Tag Archives: Whole Distress

National Day of Prayer to Defend Human Dignity in Old Age

On Friday, May 01, 2026, Simon Cyrene, the Bearer of the Cross sends the Mayday! Mayday! Mayday! Distress Signal for Prayer to celebrate the International Labor Day, the International Workers’ Day, or The May Day. The Bearer of the Cross is asking for your Prayer in support of alien workers who may have no legal right to their wages or earnings contributed to the Public Trust Fund that pays the Monthly Retirement Income Benefit to workers who attained the Full Retirement Age performing labor in the US as per the US Labor Law. The characteristic of all labor is that it consumes some part of the short days and years of human life. The essence of all labor is that of the time and life it consumes to deliver a wage or earning to support the life it consumes.

May Day is a public holiday celebrated on May 1 in many different cultures around the world. It is a day of unity, togetherness, and rebirth; a day for everyone to come together and celebrate life as we know it!

The United States of America – A Slave State:

President Abraham Lincoln issued the ‘Emancipation Proclamation’ in September 1862 that went into effect on January 01, 1863 freeing the slaves in all territory still at War with the Union. The term ‘Free State’ refers to any State of the U.S. in which slavery was forbidden before the Civil War. The term ‘Slave State’ refers to any of the States in which slavery was legal before the Civil War. After abolishing slavery, the United States Department of Labor was established in 1913 to administer and enforce statutes that promote the welfare, improve the working conditions of all laborers or workforce.

In modern economic life, the term laborer describes all manual workers whose work is characterized largely by physical exertion, and especially it refers to workers who labor to earn wages on an hourly basis without the benefit of a contractual agreement with their employers.

The term Labor Law refers to legislation that affects workers, and the conditions of their employment. Labor Law is the body of law applied to such matters as employment, remuneration, and conditions of work. In its most comprehensive sense, the Labor Law includes Old Age and Disability Insurance. The characteristic of all labor is that it consumes some part of the short days and years of human life. The essence of all labor is that of the time and life it consumes to deliver a wage or earning to support the life it consumes.

The U.S. Social Security Act of 1935:

The U.S. Social Security Act (1935) established a retirement insurance plan called Social Security which is a public program providing for economic security and welfare of persons who make contributions to fund the program. The Health Insurance Plan called Medicare was added in 1965. It is administered by the Social Security Administration (SSA) of the Department of Health and Human Services. Medicare provides basic hospital insurance for persons aged 65 and over after they make contributions to fund the program. The Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) ensures that the wages are reported by the employers and Social Security and Medicare deductions are made from the paychecks of the employees before they receive their paychecks or wages, or earnings. The worker pays 6.2 percent of the earnings as SSA contribution and the employer pays 6.2 percent of the wage earned as SSA contribution to provide a retirement income to that worker. Similarly, 2.9 percent is paid into the Medicare Program, half by the worker and half by the employer.

Alien Workers Pay Social Security and Medicare Contributions:

The United States employs a large number of alien workers and millions of these workers are issued paychecks from which billions of dollars are deducted and flow directly to the Social Security Administration (SSA) every year. For example, for the year 2007, about $11.2 billion went into the Social Security Trust Fund, and $2.6 billion went into Medicare. These funds are utilized to pay the native residents of the United States who receive their Social Security income and Medicare health insurance benefits. At the same time, the alien workers who do not become citizens or qualified residents of the United States will not receive any retirement income from the wages they earned while they labored on the soil of the United States. These alien workers cannot participate in the Health Insurance Exchange, a new program introduced by President Obama through a Law known as the Affordable Health Care Act which went into effect on October 01, 2013. Several of these alien workers have already fully subscribed to the public health insurance program called Medicare and their contributions are taken by payroll deductions. These alien workers aged 65 and over are denied access to health care insurance even while they still continue to labor on the U.S. soil and still are paying into the System that gives them no benefit. These alien workers aged 66 and over have attained their full retirement age working in the United States under the provisions of the U.S. Labor Law which established the principles of equal opportunity and protection from discrimination based upon age, sex, race, or country of origin. It is apparent that the United States has institutionalized the practice of slavery by denying the retirement income and health insurance benefit to those alien workers who made their lifetime contributions according to the laws enforced by the country.

What is Slavery?

The term servant is used to describe a person employed to perform services to earn a wage, or income by providing labor. The term ‘Slavery’ refers to the condition of a slave, serf, or the like which is stated as ‘Servitude’. The term ‘Servitude’ is specifically used to refer to labor in which the person who performs the labor has no right to his earnings from labor. The term ‘Bondage’ implies any condition of subjugation or depriving a person the right to his property or earning. Serf is any person who is oppressed or has no freedom. Both Servitude and Bondage involve subjection of a person to some force, compulsion, or influence that takes away freedom, and dignity of the human being who by his birth is thought to be born free, and equal. In the United States, the Nation, or the State has institutionalized the practice of Slavery by enacting Laws that would empower the State to withhold the property or wage paid by the employer to his employee without any formal approval or consent of the affected worker who performs labor. At the full age of retirement of 66-years, the alien worker who spent the hours, the days, the weeks, the months, and the years of his life performing labor in the United States, gets denied all the earnings he earned for his retirement to lead a life in his Old Age with basic human dignity. I have no term other than that of “Slave State” to describe the country that is holding people in a condition called Bondage and Servitude.

The Dignity of Work and the Rights of Workers

http://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/what-we-believe/catholic-social-teaching/the-dignity-of-work-and-the-rights-of-workers.cfm

I am sharing the views endorsed by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in promoting ‘The Dignity of Work and the Rights of Workers. I want to clarify that I am neither a Communist nor a Socialist. I am affiliated to a military organization sponsored by the United States during the Cold War Era to contain the spread of Communism in Asia.

“The economy must serve people, not the other way around. Work is more than a way to  make a living; it is a form of continuing participation in God’s creation. If  the dignity of work is to be protected, then the basic rights of workers must  be respected–the right to productive work, to decent and fair wages, to the  organization and joining of unions, to private property, and to economic  initiative.”

Scripture

Genesis 2:1-3

God rests on the seventh day.

• Genesis 2:15  
           God settles man in the garden of Eden to  cultivate and care for it.
• Deuteronomy  5:13-15 
           The Sabbath is for everyone—all are allowed to  rest from their work.
• Deuteronomy  14:28-29 
           The Lord blesses our work  so that we may share its fruits with others.
• Deuteronomy 24:14-15  
          Do not withhold wages from  your workers, for their livelihood depends on them.
• Sirach 34:26-27
           To deprive an employee of wages is to commit murder.
• Isaiah 58:3-7  
           To observe religious practices, but oppress  your workers is false worship. 
• Jeremiah 22:13 
           Woe to him who treats his workers unjustly.
• Matthew 20:1-16  
           All workers should be paid a just and living  wage.
• Mark 2:27  
           The Sabbath was made for people, not people  for the Sabbath.
• James 5:1-6  
           Those who become rich by abusing their workers  have sinned against God.

Tradition  

I would like to remind everyone,  especially governments engaged in boosting the world’s economic and social  assets, that the primary capital to be safeguarded and valued is man, the human person in his or her integrity: “Man is the source, the focus and the  aim of all economic and social life.” (Pope Benedict XVI, Charity  in Truth [Caritas in Veritate. . . ], no. 25, quoting Second Vatican Council, The Church in the Modern World [Gaudium et Spes. . . ], no. 63)

As the Church solemnly reaffirmed in the  recent Council, “the beginning, the subject and the goal of all social  institutions is and must be the human person.”   All people have the  right to work, to a chance to develop their qualities and their personalities in  the exercise of their professions, to equitable remuneration which will enable  them and their families “to lead a worthy life on the material, social,  cultural and spiritual level” and to assistance in case of need arising from sickness or age. (Blessed Paul VI, A Call to Action [Octogesima Adveniens. . . ], no. 14)

Simon Cyrene

On this Friday, May 01, 2026 I am sending the ‘Mayday, Mayday, Mayday’ Distress Signal to all of my readers who support the rights of workers for Equal Justice and Equal Treatment under Law.