Here’s a video I shot yesterday at Occupy Austin. It’s one of the rare moments in which something real broke through the empty rhetoric and hippie dippy slacker vibe that has dominated Austin’s shamefully disorganized and ineffective attempt at solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street movement.
I asked my friend and New York activist Marty Weinstein to write a piece to accompany the video. He has a keen sense of what went wrong with America’s deranged banking system and brings some passion and fire to the mix which provides counterbalance to my feelings of dismay with the way things are going in Austin. But I’m not going to allow my frustration to stand in the way of my own personal revolution. Today, my mission is to get Andrea and Arianna’s story out there - one of millions from the 99%. I may be disillusioned on a local level,but I am solidly behind OWS and will continue to do what I can to keep the fight alive in the Capitol of Texas.
If the video you see here doesn’t get you off of your couch and into the street to join the Occupy Wall Street movement, I have doubts about your humanity.
Andrea, Arianna and her sister are just 3 voices of the millions in the 99% of this country who have fallen victim to the bottomless pit of greed in our banking system. This system has bought the government, its regulators, and the mortgage rating services so they could enrich themselves off the backs of the working middle class. As of right now, 30% of the homes in America are either in foreclosure or have lost so much of their original value that their worth is far below the price of the mortgage. This destruction of the housing market is the core of what is driving the nation’s economy back into a recession.
Andrea served in the military, and when her service was done only wanted to start a life with her young daughters. She was fortunate to be assisted by Habitat For Humanity, and she spent her own sweat equity just to afford a decent place to live. She has lived in that house for 15 years. Unfortunately the rigged system that allows mortgages to be re-sold put her in debt to Bank of America, one of the 6 largest financial institutions in the country, with assets totaling $1.4 trillion.
When the banking crisis hit in 2008, Bank of America received $20 billion in bailout money from U.S. taxpayers, and an additional $118 billion in guarantees against bad mortgage loans. Instead of approaching their customers with their despicable tail between their legs, they chose to punish their debtors with increased charges, and in Andrea’s case raised her affordable mortgage payments by a whopping 95%. Andrea would have done better dealing with the Mafia.
This is a story of someone who served her country and is now having her entire family’s life be destroyed by that country. They are the 99%. So are you. - M. Weinstein
Update: Here’s an article about Andrea Simpson-Jones from a 1995 issue of a University of Texas newsletter. The article, “Building The American Dream,” communicates Andrea’s profound hope for a better future at a time when things did start looking up for her. It is a tragedy that 16 years later her dreams may be crushed by a system that no longer encourages dreams but is in the business of manufacturing nightmares.
My interview with Andrea and Arianna begins at the 4:46 point in the video. In the short time that I spent with them, I came to admire them deeply. This is the fuel that keeps my motor running.
