Seventy years ago, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed into law the Social Security Act when our nation was mired in the Great Depression and a third of its people were "ill-housed, ill-clad and ill-nourished."

America's elderly were among those who were suffering most. Nearly half of our elderly population had no income to speak of. In the words of the president, they either "depended on those who had but little to share, or spent their remaining years within the walls of a poorhouse."

The winds of change began to blow on the afternoon of Aug. 14, 1935, when Roosevelt established the Social Security system and offered a rock-solid promise to American families that has endured for 70 years.

Today, Social Security provides much-needed benefits to more than 48 million people. In Hawai'i, more than 195,000 of our friends, neighbors and family members — one out of every six people who live here — receive Social Security benefits. Thanks to this time-honored program, the poverty rate for older Americans is lower today than it is for any other age group.

But along with the promise, President Roosevelt offered a warning: "Let us not allow ourselves to be misled by those who advocate shortcuts to Utopia or fantastic financial schemes."

Today, the promise of Social Security has come under its most threatening attack from those who are proposing to create private accounts funded by money drained from the Social Security system.

The good news is that Americans are not fooled. AARP has conducted surveys on Social Security on the 50th, 60th and now the 70th anniversaries of the program. The most recent survey found that the American people's support for Social Security remains very strong — and that their understanding of the vital role Social Security plays in their retirement has increased — despite the unrelenting attacks against the program we've witnessed over the past few years.

Numerous independent surveys have also shown that Americans soundly reject private accounts that drain money out of Social Security. There is no reason to believe they will be fooled by repackaged proposals that seek to accomplish the same ill-advised ends.

The new proposals in Congress for private accounts do nothing to address the long-term solvency of Social Security. They would simply create a mountain of debt and pass the bill on to future generations.

AARP has strongly opposed proposals to create private accounts out of Social Security, and we will not back off of this position.

Here in Hawai'i, where Social Security accounts for at least half of the income of nearly 50 percent of all residents age 65 and older, we will continue to stand up for what we believe is right and oppose what we believe is wrong, for as long as the debate over the future of Social Security continues. Now is the time for Congress to strengthen Social Security so that it's fair for everybody.

Barbara Kim Stanton is the director of AARP Hawaii. She wrote this commentary for The Advertiser.