Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.insight From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: CORRESPONDENCE Date: Mon, 2 Nov 92 11:27:24 EST Message-ID: \SE CORRESPONDENCE \HD Championing the Efforts of Social Security Workers The implication that the Social Security Administration is at play instead of investigating false claims [For the People, By the People, Oct. 12] leads me to believe that your writers are being led blindly by public opinion's mythical view of government employees. Did Elizabeth Corbett really unintentionally drive to the bank to cash checks for her blindness disability? The judge didn't think so. She broke the law and was prosecuted and punished duly. The SSA was not found to be the perpetrator of her crime. Consider, while you admonish the agency, the numbers of unsolved murders, rapes and bank heists written off each year. The SSA has taken many hits in the past few years. In the early seventies it accepted the massive task of administering Supplemental Security Income. Since about 1984 there have been severe reductions in the frontline work force (not administration). Through hiring freezes, attrition and staff reductions the work force has been reduced to near, or below, what it was prior to SSI. More work for fewer people - how American. I'd bet the farm that the workers would prefer to use their already overburdened time administering real claims and helping those who truly need it instead of chasing liars and cheats. Sit in an SSA office waiting room for a few days. See for yourselves the monstrous abuses service representatives face from those they are trying to help. Take note of the patience and the professionalism demonstrated at the service delivery end of the agency. Keep in mind that you are watching the working-middle-class grunts of the SSA. What is more, as government employees, they also gave up the right to speak publicly on political issues or to serve on political campaigns - even when they are to be affected by the outcomes. They have no voice to protect against their autocratic employer, the contemptuous public or a cavalier press. As the spouse of one of these heroic Americans, I hope this letter will do her and her coworkers justice. Even better, I challenge you to do an inside story about them. Take a journalist's look at Social Security from the other side of the counter. There are good people there. Try walking a mile in their moccasins before you judge. Gerald Jesch Corona, Calif. Write: Insight, Correspondence Editor, 3600 New York Ave. N.E., Washington, D.C. 20002. Fax: (202) 529-2484. Please include an address and a daytime phone number. Letters may be edited for space. This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM