The Lucky Pumpkin

I was going to write about Michael Jackson tonight, and as I was logging into my blog, I saw a comment by someone asking if I was going to blog about it. (Actually, I am wondering if it was a spam comment, some of those spammers are getting good at what they do.) Anyway, I might write about it later. In general, I think it is getting too much attention. But, I can’t really focus on that right now. I am thinking about the show that I have just got done watching on PBS. The show NOW interviewed Max Rameau, who is a community organizer in Dade County, Florida. His group is helping people to become squatters in foreclosed homes in the Miami area. (Miami was particularly hard-hit by the collapse in the housing market.) My heart feels so heavy that things in our country have gotten this bad. I am also feeling quite disappointed with Obama. I really did have high hopes for him, even if they were tempered by the fact that he had so little real experience. He sure spoke so much more eloquently than our last president, and that was so refreshing. So far, it seems like a lot of talk and no action. It also seems like the current administration is so concerned with pushing through universal coverage for health care that they leaped over what I feel must come first, HOUSING!!!! Seriously, what is more important to you, having a home for your family, or having insurance that you probably won’t be able to afford to pay for, anyway? How are you going to get to your doctor? In most areas of the country, there is not adequate public transportation, and certainly not for homeless people, that’s for sure. I think health care is very important, but housing has to supercede it.

What happened with the campaign promises? Max Rameau brought up a very good point; he said that the money that we, the taxpayer provided to bail-out the banks was to buy up the toxic assets from the bad mortgages, NOT to ALSO let the banks KEEP those houses! But that is what is happening. The banks got the bail-out money, AND they are keeping the deeds to those houses, AND they are evicting people. HUH?!?!?! If they “sell” the mortgages to us, the taxpayers and the government, they shouldn’t also get to keep those houses. It is like they are swindling us right in front of our eyes, and we are letting them! I thought that Obama was going to provide relief for people with the foreclosures. Very little has been done on this front, and what has been done, doesn’t appear to be working.

So, in Miami, people are breaking into empty, foreclosed homes. The police are reluctant to do anything about it. The people who break in have to pay the utilities. (Apparently, the utility company will turn on the power as long as someone pays, even if the home is in foreclosure.) You know, I am not a fan of breaking the law, but I have to say that it feels good to know that some people are fighting back. They screen people to make sure they are not breaking in to sell drugs, that they really are families whose only other option is the street, or living out of the car, or the shelter. The shelters do not have enough beds for all of the homeless people in Miami, so taking back the houses is what people feel they must do.

I am so horribly disappointed in our government right now. We spend billions, and billions, and billions killing people in other countries, and then we print some more money that we don’t have (they really are doing this, research it if you can stomach it, just printing money with no gold to back it, or any assets to back it, like you can just do that without ruining the value of the dollar…) and give it to the banks, but let the typical citizen drown because he or she made “bad choices,” by getting a mortgage they couldn’t afford. Yes, that did happen, and I really am all for personal responsibility, but I am also for CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY, too! What’s good for the goose, is good for the gander. If you bail out the banks, you should also have to help the people of our country.

It appears that Obama was the biggest conservative of all. All he has done is help the banks and the big businesses. I guess that all that the rest of us can do is go break into an empty house and hope the police in our communities are as understanding as those in Miami.