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Jesse Jackson In Chicago: Preparing the March On Wall Street
Preparing the March On Wall Street
by Danny Schechter When you read about Jesse Jackson, it's often in the context of an appearance here or there or as a high profile individual, controversial or not, depending on your point of view.
He's thought of as a "black leader" but its rarely made clear who or what he is leading. So when you read that he is organizing a March at noon today on Wall Street against the foreclosures of millions of homeowners, some shrug dismissively, ' there he goes again," as if he's just a professional protester.
You'd lose that contemptuous stereotype fast if you had been with me this past Saturday, on his home turf in Chicago where he founded and runs the Rainbow Push Coalition out of a former synagogue turned church, community center, school, and TV station on Chicago's South Side.
TODAY IS INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS DAY, THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE UN DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS.
IT IS ALSO THE DAY OF THE FIRST MARCH ON WALL STREET FOR ECONOMIC JUSTICE
(in NY: Exchange and Broad at High Noon, Rain or Shine, Lasalle Steet, Chicago.)
This is the Reverend's base, an organization that goes back
42 years from when he as a young man joined Martin Luther King Jr.
crusade for freedom. King appointed him to head up "Operation
Breadbasket," an economic empowerment arm of the civil rights movement.
After
King was murdered, and he was there with him in Memphis-he left the
Southern Christian Leadership Council (SCLC) to form Operation Push
(People United To Save Humanity.) When he later ran as a presidential
candidate with the multi-cultural Rainbow theme, The pressure tactics
of PUSH fused with the the non-racial mroe expansive Rainbow spirit.
On
Saturdays, a day chosen not to conflict with Sunday church services,
Jackson holds forth in the huge building on Drexell and East 50th
Street on the South Side. He invited me out to speak and show a clip of
my film IN DEBT WE TRUST.
The
day started at 6 AM, which is when he gets cranking, with the taping of
his TV show, an hour-long discussion program that airs at 9 Saturday
Nights worldwide on the WORD network, a globally distributed religious
broadcasting outlet. He wanted me on to explain the predatory lending
and subprime menace which I explore in my film and new book, SQUEEZED:
America As The Bubble Bursts (ColdType.Net).
The program was not
rhetorical but analytical with an emphasis on context and solutions. It
has no sponsors perhaps because it is a freewheeling exchange of views.
Jackson is not just
talking to his base or the victims of predatory lending, On Friday, he
had an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal with proposals for what can be
done. He called for a Marshall Plan and an agency like the
Reconstruction Finance Corporation used in the depression or like the
Resolution Trust Corporation set up to resolve the Savings and Loan
(S&L) scandal to provide relief to people who lost homes and
savings. He told me that Sandy Weil, the former Wall Street CEO and
mogul called him at 5 in the morning to discuss it with him.
After
the show broadcast from the basement ended, I went upstairs to the
community hall for a breakfast of eggs, grits and a biscuit and a
conversation with folks waiting for a panel of the "Entrepreneurs
University," an empowerment and educational program for small
businessmen which meets there. Foreclosure lawyers and lenders,
including representatives of state agencies, were in another oom
discussing ways to restructure mortgages with troubled homeowners.
(Chicago has an almost 30% foreclosure rate.)
(Nearby Detroit is
harder hit. Yesterday, residents of the Detroit area who opened their
paper were greeted with 122 pages of the 2008 Tax Foreclosure list for
Wayne County. The current figure for Wayne county reports that a
staggering 1/4 homeowners are in default on their mortgage.) This is
worse than Katrina, a disaster in the making. Motown may soon be notown.
At
ten A.M, the service begins. It is also broadcast live on WORD and a
local outlet. The place was a beehive of activity, packed, energized,
maybe even sanctified. This was a weekend to remember the civil rights
struggle. There was a fabulous gospel choir,a band and amazing soloists
including some local pastors who dropped in to sing and testify. He has
built an important and internationally respected institution which
carrying on the momentum of the civil rights struggle from protest to
politics to economic survival. He is, as we said in the Civil Rights
days, "keeping on, keeping on."
And I say this as someone who is
mindful of all the criticisms of Jesse's flaws, failings and
disappointments. Who among us is perfect? But who among us has his
stature and history?
The room was rocking and I thought of my
lanzmen who used to live in this onetime Jewish neighborhood and who
once worshiped in this very building and how they would feel about the
energy and love so visible in a hall, filled with passionate and
classic church ladies but with a sprinkling of younger people. Jesse's
son, Jonathan, now a businessman and Rainbow Push spokesman talked about
ongoing police abuse in Chicago and appealed for people to sign a
petition to stop it.. There were also educators present who described
their efforts to improve the education of black boys and young men.
And
then, it was my turn. Jessie brought me up to the platform and I was so
electrified that I did some preaching of my own about the white collar
crime wave behind the subprime crisis. I as on fire. I think he was as
amazed as I was.There was a call and response from the crowd, people
applauded and I felt real good after so many months of writing about
all this and feeling like I was on my own planet with few listening or
realizing the extent of the calamity. He showed a clip of the film and
the response to that was enthusiastic too. Many bought DVDs afterwards
and I have a feeling it will be shown again all around town. (To order
a copy visit InDebtWeTrust.com)
I realized that what a novice I
was as a preacher when Jackson did his signature thing. I would like to
think I inspired him to go higher, because he went from speaking to
sermonizing with eloquent and electrified, teaching, getting the
congregation to repeat his words—"restructure, don't repossess." They
all later sang GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN and they meant it.
I
flashed back to the churches I visited during the civil rights movement
back in the South in the 60's where politics and religion became one in
a blend of inspiration and resistance. It seemed like that movement may
be on the verge of being reignited, This will be a movement for
economic justice, not just civil rights. (Although remember that the
March on Washington in 963 was for JOBS and justice and Dr. King was
supporting a strike by garbagemen when he was struck down.)
We'll
see what happens in New York later today (There is also a March on the
Federal Reserve Bank on LaSalle Street in Chicago.) Both will probably
be small because there wasn't much time to organize. Think of it as a
start of an ongoing campaign, a way to put the issue on the larger
agenda.
Watch Out Wall Street: the Samaritans are coming to confront the Scrooges.
Crisis in urban America written by Mike Klonsky,
December 10, 2007
Nice piece Danny. It made my SmallTalk blog today.
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President of Law & Grace, Inc written by Barbara Ann Jackson,
December 12, 2007
subject: Foreclosure Fraud, Wall Street, FREDDIE MAC, Judicial Corruption, etc.
Any representation to Wall Street Investors by FREDDIE MAC that FREDDIE’S reported $2 billion losses are due to people defaulting on their mortgages must be weighed against the fact that (in states such as Louisiana), Freddie Mac is paying DEBT COLLECTION firms needless, outrageous litigation costs for corporate lawyers to outmaneuver –and even persecute people when they oppose unlawful foreclosures. In Louisiana, long before Hurricane Katrina, the entrenched real estate and mortgage fraud racketeering scheme has been in operation. But thanks to federal authorities such as U.S. Attorney Jim Letten and U.S. Attorney David Dugas, real estate racketeers in Louisiana have nothing to worry about. Verification of what I have written is posted on my www.lawgrace.org website.
http://www.lawgrace.org/2007/12/08/my-december-7-2007-comment-posted-to-the-times-picayune-blog-about-the-news-article-entitled-“judge-gets-debt-reprieve-badeaux-has-skipped-mortgage-payments”-the-foreclosure-of-this-lo/ =======================================================
============ *Also, posted on NEWSBLAZE.COM, see this article: "Mortgage Mess, Foreclosure Fraud and Impediments to Justice:"
Most critical to the Foreclosure Crisis is FORECLOSURE FRAUD, which enables MORTGAGE LENDERS to ILLEGALLY FLIP properties. In Louisiana, 2 particular mortgage companies which benefit from fraudulent foreclosures are Wells Fargo and FREDDIE MAC! It is HIGHLY COMMON for a DEBT COLLECTOR attorney to file a foreclosure: (i) in the name of a DEFUNCT mortgage company;(ii) in the name of a mortgage company which is NO LONGER holder of the security interest (the promissory note); or (iii) file a foreclosure and AFFIX a "ransom" amount (the collector's fee) far exceeding what the promissory note "Acceleration Clause" authorizes.
Despite a property owner's entitlement to Challenge CONTRARY-TO-LAW loss of his / her home, most property owners LACK consumer and legal knowledge; the Court System is REFRACTORY; and there are limited attorneys with acumen to pursue Consumer Law. Also, when borrowers sue for "Unfair Debt Collection Practices," damages, the collector gets to make more $$ through prolonged litigation, as co-conspirators enjoy the foreclosure pie.
Investors need to become more astute about how mortgage servicers' misdeeds hurts borrowers as well as siphons incalculable amounts of money from what Investors should reap. (See "Limiting Abuse and Opportunism By Mortgage Servicers," AND "Private Property Rights Deferred: Has Predatory Mortgage Servicing Destroyed The American Dream" by Rawle Andrews, Jr., Esq.,and Leroy Jones, Jr., J.D. Visit: http://www.msfraud.org/index.html.)
Barbara Ann Jackson Law & Grace, Inc. www.lawgrace.org LOUISIANA
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Mortgage Loan Comparison Worksheet written by Ted Janusz,
December 16, 2007
Insightful article!
Keep up your GREAT work!
Thought you might also find this interesting . . .
I am a former senior loan officer for a regional mortgage bank. It made me sick to see how we took advantage of consumers for thousands of extra dollars. Sometimes these were smart people who simply didn’t know any better. So I developed this simple Mortgage Loan Comparison Worksheet. If borrowers just used this easy tool when shopping for a mortgage, predatory lending in this country could virtually be eradicated:
Problem is, most borrowers only make a decision once every seven years, so how would they even know what to look for? As a loan officer my mission was not to educate, but to get a signature on the bottom line, at any cost.
Based upon my experience, here are the Top 10 Mistakes Mortgage Borrowers Make:
1. Not knowing which mortgage fees the borrower can -- and cannot -- negotiate.
2. Choosing and trusting the first loan officer the borrower interviews.
3. Using an interest-only or "payment option" adjustable-rate loan primarily to qualify for a more expensive house than you could normally afford.
4. Thinking the interest rate is always the main thing.
5. Not comparing the final fees listed on the closing documents to the up-front estimates to avoid the lender "packing the loan" with added-on fees without the borrower's knowledge.
6. Not knowing if the mortgage has a pre-payment penalty - until it's too late.
7. Thinking that renting is always just throwing money away.
8. The borrower does not know if he or she is paying a back-end yield spread or Service Release Premium.
9. Paying for mortgage life insurance, credit insurance or other expensive lender add-ons to increase the amount of kickbacks the lender can receive from various vendors.
10. Paying hundreds of dollars to have a company set up a biweekly mortgage payment plan, something the borrower can generally do for herself or himself -- for free.
From "Kickback: Confessions of a Mortgage Salesman," one of the best-selling books on mortgages on Amazon.com.
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