when Occupy works

I've done very little for Occupy Bernal ~ a phone call and some emails to Wells
Fargo, but thanks to the real activists in our neighborhood, great progress has
been made. All I've ever wanted is for the banks to sit down and talk to the home
owners and try to renegotiate their loans.

Occupy Bernal is big on emails and I've copied two graphs here to illustrate why
I feel so good about this group this morning:

UPDATE: Wells Fargo finally cancelled the auction of Eric and John's home this morning. We'll still meet at the auction block at 1:45pm at City Hall, 400 Van Ness Ave, to celebrate and protest any other residential foreclosure auctions taking place today. Congratulations to Eric and John and thanks to everyone who helped out!

and

Wells Fargo is assembling a team of decision makers to work with us and to begin meeting in the next week or so. As a result, we have postponed – not canceled – the action at Alfredo Pedroza’s home.

If Wells Fargo enters into substantive and productive negotiations with us on these issues, we will consider halting actions against the bank as long as it remains productive for our foreclosure and eviction fighter members. We will resume actions in the event negotiations break down. We reserve the right to renew our action campaign on other aspects of our foreclosure demands, even if we reach an agreement with Wells Fargo on the above issues...

bought and sold

Of course I would prefer the protests to be a little more focused, but
this one isn't sponsored by the Koch Brothers or Faux News, so Occupy
seems ragtag and disorganized. That's OK, I tell myself. Head over to
the Great Plotnik's blog ~ he went to the heart of it in NYC and I loved
all the photos and his levelheaded, well-written thoughts.

We all know that corporations rule this country. I love the photo on
Facebook of the congressperson covered with labels like a Nascar
racer: Exxon, BofA, Citigroup, Blue Cross, etc. At least be upfront
and honest about who is sponsoring you. Lordy.

I will mention two specifics of why I consider myself part of the 99%.
First was all the $$$$$ we lost in our 401(k) in 2008. I was paying (!)
Fidelity a monthly fee to manage this account. Of course it sounds
simplistic, but when you think of ALL the money that so many of us
lost 3 years ago, you have to ask yourself if any of the overpaid corporate
leaders took a sizable hit too. My answer, your answer, will be "no."

Then, a friend of mine tried to re-negotiate a bad mortgage with his bank
and they wouldn't budge. This story has been told and re-told a
thousand times across our country with people and their homes. As
the real estate values fell, the banks dug in their heels and foreclosed.
So what that you lived there, your kids went to school in that
neighborhood and that your mortgage was obfuscated back when you
signed on the dotted line. All that our citizens ask for is a fair shake,
not a handout.

OK, I'll clarify my thoughts more as the protests continue. Thanks for
listening...