there but for god go I
Posted by admin on August 1st, 2009
While you may be sitting pretty now, that fork in the road could put you in the same or worse circumstances than your neighbors . . . the ones that just lost their home.
Most interesting during my years as a fundraiser was in seeing many people assume that those in dire straits did “something” to deserve their situation. 1.9 million foreclosures have occurred this year. Surely it is statistically impossible for that many people to have botched their budgets to such a degree that they have lost their homes.
But it isn’t always the case. Any one of us could be next. Talk to people. Find out. Both breadwinners in many families have lost their jobs. Or combine an under-insured illness with job loss. There are 1.9 million variations on the theme.
Even if you disagree about giving billions to banks to help working families stay in housing, surely you must be concerned about the larcenous actions of the bankers who have that money. That is your money also.
Banks are even beginning to turn down borrower requests for immediate “short sales,” in which homeowners sell for whatever they can get and then give all proceeds to the lender, because this, too, means that the bank must record a principal loss at once, rather than down the road.
Edward Abbey wrote, “If you are not angry, you are not paying attention.”
At this point in America’s history, I suggest if you are not angry, you are sound asleep and don’t care much about your future or that of this country.
On July 31, 2009, the White House met with a gaggle of mortgage company executives to discuss why their loan modification programs have been so ineffective. In fact, a recent study by the National Bureau of Economic Research illustrates that these programs haven’t been ineffective so much as unused: only 8 percent of seriously delinquent borrowers have received any form of mortgage modification and fewer than 3 percent of such borrowers received a concession on principal or interest payments from their lender. By contrast, about 50 percent of those seriously delinquent loans had foreclosure proceedings initiated against them. That’s a record rate of 1.9 million foreclosure filings in the first half of this year. This is pathetic. These are taxpayer dollars. Why is anyone putting up with this? Shouldn’t those executives be on trial for stealing?
While my faith in our federal government is extremely weak at the moment, my faith in the film industry is still strong. If anyone can make a difference, film makers—both studios and independents—can. I hate just plain whining, so I’ve decided to reach out to people who do care, people who have made a differece in the past and who might be able to make a difference in the future.
