Shame on you, Gary Jarmin and every other activist who scares senior citizens with tales of losing their Social Security.

Granted, this nation faces challenges, and Social Security is one of them. But squeezing an "emergency contribution" of $15 out of people who can hardly buy groceries is exploiting the very people operators like Jarmin claim to be helping.

Take a widow who visited the Post Tuesday. She wanted to submit the latest letter from Jarmin and the Seniors Center (part of the American Federation of Senior Citizens) as a letter to the editor. The six-page letter convinced her that senior citizens were on the verge of losing their Social Security checks because greedy representatives in Washington have been emptying the Social Security Trust Fund and filling it with "worthless IOUs."

She was shaken. She intended to send an emergency contribution of $15, support Jarmin's call for petitions and spread the word.

I tried to reassure her that she was not about to lose her Social Security. The fate of Social Security for me and following generations is not rock solid, I said, but she should feel secure about her monthly check.

She was only partly relieved, saying she worried about saving the country — not just Social Security — for future generations.

* * *

Jarmin's letter says the "Washington insiders and their friends in Congress" have taken money from the trust fund to pay their big salaries, fund pornographic art, distribute free needles to drug addicts and give pensions to diplomats. He goes on:

If you and I don't fight back, there will be nothing left to fight for.

You and I — and hardworking people all across America — will be left with nothing but a bunch of worthless government IOUs.

And not a dime in our Social Security Trust Fund ...

... just try to pay for your groceries with a government IOU.

No wonder my senior friend was frightened. By the tone of this letter, the future Social Security depends on her sending a $15 check to help Jarmin flood Congress with mass-produced petitions.

So what is the truth about the trust fund and the government IOUs? And who is this Gary Jarmin?

nnn

First, Jarmin. A Google search finds Democrats at democraticunderground.com expressing outrage over Jarmin's scare tactics.

"Gary Jarmin runs the AFSC and several other apparently fake charitable organizations from his home at 208 North Patrick Street, Alexandria, VA, 22314, 703-548-1708," the site says. "Among his other enterprises are Christian Voice, JAR-MON Consultants, US Cuba Foundation, and the American Christian Cause." (That's Jarmin's office phone number. He was out of the office last week when I called.)

SeniorJournal.com describes Jarmin as a longtime associate and disciple of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon.

On the other hand, Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney has named Jarmin as one of the 40 or so vice chairs of the Romney For President National Faith And Values Steering Committee.

And the Christian Voice Web site lists him as its president and "a key leader and activist in supporting conservative causes."

So a $15 check from this woman in Salisbury might support the conservative causes she believes in — or at least help conservative activist Gary Jarmin pay his bills. But it probably will have no impact on Social Security. And it definitely will spawn solicitations from more causes declaring an emergency need for donations. The American Seniors Center sells its mailing list, touting it as a great money-making list for nonprofits, grassroots lobby groups, charities, conservative candidates, catalogers, direct mail merchandise buyers, bankcard and financial offers.

It's a racket.

In fact, my senior friend said she was already being swamped with mailed pleas to save the country from this or that impending disaster, and she was going to run out of money trying to help them all.

* * *

Experts say the Social Security Trust Fund can last until around 2040, after which scheduled Social Security payroll taxes can continue to provide 75 percent of promised benefits.

Seventy-five percent is a lot more than zero.

Here's what the American Association of Retired Persons, a strong believer in keeping Social Security healthy, says about those IOUs:

Aren't the trust funds just filled with worthless IOUs?

Not at all. By law, all income to the trust funds not immediately needed to pay expenses, is invested in bonds guaranteed by the U.S. government. These bonds are like the bonds that you or I might buy to save for retirement or for our children's education. Far from being "worthless IOUs," those investments are backed by the full faith and credit of the federal government. The bonds earn interest — in 2002 the rate of return earned by the trust funds averaged 6.4 percent. For more than 200 years, in good times and bad, during wars and depressions, American bonds have always paid off. They're one of the safest investments in the world.

Jarmin probably would not agree. But I'd put more faith in the AARP than in someone begging for $15.

* * *

Elizabeth Cook is editor of the Salisbury Post.