Potical Geek Rock Concert! part 1

From July 6, 2015 until July 12, 2015, I was in the party of political rock stars! I was at the Alliance for Retired Americans Legislative Conference(7/7-10) and the AFSCME Retirees Council (7/10-12). Although we did many work sessions (about TPP, strengthening and expanding Social Security, Medicare, Working with Coalitions to name a few), this post is just about the speakers.
What speakers they were! And, of course, I have some excerpts from their speeches, maybe not the most quotable, but I don't have that type of equipment. Also, I'm going to have to use links...cuz blogger's being mean about size....pssssshhhhhh!

We began with a bang with Richard Trumka, President, AFL-CIO who, as usual, knocked it outta the park. Did you know that he was the youngest person elected as President of the United Mine Workers at 33?  He spoke about raising wages for all working folks: youth, women, minorities and white men which, when wages are higher, we all live better and helps secure our retirement future and helps those already retired.
On July 7, we also heard from Nora Super, the Executive Director of the White House Conference on Aging. This conference is held every 10 years, since 1961. The last time it was held was under President Bush, who is the only president who never showed up for the conference, 'magine that? This conference was held by having town hall meetings in 5 areas: Seattle, Cleveland, Phoenix, Boston, and Tampa, along with tele-conferences(over 100). President Obama addressed the Conference on July 13. The link in this paragraph will give you more information about the conference and the President's speech.
Also, "in the house" was the Executive Director of the National Institute on Retirement Security, Diane Oakley, who spoke about it being time to change the conversation from, "baby boomers are going to bankrupt Social Security and Medicare" to one that shows the facts that Boomers offer more to America than seniors in the past due to their community activism and being involved in their community. Also, that it's time to strengthen and expand Social Security and Medicare, not cut as the Republicans in congress are always trying to do. She highlighted the savings crisis that is hurting so many older Americans who, because of no pensions, just 401K plans, lost much of their savings due to the Great Recession of 2008. She spoke about why pensions are still a better bang for the buck for all involved, both employee and employer and how the Laura and John Arnold foundation has been funding many of the pension bashing rants and legislation throughout the country. If you don't know who John Arnold is, he used to run a little energy company called Enron...he didn't ruin enough middle class retirement funds when Enron imploded so he now runs a hedge fund and tries to take down the rest of us who are still holding onto a middle class life. 
This was just the first 3 hours of our conference! Much more to come: Nancy Pelosi, Bernie Sanders, Sherrod Brown, Debbie Stabenow...and Elizabeth Warren! Yep, Rock Concert...just with talking....see you soon.