The headline over the Cal Thomas column, "Rely on self, not government (Feb. 11), was an echo of a similar notion expressed by a Trinity High School student about 70 years ago. The Social Security Act had just been passed. One of our high school teachers required us to discuss "current events." A class member selected that news event and in a very few minutes gave his prediction that "Social Security will not be enough and that our only security is in our own hands." Such a contradictory view was even less accepted then than it is now, and the student got no applause for his conclusions.

Today, very few acknowledge that the Social Security program was intended to be one of three financial parts in planning for retirement. That teenager understood it soon after the program was enacted. It is appalling that, over the years, our leaders have let us lose sight of that underlying concept.

W. Darrell Allred
Greensboro