Retiree Roadrunner Project Showcases Seniors’ Concerns

(Retiree Roadrunner)

Retiree Roadrunner Project Showcases Seniors’ Concerns 

By Seth Michaels
AFL-CIO Blog
October 28, 2008
http://blog.aflcio.org/2008/10/28/retiree-roadrunner-project-showcases-seniors-concerns
 

As part of the political mobilization by the Alliance for Retired Americans, the Alliance’s Retiree Roadrunner vans are driving around key states to make sure seniors have the facts on what’s at stake this election. Across the country, seniors are stepping up to talk about why it’s important to vote this year. The Alliance has been gathering videos of savvy seniors talking about Social Security, health care, the economy and other critical issues.

Betty Thomas, a retiree from Cincinnati, says that one of her top issues this year is making sure the guarantee of Social Security is kept for today’s seniors and for future generations. She says the current economic crisis shows that privatized accounts are too big a risk for those who are depending on Social Security to survive.

If they start to attack or try to dismantle Social Security, go to private accounts, well, look what’s happening to banks right now….We need to protect our seniors, and we need to help our seniors protect our grandchildren and our children.

Thomas also says that seniors and all working families need access to health care and secure pensions that don’t disappear at the whim of CEOs.

Sen. John McCain has stated repeatedly that, as president, he would move to privatize Social Security, putting our retirement funds at the whim of the stock market. Sen. Barack Obama has pledged to protect Social Security benefits and Medicare.

Julia Martin, a retiree who also serves as a minister in Reynoldsburg, Ohio, sees seniors in her area who rely on Social Security to allow them to meet their basic needs in tough economic times.

People are going hungry, people are going without medication…we need Social Security to do the things it’s supposed to do. I’m opposed to privatization of Social Security.

Many seniors say health care is a major concern for their children, including Sammy Uveges, a retired Mine Workers (UMWA) member from Pennsylvania, whose son is paying full price for expensive medication because his insurer wouldn’t cover a pre-existing condition, and Maddie Carrier, a New Hampshire retiree who understands the effects our broken health care system have on costs all across the system, including Medicare.

If Medicare is depleted, what happens to people? We’ve got to fix the health care system in order to fix Medicare. 

The Retiree Roadrunner vans also are helping make sure seniors can get to the polls, like the Mitchells, a retired Machinists (IAM) member and a retired teacher in Dalton, Mo., whose polling place changed, and they now will need to get to a new polling place to vote.