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Thursday, December 8, 2011

Saturday, December 3, 2011

Lazy Bums

About the Occupiers I hear "They're just being lazy bums sitting around and doing nothing but complaining."  Please let me explain.

Other than life itself, time is the most valued possession of every human being  on this earth. The harshest way we punish guilty criminals is by taking from them their time. We make them waste it in prison, or we take all they'll ever have by ending their lives. We also value our comfort quite highly, and neither sleeping out of doors in tents, nor being pepper sprayed are comfortable.

So if a person sacrifices both their time and comfort for a cause, they are sacrificing considerably.  And when large numbers of people feel they have valid reasons to make personal sacrifice, disagreeing with their reasons may be acceptable, but ignoring or belittling the cause they are sacrificing to champion is an insult; one we should afford nobody.

We know that a recent, successful revolution in the Middle East was sparked by a college graduate who poured gasoline over himself in the town square and lit a match. Why? Because conditions were such that he and many other college graduates in his country were barely able to eke out the most meager of livings. He sacrificed all the time he had left on Earth.

A large percentage of the thousands of Occupiers in cities around the world are recent college graduates, heavily in debt and unable to find work, or students still in college already deeply in debt and facing prohibitive tuition raises. They are also our children and our neighbor's children, our brothers and  sisters, our nieces and nephews, our cousins and our grandchildren. Right now they are out there sacrificing their time and comfort. Can we afford to be so foolish as to stand by and require them to sacrifice more than their time and comfort -- their  lives -- before making a serious attempt to understand and redress their grievances?   

Greg Schindler

No Problem

We hear people on the right saying that if the Occupy Wall Street people can't tell you solutions to the problems they're pointing at, then they're just complainers and nobody wants to listen to a bunch of complainers. But the fact is that a person who identifies a problem is often not the one who solves it.

If somebody tells you your house is on fire, you don't tell them to put it out or else it's not a problem. If a scientist spends his whole life proving that there's global warming, you don't say you don't believe him because he can't tell you how to reverse global warming. When Paul Revere tells you the British are coming, you don't call him a complainer and not listen to him because he can't tell you what to do about the problem or solve it himself.

The first civil rights protesters were pointing out a problem and so were the first Vietnam war protesters. Gradually more and more people came to agree that these were important problems that needed solving and then the government that we elect to solve such large problems figured out how to solve them and did so.

There's nothing wrong with the discoverer of a problem offering a solution. However, we often agree on the problem and don't agree on the solution. But to discount the problem because its discoverer couldn't solve it is foolish as well as ridiculous. Yet that's what the right wing Fox News people would have us do. It's their way of avoiding any discussion of the actual issues.

What do all these Occupiers want? They want us all to see the problems they are pointing out. They want enough people to see that the problems really are serious. And they want us all to then figure out how to solve the problems. If you listen to them and don't think they're pointing out valid or significant problems, that may be fine. But don't succumb to the false logic that because you don't understand or agree with their solutions you should ignore them and the problems they point out.

The rich 1% are the ones telling you it's really no problem that they have all the money. When you hear: "If those protesters can't come up with the solutions, then just call them complainers and ignore them," that's Mr. 1% himself, billionaire Rupert Murdoch talking to you through his Fox TV station.

Greg Schindler

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Two Events on Tuesday, December 6, 2011


WSU TEACH-IN

Sponsored by the Wayne State University Center for Peace and Conflict Studies and the DeRoy Lecture Series
Everyone Invited, Free to All

11:00: Angela Davis video and general discussion of Occupy Movement
11:30: From the Arab Spring to Occupy Wall Street­, Prof. Abdullah Al-Arian (History)
12:00: Protesting the WTO and the Anti-Globalization Movement,­ Sarah Coffey, Occupy Detroit (OD)
12:30: Latin American Struggles­, Dr. Luisa Quintero (Romance Languages and Literatures)
1:00: The Experience of Occupying Detroit,­ Panel Discussion with Occupy Detroiters
2:00: The Horizontal/Consensus Model, How and Why­, Killian O’Brien, OD
3:00: Occupy Wall Street and Globalization, ­Prof. Sarika Chandra (English)
3:30: Students and the Occupy Movement, ­Aaron Petcoff, OD

Location: WSU Alumni Lounge adjoining McGregor Memorial Conference Center
Parking at the Palmer/Cass parking structure

= = =


RALLY TO STOP THE EVICTION OF DETROITER KYRA WILLIAMS

5:00 p.m., 1140 HIBBARD, DETROIT (just north of E. Jefferson, east of Van Dyke)

Kyra Williams had a lease agreement on a property located at 1140 Hibbard, Detroit, MI 48214.   Ms. Williams and the landlord had an agreement under which she was paying rent with an option to buy the property.  Kyra Williams paid a significant amount of money in rent to the landlord.  25% of the monthly payment was being collected for the purchase of the property.

Kyra Williams received notice of an eviction hearing for Dec. 21, 2009.  The reason for the eviction hearing was that unbeknownst to Ms. Williams, the landlord and owner of the home had defaulted on the mortgage for the property with CitiMortgage. 

Kyra Williams attended the 36th District Court hearing and tried to explain she was the tenant in the property and had a lease with option to purchase the property.   The lender CitiMortgage finally agreed to sell the property to Ms. Williams.   She provided proof of funding and even made repairs to the property in anticipation of purchasing the home in conformance with this agreement. 

Ms. Williams waited the final approval of the sale and a closing date.  Instead of a closing date, Ms. Williams recently received a message that CitiMortgage changed its mind and was moving forward with the eviction.  A writ of eviction has already been signed and Ms. Williams can be evicted at any time.

The City of Detroit has lost 250,000 people to foreclosures and evictions because of the actions of all the major banks, Citi, Bank of America, Chase, Wells Fargo, etc., who have shown utter disregard for the rights of individuals like Ms. Williams and the destruction to our communities that evictions and foreclosures have wrought.

The Moratorium NOW! Coalition, Occupy Detroit and Southeast Michigan Jobs with Justice are joining together to say enough is enough.  We are prepared to do what is necessary to keep Ms. Williams in her home and defend others like her.  We are joining with the Occupy Our Homes campaign which is staging actions all over the U.S. on Dec. 6.  And we are demanding that the governors and President Obama immediately enact a two-year moratorium on all foreclosures and foreclosure-related evictions, especially in light of the trillion-dollar bailout to the banks which takes place with every foreclosure and eviction through the federal takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Contact:
Moratorium NOW! Coalition to Stop Foreclosures, Evictions & Utility Shutoffs
www.moratorium-mi.org     Call 313-319-0870