mortgage crisis

May 052011
 

Bancroft Middle School Science teacher Raleigh McLemore was arrested Tuesday at a protest at Wells Fargo’s annual shareholder meeting in San Francisco.  Wells Fargo is criticized for rushing to foreclose on homes without working with owners to help them keep them.  According to McLemore the foreclosure crisis has deeply affected students and teachers at Bancroft.   Parents are ashamed to talk about the troubles, and students can be suddenly gone from the classrooms.

Protestors are asking Wells Fargo to “place a moratorium on all foreclosures until the bank negotiates with the coalition to establish comprehensive loan modification reforms.”  They also want the bank to stop  “illegal evictions of tenants in foreclosed properties.”  Wells Fargo, which received $43.7 billion in federal bailout funds, reported $12 billion in earnings in 2010.  However, it has given the run-around to the hundreds of thousands of homeowners trying to modify their mortgages under federal law.  Out of over 350,000 homeowners that qualify for the program, only 77,000 have had their loans permanently modified so far.

Personally, I want to applaud Mr. McLemore for standing up for what he beliefs and for the rights of so many people across America.  I am proud that he is a teacher in our schools, and I hope that our students will learn from his example.

Update

There will be a protest at the Civic Center Wells Fargo in Oakland tomorrow, Thursday May 12 at 4:30 PM “to demand that the bank take some responsibility for their reckless destruction of the economy”. Please join the protestors!