As submitted to the Huffington Post 08/18/09

“I can feel it coming in the air tonight, oh lord
I’ve been waiting for this moment, all my life, oh lord
Can you feel it coming in the air tonight, oh lord, oh lord

 Well, I was there and I saw what you did
I saw it with my own two eyes
So you can wipe off the grin, I know where you’ve been
Its all been a pack of lies

I can feel it coming in the air tonight, oh lord
I’ve been waiting for this moment, all my life, oh lord
Can you feel it coming in the air tonight, oh lord, oh lord”

With apologies to Phil Collins and Genesis

The Orange County Democratic Executive Committee meets every third Monday of each month at 7:00 PM, and for over the last year the IBEW local 606 has hosted the meetings in their hall not far from Downtown Orlando. Attendance at meetings is mandatory for precinct captains with few exceptions, so there is usually a robust crowd at these monthly meetings. The IBEW hall holds up to 125 people and the room is usually 75% full at meetings. On August 14, DEC members received word that Congressman Alan Grayson was to be a special guest at the meeting and he was to update the membership on the current state of Health Care in Congress. On August 16 Grayson announced a town hall meeting immediately following the DEC meeting.

Neil Boortz, a nationally syndicated right wing talker got the word and went on a diatribe against Grayson, talking on Orlando’s WDBO, which you can see here. Other right wing radio hosts on WDBO as well as other talk stations added fuel to the fire so that there would be a substantial crowd at the hall to protest the proceedings. There is no counter programming for progressive talk within the Orlando media market. The closest radio stations are either in Daytona Beach, Tampa or Gainesville and their signals do not reach Orlando. DEC sent out a message to the membership to come early. The crowd started to assemble at 3:30 in the afternoon. At 4:30 the DEC decided to suspend the business meeting and allow Grayson to address the membership, in effect holding two town hall meetings, one at 7:00 and one at 7:45 for the general public.

For the DEC members Grayson stated several positions that he had not heretofore made generally known. When asked about his position on the public option he stated that he supported it, however, if the bill did not contain it he might still vote yes if other provisions were met, such as the insurance companies returning at least 85% of their premiums to health care benefits, no new taxes on people making less than $350,000.00, the elimination of pre-existing conditions and no change in the quality of Medicare. One participant on Medicare offered her opinion on the misconception that Medicare is free. It is not. Seniors on Medicare pay approximately $100.00 per month for part B and many also buy supplemental plans to cover their deductibles which cost an average of $175.00 per month, plus a prescription drug plan under part D that costs about $35.00 per month depending on where one lives. So, the average senior pays about $3600.00 per year for their “free” health care. Grayson also commented that the current bill will phase out the Medicare Donut Hole over a four year period.

DEC Chairman Bill Robinson asked all DEC members to vacate their seats to allow the assembled outside the same opportunity to meet with the Congressman that they had just enjoyed. A mixed crowd was let in consisting of people for, against and undecided on Health Care Reform. By this time the outside crowd had swelled to over three hundred people, many carrying signs for or against, mostly peaceful. There was some contention between groups and there was at least one arrest, but generally all the crowd did was change traffic patterns. There were many comments about this being a “staged” event. The real drama was going on inside.

Grayson’s press person, Todd Jurkowski moderated the evening and presented questions from all sides. Jurkowski started the meeting off by requesting that all parties respect the speaker and the meeting. Grayson acknowledged that there were different views in the room and that the difference is really in the means rather than the goal. He took an equal amount of questions from the protesters and the undecideds as he took from the pro people. Many of the issues that he touched upon in the DEC meeting were also discussed during this meeting. He reiterated that if you are currently satisfied with your current insurance you can keep it, plus if you change your employment or lose your job you will not lose your insurance. He added as well that pre-existing conditions will be a thing of the past.

He discouraged critics from asking questions that did not pertain to the bill at hand such as tort reform and Medicare fraud, stating that those issues will be addressed in many other bills (15 to be exact) which will follow. He cited his record as an attorney who has gone after fraud and waste in government and that it is part of his mission in life. He also said that tort cases and medical malpractice account for only 1% of health care costs. Certain protesters denied his claim, so he invited them to show evidence backing their position. When someone asked him about being denied coverage under certain circumstances he directed them to the bill, which was next to the dais as well as on a projection screen. At that point he pointed to the exact page and paragraph, adding that he in fact did read the bill and he was entirely familiar with it. All remarks based on fear and hearsay were directed to the bill. Grayson continually asked people to show him where their allegations were in the bill. At one point a woman alleged that prostate cancer and breast cancer were being treated unequally Grayson told her that if her allegation proved to be true he would introduce an amendment to correct the situation. At least one protester commented that Grayson had presented cohesive and coherent answers to questions and had cleared up many misconceptions. Other protesters would have none of it and kept protesting that the meeting was a setup. Grayson ended the meeting at 10:00 PM with the note that he wanted a bill that would allow people to live and how can we as a nation best help save lives. He’s certain this bill goes in the right direction.

Three hours worth of meeting was given scant coverage on the 11:00 news by all of the local channels. The Orlando Sentinel gave a somewhat accurate account of the proceedings, and columnist Scott Maxwell blogged the event. Unfortunately, neither Maxwell nor the Sentinel reporters discussed the real reason the crowd was so large due to the radio publicity. To their credit, their reporting was mostly non-partisan and straightforward.

As a society we must determine whether debate can be elevated or squelched. The exercising of our first amendment rights also bears the responsibility of allowing others their right to be heard. This meeting may not have been in the classic tradition of the mythical town hall, but this Monday evening many views were heard, no one was shouted down and more than a few people learned something, whether they liked it or not.

It started to rain at 1:30 Thursday afternoon, unusual for Central Florida in February. The press conference was called for 2:00 PM in front of Inez Batista’s Avalon Park home. Tiffany, an ACORN organizer said “somehow, it always rains when we do things like this.” ACORN volunteers, being fully prepared, handed out disposable ponchos to any in the crowd who requested one. Slowly, the group assembled as more people came until the crowd reached about forty, not counting the Batistas or the organizers or the press. Considering the weather, it was a sizable crowd.

William Moore, Chairman of the Anti-Foreclosure Committee for ACORN, spoke briefly about the nationwide initiative to keep people facing foreclosure in their homes. He then introduced Travis Munnerlyn, whose successful efforts to save his home through bold action with ACORN garnered national attention last year. Munnerlyn spelled out the principles of keeping people in their homes and working to get President Obama’s initiatives passed through Congress.

Moore then introduced Inez Batista whose foreclosure is scheduled for March 19. Batista explained that they had bought their home in 2003 and for several years they were making timely mortgage payments, however, business reversals in her husband’s construction company necessitated them to refinance. Their business never recovered and they are now faced with much higher payments than their original mortgage, even after mortgage modification. Inez Batista is ACORN’s first initiative in the Orlando area, which is, according to Moore, the highest foreclosure rate in the country.

Avery Salkey, whose story was reported previously in this post, was a special guest who told the assembled that her home was scheduled for that day, but through a last minute effort by ACORN her service company granted her a sixty day extension. There were several people in the crowd who were also facing foreclosure actions and were seeking help from ACORN. Carlos Saenz, who worked for an architectural firm was laid off from his job, had tried to work with his bank. He had gotten a 90 day forbearance which ended in December 2008, but he had not gotten another job so he asked the bank for an additional 90 days and at the same time he would go into his retirement account and bring his mortgage current. The bank refused his offer.

After the interviews Tiffany rallied the crowd with cheers and chants such as “Hey hey, ho ho, predatory loans have got to go” and “The people, united will never be defeated.” As the crowd dispersed the sun broke through.

Avery Salkey has spent many sleepless nights over the last year or more in apprehension of what’s to come. She doubtlessly will spend many sleepless nights in the future, but for the next sixty days she’ll be safe in her home. She went to court on Tuesday and filed a motion to delay the sale of her home. Yale Mortgage finally agreed to give her sixty days to work things out. She and ACORN are doing whatever they can to bring the mortgage company around to work with her. For the next several nights she can sleep more easily than she has in the past and maybe she’ll even have some pleasant dreams, but until things can be worked out in her favor she’ll have this sword of Damocles hanging over her bed.

                                            On the street where you live                                                                                        On Monday and Tuesday teams of ACORN volunteers walked the neighborhoods enlisting community support for the Batista family. Many of the houses that were visited were vacant with For Sale signs on the property. The Avalon Park Neighborhood Association had all the foreclosure signs taken down so it was difficult to determine which properties were in foreclosure; that is until you talk to the residents. One resident asked “where were you a month ago when the people next door had to leave?” The people they were able to talk to were mostly sympathetic and signed the petitions. Some of them expressed interest in attending the demonstration scheduled for Thursday afternoon at 2:00 PM.

Some people wouldn’t answer their doors even though the dogs were barking and the kids looked through the venetian blinds. One resident told why; there had recently been a rash of break-ins all over Avalon Park resulting in robberies, vandalism and worse. On Monday night a resident had been raped, and the neighbors are up in arms. Things like that are not supposed to happen in Central Florida’s version of Stepford, where everything is neat and clean, and all the grass is neatly mowed and all the garages are in the rear of the house hidden from street view.

The original purchase price of the Batista house was $390,000.00. Despite a large down payment and a few years of paying on time they needed to refinance because of business reversals.  With all of the penalties and interest owed the Batistas now owe $410,000.00 and they’ve been living in the house for several years. An identical house across the street sold recently for just $200,000.00 so under the current system the Batistas can never get whole, and neither can the banks. ACORN thinks it is in the bank’s best interest to work with the Batistas. Property values aside, the neighborhood doesn’t need another vandalized or vacant house. Nor does it need another property off the tax rolls, and Stepford needs to save face.

Avery Salkey is about to lose her house. It’s similar to a lot of stories throughout the country and it affects millions of people. She purchased a new home on December 4, 2003 and that’s when her troubles began. The purchase price on her house at 1502 Running Oak Lane in Royal Palm Beach was $234,550.00. At the time she was living in New York and made the decision as a single mother to start her life anew in Florida. She paid a substantial down payment, and secured a mortgage from Bank United that cost her $1500.00 per month, including taxes and insurance. She said that she could afford it.

What she didn’t count on was the time it took her to find another job in Florida that would allow her to continue her payments and live her life. She was late on some mortgage payments and at some point the bank threatened to foreclose. She then went to a mortgage broker who steered her to a hard money lender, Yale Mortgage. Yale gave her a variable rate mortgage however the terms of the mortgage were, in her opinion not the terms she was quoted. Her broker suggested that she pay the mortgage on time for six months, which she claims she did, while they continued to look for another lender with better terms. Her payment to Yale was $2800.00 monthly, almost twice what her payments were to Bank United. Additionally, Yale does not report to any credit agencies which adversely affected her credit, and if she were able to find another lender there would also be a huge prepayment penalty. She finally found ACORN who has been working with her to avoid foreclosure on her house. She and Yale Mortgage have been at odds since August, 2007. Her house was originally scheduled to be foreclosed on in November, 2007. She has been interviewed on NPR, http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89856332, and was referred to on Good Morning America, http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=5459044&page=1.  Salkey claims that as a result of her NPR interview Yale Mortgage refuses to deal with her. Her home is scheduled to be taken Thursday, Feb. 19.

The ACORN training session

The ACORN headquarters are located at 120 Colonial Drive in Downtown Orlando. The meeting room was filled to capacity. Many of these people were either in or being threatened with foreclosure. William Moore chairs the Foreclosure Committee for ACORN in Orlando, Florida. He cited that the State of Florida is number two nationally behind California in the number of foreclosures and, given the two populations, it is number one on a per capita basis. Orange County leads all other areas in the state, so the nation will be focused on what happens here. Monday, February 16 starts an initiative called Home Defenders. Moore explained that ACORN members and volunteers will be visiting the neighbors of homeowners threatened with foreclosure to enlist neighborhood support. On Thursday, February 19 there will be active teams in place to prevent city or county officials from taking possession of the property. These teams are designed to offer non-violent resistance to any and all people trying to force people out of their houses. Certain team members are also designated to go to prison if the situation arises. These tactics have been used recently in Baltimore and Oakland and they worked. According to Moore the bank had auctioned off the foreclosed property and as a result of ACORN’s actions they withdrew the acceptance and renegotiated with the original owner. Moore intimated that the banks really wanted to do the “right thing”; they just needed a little push in the right direction with ACORN’s help. The key is the number of people that can turn out in support of ACORN’s efforts. “The more people, the more homes we can save” says Moore.

Moore is no stranger to predatory lending techniques used by the banks. His parents are also victims. Moore has an MBA and a law degree and still needed ACORN to accomplish what he needs to.  His parents owned a dry-wall installation business and were getting ready to retire. They wanted to make improvements to their home and enjoy their retirement. They were not sophisticated in the world of finance and wound up in the hands of a predatory lender. By the time Moore got involved it was almost too late. Moore was also hampered last year by life threatening surgery which rendered him ineffective for a long time. His experiences led him to ACORN where he is an active member of the organization.

You can do something about it

Travis Munnerlyn fought back and won. Munnerlyn and his wife raised their children in the same house and were preparing to make improvements in order to raise their grandsons. They wanted to add a bedroom. Their lender was Countrywide, a now failed bank that specialized in predatory loans, was taken over by Bank of America. The interest rate on their mortgage ballooned at the same time that his wife, Patricia, was laid off after seventeen years with the same company. Munnerlyn also had health problems. Munnerlyn sought out the aid of ACORN and worked with several officials including Governor Charlie Crist to reverse his situation. Last year he received a lot of attention nationally. He was profiled in AARP Magazine http://bulletin.aarp.org/yourmoney/personalfinance/articles/millions_of_americans.html and made appearances on Good Morning America http://acorn.org/?4316.  His story is on Youtube in his own words www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2hEjNcbpNI.

A brief history of ACORN

ACORN was founded in Little Rock, Arkansas by Wade Rathke, an organizer for George Wiley’s National Welfare Rights Organization. The goal was to unite welfare recipients with working people in need around issues of free school lunches for schoolchildren, unemployed workers’ concerns, Vietnam Veterans’ rights and hospital emergency room care. Thus, an idea of low and moderate income community activism was born that would grow and adapt, thrive and flourish, and become a powerful movement from coast to coast. ACORN quickly became a powerful force in Little Rock and Arkansas politics and grew within ten years to active chapters in twenty states. The 1990 ACORN convention in Chicago focused on the fast-breaking housing campaign. The convention also included the ACORN Elected Official Conference which developed strategies for independent electoral organizations.

In 1991The housing issue was still a constant sore point. ACORN fought back against bank lobbyist efforts to gut the CRA. ACORN members staged a two- day takeover of the House Banking Committee hearing room to be sure their voices were heard by Congress. They stood in line overnight and took seats normally occupied by bank lobbyists. As a result, they won the Congressional vote to preserve the CRA in a power move that got national attention.

ACORN has continued to grow and is now in 42 states with over 400,000 member families. It claims responsibility for registering over 100,000 new voters in the state of Florida for the 2008 election. ACORN continues to build community organizations that are committed to social and economic justice, and continues to take action on thousands of issues.

Home Defenders prepare

Inez Batista is scheduled to lose her house on March 19. She lives in Avalon Park, east of Orlando. Avalon Park is a planned community with single and multi-family homes, apartments and retail enterprises. The publicity for the area advertises the benefits and spaciousness of small town living. Home prices range from the low 200,000’s to the high 500,000’s. Inez’s husband had a construction business and in 2003 the business was doing well. They had three small children and Inez was a stay at home mother. They bought the house in 2004 and for a short while life was good, that is until the downturn in the construction industry.  Inez and her husband both got jobs, but they seriously fell behind in their payments and received notification of foreclosure in August 2008. The Batistas then hired Advantage Mortgage of Miami who claimed that they could help get a modified agreement with Countrywide. Advantage required an immediate payment of $1500.00 up front in certified funds. The Batistas paid the money and waited. Unfortunately for them, Advantage never contacted Countrywide about refinancing-they talked to them about selling the property. The Batistas then called Countrywide directly to see if they could get a modification and were told to contact a firm called The Home Team. They also went to court to get an extension, which will keep them in their house legally until March 19. When the modification documents were delivered to them they were for a lot more money and monthly payments than the original mortgage. The Batistas refused to sign so they are now facing foreclosure.

The first Home Defenders project will be to rally around and protect Inez Batista and her family. Monday and Tuesday ACORN will be walking the neighborhood to gather community support, and Thursday the kickoff event will take place at the Batista house starting at 1:00 PM. There are several thousand homes in Orange, Osceola and Seminole counties that are being foreclosed on. This is only round one.

Orlando, Florida  Jan 20.     I can’t adequately describe the feeling inside me. It’s not merely joy, pride, relief or any range of those emotions. It’s rather a combination of some degree of them all tinged with a little apprehension for the work that still lies ahead. Of course this is an historic event and we should celebrate it, all in our own style. I chose not to attend the inauguration; I watched and have recorded the event to DVD so my grandkids can have it. The trip wouldn’t have cost me much because my daughter lives in the area. No, I chose to be here where it all started.

Our group in East Orlando was a driving force in taking Orange County by over 80,000 votes. We are hosting our own celebration and we have vowed to stay together to become a political force here. We are in the process of forming a Democratic club through either a state or county charter. The point is that we are staying involved. Statistically, Democrats did not do well in local, county and state offices. We also failed to defeat Amendment 2. Local politics has to be an important priority now. The 2010 elections are around the corner and we can’t afford Charlie Crist  again in any elected office. Jeb Bush and Mel Martinez wisely saw the future and left the field open. I for one do not want to prove them wrong, so my apprehension is whether or not we will let this opportunity pass.

Watching on TV is frustrating because I can’t stand the constant chatter from the same talking heads. Sometimes their perspectives are so out of kilter that I wonder if I’m watching the same event they’re describing. Some people I never need to see again are Pat Buchanan, Peggy Noonan, Wolf Blitzer, George Will James Carville, Mary Matalin, Chris Matthews and others too numerous to mention. As far as I am concerned they contribute nothing except their own hot air. Not a fresh perspective in the bunch.

I really wish we could get past this race thing as much as I wish we could get past gender and lifestyle issues. People should be measured by their abilities and accomplishments and nothing more. Perhaps this inauguration is the beginning of the end of that kind of biased thinking, but it struck me as I watched the ceremonies on our 50” high definition screen that I wanted to throw a shoe at Rick Warren as he spoke. I might have too if the economy and our business income were better-it’s too expensive to fix or replace right now. Another curious thought occurred when Aretha Franklin was singing; why did they choose My Country Tis of Thee which is really a British song, God Save The (King/Queen) with different lyrics? I would have preferred God Bless America written by Israel Baline, a Russian Jewish immigrant whose name was changed to Irving Berlin. It is much more appropriate for the occasion. How wonderful it would have been for Marian Anderson, or Paul Robeson, or Nat King Cole to have had the opportunity to contribute to earlier inaugurations, all of them compelling performers who were on the front lines of the civil rights battles since the 1930’s. Their vindication came today.

So, tonight I’ll celebrate with my kindred spirits and tomorrow we’ll go out into the trenches and wage the battle for 2010. There’s a lot more work to be done.

Mon. Oct 6  This is the last day to register people in Florida. All applications are to be delivered to The Supervisor of Elections before 9:45 P.M., or they need to be postmarked before midnight. The push is on. Our office has volunteers with forms at every gathering place you can think of. Every supermarket, strip mall, library and truck stop is being covered. There’s even a registration table at the dog park and it’s active.

I decided to go into Waterford Lakes, a huge shopping area with almost every kind of chain outlet you can imagine and just walk around to every store, clipboard in hand rather than stay at a table in one place. That way I can talk to people at Best Buy, Joanne Fabrics, Office Max, Pet Supermarket, Target, Party City, Old Navy, Bed Bath & Beyond, Kinko’s plus every kind of restaurant and hair care shop you can imagine. There’s also a huge cinema complex, so I can register a multitude of people from all walks of life with myriad reasons to be there. In most places the people let me know they are registered and few of them thank me for caring.

The most interesting place I visited was Starbucks (yes, this one was still operating). A bunch of young people in their early twenties had shoved some tables together and were just “hangin’ out”.  It was after 5:00 P.M. and I was tired of walking. I was invited to join them and registered four of them immediately. Most of them were UCF grads that were looking for work besides flipping burgers or doing hair.  That led to a spirited discussion led by me of the Clinton economy which they were entirely unfamiliar with. I got several promises that they would vote for Obama, so we’ll see what happens.

Back at campaign headquarters there was furious activity checking all the applications for accuracy and making sure that all spaces were correctly marked. I have no idea of the totals, but in my head I figured that it was well over a thousand with all of us working out there.

Tue. Oct 7.  There is lots of work to be done before we all go to the debate party. Today we are going to man the phones for volunteers. The next big push is to get as many volunteers as possible to come in Saturday for a strategy session to get out the vote. The phone banks are busy. I take a list and make calls for volunteers. Three hours and 137 calls later it’s time to quit for the day. The phone results were good today. We got a lot of promises-let’s see what happens Saturday.

The party held in a volunteer’s living room. Everyone’s reactions are pretty similar as John McCain continues to lie. Every time we catch him in an untruth or a distortion there are shouts of disbelief that he is not challenged-not by Obama, but by Brokaw, who was clearly not up to the job. It was either that or he was purposely tilting things to keep McCain competitive. I, frankly, can’t stand Brokaw and at best have only ever tolerated him. Later in this series I’ll do a perspective on him.  We all agree that Obama won this one handily and that McCain looked like he was self-destructing.

Wed. Oct 8.  I have plans to be away for the next four days so I need to wrap up what I can before noon.  I bring my lap top to headquarters and download software that will enable me to keep tabs on my team and also make phone calls from wherever I happen to be. Tomorrow is Yom Kippur with Kol Nidre services beginning at sundown this evening. I suspect that most of the Jewish campaign workers will not actively participate, however there is no real way of knowing. I plan to make calls wherever I am when I am able to, and I do. I e-mail my totals to headquarters.

Thur. Oct 9.  Today is a day of reflection, rather than atonement for me. My grandfather died on Yom Kippur in 1972, thirty six years ago. Members of my family told me that dying on this holiest of days is the highest honor a man can receive. He was a remarkable man who quit school in the fourth grade in order to support his very large family. He became a successful merchant and manufacturer and continued to support his brothers and sisters well into the great depression.  At 9:30 this morning our daughter, Nancy, is in labor with her pains four minutes apart. Margaret Paige Gorczynski emerges from the womb at 4:15 P.M. delivered by her father, Erik, the old fashioned way. The midwife didn’t arrive until 10 minutes after her birth. I surmise that her being born today is an additional honor for my grandfather and that she will achieve great things in her life. I recall that the late Gertrude Berg’s paean to the family, The Goldbergs, was all about family and generations. Yes, today was a day of reflection and observance. The campaign will have to wait a few hours.

Fri. Oct 10.  I change my schedule to be back in the campaign over the weekend.  I’m back at the desk in the evening and I manage to make about 50 calls for volunteers before we have to get ready for tomorrow’s event. The UCF organizer has about 20 students in a meeting getting ready for the day’s events.