Reston - The Connection Newspapers

Opinion
What’s Your Advice?
Be part of the Connection
Insiders edition.
The Connection staff and interns are
already preparing the annual newcomers
and community guide. We
invite our readers to help
with providing insiders’ advice and information.
Below are several suggested questions,
but we encourage you to participate
in any way.
We’ll print selections from the answers along
with your name. Answer one question or all of
them; give as many answers as you’d like to
each question.
What “insider’s tip” about your town would
you share with a friend? Places to go, things
to do, can’t-miss events, ideas on what it means
to live here.
What advice would you give new residents
on how to make themselves at home and get
involved here?
What tips do you have for someone new to
your town? What interesting, almost secret,
places would you like to have learned about
earlier when you moved in?
We invite you to share the expertise you’ve
gained in living in your hometown with your
neighbors and with people new to the area.
Send us a short letter: what do you love
Entitlement?
By Jack Kenny-
Past President, Republican
Club of Greater Reston
Let’s start off with a few statistics.
In the confines of
Reston there are a little
over 57,000 registered voters. Currently,
about 10,780 are aged 62
or older and presumably receiving
Social Security benefits. That’s
close to 19 percent of the registered
voters. In five years, when
the bulk of the so-called Baby
Boomers are eligible for Social
Security benefits the percentage
jumps to over 24 percent. We may
assume, in five years the
population of Reston
will increase by perhaps
20,000. However, the
current percentages are
expected to stay about the same.
Virtually all of Reston’s over-62
population has worked their adult
lives and paid into the FICA (Social
Security Trust Fund) for some
40+ years. A substantial number
are still working and contributing
to the Trust Fund. Of course, their
benefits increase each year they
work. If our rate of purchase was
about 4 percent over the 40 years,
with the matching employer’s contribution,
our annuity would be
A Differing
Point of View
Editorials
about your community? Tell us about one special
place you’ve discovered. Does you family
have different favorites in different seasons?
How did you get involved in your town? Share
your favorite park. Tell us about your favorite
annual event. Send us a photo of your family
at one of your favorite spots or engaged in a
favorite activity.
We also ask for input from local arts
organizations, civic organizations,
houses of worship, clubs, schools, businesses
and other community institutions.
Send us information on dates and details
for major events for the upcoming year,
information on how to get involved in
Digital Editions, Twitter
Be the first to read your hometown news.
Sign up to get the digital replica of the Connection
delivered to your email box every
week.
Anyone can sign up to receive one or more
editions of the Connection (McLean, Great
Falls, Vienna/Oakton, Reston, Oak Hill/
Herndon, Arlington, Springfield, Burke,
Fairfax, Fairfax Station/Clifton/Lorton) including
the Alexandria Gazette Packet, the Mount
Vernon Gazette, the Centre View and the
Potomac Almanac.
Email your name, your snail-mail address,
worth over
$850,000: a tidy
sum that would
provide each beneficiary
with
about $20,000 a
year for the next
30 years. In reality,
the individual
and employer
contribution is
more like $1.25
million dollars. A
private purchased
annuity return
would be substantially greater
given inflation and the ups and
downs of the economy.
As I have written in
previous columns, Social
Security started out
as a voluntary program.
Through the years it became a
mandatory program. Then LBJ
came along and picked the lock
box hijacking the huge pot of trust
funds for the War on Poverty. By
the way, poverty has won that war.
Now the politicians have muddied
the waters by changing the
approach using the word entitlements.
Somehow, we are supposed
to think of our forced annuity as
being a gift from the government.
In fact, it is our money: extracted
from our paychecks
and from
our employers.
The principle
upon which this
program was
founded is the
same basis for
which we sent
Bernie Madoff to
jail.
Through the
years, the politicians
have used
this annuity to
spend it on social programs: expanding
the beneficiary pool without
concurrent contributions. It
has gotten so far out of whack, we
are now facing the prospect of receiving
only $.78 on each dollar
we invested. Would anyone in
their right mind buy an annuity
from a financial institution, insurance
company or whatever with
the prospect that the financial institution
would keep 22 percent of
the purchased annuity to distribute
to others as administrative expenses?
That is what is happening
now. While the forthcoming
election is for state and local offices,
send a message to the politicians:
It is not an entitlement but
a financial contract. Vote Nov 8.
nonprofits and charities, details about your
club or other organization.
The Insiders Guide will publish the last week
in August. Please send in your tips and answers
by Aug. 17.
For Alexandria Gazette, Mount Vernon Gazette,
Arlington Connection, Centre View or
Potomac Almanac, send to
smauren@connectionnewspapers.com
For Vienna/Oakton, McLean, Great Falls,
Reston, Oak Hill/Herndon Connections, send
to kemal@connectionnewspapers.com
For Springfield, Burke, Fairfax, Fairfax Station/Clifton/Lorton
Connections, send to
moconnell@connectionnewspapers.com
email address and the paper or papers you
would like to receive to
GoingGreen@connectionnewspapers.com.
(We will not sell or share your personal information.)
We will email a digital replica of the print
edition directly to your email box every week.
Looking for something a bit more immediate?
Follow us on Facebook or Twitter. On
Twitter: @ffxconnection, @marykimm,
@Michaelleepope,@followfairfax,
@connectvictoria, @AmcVeighConnect,
@jonroetman
Letters to the Editor
Time to Discuss
Future Is Now
To the Editor:
When I pick my granddaughter
up at Terraset after school, there
are many grandparents waiting for
kids. That’s a big change from the
early 1980s when my daughter
was a student at Sunrise Valley.
She tells me nobody she knew at
her school had grandparents living
in Reston. We have become a
settled community with deep roots
over the years since Reston was
first created.
Our founder, Bob Simon, has
said recently that density equals
community. He is very eager for
the changes that will bring additional
people and development to
Reston. Right now Town Center
and Dulles Corridor are being considered
by the Reston Master Plan
Special Study Task Force for additional
development. But soon the
county will turn its attention to the
part of Reston called the PRC, the
Planned Residential Community.
Then our neighborhoods and the
shopping centers will be considered
for additional density in
Phase 2.
The time to discuss this Phase 2
of the Task Force is now. Our
See Kaplan, Page 11
www.ConnectionNewspapers.com
Newspaper of
Reston
An independent, locally owned weekly
newspaper delivered
to homes and businesses.
1606 King Street
Alexandria, Virginia 22314
NEWS DEPARTMENT:
To discuss ideas and concerns,
Call: 703-778-9410
e-mail:
reston@connectionnewspapers.com
Kemal Kurspahic
Editor ❖ 703-778-9414
kemal@connectionnewspapers.com
Alex McVeigh
Community Reporter
703-778-9441
amcveigh@connectionnewspapers.com
Nick Horrock
County & Projects
nhorrock@connectionnewspapers.com
Rich Sanders
Sports Editor
703-224-3031
rsanders@connectionnewspapers.com
ADVERTISING:
To place an advertisement, call the ad
department between 9 a.m. and
5 p.m., Monday - Friday.
Display ads 703-778-9410
Classified ads 703-778-9411
Employment ads 703-778-9413
Trisha Hamilton
Display Advertising
703-778-9419
trisha@connectionnewspapers.com
Andrea Smith
Classified Advertising, 703-778-9411
classified@connectionnewspapers.com
Barbara Parkinson
Employment Advertising
703-778-9413
classified@connectionnewspapers.com
Editor & Publisher
Mary Kimm
703-778-9433
mkimm@connectionnewspapers.com
Editor in Chief
Steven Mauren
Managing Editors
Michael O’Connell, Kemal Kurspahic
Photography:
Louise Krafft,
Craig Sterbutzel
Art/Design:
Geovani Flores, Laurence Foong,
John Heinly, John Smith
Production Manager:
Jean Card
CIRCULATION: 703-778-9426
Circulation Manager:
Linda Pecquex
circulation@connectionnewspapers.com
CONNECTION NEWSPAPERS,
L.L.C.
Peter Labovitz
President/CEO
Mary Kimm
Publisher/Chief Operating Officer
703-778-9433
mkimm@connectionnewspapers.com
Jerry Vernon
Executive Vice President
jvernon@connectionnewspapers.com
Wesley DeBrosse
Controller
Debbie Funk
National Sales, 703-778-9444
debfunk@connectionnewspapers.com
Jeanne Theismann
Special Assistant to the Publisher
703-778-9436
jtheismann@connectionnewspapers.com
6 ❖ Reston Connection ❖ July 27- August 2, 2011 www.ConnectionNewspapers.com