious with me. Well, as it turned out, he wasn't really mad at "me" as much as he was mad
at what I had said, and it wasn't the first time he'd heard it. He went on to say his unbridled anger was at the politicians who had effectively
stolen what he had laid his very life on the line for during WWII...the future.
He was mad because when he heard it from others he could chalk it up to 'rambling non-sense' from some "dumb kid", but when he heard that from his own
adult son it crushed him and it exploded in his belly like a fireball of anger. When he saw in my eyes that I meant exactly what I had said, and that
I believed it, it made him question the value of the very real life and death sacrifices he'd made in his life.
Honestly, I almost cried that day. I hated to say that, but it was true. There's no way SS can be solvent in even 20 years, the math just doesn't
work. The politicians have ROBBED America, and they've stolen the future from generations.
If Dad were alive today he would be even angrier still. He'd be angry at what we have just narrowly avoided with this election. We were just one tiny
step away from the loss of this republic as a whole. I don't know if Trump will be the savior, but I do know with ABSOLUTE CERTAINTY that Clinton
would have been our demise. He would have been furious beyond words that this is the same mentality which has allowed the decimation of Social
Security and allowed people like Hillary Clinton to ever have any voice at all. Truly, every single thing he ever fought and nearly died for.
If he could have only seen what I saw that day, during that argument; I saw where we were headed. I am truly glad he never had to witness that, and
never will. What a terrible, awful and horrific SHAME it is.
edit on 12/2/2016 by Flyingclaydisk because: (no reason given)