The Real Sentinel News 200401

The Sentinel All the news that's fit to print and some that's not.
Our Town No it's not the famous book by Thornton Wilder, but it is our town. People here are so friendly, more so than anywhere else we have lived. That is not to say we didn't have friends, good friends everywhere we ever lived; I am speaking of just strangers that seem open and welcoming. Though we have been here 4 years people we don't know are friendly with cheerful greetings all over town. We certainly enjoy that. Just 10 miles away in a bigger city folks are nowhere near so outgoing and kind.	Social Security Right now Social Security is a great thing for us; it keeps us from having to be totally supported by our children. Social Security retirement funds come to us and we have to spend every bit of it. That means we seniors are supporting the economy that you enjoy and appreciate so well. Parts of our government want to cut back on Social Security. They say it is too expensive and eats up too much of government funds for what they call entitlement programs. But here is the deal; decades ago the government took funds out of Social Security and put it into the general funds for operations. That money was never paid back to the Social Security Trust Fund. Had the "Trust Fund" been returned it would still be self sufficient as it was always intended to be. By the way, we collecting Social Security today have paid taxes into the fund on every single penny we ever earned, so this is NOT an entitlement in the way it is currently portrayed. There is a simple fix for this to return the fund to self sufficiency. Simply raise the Social Security tax a small amount, but politicians won't do it.	Autocratic Leaders Autocrats have a lot in common. The supreme leader thinks he is the only one to have power in his country. They always pick an enemy (whether real or more likely made up.) They use their selected enemy to rouse up followers into a hateful frenzy and that's how they get into office. The first thing they do is discredit all news media except for the chosen outlet which always makes up stories to promote how glorious the supreme leader is and will be, no matter how despotic the leader is. The autocrat makes all the decisions, his councilors are not trusted to do anything on their own; they are only there to praise the leader. Out of the box thinking is not acceptable for subordinates. The commander makes all decisions and his rules are strictly adhered to in every situation. Here is a link to the traits of autocratic (Authoritarian) leaders. If this reminds you of 4 current world leaders, you are right on the ball. Good for you!