Ron's American World: Jun 4, 2012

Monday, June 4, 2012

Posted by nathanhj on May 31, 2012 in News | 0 comments

Home » News » HDL Launches Nationally

Florida HDL member makes a citizen's arrest of criminal bankers outside a Bank of America branch in Orlando.

Today, Thursday May 31, 18 groups based in 17 states formally came together to launch the Home Defenders League nationally. Already representing 50,000 homeowners, the League aims to organize more of the 15.7 million underwater homeowners in the United States and make their core issue of mortgage relief an issue in the 2012 elections.
The actions and events from today, which will continue through Saturday June 2, have already produced some powerful stories in the media. As well they should, since they are drawing on the personal stories of homeowners who have gone through extraordinary experiences at the hands of the Big Banks. For example, Lilly Washington from Phoenix, AZ was illegally foreclosed on and evicted while she was in Germany helping nurse her son back to health after he was injured in Afghanistan. Her story was featured by KPHO this morning.
HDL members in Baltimore reaching out to other underwater homeowners in Maryland were featured on NPR’s Marketplace Morning Report. HDL member Michael Levar noted, “We are not going to give away our votes for free.” Indeed. Politicians need to choose sides: stand with us on Main Street or stand with criminal bankers on Wall Street.
Today’s launch captured national and even international interest as well. David Dayen, a reporter who has covered the problems with the financial sector and the mortgage meltdown for years and writes at FireDogLake described today’s efforts this way,

Now, 17 local community organizations, along with some national groups, are giving this idea [organizing underwater homeowners] a try. Today, they launched the Home Defenders League with the explicit goal of organizing the 16 million underwater homeowners and demanding the political leadership for policies that would even the playing field between them and the banks. They want to build a national movement of underwater homeowners.

Guardian correspondent Paul Harris writing from New York has one of the most comprehensive looks at our activities today and what we are aiming to accomplish by giving voice to the millions of underwater homeowners in the United States who can’t wait one more day to see some justice. Here Harris quotes HDL members Rose Gudiel from California and Cathy Busby from Colorado on our core demand and how we are going to have an impact this election cycle.

HDL activists argue that writing down that debt via reducing mortgages to reflect current market prices would allow a broader economic recovery. “It would be the kind of economic stimulus our country needs. It would keep millions in their homes and put billions back into people’s pockets,” said Rose Gudiel, a Californian HDL activist whose own home has faced foreclosure.

Organisers say that they will focus on organising in swing states in the coming election in order to persuade politicians in both the Republican and Democratic parties that their votes need to be courted in strategically vital parts of the 2012 electoral map. “Colorado is a swing state. Our citizens are going to be very important in the coming elections,” said Cathy Busby, a Colorado-based real estate agent and HDL campaigner.

Launch activities will continue through Saturday, June 2 with many HDL partner organizations taking our message directly to affected homeowners via phone banks or door-to-door canvasses in hard-hit communities.

The Voting Rights Act

The Voting Rights Act (VRA) bans racial discrimination in voting practices by the federal government as well as by state and local governments.

Passed in 1965 after a century of deliberate and violent denial of the vote to African-Americans in the South and Latinos in the Southwest – as well as many years of entrenched electoral systems that shut out citizens with limited fluency in English – the VRA is often held up as the most effective civil rights law ever enacted. It is widely regarded as enabling the enfranchisement of millions of minority voters and diversifying the electorate and legislative bodies at all levels of American government.

Congress has reauthorized the VRA five times, most recently in 2006, when both the House and the Senate approved the measure overwhelmingly in a bipartisan manner. Congress conducted over 20 hearings, heard from over 50 expert witnesses, and collected over 17,000 pages of testimony documenting the continued need for and constitutionality of the statute.

This act was signed into law on August 6, 1965, by President Lyndon Johnson. It outlawed the discriminatory voting practices adopted in many southern states after the Civil War, including literacy tests as a prerequisite to voting.

This “act to enforce the fifteenth amendment to the Constitution” was signed into law 95 years after the amendment was ratified. In those years, African Americans in the South faced tremendous obstacles to voting, including poll taxes, literacy tests, and other bureaucratic restrictions to deny them the right to vote. They also risked harassment, intimidation, economic reprisals, and physical violence when they tried to register or vote. As a result, very few African Americans were registered voters, and they had very little, if any, political power, either locally or nationally.
In 1964, numerous demonstrations were held, and the considerable violence that erupted brought renewed attention to the issue of voting rights. The murder of voting-rights activists in Mississippi and the attack by state troopers on peaceful marchers in Selma, AL, gained national attention and persuaded President Johnson and Congress to initiate meaningful and effective national voting rights legislation. The combination of public revulsion to the violence and Johnson's political skills stimulated Congress to pass the voting rights bill on August 5, 1965.

The legislation, which President Johnson signed into law the next day, outlawed literacy tests and provided for the appointment of Federal examiners (with the power to register qualified citizens to vote) in those jurisdictions that were "covered" according to a formula provided in the statute. In addition, Section 5 of the act required covered jurisdictions to obtain "preclearance" from either the District Court for the District of Columbia or the U.S. Attorney General for any new voting practices and procedures. Section 2, which closely followed the language of the 15th amendment, applied a nationwide prohibition of the denial or abridgment of the right to vote on account of race or color. The use of poll taxes in national elections had been abolished by the 24th amendment (1964) to the Constitution; the Voting Rights Act directed the Attorney General to challenge the use of poll taxes in state and local elections. In Harper v. Virginia State Board of Elections, 383 U.S. 663 (1966), the Supreme Court held Virginia's poll tax to be unconstitutional under the 14th amendment.

Victoria Grant

12-year old Victoria Grant explains why her homeland, Canada,and most of the world, is in debt. April 27, 2012 at the Public Banking in America Conference, Philadelphia, PA. Support a public bank for YOUR state. Donate and make it happen!