Last week I made a pilgrimage of sorts. I traveled to Florida’s Capitol City, Tallahassee. The trip was long, inconvenient and expensive and quite frankly I did not exactly go willingly. I had been summoned to the Capitol as part of my punishment for speaking out, but I do not want to dwell on that. I decided that I would take in all the experience had to offer and truly use the experience to gain and deliver understanding.
My core message is that our nation and our state are in grave peril because we are no longer a nation of laws. The legislative and executive branches are entirely captured by the corruption of corporations and the judicial branch has withered into a twig. This disturbing reality is most clearly demonstrated in the State of Florida where the corporations that own our government have whittled down the budget of our (their) entire judicial system to less than 1% of the state government budget. Fundamentally, I want judges, attorneys and all thinking people to wake up and begin speaking out against the tyranny that this disturbing situation presents. This profession of The Law especially, must especially stand up and begin advocating for a restoration of the Rule of Law that we have all taken an Oath to uphold.
There is indeed a very real urgency because this nation is going to be rocked by revolution, of that I am sure. Whether it is relatively bloodless or chaotic and completely out of control depends entirely on when the existing power structures acknowledge that there is no turning back. The thinking population despises our corporate-owned government and is increasingly agitated by the void that exists between serving The People and rendering unto Wall Street all that it has purchased. The corporate/government contract will be broken and change will come”¦..like it or not.
It is into this void that I suggest that The Law and The Courts and Attorneys should boldly step. I see this opportunity most clearly at the intersection of foreclosure and courts. The issues are so clear and defined in my mind’s eye. Our judges and our courts and our law could simply wake up one day and say, ” I choose justice and the Rule of Law over corporate tyranny and corruption.” And at that moment, attorneys and our courts and the profession of law start heading back on a path of respect and admiration by all of those we have all taken an oath to serve. But this step takes awareness and foresight and the ability to appreciate the darkness of the world that we are all tumbling into.
I hoped that I would travel to Tallahassee, become fully engaged in the experience and that I might in fact win a few hearts and minds while I was there. Having now returned, I have no illusions that I made any impact at all upon those within the power structures. Quite simply, there exists in this nation a cold darkness that refuses to feel the warmth of suffering and real human struggle. The power structures of our nation now see the world not in terms of a human condition, but as statistics and policy statements”¦.lines on an excel spreadsheet.
My attempt to have an impact, either on myself or others was very real. I arrived a day early and made plans to speak to a class of college students. I struggled to deliver a message that would be relevant, but more importantly, might provide an awakening into a much greater awareness of the world gone wrong that they are entering into. In preparation for my pilgrimage, I have been spending quite a bit of time studying Martin Luther King, Jr. and especially his Letters from a Birmingham Jail. The economic and societal struggles faced by so many in this country today are very similar to the struggles that are so clearly defined by King in his speeches and writing. Did you catch how easily I was able to blend his words from years ago into today’s struggle in my, ” My Fellow Attorneys Post”?
The classroom did come alive when I connected King’s unfinished business to the economic black hole they know they are walking into. This was no false or contrived connection when I sat at eye level in a classroom full of people of color and people of all color and expressed that we are all equally victims and being preyed upon in this new and disturbing civility rights era. I will not insult people who have faced and continue to face the real stings of inequality and injustice by saying that I totally understand, but if there is one bit of perverse good that comes from this disturbing era in our world history, it is that we are truly are living now in a color blind nation”¦.the injustice, inequality, intolerance and persecution that is being visited upon this nation does not see color, indeed we are all truly each other’s brothers and sisters. Brothers and sisters in arms in an economic, social and political war of exponential dimensions. In prior tensions, we indeed waged bi dimensional wars in black and white. You see this simple dual dimensionalism expressed neatly in the grainy images of German Shepards and the fire houses and signs that loudly proclaim, ” WHITES ONLY!” The fight was indeed black and white, us v. them, good v. evil.
But just as today’s military speaks no longer of bilateral conflict, of bad guy v. good guy, the war raging here at home in the United States of America is likewise an asymmetrical conflict. Enemies and allies morph and transfigure right before our eyes. The groundbreaking cinematography of The Matrix comes to mind”¦the battlefield is a six-dimensional octagon cage. There is no real truth or information that we on the battlefield can rely upon, transfiguring as it does at every click of the metronome.
As I said, I hoped desperately to come away with some ephinay or burst of inspiration from my travel to Tallahassee. After sitting in supplication for seven full hours, I was afraid that the meaning and moment would not come. But then one question was presented to the persecutors”¦that stopped them cold and ended the day. My fellow prisoner asked, ” I notice that everyone here is a small fry, a little guy. Why is it that no one here comes from one of the big institutions?” To which the persecutors responded, ” Well, that’s because we let them handle such matters on their own.” To which I piped up, ” Kinda like the Mafia handles discipline within their own organization.” I could have continued, I wanted to continue, but I recognized the peril I placed myself in and bit my tongue.
The conversation continued and I clinched down harder on my tongue. As the blood began trickling down my cheek, I realized that this exchange was just a small metaphor for the larger conflict that grips our entire nation. If a hundred dollars goes missing from the Burger King cash register, the king won’t just turn his back, but when John Corzine ” loses” millions a MF Global, his people smile, pat him on the back and ask him whose jet they should take down to the Hampton’s next weekend.
As I said, what is missing from the debate and discussion about the evil that is being visited upon our fellow man, manifested as it is through foreclosure, is the warmth and humanity of the experience. And by warmth I don’t mean warm like a fuzzy blanket, I mean warm like the blood that courses through the veins of those who are suffering. When I finally returned home, disappointed that I did not adequately convey any message and frustrated that I did not come away with any great revelation, I opened an email that just stopped me cold and hit me right in the gut. I want each of you to read this message carefully and consider what this message says about the nation that we live in today”¦.I will say no more, but I do ask that you read this message carefully and share with me your thoughts:
I have written you so many times before about my previous foreclosure and eviction, that probably you remember me or not.
Anyway, today was another Horror day added to my collection of court experiences that you certainly should be aware of.
My husband and I have been fighting since October 2007 to pay our house in full with a Reverse Mortgage that we qualifed for. We went from mitigation, hearings, foreclosure, appeal, eviction, and to our latest attempt of filing a quiet title complaint Prose, not by choice. Eventually, we deffinetely ran out of money thanks to Banks fraud who put us in the street throwing out all of our art tools and materials (which was our only means of living for the last 20 years, forcing us to file Bankruptcy and the loss of our car as well).
Today, we had our Quiet Title Hearing. Let me make clear, that the fact we are Prose does not mean that we don’t read, understand or dedicate long night hours reading and studying all aspects of Federal and State Laws. We consider ourselves well prepared and do not get intimidated by any Court or Judge.
The central issues in our case were strictly Quiet Title, but the people now living in our house without a clear title, claimed that we were foreclosed, the case was a collateral stoppel/ adjudicata, and we could not bring the same issues and parties to the Court again.
The Judge practically insinuated that we are deadbeats trying to get a free house and in a very repugnant way he just didn”˜t want to listen to us. The Judge simply denied all our petitions. He was completely absorbed in the Foreclosure Case, no matter how we tried to convince him with the chain of title issues, the lack of assignments, the fact that the bidders sold the house with a special warranty deed, that our original mortgage was still open not being satisfied or cancelled, etc. etc. etc. Unfortunately, our case was dismissed with prejudice. We just could not believe what was going in that court room. Why? What’s wrong with the system? What laws protect us senior citizens? Who cares. . . . . . . .
Another insteresting aspect of this matter is that our hearing was scheduled on January the 18. Found a Court Reporter who would accept to give service , since no one wanted to give us the service for being Pro Se. We paid $95.00 that day by sacrificing our rent in a motel room we are living now by risking the probability of being evicted again. The Judge did not appeared for the hearing because he was sick, so we lost the money, therefore losing the opportunity to bring a Court Reporter again to the Court today. Upon arrival to the Court we found there was a court reporter who was hired by the Defendants (the people living in our house now), who, by the way, purchased the house with $0.00 down payment for $179.000, the Bank giving them extra $6,000 for a total of $185,000 with 3.5 interest. Isn’t that strange? The house was previously sold in Court auction for $79,000 to well known investors.
Going back to the Judge’s absence again, he didn’t care if we lost $95.00, which for us is like $950.00. His concern was that we did not paid to the Bank. He just simply did not want to listen to us, however, he gave ample time to the Banks and the attorneys of the now owners to talk and talk and talk, on how we defaulted in our loan, lost our foreclosure case and so many motions. I think I can write a book people will not believe it when they read it.
The attorneys for the Banks were not present they appeared by telephone. Two attorneys for the defendants were present. When we entered the hearing room, the deputy and the Defendant’s attorneys were making jokes, laughing loud, making fun of how they hate to work and so on, without any consideration of that behavior in front of us. To me, that was not the proper way to act in a Court room as if a party was taking place or a happy hour.
Not only were we humillated by this gross and unpolite Judge, but his Deputy was insulting and gross as well. At the of the hearing, my husband, a veteran during Vietnam, needed to immediately take some medications for heart problems. At the same time had difficulties getting up from the chair. I took the opportunity to ask the Court Reporter, who was just leaving the room, if in the future we could get a transcript, but she could not give me an answer until she checked with her office. Immediately after she left and I was putting all my files in a tote bag, the Deputy in a rude tone and sort of mocking, said ” See, you have a problem with understanding, you simply don’t understand things”. My husband asked him what do you mean by that? He kept looking at us and kept saying “You people have problems understanding and should immediately leave this room, you are not legally allowed to be here anymore”.
My husband could not finish his water, nor take his heart condition pills. I kept nervously dropping all papers in the floor. This deputy just kicked us out of that hearing room because we were no longer legally authorized to be there.
Our impression is that the Deputy, thought that we were from some other country, due to the fact that we speak Spanish for being from Puerto Rico, and I, more than my husband, have some accent. He probably noticed that I had some difficulty understanding the Court Reporter, not because I have no capacity to understand people or English, (I am belingual) The court reporter was simply confused in giving me the information I asked for, so she gave me her business card to discuss the matter next week over the phone. The Deputy sound like we have problems for being Hispanics and Seniors.
The Judge kept telling us the same as well, that we don’t understand and know nothing about law. In other words, being Hispanics, Seniors and Prose is discriminatory, at least in Florida Courts. This is just a shame
We still believe that somewhere, somehow we will find Justice in this Country and will continue fighting to prove that perseverance always wins. Our faith and actions will be an inspiration for others like us. I am willing to keep helping people when needed, after I finish this battle which is not over yet. Our next step now is going to appeal soon or whatever necessary action.
You have no idea how terrible it is to live in poverty like we are now, caused by a Bank who stole our life, hope, and properties. We are professionals accustomed to live in a house with a car we have always been able to afford with our hard work for 45 years, paying our bills and taxes on time Suddenly, we are being deprived in America of our property, happiness, and health. I can tell you, that at age 67 is a tragedy. Sometimes I have the feeling of depriving myself of my life. How can I start my life at 67 as if I were 28? The life that took us 45 years to construct is destroyed, vanished. I keep fighting to be others inspiration otherwise I see no reason to be living in this inferno. (Sorry, I’m kind of depressed and very very confused.)
My husband and I have no closed friends or relatives in Florida. We came here almost 12 years ago from Puerto Rico to invest our money from our previous successful business, but since the September 911 terrorist attacks, we have been suffering losses until present in which we are experiencing extreme poverty. The terrorist attacked turned into our life. I am so ashame that I disconnected from everyone.
Our faith in God gives us the strength and hope. Apparently God is the only one who has plenty of room for us in heaven without throwing us out laughing and arrogant because we are seniors, Hispanics, Pro se and I should add, Veteran during Vietnam. My husband voluntarily joined the army to go to Vietnam and fight for this Country. The day he was being sent to Vietnam, the war ended, I still consider him a brave man, even though his country ignores him now.
