Page 119 – RI Future

April 9, 2014April 9, 2014

Think big, URI. Guy McPherson does.

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Fossil Free Rhode Island received a reply denying our request that URI divest from fossil fuels on March 14. Recent reports warn of stranded carbon assets and the looming popping of the carbon bubble. Even so, the URI Foundation continues to invest in wrecking the climate, and calls it “Building for the Future.” Now, that requires really Big Thinking!

Meanwhile, Fossil Free RI continues the climate conversation with a visit from author, public speaker, and “latter-day gadfly,” Guy McPherson, Professor Emeritus of the University of Arizona, who will speak on climate chaos and humanity’s reaction to it:

What does climate change actually mean for us as human beings? Can we still live compassionate, exceptional lives even if the odds are stacked against us?

Guy McPherson, who thinks human extinction will begin around 2030, is a knowledgeable, amusing and challenging speaker. This is a chance to hear about instabilities too hard to capture in climate models, topics that many “grown-ups” consider “too scary for the kids.”

McPherson’s view is more dire than that of the majority of climate scientists, but his arguments deserve our serious attention. First of all, there is the One Percent Doctrine which states that

If there’s a 1% chance […], we have to treat it as a certainty in terms of our response. It’s not about our analysis […] It’s about our response.

If this infamous doctrine provides cover for the 1% and its perpetual wars, should it not apply with a vengeance to climate change and the risk of ecocide it poses?

Guy McPherson’s talk will provide the vital counterbalance to the politically motivated censorship imposed upon the IPCC report:

The poorest people in the world, who have had virtually nothing to do with causing global warming, will be high on the list of victims as climatic disruptions intensify, the report said. It cited a World Bank estimate that poor countries need as much as $100 billion a year to try to offset the effects of climate change; they are now getting, at best, a few billion dollars a year in such aid from rich countries.

The $100 billion figure, though included in the 2,500-page main report, was removed from a 48-page executive summary to be read by the world’s top political leaders. It was among the most significant changes made as the summary underwent final review during an editing session of several days in Yokohama.

If you can make it, please join the Facebook event and invite your friends.

This event (no charge — donations accepted) is sponsored by Fossil Free Rhode Island: action for climate justice, urging public institutions that divestment from fossil fuels is the only moral choice.

April 8, 2014April 8, 2014

Reed’s #RenewUI bill goes to the House

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Senator Jack Reed’s bill to restore unemployment insurance benefits for thousands of Rhode Islanders and millions of Americans passed his side of Congress on Monday. Now the Reed/Heller bill moves on the less liberal House of Representatives, where it’s fate is uncertain.

And Reed is keeping the pressure on.

“Months ago, not many people thought we’d have a bill that would emerge from the U.S. Senate to restore unemployment insurance,” Reed said at a press event today. “But something happened. The voices of the American people were heard in the United States Senate. They were heard by both Democrats and Republicans and we came together to pass bipartisan, fiscally responsible legislation that will restore benefits to over 2 million Americans.”

Reed authored the bill with Republican Dean Heller of Nevada, and it was also cosigned by Senators Collins, Murkowski, Portman and Kirk – all Republicans. It would reauthorize unemployment insurance for as many as 12,000 Rhode Islanders and 2.35 million Americans who have been cut off, according to a press release.

“We need to finish the work,” Reed said. “And now that work is the hands of Sandy Levin, Steny Hoyer, Speaker Pelosi, and others who will help amplify the voices of the American people.”

In the House, seven Republicans sent Speaker John Boehner a letter expressing their support for the bill. But still, the AP said, “despite the appeal, the bill’s prospects are cloudy at best, given widespread opposition among conservative lawmakers and outside groups and Boehner’s unwillingness to allow it to the floor without changes that Republicans say would enhance job creation.”

According to Congressman David Cicilline, “the Speaker is the only thing standing in the way of renewing this vital lifeline and instead of blocking this legislation, he should immediately bring it to the floor for a vote,” he said in a statement. “I will continue fighting with my Democratic colleagues to force a vote on this critical piece of legislation to ensure Americans receive the support they need in difficult times.”

Reed’s press secretary Chip Unruh said in an email, “We have facts, figures, and CBO scores on our side: reauthorizing emergency unemployment insurance will help save jobs, it will help improve our economy, it will help restore our nation’s fiscal health, and most of all, it will help people. And the real difference makers in this debate are not stats – they are people. If the House Leadership refuses to address this issue, they will be hearing from their constituents.”

Here’s today’s full press conference. Reed speaks at 8:47.

April 8, 2014April 9, 2014

Anti-Poverty Coalition serves as State House’s conscience

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Last Wednesday’s Anti-Poverty Coalition Rally held at the State House promises to be the first of many weekly rallies to address this pressing issue until the end of the legislative session. The importance of these weekly moral reminders is especially acute in light of the recent ascension of Nicholas Mattiello to Speaker of the House, since Mattiello has shown little interest in addressing the root causes of poverty. Instead Mattiello promises anew era of broken austerity policies: tax cuts and cuts in government spending. Feel that? That’s the Invisible Hand slapping the most vulnerable in our state.

April 8, 2014

Equal Pay in Rhode Island: 2014 Edition

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Another day, another dollar. Well, make that 81 cents if you are a woman working full time in Rhode Island.

Today is Equal Pay Day, a day that symbolizes how many days into 2014 women need to work in order to make what men made in 2013. Of course, that’s for women as a whole – if you are African American you will need to work until May 11th, and if you are Hispanic/Latina you will have to work until June 17th.

There are few statistics out there that have been more maligned, confused, distorted, or dismissed as the statistics on equal pay. Some imply that the wage gap can be completely explained by sex discrimination, while others assert that the wage gap is caused exclusively by women’s choices. It seems that the greatest barrier to fixing the wage gap is that we can’t even agree on the problem.

And, it really matters. Women who work full time in Rhode Island are taking in, on average, $9,901 less per year than their male counterparts – meaning less money for food, housing, gas, and other discretionary expenses. Which is a really big problem given that families have come to rely on women’s wages to make ends meet.

This year, the American Association of University Women released a report entitled “The Simple Truth” in an attempt to shed some light on the oft-misunderstood statistics. The message is clear: yes, the wage gap does, in part, reflect men’s and women’s life choices, BUT not all of the gap can be explained away by this. In fact, even after accounting for college major, occupation, economic sector, hours worked, months unemployed since graduation, GPA, type of undergraduate institution, institution selectivity, age, geographical region and marital status, reports show persistent, unexplained gaps between men and women’s wages of between 7% and 12%.

Complex problems don’t often allow for simple solutions, and the wage gap is no exception. But the fact that this gap is complex is no excuse for not actively working to close it. And there are plenty of opportunities to go around, for individuals, employers, and government alike.

Individuals can work to shift a culture that historically undervalues occupations that have been traditionally held by women. And, women can make different career choices: whether you believe women freely choose lower paid occupations or are socialized into choosing “helping” professions over more lucrative ones, the fact is that getting ourselves into more nontraditional jobs will help to close the wage gap. And, yes, developing stronger negotiating skills can help women secure higher wages, something that is so critical early on in one’s career as those wages will become the basis for a lifetime of earnings. We can also work toward a more equitable distribution of child care and household responsibilities within the family so that men and women have equal opportunities to succeed in the workplace.

Employers can actively pursue workplace policies of fairness, openness and transparency when it comes to employee jobs and wages. They can hire more women in nontraditional jobs. They can provide on-site child care. They can recognize that some jobs have historically been undervalued because those jobs have traditionally been held by women, and can move to a more equitable pay system based on qualifications, years of experience, and job duties as a way to more equitably value the contributions of all employees. Pay equity audits are an important tool that can be used to monitor and address any gender pay differences. And, by the way, all of this can be good for the bottom line: studies have shown that workers who believe that they are paid fairly have higher morale and are more likely to contribute their best efforts to the job.

Government has an important role to play in creating a level playing field. The Equal Pay Act of 1963 was an important first step in ensuring equal pay for equal work. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act bars all discrimination in employment, including in hiring, firing, promotion, and wages on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin. And, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 provides some additional protections against discrimination.

But there is still more to do. The Paycheck Fairness Act, currently pending in Congress, would close loopholes, strengthening incentives to prevent pay discrimination, and prohibiting retaliation against workers who inquire about employers’ wage practices or disclose their own wages. And, government can do more to provide child care supports to working families. Finally, government at both the federal and state level can use their status as employers to ensure pay equity in public sector employment, and can use the leverage of government contracts to ensure fairness and equity for those businesses and individuals who perform contract work with the government.

It’s time to stop debating the wage gap. While the gap can’t be completely chalked up to overt sex discrimination, neither can it be chalked up to women’s choices. The statistical fact is that the wage gap exists. The question is, what are we going to do about it?

Carolyn Mark is president of the Rhode Island Chapter of the National Organization for Women. To learn more, visit www.rinow.org.

April 7, 2014April 8, 2014

Democrats for governor make their case to liberal Rhode Island

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With little substantive differences in their talking points, the four Democrats running for governor each tried to impress upon an audience of mostly liberal activists that they were the best person for the job at the Economic Progress Institute’s candidate forum Monday night.

Providence Mayor Angel Taveras said he wants Rhode Island to have the best schools in the nation and make the Ocean State and “example for opportunity.” General Treasurer Gina Raimondo called income inequality “biggest problem facing our state” and said the social safety net is “an investment in our future” rather than an act of charity. Todd Giroux said he’d create a $1 billion commerce fund and wants to make workers’ comp available to day laborers.

But arguably the best line of the evening belonged to Clay Pell, who brought down the house when he said: “I’m a Democrat. I believe people who earn more should pay more.”

Pell was also the only one to pledge to fully fund the Open Doors plan to end homelessness in Rhode Island. He may have laid out the most progressive messaging of the evening, but also drew sharp attention to his privileged upbringing when he said, “for too long in Rhode Island it’s been who you know not what you know.” Minutes earlier in his opening remarks, he name dropped his grandfather and namesake’s signature college aid grant program.

Taveras leaned heavily on his biography, at least twice recalling his formative years living in affordable housing and being a “Headstart baby.” Substantively, he said Rhode Island could boast the best education system in the country, and that he wants to make Rhode Island a national “example for opportunity.”

If any news was made at the Economic Progress Institute’s governor’s candidate forum, it was that Raimondo said she would dismantle the parts of Rhode Island’s health care exchange that link people with other social services to help offset the cost when federal funding runs out. She also said “income inequality is the single biggest problem facing our state and in fact our country.” Here’s how she said she would address income inequality:

Todd Giroux plays the part of the everyman political outsider. He was the only candidate on stage who didn’t got to Harvard and who has actually worked in the Rhode Island economy – they both sounds like nice attributes in a candidate but neither will likely garner him any political support.

April 7, 2014

Kids Count Factbook’s annual message: poverty concentrated in four cities

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Most of Rhode Island’s poverty is concentrated in four cities: Providence, Pawtucket, Central Falls and Woonsocket, according to Kids Count’s annual fact book. So much so that the annual Factbook on children, the economy and health always breaks down its report to compare the “four core cities”* with the rest of the state for emphasis.

Here are some examples:

79 percent of public school students in the four core cities are low income; 31 percent from the rest of the state
There are more than twice as many children from the four core cities that receive cash subsidies (7,077 compared to 2,948) even though there are only half the number of children (73,741 compared to 150,215)
35.6 percent of children in the four core cities live below the federal poverty, meaning their families earn less than $18,769 a year; 9.9 percent of the rest of the state does.
There are almost twice as many children in these four core cities that use food stamps (39,218) than do in the entire rest of the state (24,648). That’s 53 percent of children in the four core cities and 16 percent in the rest of the state.

For more great info from Kids Count click here. But suffice to say, more tax cuts aren’t going to do much at all (and virtually nothing in the short term) to fix the poverty problem in Providence, Pawtucket, Woonsocket and Central Falls.

*Governor Chafee calls these “distressed communities” but you may know them better as places that used to have manufacturing economies or places hit hardest by Carcieri cuts to cities and towns and sometimes they are referred to as ‘communities in need of a public sector haircut, if not a beheading.’

April 7, 2014April 7, 2014

Economic Progress Institute’s candidate forum tonight in Warick

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Gubernatorial hopefulls Angel Taveras, Clay Pell, Gina Raimondo and Todd Giroux will respond to progressive questions tonight as the Economic Progress Institute is hosting a candidate forum at 5pm at the Ocean State Theater Company in Warwick (1245 Jefferson Blvd).

“Join us to hear what the candidates have to say about income inequality, jobs and the workforce, the safety net, the human services delivery system and other important topics,” according to the event invite.

The forum will be moderated by Mike Ritz, the executive director of Leadership Rhode Island. As of last week, more than 300 people had registered to attend.

April 7, 2014April 7, 2014

In service to the service road

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There was a fun online graphic survey at the New York Times a while ago which asked a series of questions and then placed participants on a map, showing the exact city or cities whence they came (my partner Rachel’s friend from college, for instance, had grown up in Texas and moved to North Jersey in elementary school, and the survey was able to pinpoint both that he was a New Yorker and that he had grown up in the Lone Star State based on different aspects of his speech. Rachel was placed appropriately between Wuhstahh and Prahhvidince as a native of Central Mass with a dad from Central Falls, while my Philly patois must have come through to the NY Times, because it placed me there).

Transportation figures heavily into our dialects. For instance, I grew up saying “traffic circle” but people around the country call those things rotaries, traffic circuses, roundabouts, and all manner of other things. My favorite transportation-related question from the survey was the one that asked you what you call the stretch of road that’s next to a highway, for the purpose of entering the highway. While New England calls these things “service roads”, Philadelphia doesn’t have a term at all. It’s not that we don’t have them, it’s just that they’re not named.

As you may know, RIDOT is planning an expansion of I-95 to help motorists bypass directly to 146 past the traffic that collects around the mall. The whole project, which stretches only a mile, will cost a projected $46 Million, which in context is more than the whole repaving bond amounted to for Providence. There are a whole lot of reasons why this project doesn’t make sense, and I’m in the process of writing more on that question. Right now I want to back off of the project itself and focus on a bigger-picture question, which is how the idea of a “service road” influences our chances of fighting for a more livable Providence.

The Vine Street Expressway in Philadelphia strikes me as a good example to visit for contrast.

For much of its eastern length since the Rizzo days, Vine Street is essentially the “service road” on either side of its expressway namesake. It’s not a great place to walk or bike, and the expressway creates a rough boundary between Center City and North Philly which especially around Chinatown has resulted in dilapidation and squalor. If you asked a Philadelphian what they would call this part of Vine Street though, my tongue-in-cheek guess is they’d say “It’s the part of Vine Street that Frank Rizzo fucked up” rather than having a term like “Service Road 8” for it.

What does Vine Street have that differs it from a service road?

Note here:

Sidewalks
Parking Lanes (you can’t see them here, but go on google and scroll around, you’ll see there are parked cars). This brings Vine Street to an unusually wide two lanes of traffic in each direction–rather expansive in Center City Philadelphia terms, but modest compared to the three lanes of speedway next to the West Side and Downcity Providence.
A bicyclist (way in the back)
Of course someone from South Philly has wandered away from Broad Street to park their car on the sidewalk
Trees (and even some large ones, which would perhaps be seen as immobile hazards for cars by some highly-trained traffic engineer). And the trees are on both sides, creating a sound buffer to the highway
Murals that don’t look like they were commissioned to fifth graders
There are traffic signals at every block, and as far as my visual investigation of the Google Streetview and my memory of living in Philly can tell, there are no “beg buttons” on the walk signals.
There are even trolley tracks (unused, but with a bus route that might go back to trolley someday) at the next intersection.
The lanes do not appear to me to be 12′ wide, as on Service Road 7, suggesting that perhaps cars are expected to act like they’re in a neighborhood until after they get on the highway.

This, friends, is a street. Not a great street–I’d like to reemphasize that this is a rough area with a lot wrong with it, and not someplace that you’d want to replicate by any means. But this is a street nonetheless.

The service road, on the other hand, will sometimes attain the name of some obscure local municipal or sports figure as a means of trying to tidy itself up, but will mostly be known by a number. And truly, the number tells you what it is much more honestly than the name of the celebrity could. When I first encountered Service Road 7, I assumed it was kind of like Vine Street–not a great place to bike, for sure, not a great place to be a pedestrian, but a street of sorts that someone like me–a person in the 1% of cyclists who are willing to bike in most any conditions–could use. Whoa! Was I wrong! Service Road 7 is a stroad (video explaining term).

The term “service road” is not destiny. We are not required to think in the way the word suggests we think. But having a word like service road does oblige us to think of certain distinctions that might remain unstated and below the surface in a place without the term. This is kind of how a German, with the feminine word for bridge, eine Brücke, will often use a feminine voice when asked by a researcher to anthropomorphize the feature, while a Spanish-speaker, saying el puente–masculine–will use a male voice to personify the crossing (does this affect how Germans or Spaniards build bridges? Researchers still don’t know, but that’s a crazy thought, isn’t it?). It’s not that these speakers can’t understand that bridges are in fact objects without set gender identities. But the first thing they think of when they use the word is the gender they’ve been taught to assign to these objects.

Mayor Rizzo (video), who helped push through the Vine Street Expressway, was an old school boss mayor (video) like Richard Daley of Chicago, having come up as the chief of police in a repressive city in spasms of racism and injustice. Rizzo would make Buddy Cianci look like a paper tiger. The Toronto Sun recently cited Rizzo in order to give a favorable comparison to their coke-addled leader,Rob Ford, saying:

Then there was Frank Rizzo, mayor of Philadelphia in the 1970s, an autocratic leader accused by the city’s blacks of discriminating against them, who, in his 1975 re-election campaign infamously told a reporter: ‘Just wait, after November you’ll have a front row seat, because I’m going to make Attila the Hun look like a faggot.’

So let’s not make Ford a bigger deal than he is — a failed, largely powerless mayor who deserves to be soundly defeated in next year’s election.

Ah, I feel proud. There’s someone more embarrassing than Rob Ford.

The shadow of Rizzo’s time in office lays over Philadelphia in ways that are much deeper than this highway. Yet Rizzo got push back by the community around the Vine Street Expressway that helped shape the project. One major community success was that Vine Street got an expressway and South Street did not, saving things like the Magic Garden, which otherwise would have gotten the bulldozer. The Wikipedia article on the Vine Street Expressway notes several other changes due to environmental, historic, and neighborhood concerns which required changing the route, reducing the scope of the project, and adding transit improvements alongside it. Though we all talk about hating the service roads in Providence, somehow I can’t see a successful campaign by a community to change the nature of a service road in the same way that I can see a campaign to push back about a street, because the term service road says that its purpose is only to move cars quickly, and nothing else. Can you see a successful campaign to put bike lanes on Service Road 7?

The service roads are a piece of Providence’s landscape that more than any others diminish it. We need to start to recognize them for what they are: temporary mistakes to be corrected, rather than natural features of the landscape to be built upon and expanded. The city I grew up around, I think I’ve adequately explained, was no place of soaring progressive vision. But sometimes, I suspect, our words affect the way that we envision even the worst of ideas. If the people of Philadelphia, Providence, or any city were approached with a discussion about expanding a piece of infrastructure that was part of a highway, they would naturally consider that proposal differently than if they were asked to bring a highway onto their front street. In a way, I suspect that having these service roads as a cognitive frame disarms us from objecting to their role in the landscape: they may suck for anyone not barreling out of the city in a car, but c’mon, that’s what they’re for. As much as I dislike Vine Street and the legacy of the mayor who messed it up, I have to recognize that there are some major things that are different about it than our New England service roads.

~~~~

April 6, 2014April 7, 2014

Wingmen: Austerity report uses samuri sword to do work of scalpel

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There’s been no shortage of cursory – and even congratulatory – reporting on a new report from a right wing think tank that details how to shrink government to make way for more tax cuts. But when I debated Justin Katz, one of its authors, about its merits, it turns out there is much less substance to the report than it would appear.

Because it uses a samurai sword to do the work of a scalpel, it makes at least a few errors as well as makes some incorrect claims that were repeated by the media. Watch here and then I explain a few examples below:

News, Weather and Classifieds for Southern New England

One example we discussed on this weekend’s NBC 10 Wingmen segment was the idea that the state would save money if it eliminated a golf course at Goddard State Park. While I don’t love the idea that the state operates a golf course, the report wasn’t about public spending items we love and/or hate, it was about ways to save the “taxpayer” money. I will bet both Katz and Mike Stenhouse that eliminating the golf course at Goddard Park will actually increase the cost of operating that state park, not reduce it. (I don’t know this for certain, but neither did Katz – and he co-wrote a report saying it would save money to eliminate it.)

I happen to live near Goddard Park, so I know it well, but I suspect the report is littered with such fallacies that I don’t happen to know intimately. True story: the state used to charge admission to Goddard Park until we were reminded that the Goddard family gave it to us with the stipulation that it be open and available for free. Perhaps, by extension, it should be free for the people of Rhode Island to golf there. But it’s not free, and making it free or eliminating this source of revenue will not save the state money.

Another fallacy with this report is that it doesn’t cut social services. It does. The report itself details a $2,500 legislative grant to the Johnnycake Center, a food pantry in South Kingstown that provides nutritious meals to poor children when school isn’t in session. While legislative grants are by no means perfect, by the report’s own admission some are used to fund social services. Either the report cuts the social safety net or the Johnnycake Center isn’t part of the social safety net.

And this is just one such example of an agency or organization that works with people in poverty was singled out in the report. Another is the John Hope Settlement House. The reality is small government budget hawks have pushed some “essential” or “social service” public spending outside of the traditional budgeting process. Good, bad or indifferent it simply isn’t true to say this report doesn’t cut social services.

Other ideas in the report are simply economically foolish, like ending the full day kindergarten program or selling off the state’s nuclear reactor to a private entity.

It’s at least worth noting that such reports aren’t really about public policy. Its authors know well that many of its proposals are either politically untenable, wrong or just silly. But, in the same way this report cites Ken Block’s widely discredited report on SNAP fraud in Rhode Island, the real hope is that it will be used as a talking point in political debate. To that end, the small government activists who authored it have done their job well. But the political reporters who repeated its errors and/or gave a less than accurate account of its findings did not do theirs very well.

April 4, 2014

Lilia Abbatematteo continues her fight against Fannie Mae

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Accompanied by her children and grandchildren, Lilia Abbatematteo protested the Federal National Mortgage Agency’s (Fannie Mae) attempt to evict them from their home on Chapin Ave. in Providence.

When her mother, Maria Amaral, passed away, Ms. Abbatematteo inherited the house in which she’d lived for the past 40 years, along with the mortgage, at the time owned by Chase Bank. Despite many efforts to modify the loan and make affordable payments, Chase insisted they could not communicate with Ms. Abbatematteo about permanently modifying the loan. The bank was, however, willing to take three trial modification payments from Ms. Abbatematteo after she hired a private attorney to advocate on her behalf.

In search of support the week before the foreclosure auction in September 2013, Ms. Abbatematteo responded to outreach from the Tenant and Homeowner Association (THA), a committee of DARE (Direct Action for Rights and Equality), a 27-year old social justice organization based in South Providence. The THA, made up of owners and tenants who have faced foreclosure and eviction, agreed to support Ms. Abbatematteo and organized an auction protest. The protest successfully deterred private investors, in search of quick profit, from purchasing the home, though it changed hands from Chase Bank to Fannie Mae.

When Fannie Mae’s representative approached Ms. Abbatematteo, she told them that she, along with the tenants renting the third floor, would like to stay and pay rent. Fannie Mae has a program called “Tenant-in-Place,” by which the quasi-governmental agency maintains renters in its REO (foreclosed) properties. Ms. Abbatematteo applied to rent from Fannie under this program, which was offered to her by Fannie’s real estate representative. By the end of the year, however, no answer was forthcoming. Fannie recently began eviction proceedings against Ms. Abbatematteo and her tenants, without a formal response to their request for “tenant-in-place.”

“We wouldn’t be in this place if Chase had worked with me before the foreclosure. We wouldn’t be in a position where two families were facing homelessness, and this neighborhood was going to be burdened with another foreclosed and abandoned property like the one down the street,” explained Ms. Abbatematteo.

Two dozen people arrived at 129-131 Chapin Ave. at 10:00 am Wednesday morning. The protesters carried signs reading, “Housing is a Human Right,” and “Don’t Evict, Negotiate!” Ms. Abbatematteo addressed the crowd using a bullhorn. She explained why the house was important to her and her family. “This house is where I was raised. My children were raised here and my grandchildren are being raised here. My granddaughter says, ‘I don’t want to move.’ This is heart-wrenching. My work commute is only around seven minutes. I like my neighbors and I love it here. I’ve lived here for forty years.”

DARE member and leader in the THA Malchus Mills deplored the devastation being caused by the foreclosure crisis in Providence and RI, citing a Fannie Mae foreclosure around the corner at 198 Althea Street, which was foreclosed in 2011 and recently burned down. The organization plans to continue to protest Fannie’s attempts to evict these families, encouraging the crowd to return and protest if an eviction order is granted in court.

Please sign Lilia’s national petition to Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) director Mel Watt, encouraging him to call off this unjust eviction!

April 3, 2014April 4, 2014

Spending money is not free speech, we need to take it to the streets

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In the recent Supreme Court decision McCutcheon v. FEC, the right wing Bush appointed Supreme Court Justices tipped the scales and ruled essentially that spending money is free speech. When Abel Collins interviewed famed linguist and philosopher Noam Chomsky, Noam asked rhetorically asked why not just admit that we have given up on democracy and admit that we are a plutocracy- accepting rule by the wealthy class, the 1%.

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas- who may go down as the worst justice in the history, went further writing that “all limits on campaigns contributions are unconstitutional.”

This makes the Nobel-Prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz article the 2011 Vanity Fair magazine article entitled “Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%“, quite prescient:

“Of all the costs imposed on our society by the top 1 percent, perhaps the greatest is this: the erosion of our sense of identity, in which fair play, equality of opportunity, and a sense of community are so important. America has long prided itself on being a fair society, where everyone has an equal chance of getting ahead, but the statistics suggest otherwise: the chances of a poor citizen, or even a middle-class citizen, making it to the top in America are smaller than in many countries of Europe. The cards are stacked against them. It is this sense of an unjust system without opportunity that has given rise to the conflagrations in the Middle East: rising food prices and growing and persistent youth unemployment simply served as kindling. With youth unemployment in America at around 20 percent (and in some locations, and among some socio-demographic groups, at twice that); with one out of six Americans desiring a full-time job not able to get one; with one out of seven Americans on food stamps (and about the same number suffering from “food insecurity”)—given all this, there is ample evidence that something has blocked the vaunted “trickling down” from the top 1 percent to everyone else. All of this is having the predictable effect of creating alienation—voter turnout among those in their 20s in the last election stood at 21 percent, comparable to the unemployment rate.”

So what’s the solution? Abel Collins offers this:

“We have the numbers. Let us freely assemble, muster our forces, and occupy politics from the bottom up. Put your name in the hat for city or town council. Start a blog, plan street theater, get arrested and be heard. By all means, we should start by reversing the effects of Citizens United. Municipal and statewide resolutions calling on Congress to amend the U.S. Constitution to say that corporations aren’t people and political campaign spending isn’t protected speech can get the ball rolling. Amending State Constitutions via voter initiative or legislative referendum to this same effect as I have proposed in Rhode Island is another step. Whatever else, let us not cede the political sphere to the corporations, whether they are people in the eyes of the Supreme Court or not.”

At least it is one strategy, but considering the ethics of our state legislature it seems rather unlikely. Getting mass numbers assembled and engaged seems a more likely strategy to succeed. But can we do it? That is up to you.

(This video is from 10-8-13 #2 Abel & Noam Interview Part 2 Money as Free Speech Produced by Robert Malin c.2014)

April 3, 2014

McCutcheon decision another reason to avoid Con Con

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Yesterday’s Supreme Court McCutcheon decision certainly means that the distorting power of money over what’s left of American democracy is not going to abate any time soon. Given this, perhaps we should think twice before opening the “Pandora’s Box” of a Constitutional Convention here in Rhode Island. At the forum held recently at Bryant University, Justice Robert Flanders Jr made the suspect claim that lobbyists would be at a loss to navigate the unknown corridors of power at a Con Con. Fortunately, Steve Brown of the ACLU quickly pointed out the paucity of this argument.

Lobbyists will be a part of the Constitutional Convention, were one to be held here in Rhode Island. Big money will enjoy yet another avenue to warp our politics and our society. Some say the risk is small, and the gains to be had are big. This is exactly what they tell you at Foxwoods, but gambling isn’t a sound economic plan or an intelligent political strategy.

April 3, 2014April 3, 2014

Regunberg is running, Bell isn’t, for Fox’s House seat

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Aaron Regunberg, a recent Brown graduate and organizer of the Providence Student Union, announced his campaign for the District 4 seat in the state House of Representatives. THe seat is currently held by former speaker Gordon Fox and Sam Bell, previously a candidate for the seat, said he will step aside to support Regunberg.

“We need new voices and new leadership in Rhode Island,” Regunberg said in an email announcing his campaign. “I’m running to make sure that every one of our public schools is providing the high quality, empowering education our young people deserve. I have fought for education change that comes from the bottom up, with youth, parents, educators, and community members. My work advocating alongside students has shown me what a difference it makes to have leaders who listen to and stand up for our young people, which is what I will do every day as State Representative.”

Regunberg is also on the executive board of the Young Democrats of Rhode Island and he’s a board member of the Billy Taylor House, and East Side workforce development program. While a student at Brown, he founded Brown for Providence, which helped convince Ivy League school to pay the Capital City more in lieu of taxes.

“I’m proud to stand behind Aaron,” said Bell in Regunberg’s press release. “I know he will bring new leadership and a strong progressive voice to the State House, and I’m very excited to support his candidacy.”

April 3, 2014April 3, 2014

On tax equity, RIPEC salves the souls of the House Finance Committee

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Last evening the RI House Finance Committee heard testimony on two bills that would increase the marginal tax rate on people making more than $200,000 a year. Representative Maria Cimini proposed a 2% increase, from 5.99 to 7.99% on incomes over $250,000, while Representative Larry Valencia proposed a 4.01% increase on incomes over $200,000 for individuals and $250,00 for married couples.

Valencia asked the committee to explain the effectiveness of tax cuts for the rich (starting in 1996) given that these were supposed to bring more jobs to Rhode Island, not less, as evidenced by our high unemployment. Appeals to reason however, were not found persuasive by the committee.

At least ten people spoke in favor of the bills, some telling very moving stories about the way they struggle in a state that continues to cut services and cut assistance to our cities and towns, resulting in higher property taxes. In fact, it’s the property taxes that are hitting these Rhode Islanders the hardest, even as the myopic House Leadership continues to champion a policy of across the board tax cuts, curbs on spending and other austerity measures. The impassioned pleas of struggling Rhode Islanders fell on deaf ears, because appeals to compassion were not found to be persuasive.

Everyone knows that the bills proposed by Cimini and Valencia are going nowhere this year. Chairperson Raymond Gallison, recently appointed to his position by Speaker Mattiello, shaped the discourse by calling up all those in favor of the bills and listening politely, reserving the last word for John Simmons, executive director of a right wing think tank, the Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council (RIPEC). Gallison and Simmons are on a first name basis, and Simmons’ testimony was welcomed as a breath of fresh air.

Simmons simply restated the same things RIPEC says every year. Increasing taxes is wrong. The rich already face a higher tax burden than the poor. We shouldn’t be targeting the job creators. Philosophically, why should we be punishing those who are successful? The rich are rich because they are better than the poor, more deserving than the poor, and more important than the middle class. Here’s Simmons’ closing argument:

“Then there’s the philosophic issue, I guess I want to address that. It’s a little bit different. Is it because we can tax people who can make money and are successful that we should? Is that the philosophy we want for people to come to Rhode Island and grow a business here? If you make money we can take it from you? I don’t know that that’s the right message to send to people who want to come to Rhode Island. It’s the opposite. If you are successful we would like you to come to Rhode Island.”

Note that Simmons is not all that interested in those who already live in Rhode Island. He isn’t talking about improving the lives of Rhode Islanders, instead he’s talking about making Rhode Island a haven for the rich and successful. If Rhode Islanders are lucky, I suppose, we might find jobs shining the shoes and cleaning the yachts of our more deserving citizens.

This is what Gallison, representing House Leadership as Chairperson of House Finance, found persuasive: A naked appeal to everything he wants to believe is true, despite all evidence to the contrary. It’s called motivated reasoning, a process of having a conclusion and then searching for reasons to believe it. No contrary examples, no logic, no amount of suffering and no evidence contrary to the deeply held belief will be truly considered.

So what do you say to the man who eases your mind and continues to guide you down the primrose path of massive economic inequality? What do you say to the man who confirms all your biases and tells you that everything you sincerely wish were true is true and good, despite the nagging fear at the back of your mind that tells you it’s all a lie?

Gallison said, “Thank you very much John, I appreciate it.”

April 3, 2014April 3, 2014

ACLU raises concern about pension settlement voting

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With the first round of voting in the controversial pension reform settlement set to conclude today, the ACLU of Rhode Island has announced plans to submit testimony at an anticipated “fairness hearing,” if one occurs, in order to raise concerns about the settlement’s opt-out voting process.

In the past month, the RI ACLU has received dozens of complaints from union members and retirees about the settlement’s “opt-out” voting process, which counts all unreturned ballots as votes in support of the settlement. In a letter to the complainants, the ACLU acknowledged the legitimacy of those concerns, noting that:

Although opt-out voting is a common practice in class-action litigation, such a procedure occurs after a class has been approved, not before.
An opt-out process fails to give voters the opportunity to abstain or otherwise remain neutral. “The opportunity to take no position on this agreement is one that current union members and retirees should have, and that a normal voting process would allow,” the ACLU letter states.
Referring to reports of qualified individuals who did not receive ballots, and noting other reasons why some voting members might be unable to return theirs, the letter said that “the inadvertent loss of a right to vote is worrisome enough, but the problem is compounded if the loss of that vote actually counts as a vote in one – and only one – particular way.”

A fairness hearing, in which the court decides whether the proposed settlement agreement is fair and reasonable, will only be held if none of the designated “classes” of voters reject the proposal during the two rounds of voting that will take place.

While planning to submit testimony at that hearing, the ACLU advised complainants it would not be taking any independent legal action. The letter concluded by emphasizing that while the ACLU did not “question the good faith of all the parties who have been involved in this intricate litigation . . . an opt-in process is the only fair way to conduct a vote like this.”

April 3, 2014April 3, 2014

SCOTUS McCutcheon ruling further erodes US democracy

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Not since Roe v. Wade has a U.S. Supreme Court decision permeated the public consciousness quite like the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (FEC) case. In 2010, the nation’s highest court opened the campaign finance floodgates when – in a 5-4 decision – they sided with lawyers for the anti- Hillary Clinton political action committee (PAC) Citizens United who argued that PACs not be required to disclose their donors identities or the amounts of money they had contributed.

Bold and continuing campaign finance reform in our nations capitol began in Washington, D.C., in 1971 and continued until 2002. The 1971 Federal Election Campaign Act required the disclosure of donors’ identities and the amounts they contributed to federal election campaigns.

A little known Supreme Court decision that, at its heart, concluded that the spending of money equals free speech was handed down in 1976. A Supreme Court majority held that a key provision of the Campaign Finance Act, which limited expenditure on election campaigns was “unconstitutional”, and contrary to the First Amendment.

The leading opinion viewed spending money as a form of political “speech” which could not be restricted due to the First Amendment. The only interest was in preventing “corruption or its appearance”, and only personal contributions should be targeted because of the danger of “quid pro quo” exchanges.

The 2002 Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act – better known as the McCain-Feingold Act after the bill’s primary sponsors, Republican John McCain and Democrat Russ Feingold – strengthened restrictions, but did nothing to challenge or reverse the Supreme Court’s previous rulings.

Essentially, the Citizens United case boiled down to this.

According to the U.S. Constitution, corporations are afforded the same rights as people, and therefore should be given the same protections as individuals when it comes to political donations. This decision, by correlation, asserted that the spending of money equates to the exercise of our First Amendment rights to free speech. While the Supreme Court’s decision may be true to the letter of U.S. law, it raised a widespread concern amongst Americans as to whether corporations should, in fact and practice, be afforded the same rights as people, and whether the spending of money constituted free speech.

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Just this week, the Supreme Court dealt another blow to campaign finance reform advocates in the McCutcheon v. FEC ruling. In essence, the decision did not affect federal campaign finance laws, save for one small factor. Prior to the decision, individuals and PACs were forced to abide by a hard-and-fast limit on aggregated donations to political candidates or PACs in support or opposition to particular legislation or candidates.

Let’s look at it this way.

Prior to the McCutcheon decision, there was a limit as to what I could donate to any and all political campaigns within an election cycle. That cap was $123,200. I could spend that total in any way I saw fit, as long as I abided by current FEC guidelines of $2,600 per federal candidate in each primary and general election or $32,400 per PAC in each cycle.

While the Supreme Court’s decision did not eliminate the $2,600 or $32,400 guidelines, it did declare the cap of $123,200 unconstitutional. This means I can donate $2,600 to any candidate in any state, and $32,400 to any PAC in any state, without restrictions, up to infinity dollars.

If I had the money to do this, I would, but therein lies the rub.

I don’t.

You don’t.

98 percent of the people in the U.S. don’t.

The McCutcheon decision has basically told big time donors that they can start buying candidates and PACs throughout the country, and in turn buy legislative influence.

Unfortunately, the U.S. Supreme Court has rightly ruled in both of these cases. As they stand, the only way to rescind these decisions is to amend the U.S. Constitution to say plainly that corporations are not people, and spending money is not free speech. This is where the nationwide movement to amend the U.S. Constitution comes into play.

Amending the U.S. Constitution is no small task. 38 of the 50 states must ratify an amendment. Our first step in Rhode Island is to amend our own constitution. As it stands, the Rhode Island chapter of the Move(ment) to Amend has bills before both the R.I. Senate and House. On their face, these bills do nothing, but when combined with bills in other states, we send a loud and clear message to the U.S. Supreme Court, and our legislators in Washington.

CORPORATIONS ARE NOT PEOPLE.

SPENDING MONEY DOES NOT CONSTITUTE FREE SPEECH.

Please, for the sake of our country, and our children and grandchildren, sign the petition to amend our Constitution today.

April 2, 2014April 2, 2014

Two views on SCOTUS campaign finance ruling

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“If the court in Citizens United opened a door,” wrote Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, “today’s decision may well open a floodgate.” But his was the dissenting opinion in the Supreme Court’s 5-4 ruling that strips back prohibitions on how much money people can give to candidates.

The New York Times called it “a sequel of sorts” to the highly controversial Citizens United ruling.

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a staunch advocate for campaign finance reform in the other direction, said in an email, “This is a step in the wrong direction for democracy. With these limits now gone, wealthy donors will be able to give millions of dollars directly to candidates and political parties. Money is getting more and more of a voice in Washington, while the voices of hardworking American voters matter less and less in our elections.”

But Sam Bell, who is running for Gordon Fox’s seat in the House, said there’s at least some evidence that our democracy can survive without limits on campaign donations from individuals. Here’s what he wrote in an email:

Campaign finance laws will be completely gone soon enough. But I’d like to offer some words of comfort: Things are pretty bad right now. Big money already controls our politics. Sure, it’s going to get worse. But honestly, this is a battle we’ve already lost. Before you get too discouraged, I encourage everyone to take a look at Oregon and Virginia.

Oregon is a moderately blue state, one that Obama won by twelve points. Virginia, he won by 3 points. Democrats control the Oregon state legislature and governorship. In fact, Oregon was one of the first state legislatures to elect a progressive as Speaker (current US Senator Jeff Merkley). Democrats have the governorship and a razor-thin majority in the Virginia Senate, although the House is solid red. Compared to other swing states, that’s actually not so bad, especially considering Virginia only holds its elections in odd-numbered years, where Democrats are at an even worse turnout disadvantage. Those states aren’t such horror stories. And yet both of them have no campaign finance restrictions whatsoever. Corporations can actually give money directly to candidates. So even when things get much, much worse, all hope is not lost.

In total, 12 states have no limits on the amount of money individuals can give to candidates. They are: Alabama, Indiana, Iowa, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah and Virginia. See how all the state handle it here.

April 2, 2014April 2, 2014

Anti-poverty coalition rallies today for tax equity at State House

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Today in the State House Rotunda at 4:30 the newly formed “RI Mobilization Against Poverty”(RIMAP) is demanding bold action to address the economic woes of Rhode Islanders with plans that start with what Franklin Deleno Roosevelt called “the forgotten man” – the unemployed, the underemployed and the under-paid workers.

As growing wealth inequality pressurizes the streets, squeezing the middle class into poverty and those in poverty into despair, people of moral consciousness will not allow budget cuts to eviscerate what remains of the social safety net so that politicians can pad the bank rolls of the elite who fund their campaigns and profit off of side deals.

Mr. Elmer Gardiner of the George Wiley Center Leadership Committee explains:

“They recently announced that NORAD, the 7th largest auto importer in the US located in Quonset, are going to ‘create’ almost 300 new jobs paying only $10/hour -which means still they would be still economic slaves. We can’t be subsidizing these large corporations profits by paying for food stamps (SNAP) which wouldn’t be necessary if paid a living wage of $15/hour. Then these workers to have pride and self esteem, not feel that their work isn’t even enough to sustain themselves.”

We have more people today living in poverty than at any time in the history of this country, including the highest rate of children in poverty of any industrialized nation. Here the top one percent owns 38% of all the wealth in America while the bottom 60% own 2.3% collectively. In fact one family, the Walton’s of WalMart, are worth 138 Billion Dollars, more than the bottom 40% own all together. At a freezing cold Black Friday protest, a student said had to quit his job at WalMart and work for a local business the pay wasn’t enough to live on. While protesters chanted “low pay is not OK,” Scott DuHammel of the Painters and Allied Trades Union said “I think this is a terrible situation. The workers obviously deserve more.”

In fact one family, the Walton’s of WalMart, are worth 138 Billion Dollars, more than the bottom 40% own all together. At a freezing cold Black Friday protest, a student said had to quit his job at WalMart and work for a local business the pay wasn’t enough to live on. While protesters chanted “low pay is not OK,” Scott DuHammel of the Painters and Allied Trades Union said “I think this is a terrible situation. The workers obviously deserve more.”

UniteHere has been confronting the same poor pay and benefits at the Renaissance Hotel and the Weston, where the owners multi-millionaire owners lawyer threatened the city with “consequences” if they were not given tax credits for a development project.

And the story is the same all across the service industry. A mother of two children on strike at Wendy’s said “I am tired of getting paid $7.75/hour, and that’s sad…after working there for 4 years.” Women across the country have been earning 78 cents compared to every dollar that a man earns for doing the same job. Carolyn Mark, President of RI National Organization of Woman elaborated. “The number is higher now – 84.8 cents to the dollar, although it’s much lower for women of color. The common wisdom is that it’s not that RI women are doing so much better than women around the country, but that men in Rhode Island are doing that much worse.”

Poverty is the root community problem creating a cycle of crime leading to do to lack of opportunity – a downward spiral caused by a lack of jobs and unequal quality, materials for and access to education which is the key to social mobility. John Prince, founding member of Direct Action for Rights and equality points out that victory of the Ban the Box campaign, which a means amends employment laws to limit inquiries like “have you ever been convicted of a crime” helps to break a cycle of economic inopportunely. “I never heard a judge sentence anyone to a lifetime without employment. What we need now is for the City of Providence to finally enforce it’s First Source law to hire residents first so there are real jobs developed here.”

Today, the the House Finance Committee will be hearing Rep. Cimini’s bill H7471 would raise taxes by 2% for people making over $250,000 and Rep. Valencia’s Bill H7552 would raise taxes by 4% for people making over $200-250k. This is the way to raise revenues to develop the economy of the state, not by balancing the books on the backs of the poor and shrinking middle class. Austerity cuts are not an option. We need a law to raise the minimum wage to a living wage of $15/hour. Build Rhode Island “from the bottom up. Keep Martin Luther Kings Dream alive with action.

RIMAP is a coalition of organizations and individual from a wide array of backgrounds among anti-poverty, social justice, civil rights, women, human rights, community, labor, seniors, disabled, student, immigrant, and LGBT with a steering committee modeled after tho one formed by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in his Poor Peoples Campaign in 1967.

April 2, 2014April 2, 2014

How the press won the speaker’s gavel

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Any realistic account of what happened last week when Representative Nick Mattiello became Speaker of the House has to account for the actions of our state’s media. Our state’s political press played an essential part of making Mattiello Speaker. The reporters will complain this is unfair, but let’s look at the time line.

On Friday, March 21, — while FBI agents were still in Gordon Fox’s office — golocalprov was tweeting exactly the rumors that Mattiello wanted everyone hear: that he had control, that he had the votes, that resistance is futile. Immediately afterward, Kim Kalunian of WPRO radio followed, and Dan McGowan at WPRI, too. Could Mattiello have realistically asked for more? These reporters let everyone know that it was Mattiello’s office to lose. At that point, coverage like that is what his bluff needed most.

On Friday evening, Mattiello held a “caucus” to shore up his support and only about two dozen people showed, up, far short of the number necessary to win the Speaker’s gavel. So we went to bed and woke up on Saturday, March 22, and then look what happened. On Saturday, Mattiello was clearly losing, according to accounts I’ve heard and corroborated since. After some disarray on Friday, and Mattiello’s failure to show a clear majority on Friday night, what became Mike Marcello’s team had arranged a clear majority of the necessary votes.

But in the press, you had Channel 10 and Cranston Patch (or what’s left of it) reporting that Mattiello’s succession was a done deal. At the very least, this inaccurate reporting sowed confusion and at worst it actually interfered with the Marcello team being able to consolidate its gain. Apparently the confusion, plus a personal appeal from Paul Valletta, the firefighter’s union president, to the two Woonsocket representatives who are firefighters, started the erosion of Marcello’s support. Republicans Joe Trillo and Doreen Costa indicated that their caucus would weigh in, and would choose Mattiello, and they sped the erosion. But they were just trying to bet on the winners, since an hour before they had been supporting the other side.

Then on Sunday March 23, the next day, Kathy Gregg at the Providence Journal and Ian Donnis at RIPR buried Marcello’s team and that was pretty much that. As if what was won on Saturday couldn’t be lost on Sunday or Monday.

Randy Edgar made a little effort to report that it wasn’t a done deal on Sunday, but he was all alone so had no effect.

So what do we learn? The reporters named here will say that they had no choice but to report what was coming at them. Great, so political reportage necessarily resembles a mob? But not all reporters played along, as Randy Edgar and a few others showed. Even so, true or not, it is irrelevant to the point that the political press played a crucial role in making Nick Mattiello’s ascension to speaker possible. In their breathless chase of what’s happening right now right now right now, they amplified his claims to have the votes and seemed to ignore the possibility that anything else might happen. They served the powerful.

I hope the reporters whom I count among my friends will eventually forgive me for saying so, but in many ways the state’s political press did Nick Mattiello’s bidding, from the broadcast of his unsupported claims on Friday to this curious post on Monday where WPRI’s Ted Nesi said Mattiello won’t rock the boat and that his fervent embrace of every item of the Chamber of Commerce’s agenda constitutes being a “moderate.” (And, of course, since the Chamber’s agenda already ruled the House, Mattiello is unlikely to feel the boat needs rocking at all.) This kind of calming article was exactly what was needed to consolidate the Mattiello team’s votes, to prevent fear of a conservative takeover of the House. Which, of course, was precisely what was going on, as even that article makes clear.

I suppose it is possibly true that there is no other way to do political reporting except in a mob that provides support to those who already have power, but that seems a dubious proposition to me. Reporters have a responsibility to their readers, and a responsibility to the state they live in, and it seems to me that the responsibility is an individual sort. Actions have consequences and none of us are free from the moral dimension of those actions. There will likely be another election for Speaker after this fall’s elections, and will we see the same presumptions, the same blind repetition of idle boasts, the same rush? We will see.

April 1, 2014April 2, 2014

Help Lilia Abbatematteo keep her home today

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Lilia Abbatematteo is still fighting off a wrongfully foreclosure. And tomorrow you can help her do so.

On Wednesday, 10 am, Direct Action for Rights and Equality activists with join Abbatematteo in front of her home at 129-131 Chapin Ave in Providence.

“DARE and the Tenant and Homeowner Association seek a resolution that keeps Ms. Abbatematteo, her family and tenants in their home,” according to a press release about the action. There will be “dozens of people, including local homeowners and tenants, holding signs and chanting to pressure Fannie Mae to negotiate a rental agreement for the residents of the property. Signs and banners reading ‘Stop Foreclosures and Evictions’ and ‘Don’t Evict, Negotiate.'”

Abbatematteo is being foreclosed because an administrative error on the bank’s part. She explains what happened here:

“In 2002 I co-signed a second mortgage with my mother and her then live-in partner, to help out a troubled family member. Through the years the mortgage was transferred between various banks. It ended up with Chase Bank for a while, but my name was no longer on the loan. This was traumatizing and made it impossible to get a modification after my mother’s death. I’ve tried to resolve the issue through phone call after phone call after phone call. I’ve even paid a law firm to get help. But the bank always refused to work with me.”

If you can’t make it tomorrow, please sign this petition.

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