I spent the afternoon on the Worcester Common with about 150-200 people interested in beginning a Worcester chapter of the Occupy Wall Street. The general theme was decidedly non-partisan and full of hope for a better America. Participants recognized that the two party system has created a government led by the highest bidders working on behalf of the biggest spenders, without best ideas and definitely without the best interests of all its citizens in mind.
Where will it go from here? The only ones who know will be the ones to show up.
There will be a General Assembly on Monday, October 10th at 5 PM. Come speak your mind!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
I cut and paste this from my Worcester Telegram comments from this morning.
I'm being forced to comment through Worcester Telegrams articles because I can't comment through Occupy Worcester's website because you need to have a social media account to do so. Social media, aka facebook or twitter, is a bad joke on the American public. Occupy Worcester is professing they are against corporate greed; yet Facebook is the epitome of corporate greed. Do a video search on Youtube with the words "evil Facebook". I'll let you decide for yourself.
Another item is that Occupy Worcester is protesting a foreclosure today at 12:00 noon. Without knowing the facts about this foreclosure, how can you expect me to protest? Can someone show me that were irregularities in the loan process?
There were a lot comments yesterday about how most of the protesters were white. Well, I can honestly say that my neighbors, who are hispanic, were there Sunday. They just weren't participating in the rally. I guess they were just here enjoying the common. All of them have subsidized housing and they have a much deeper organizational backstop than "Occupy Worcester" has. Someone once said that absolute power corrupts absolutely. It doesn't matter if it manifests itself in corporations or non-profits. One of the wealthiest businesmen in Massachusetts runs a human service empire with millions in state and federal contracts. Don't tell me he doesn't try to beat the system. Nothing is ever quite what it seems.
I truly want to participate in "Occupy Worcester" but you have to come more to the middle. That's where I am! Get rid of the Facebook and start a website where we can have intelligent dialogue. Simplify the message and focus on the political process. Influence peddling, cronyism, lobbying, campaign finance reform; these are the issues that will get almost everybody on board. If you don't, this will die on the vine. That would be a shame because if this fails, I probably won't see another movement like this in my lifetime. "Occupy Worcester" can be better.
Good luck with this blog!
Back in the day(late 90's), when I was a mortgage originator, I was told by a wise old loan officer that Fannie Mae was getting jealous that subprime lenders were starting to do too well. That was almost ten years before the bust. Fannie Mae started to come up with new programs to address the issue. Fleet Bank saw the writing on the wall and sold off their mortgage servicing business shortly there after to Washington Mutual. Washington Mutual went bellyup during the bust. The politicians were the scroundrels that allowed Fannie Mae, which was implicitly backed by the American tax payer, to start writing loans they knew were never going to paid off. Believe it or not, we were not allowed by law to advise people on whether they they could afford the loan or not. "Just do the application" is what we were told. Of course, some of us with principals, found devious ways to let the customer know that they were not a great risk. Anything from "being rude" to "not returning phone calls", although poor customer service, were an end-around the crooked laws that brought the mortgage industry down. I can proudly say that my poor customer service saved many a prospective customer from taking on a loan that should never have been applied for in the first place. I didn't want any of those loans to to be on my concious. I considered myself as a gatekeeper. If the loan got by me, there was no telling what the underwriting department would do considering the demise of sound underwriting standards.
Factoid:
If the mortgage is more than 28% of your income or your total debt is more than 36% of your income, that is a serious red flag for foreclosure. Of couse, in this economy, you better make sure that your income is very secure. Now that the damage is done, underwriting standards have returned to normal but that is small consolation for the millions that learned the hard way.
I agree about the Facebook angle. While it is convenient for broadcasting your message beyond local constraints, it shouldn't be the primary information bearer for an Occupy movement.
http://occupyworcester.com/ has all the information you need, including minutes.
As far as coming to the middle, come on board and help. This is a new organization that is trying to find solutions, rather than complain and do nothing. Input from everyone is needed, regardless of political persuasion. Most people I talked to were fed up with the left/right Democrat/Republican dynamic in this country.
Thank you for allowing me an outlet for my revolutionary thoughts.
I wish I could get more involved but I am unemployed and the cost of the gas to get to these things is prohibitive. That being said, I just want to throw in my two cents worth.
As we speak, mother capitalism is doing her part to correct the abuses of the financial industry. The entire industry is shrinking and losing it's power. The problem is that another monster will rise up and take its place. Early in the 19th century, industrialists were the big evil. They paid little in wages, operated illegal monopolies and confronted organizing workers with violence.
The only true way to change the system is to go after the government and their agents of influence. We must be very specific about the changes we expect. You need to recruit people who experienced or educated in legislation. Laws need to be unraveled and rewritten. Minimum prison sentences for white collar crime need to be enforced. The days of an unemployed worker being jailed for not keeping up with his child support payments while corporate managers pay fines and go home must end.
The Democratic and Republican Parties must be dismantled. If I was at the rally when Reverend Sharpton was speaking, I would have booed him off the stage. Politicians should not be allowed to speak at "Occupy" events.
Post a Comment