Duty and honor

Next month I will turn 25. I am just entering the workforce now and won't receive Social Security benefits any time soon. Nevertheless, I am deeply concerned about the president's plan to privatize Social Security.

I am proud to look at my (admittedly modest) paycheck and see my share of taxes going toward this program. I see it not as a burden, but as a duty and an honor. The golden rule is: treat others as you'd expect them to treat you. I believe it is this kind of noble and lustrous ideal that inspired the Social Security program, and I find it ironic that the president -- who purports to support a culture of life -- now proposes to tarnish our ideals and harm our fellow citizens by privatizing the centerpiece program of the New Deal.

I am proud to be an American and proud to do my part. I hope the president will realize his folly and decide to support legislation that lives up to the high moral standards that Americans hold dear.

ZACH MANGANELLO

Colchester