Great LTTE on social security propaganda

[proud2BlibKansan]

Propaganda
The recent letter from Latreece Vankinscott urging blacks to support the Bush plan to dismantle Social Security on the ground of racial justice is just another right-wing propaganda ploy. The writer is a staff member of the Chicago-based conservative think tank, The Heartland Institute, which has managed to place the same letter in publications all across the country, from The Chicago Sun-Times to the Free New Mexican newspaper. How convenient that a letter bearing an African-American-sounding name appears in local newspapers
throughout the country during Black History month, supporting a plan which the NAACP has denounced as "extremely dangerous" for blacks.

In parroting Bush's grotesquely insensitive and self-serving
argument — that Social Security cheats blacks because they, on the average, live shorter lives than whites — the letter contributes to a concerted right-wing effort to mislead African Americans and play "the race card" for the benefit of corporate special interests.

It is beyond galling for Bush to use the very real tragedy of black
lives cut short merely to promote his pro-corporate agenda, while cutting social programs that might alleviate the sufferings and needless deaths of the most vulnerable among us. It is also
absolutely false to claim that blacks are short-changed by Social
Security. The NAACP points out that since blacks suffer from higher disability rates than whites, they draw more disability benefits. Further, spouses and minor children survivors depend heavily on Social Security survivor benefits. As NAACP spokeswoman Hillary Shelton says: "African-American children are almost four times as likely to be lifted out of poverty by Social Security benefits than are their white counterparts."

The attack on Social Security, like the entire Bush agenda, depends on lies, distortions and repeated propaganda campaigns designed to confuse and divide Americans. We're not buying it anymore.

Jeff Martinek
Joplin

http://www.joplinglobe.com/story.php?story_id=166611&c=96

[moggie12]

1. That's great !

Terrific letter and he points out that the paper published a letter from a GOP letter-machine factory. Find Jeff Martinek and sign him up for DU!!

[proud2BlibKansan]

3. Yes, good idea

or maybe he is already here?

[Cha]

2. This is all going to depend on if

the public is not going to be conned by the fascist media and the monkeyboy, AGAIN!

[SupormomFreeAtLast]

4. That was a terrific letter.

Very well informed and to the point.