In other words, Jim, it's my negligence that caused me to lose the investment? I don't think so. AT&T split into several companies, including Lucent Technologies and a couple of others. They all promised great returns. For years, I received dividends from them every quarter (a small amount, but welcome nonetheless), and both annual and quarterly reports (which I read--they kept promising great things in the future!). Then both the reports and the dividends stopped coming. When I tried to find out what was going on, I found that the 800 numbers were disconnected. I put the broker who got me into the mutual fund (which, incidentally, is still okay, but a bit iffy at times) to try to check on what was going on with AT&T, and he wasn't able to find out either, other than "a big shake-up and reorganization" was taking place. Later, I heard that Lucent Technologies and the other stuff AT&T had gotten into had gone the way of a number of high-tech companies a few years back. Belly up.

Not my neglect. Corporate f**king around.

By the way, if what GWB is proposing ("personal accounts," he likes to call them) is going to be managed by someone other than me, how, then, is that a "personal" account? Who is going to do the managing? And how much is that going to cost? And how do I know that I can trust him or her? And how is that going to give me a bigger return than what I'm getting now? Or more secure?

It's all pretty damned vague. Social Security has worked well for seventy years, and it ain't broke, in spite of what George says. Any buttressing it needs within the next few decades would be taken care of with only a very small percentage of what George is 1) giving in massive tax cuts to the already wealthy, or 2) a tiny percentage of what he is spending on his illegal war.

George W. Bush is following in the footsteps of Ronald Reagan, whose goal was to reverse all of the regulatory and social safety net programs that FDR got passed in the Thirties. Not "strengthening," but dismantling the Social Security program is what's on Bush's agendy right now. That's what this is all about.

Don Firth