Jeff Fortenberry: “I want to share a story with everyone tonight. Although I live in Nebraska, I keep an old family van here in Washington…”

“I want to share a story with everyone tonight. Although I live in Nebraska, I keep an old family van here in Washington, D.C., which is particularly helpful when our children are visiting. On one particular occasion, the van was very messy. My children were smaller then, and I had not had the time to clean it. I was actually parking the van in a downtown garage here in the city, and somewhat embarrassingly, I handed the keys to the attendant and said to him: Sorry, I have five children. He looked at me and smiled. He says: Oh, don't worry. I have seven children, and they are going to take care of me when I am old. I looked back at him, and I also smiled. I said: You know what that is called? That is called social security. He then said: I like that. Could I say that? I said: You can say it all that you like. Mr. Speaker, while we think of Social Security as that important retirement security program, which is so essential to so many people, I want to take a moment to just explore a broader understanding of how we find our security together as a people, as a Nation. I want to re-imagine this term ``Social Security'' in a wider sense of the phrase, what it means to find belonging, protection, and mutual support. Ultimately, society depends upon a binding set of narratives and an agreement with one another about one fundamental fact: the agreement that we should care about each other, that we are committed to one another, and that we have a common vision. Now, Mr.…”