I ask those questions not in abstract or rhetorical sense, but literally. Specifically. Directly. As you sit here reading this post, picture your sliding door being ripped apart. Your chain link fence being cut with bolt cutters. As you sit watching and listening to this violent invasion of your home, you are undoubtedly terrified…you run into your bedroom, cowering in fear, dialing 911 and hoping that the police will get to your home before the intruder gets to you or your family.
Fortunately the police arrive and when they do, the intruder shows them a slip of paper. A tiny slip of paper and nothing else. All the paper says is he’s there from the bank. The police shrug their shoulders, look at you with disgust in their eyes, get in their cruisers then pull away. Another homeowner in foreclosure. No crime here, just a civil dispute. Ignore the fact that breaking into one’s home is in and of itself a violent and violating act.
And you had no warning that such an invasion might be coming. No letter, no phone call. No warning. And you’re not in foreclosure. You truly had no way to believe that such an invasion would be coming. So how can this be? How can the banks just get away with committing violent home invasions? And what about the even greater violations where they clean out a person’s belongings, in some cases spiriting away the valuables while throwing the rest of one’s life into a dumpster?
I say the banks should not be permitted to engage in these practices, but they are in fact doing it all across this country, every single day. And they are getting away with it. And not just this, one of the more egregious examples of improper conduct…no, there is so much more. They flagrantly ignore the rules of court. They bully, intimidate and harass anyone who dares to challenge their power and authority…from lowly artists who dare to express their frustration with the banks and paint a harmless picture of a bank burning to Attorney General Eric Schneiderman who is facing his own attacks. Just forget about all the normal, everyday foreclosure defense attorneys and consumer activists….we’re all being beaten into submission.
Things are going to get much, much worse in this country and in this world. In the middle of when things get really bad, we’re all going to have to answer the question….”What did I do to fight back against the banks and their henchmen?”
Did you stand up and stick up for yourself and your neighbors? Did you speak out against the wrong you saw happening all around you? Did you just turn your eyes and and ears and pretend that you could do nothing?
Or did you commit to doing something to support your country, your neighbors? Did you understand that if you do not fight for basic rights, all right are lost?
Ask those questions now, and keep asking them.
Where did you stand?
