A couple blocks from where I live, right across the river, is the 33rd Ward, which has the dubious distinction of being the foreclosure capital of Chicago. Sen. Durbin did a press conference there the other day, at which he promoted the bill he introduced back in the last Congress to help homeowners in bankruptcy proceedings avoid foreclosure by allowing bankruptcy courts to reduce their payments. Joining the senator in holding the press conference was the Albany Park Neighborhood Council, a community-organizing group that has done much great work on behalf of the area and its many low-income people.My church is in the 33rd, and my friend and pastor Tom Terrell, shown above with the senator, spoke at the event. As a pastor and community leader, Tom sees the effects the financial crisis has on real people in his daily work. I'm a renter with limited expenses (and an apparently responsible landlord), so it can be a bit less tangible to me (so far). I've tended to think about the crisis mostly in the aggregate terms of public policy. But the people losing their homes are actual people, real individuals and families and neighbors.
Photo used by permission of APNC.
Meanwhile it seems the only people not feeling the effects of this recession are reveling in their newfound power in Washington.
ReplyDeletehttp://michellemalkin.com/2009/03/06/cube-steak-americans-vs-the-wagyu-beef-white-house/
It angers me every time Obama is on TV talking about how bad things are and the next minute he's living it up on the taxpayers dime.
Certainly this type of spending is nothing new in Washington and neither is my opposition to it. I would just think that perhaps out of solidarity with those losing their homes, jobs and retirement funds they'd tone it down a bit.
To me it feels like they might be celebrating what they perceive this recession is giving them. That being ever expanding power and an blank check to do whatever they please.
http://in.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idINTRE5251VN20090306