You have hear all the "sky is falling" predications of a bankrupt Social Security trust fund. That just ain't so. Sure, come the year 2032, there will be a shortfall in the fund, i.e., benefits would have to be cut by 25 percent.

No one wants that to happen--that's why we're trying to fix it now, while we still have time and options available. That doesn't mean dismantle a system that has delivered financial security to thousands every month for the last 60 years--without missing a single check. We need to strengthen Social Security, not tear it apart.

Why, you ask should rail workers care about the Social Security debate? After all, we're covered under an entirely different system. The fact is that Social Security keeps America's middle class going in times of trouble, something that concerns us all. Begun in the Depression as a way to lift people out of poverty, the system still serves that function today. Without Social Security, half of all older Americans would be living in poverty.

But Social Security isn't just about older Americans. Too often forgotten are the six million disabled workers and their dependents, as well as the seven million survivors of workers who have died--all of whom receive Social Security checks, checks that often make the difference in whether the rent is paid or there is food on the table.

And, if caring about a system that gives America's most needy a regular income, if caring about a system that covers your family and your neighbors isn't enough, then look to your own personal future, too. Because, as reformers move forward, the Railroad Retirement system may just enter their radar screens as well.

Impossible, you say? You know better. Look at how often we've had to fight to keep Railroad Retirement in the past. In fact, railroad workers have already weathered the same storm approaching the Social Security trust fund--a smaller work force with a growing pool of retirees. We understand the fragile financial underpinnings and how easily some in Congress can forget that the lives of real people, America's working men and women and their families, are at stake.

Moreover, anti-worker reformers who are trying to privatize Social Security don't want to stop there (in a future column, I'll get into how so-called reformers are trying to turn pension security into their own financial windfall). They already are talking about adding the public employee pension system into the mix, as well. About five million state and local government workers are covered by employer benefit plans, not Social Security. Guess who might be next! All workers are in this together. If we don't know that by now, we might as well throw in the towel. We had better take this attack on Social Security seriously--not out of merely sympathy or solidarity--but also out of suspicion of who's neck will be next on the chopping block.