New York state's month-long celebration of the 75th anniversary of Social Security kicked off Tuesday with Gov. David Paterson's proclamation of August as "Social Security Diamond Anniversary Month." Loretta Donlon, NYSUT's director of Election District 51 and a member of the Governor's Advisory Committee on Aging, was among the speakers at the event.
"We applaud this program, which raises more than 13 million of our fellow citizens above the poverty line - and that includes millions of children," Donlon told the gathering. "Here in New York state, those children are the students that NYSUT members work with - and for - and keeping them out of poverty provides them with the opportunity to learn, grown and enrich all of us and our state in the future."
Donlon was joined by a busload of NYSUT retirees, some with grandchildren in tow, to show support for a program that helps not only the elderly, but preserves the future of young Americans. Retirees carried signs that read "Social Security: Fix it, don't nix it."
The federal retirement program was created by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a former New York State governor, on Aug. 14, 1935 to guarantee income security for all Americans.
"NYSUT believes that FDR's contract with Americans must be maintained, and that all Americans need to be vigilant in their efforts to keep Social Security on solid financial ground and to preserve it for generations to come," Donlon said.
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