“We all more than earned a dignified retirement”

A Gut-Wrenching Reminder of the Stakes

Yesterday, I highlighted this story:

A high-stakes election for the swing seat on the Ohio teachers’ pension board. Frustrated retirees, dissatisfied with the Fund’s performance and lack of cost of living adjustments, voting in a reform candidate to give themselves a board majority to start asking questions. A last-minute and legally suspect interference by Governor DeWine to scuttle that new majority.

In an email I received a few hours later, one of my subscribers added an invaluable perspective to the scandal:

“Here’s what that story looks like from my own perspective:

I was born and raised in poverty in the south, left on a scholarship to Ohio, and swore never to be in poverty again. As a young teacher first paying into the [teachers’ pension] system, [I] began to witness my older colleagues and mentors retire[.] I then came to notice that they all lived in poverty after about 5 years of retirement. I didn’t understand that until the campaign began to get the COLA put into place. After it passed, I understood.

So we got that done, and retirees could then keep their heads up and live with dignity. I retired after 35 years in 2012, expecting the same. 

The impact: Now I realize how I’ve missed that COLA for 7 years myself; I’m beginning to really miss that nearly $7K that would have been in the family funeral account by now. I had to bury both my parents, and will have to bury all 3 siblings as well, likely within the next few years as they have diabetes, heart problems and COPD- all my family still lives in poverty, I’m the only one who "made it out.” Now I help support their grandchildren. As a Principal, I learned that some of my best teachers came from a similar background of poverty, and were now the heroes, providers and emergency financial back-ups for their extended family members. We all more than earned a dignified retirement, especially, as women…having been paid 1/3 less than men whose training and degrees in other professions were similar.

Thanks for the respect you show for educators, both retired and active, and the CRITICAL work that you do in documenting what’s happening to our democracy.”

Wow.

Gut-wrenching.

And such an important reminder.

The fight for democracy—and to clean up broken, corrupted government that is subverting democracy (as DeWine did here)—is not some academic 30,000-foot debate.

It’s about lifting lives.

That’s why we fight!

And it’s about averting the deep damage done to everyday lives—in dollars, in dignity, in core rights and freedom—that happens in places that no longer enjoy the basics of a democratic process or the rule of law.

Never stop fighting folks! I know I won’t.

There’s too much at stake.