George Mantor

A MAJOR COMMITTEE VOTE THIS MORNING- CALL IN, SEND EMAILS FIRST THING!

I left court the other day after a particularly bruising hearing and thought to myself, “I’m now starting to understand what it must feel like to be a minority.”

Now I’m not going to overstate this, I’m not suggesting that I’ll ever know the full breadth and depth of the horror and inhumanity that is our national history or racism, but the whole experience of walking into an environment where no matter how hard you work, no matter how right you are, the deck is still stacked against you.

I remember years ago someone explained the lasting impact of generations of racism.  It was described as having your legs tied up and hobbled for years, then having the binds removed just before you lined up on the track to start the race.  The gun goes off and the race starts…everyone’s equal right?  Same track, same distance….all the runners are equal, right?  Of course not.  Generations of hobbling make the race inherently unfair.

So I walked into a hostile courtroom and as usual, I had page after page of motion and caselaw highlighted…the facts and law totally on my side.  But after I made my argument…the argument that was totally one sided…..my side….I lost.

I couldn’t believe it.  But then I’ve been there countless times before.

It’s time we all look around us.  At our neighbors, at our co-workers, at the people that are passing us on the street.  We are all different colors. We have dramatically different social, economic, religious and political backgrounds.  But the fact of the matter is, the dyed in the wool lower middle class rebel flag waving pick up truck driver has so much more in common with his inner city, tinted window low riding brother than he has with any of those political leaders that inflame the us v. them divide.

That’s a reality that we all have to start to really consider on a very deep and humanistic level.  When you’re down on your luck, way, way down on your luck…look into the eyes of those around you who are suffering.  Break through the decades of learned divide and separation.  Sit down on the same level and share together the stories of suffering, the sense of betrayal and abuse.  We’re all in this together. Brothers and sisters who must stand together and form unions of mutual protection and support.

I urge you all to search the speeches of Martin Luther King on YouTube.  Just search a few speeches and listen to them in a quiet place.  Listen carefully to the words, the language, the tone and inflection. Breathe in the heart and the soul and the solid as granite resolve in those eyes and those words.  Look at the intensity in the eyes, the passion in the soul.  Carl Jung spoke of the Collective Unconscious, the shared identify of all humanity.  Seek that out as the message behind all of this.

Now, on your way over to Youtube, let me share with you an inspiration I found. My beautiful sister who shared with me her love and joy…

YOU TUBE

From Forbes Magazine:

The AGs are seizing upon behavior which looks bad and may technically violate the law, but is hard to link directly to consumer injuries.

As with tobacco, the AGs are attacking a tragedy with many causes by going after the least popular actors in the drama. It’s good theater, but hard to see how beating up on the processing companies will prevent housing prices from finding their natural bottom. That will only occur when the economy recovers and a new wave of buyers bids on houses now occupied by people who can’t afford what they agreed to buy at the peak of the bubble.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/danielfisher/2012/02/07/mortgage-settlement-talks-look-like-tobacco-ii/

LINK HERE

Note the date on the article when you read….

“We have Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citibank and Chase openly admitting to what they’re trying to say are irregularities — but are actually fraud upon the courts,” said Lisa Epstein, a housing activist who regularly attends foreclosure hearings in South Florida.