(click to enlarge photos)
Published in The Seattle Times online on May 15, 2025
and in PacificNW Magazine of the printed Times on May 18, 2025
Social Security, recipients say, ‘makes America truly great’
By Jean Sherrard
When aptly named Frank Messenger arrived in Seattle in late 1936, appointed by President Franklin Roosevelt to direct the city’s first Social Security field office, on his shoulders may have rested the weight of history.
A veteran of World War I, then called the Great War, Messenger had served abroad as a trade negotiator for the Department of Commerce before heading the Treasury Department’s procurement offices in 21 states.
But in helming the nascent effort to weave a safety net for those devastated by the Great Depression, Messenger hit his stride. By early 1937, the rapidly expanding Seattle bureau had moved from cramped Room 213 in the downtown Alaska Building to take over the entire 14th floor.
From that perch, Messenger delivered the New Deal’s signature message of hope and promise. In a 1942 Seattle Times interview, he endorsed his office’s mission.
“If you like people,” he said, “this is an interesting spot.”
Nothing gave him greater job satisfaction, he said, than “telling a young widow [with small children] that she wouldn’t lose her home” or seeing “a trembling old hand sign a brand-new Social Security card” or witnessing “the smile of delight on a youngster’s face” when giving a first card to the child.
“This,” Messenger exulted, “is America!”
Eighty-three years later, the message is under siege. Though insisting Social Security benefits will be protected for nearly 69 million retirees, the current administration has upended the agency, promoting falsehoods about fraud while slashing its workforce by many thousands.
Online, we recently asked local recipients to sum up what Social Security means to them. Their responses:
Patricia Falsetto, retired therapist: “It’s not a giant Ponzi Scheme, but a guaranteed income after retirement, a fund which I personally have been paying into since I was 16 years old.”
John Rahn, retired professor: “An irreplaceable lifeline for retired people with little savings.”
Marcia Sanders, retired teacher: “Instead of exploding it, let’s look at ways to fix it. How about raising the Social Security wage limit above $176,000? Seems like a no-brainer. ”
Karen Kent, retired geriatric mental-health therapist: “I saw many elders whose only income was Social Security. [Without] that income, they would end up homeless or committing suicide to avoid homelessness.”
Linda Bevis, retired teacher: “With Social Security under threat, it makes it much more difficult to predict or plan what my future will look like.”
John Owen, retired City Light engineer: “Social Security is a manifestation of some of the most important values that we share as citizens. It is a fundamental example of what makes America truly great.”
WEB EXTRAS
To see our narrated 360 degree video captured on location, click here!
Click here for a video of the Mister Roger’s theme song, sung by participants.
Full statements from contributors:
Marcia Sanders:
I retired from teaching a little more than a year ago. I rely on a pension and Social Security to have a decent, dignified retirement. I paid into both of those funds over the years. Unlike the members of Howard Lutnick’s family, who wouldn’t complain if a Social Security check were late, I would complain, just as I would complain if a paycheck were late. I earned that money and I depend on it to pay my bills. I don’t have a billion dollar reserve that would cause my income from a Social Security check to be insignificant.
I know that as things stand currently, Social Security will eventually run out of money. I understand why people younger than me feel they won’t get any, and that every year people have to wait longer and longer before they are eligible for it. However, instead of exploding the system, let’s look at ways to fix it. How about continuing to take Social Security out of wages, beyond $176,000? That seems like a no-brainer.
Linda Bevis:
I just retired from teaching last month. In the Fall, when I sent my letter of retirement in to my college, I was factoring in Social Security payments to my monthly retirement income. Now, I don’t know if those payments will come through for me or anyone. It makes it much more difficult to predict or plan what my future will look like.
Francis Janes:
I believe that social security is foundational to our promise to seniors that they live their retirement years with dignity and security. Social security affords seniors peace of mind and a means to pay basic living expenses.
Social security payments affords me the flexibility of living in a way that allows me to explore new hobbies, volunteer with community groups, mentor young people, visit new lands and experience new cultures.
Ginny Weisse:
What does social security mean to me.
Just that Security!
One works and pays into the program and counts on the benefit to be there for you when you retire.
Social security provides essential help/support for the elderly, disabled and Social security may be the only income for some.
John Rahn:
I’ll just say, I have been paying social security tax sinceI was 16, and I am still paying it at 81.It’s an irreplaceable lifeline for retired peoplewith little savings.
Karen Kent:
As a geriatric mental health therapist who did home visits, I saw many elders whose only income was social security. Even living in low income senior housing, they wouldn’t survive with a cut in that income. They would end up homeless or committing suicide to avoid homelessness.”
Patricia Falsetto:
Social security is not an entitlement or a giant Ponzi scheme. It is supposed to be a guaranteed income after retirement, a fund which I personally have been paying into since I was 16 years old. I am now 74 and attempting to live on my social security. Most of my life I have worked in various places which were non-profit and served the greater social good. In later life I went to graduate school to become a mental health therapist and worked in community mental health for almost 20 years before my retirement 6 years ago. I chose these careers not because of the money I would make but because of the help that I could offer others. My parents both owned small businesses and retired with the confidence that their social security would see them through. And it did. Not because they felt they were getting a handout, but because that was the savings account created by the government to ensure they would have some kind of income besides what they could save. I understand that seriously wealthy people are exempt from paying into social security. I find it outrageous that people in our current government care so little and are so indifferent to the welfare of those with more age and less wealth than them. If they are not required to pay into the fund to help others perhaps they should check which way their moral compass is pointing and focus on that rather than judging and condemning people they don’t understand. I seem to hear the shade of Marie Antoinette whispering in their ears saying “why don’t they just eat cake”.
John Owen:
My parents lived through the Great Depression and paid into Social Security from it’s inception until the conclusion of their working days. Both of them worked very hard throughout their lives but, lacking any education beyond high school, their jobs were fairly low paying so they got by on a very modest income. Consequently, they were never able to accumulate much in the way of retirement savings.
My dad died when he was 71 so he never really got much retirement time in. We never did the math but I’m certain he paid much more into Social Security than he was able to withdraw.
My mom worked until, in her early 80’s, she was no longer able physically to make it up and down the stairs to the stock room in the Hallmark store where she was employed. At that point she finally had to retire and Social Security became her only source of income. It wasn’t much but she was very familiar with getting by on ‘not much’. Thanks to her monthly Social Security check she was able to live in dignity for the last decade of her life. Without it she would have been destitute.
In contrast to my parents, I’ve been lucky enough to have had a career which blessed me with a pension and enough financial headroom to enable me to put some money away for retirement. If my Social Security check stopped showing up, there would be some serious belt tightening required in our household but we would not lose our house or go hungry. My parents did not have that luxury and neither do millions of other Americans who are not as fortunate as I have been. One of those millions of Americans is my own brother. He, like many others who have little else besides Social Security to keep them afloat, lives in a legislative district that consistently favors the party that now plans to take those benefits away.
Francis Perkins, the Secretary of Labor under FDR, was the architect of the policies that became the Social Security Act, Medicare and Medicaid. She was also responsible for the creation of host of other things we now take for granted like the 40 hour work week, child labor laws, unemployment insurance, worker’s compensation and workplace safety just to name a few. When I think of what Social Security means to me, I think of what she had to say about it:“The people are what matter to government…and a government should aim to give all the people under its jurisdiction the best possible life.”[1]
“It is up to you to contribute some small part to a program of human betterment for all time.”[2]
“…we will go forward into the future a stronger nation because of the fact that we have this basic rock of security under all of our people.”[3]
In other words, Social Security is a manifestation of some of the most important values that we share as citizens. It is a fundamental example of what makes America truly great.
[1] https://open.substack.com/pub/heathercoxricharson/p/december-16-2024
[2] https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/march-25-2023