THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 18, 1996 TAG: 9602170113
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Medium: 79 lines
My husband put in for Social Security at the age of 62. He is now 64, and I am 38. I have a full-time job and pay my taxes. Our daughter, a minor, and I receive a check from his Social Security.
Boy! I thought this was going to be great, until I found out I have to give an earned income amount each year to the Social Security Administration. Anything I make over my estimated earned income, I have to pay back to Social Security.
I feel my income should not have anything to do with my husband's Social Security. I should be able to make any amount of money I possibly can without being penalized.
I try to make sure I don't go over the amount of earned income I give them each year. If I don't make over that amount, it puts a burden on the whole family trying to make ends meet during the year.
The amount of money I earn each year shouldn't have anything to do with my husband's Social Security. He is the one who worked all of his life for that. I feel like we are on a fixed income because I have to pay back Social Security if I go over the estimate I give them each year.
I went to the Social Security Administration with my husband to ask them to take the check out of my name and put it in our daughter's name. They said the law is set up to protect me and my daughter. That is why we both receive a check.
The law needs to be changed so people like us could have a chance to make a better living and build a stable future for our daughter.
Beverly Beale
Grady Crescent Borrowed money
Where are we going as a nation? What happened to honor, pride and respect?
I am nostalgic for the time when I could feel comfortable taking my wife to any movie, when my children could watch any channel on TV, when I didn't worry if my door was unlocked.
As a youngster, I thought of congressmen as respectable and dignified individuals. But politics in Washington has become half-truths and bald-faced lies.
We senior citizens must realize that what our country is today is what past generations made possible.
When seniors say, ``I want the best for myself now because I am no longer a youngster,'' they are not shouldering their part of the burden. Seniors have to economize, too, if we are to cut spending.
Come on, seniors, we are living on borrowed money. We owe our future generations.
That's the truth that we won't hear from these shifty politicians.
Remember when you said, ``Whatever happens, I don't want to burden my children.'' Did you really mean that?
John Grillo
Plantation Lakes Filthy show
Willett Hall should be fumigated!
The George Carlin performance there on Jan. 12, which I made the naive choice to attend, left me feeling contaminated. Never have I left a performance of any kind with such a feeling of total disgust.
I am 77 years old, and I have ``been there and seen that,'' and I do not feel that I am a prude. I can enjoy a risque story or situation, but absolute filth is something else.
The repeated use of the Lord's name in vain and the repetitious use of the ``f'' word and other expletives was the worst I have been subjected to in any public forum. The old Gaity Theater in Norfolk was a Sunday school class in comparison.
I think the management of Willett Hall should have a better control on future performances and deny such as this or at lest warn publicly the ticket buyers of the show's content.
George F. Borjes
Cricket Hollow Lane by CNB