ACORN:  POVERTY AND POLITICS

I went to an ACORN Housing committee meeting that was attended by some local city council officials. ACORN is the non profit which works for economic justice in housing and health. ACORN has been denigrated in the past by Rush Limbaugh, Bill O' Reilly, and other radio talk show hosts who support McCain and the republican party.

Earlier in the week, I had been asked to join ACORN in efforts to shut down a housing auction. Before this I had no idea what an ACORN was. The auctioneer was so freaked out by the shouting ACORN protesters, that she got on the phone to her superiors and was screaming, "what do I do, they have the press here for god's sake!" There were about fifteen protesters with home made signs which read, "SAVE MY HOUSE" and "PLEASE HELP". There was not a lot of variation from that theme. The protesters and I chanted, "the people, united will never be defeated". The police and security guards, the by standers and the real estate investors were all watching us, mostly because there were two news stations which were there with their tv cameras and reporters holding up microphones. 

The city employed auctioneer decided to lie to the public and the press, saying that there was no auction. Then, when we, the ACORN crowd, followed by the press were all walking away from the courthouse where foreclosure auctions take place, the auctioneer suddenly started auctioning off our client's house! When she saw that we saw what she was doing, she said in a quite voice, "house #2765346 going, going, gone" in one hurried breathy whisper, so fast that we barely had time to blink. Then she told us to all leave.

We were stunned. That she, a city employee, had been lying after all her protests that she was telling the truth! We had gone back and forth for about an hour, "that house is not being auctioned today", "yes, it is", "no, it's not", "yes it is". "Oh. Well, you don't have a number." Then, "you are at the wrong place."

This city employee had the power to decide which house was auctioned or not auctioned, depending on whatever the hell she wanted to do. By not letting any one bid on it, she had prevented any auction to occur at all. It was so spineless, she was cowed into going which ever way the wind blew, about something as fundamental as a person's home.

We ACORNettes had wanted to stop the foreclosure sale of this client's house, but we didn't know it was going to all come down to something as truly arbitrary as, say, this lass's Pepsi break. If we had not turned around, what would have happened to this guy's home? If we had said 'x' instead of 'y'? It was scary. This was a young man's home. A man with a young wife and two small children.

We were all happy and baffled, but feeling really mighty. We had stuck it to the man, we weren't sure exactly how, but we were quite sure that we had. We'd come to save a home and we had, for now, at least. That was my job interview.

I WAS OFFERED A JOB WORKING FOR ACORN

I was offered the position of community organizer. I was hired to help very, very, poor people navigate through the bureaucracy of the health care system, private and public. I would be tasked to raise public awareness of health care reform issues, the pros and cons. There are a lot of people who don't understand the health care platforms of their local politicians beyond the vague talking points about socialism and taxes. No one knows who to trust. Part of my job would be to help people learn about the politics of health care reform and to motivate people to make information based votes, rather than trickle down talking point votes. The theory is that people who understand the issues, will vote in their best interests, which is at political odds with the health insurance company's financial survival. 

The lopsided politics of the people's interests being on one side, with lobbying groups, politicians and wealthy corporations (whose fiduciary duty is to make a profit and not much else) on the other, is why I believe groups like ACORN are an important part of a democracy. And the media is mistrusted by many folk who want to understand what is going on but find it impossible to distinguish between the truth and the propaganda. In theory, this job sounded really great and important.

My clients would be homeless veterans. Veterans make up between 23-30% of the homeless in America, while making up 10% of the overall population, according to the Vietnam Veterans of America, a non profit advocacy group founded in 1978 with the moto, 'never again will a generation of veterans abandon another'. I would be working for veterans with PTSD just wanting to learn what basic community resources are available to them, but wanting to know that day, rather than waiting for some under funded, over worked federal employee to return their multiple voice mails. I would work with families who may have foster kids with medical needs. Or the retired couple on social security who, after working two jobs all their lives, and pay their taxes are now unable to get an annual medical check up without an act of legislation.

It's easy to get all caught up in the fervor of trying to help really desperate, needy people.  But, I know nothing about health other than I have it. Also, it looked like I'd be doing grueling, horrible work, going door to door and trying to talk to people about health like a bible salesman or a Seventh Day Adventist. It's too hot in Arizona to go door to door. I'd be working 12 hours a day, 7 days a week, for 26k before taxes. As noble and critical as the job sounded, my ability to be noble is sorely hampered by my addiction to a basic standard of living. I'm a single mom and working every night would mean a lot less time with my child. I'm sure many people would do a very good job for ACORN in exchange for dire poverty.

Working for ACORN sounded demoralizing and just plain wrong. Was that the main qualification to this job? A willingness to starve for the priviledge of helping improve low income people's health? Was that even legal? Was Taco Bell hiring bleeding heart, liberal, college grads? 

I was not the only person offered a job. Another guy was hired to organize with me. He was a really nice guy in a Macintosh's and Target not Wal Mart demographic way. I liked him immediately. We both had studied revolution at in state schools. "I worked on the Amnesty International Dar fur campaign." he said. "Me too! Did you know what's her face?" 

"Yeah, we worked on the anti sweatshop thing together."

"OMG! I hate sweat shops too!"

WORKING AS A COMMUNITY ORGAINZER SUCKS

I already hated my job and decided to quit a few hours after I was hired. I hate health. When I explained to the director that I didn't want the position, she begged me to stay. I made a deal.

I wanted to work in the low income housing department. "Could I work part time, weekends, nights, days, 7 days a week for $8.50 an hour?" the director asked in a please don't laugh self conscious way. Yeah, riiight.  

Out of love of foreclosures, I showed up for my first day at work, to be told that I wasn't going to be getting paid, that this was a mandatory volunteer meeting. Huh? I was already on guard, wondering if this ACORN group was some pyramid scheme or cult. Was I going to be asked to buy something?

A few hours into the community meeting which I had volunteered to work my ass off for, I came to believe that all my suspicions were unwarranted. I wasn't asked to buy anything. I was asked to sell. 

I was supposed to sell membership to ACORN. Like $15.00 a month membership. And I was supposed to sell it to people facing foreclosure. In exchange for getting on a mailing list. A free tee shirt and all the free crayons needed to make picketing signs. The worst part? To get a membership, one needs to first give ACORN the right to take money directly from your bank account. Every month. Having gone through a similar agreement with Microsoft and Yahoo for online services, I am wary of such set ups. While they may make collecting money a breeze for the company, for the consumer, it's a huge hassle. 

WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BUYING 6 MUSIC ALBUMS FOR 1¢ 

I had a really hard time getting these same companies to forget my account information after I canceled my services. It's like the Columbia house scheme back in the day, where you could buy 6 records for 1¢ and then after a month  and every month after that, Columbia would sent you more records. You could sent them back, but if you kept them, they would charge you. This scheme targeted teenagers, who don't have money and are not great at the whole get now, pay later thing due to the whole action/reaction parts of their brains being underdeveloped at this age. 

The way Columbia made money was legal, but the way they profited was by gambling that the teenager would not get around to sending the records back every month. Therefore, through default, wither they wanted the records or not, they now owed Columbia money due to their own laziness. If the teenager tried to cancel, there would be a few month delay, which Columbia would charge you for. Once any American reached their late teens, they had been scammed a few times already and would look at these offers for 6 records for 1¢ and not be willing to part with that penny for no amount of records. Because, even though it was a great deal for the music and bargain lover in us all, no matter what you did, cancel, send the records back, you always somehow ended up losing. Period. 

Did I want to be a part of that? Could I even make it though my first sales pitch with a straight face or would I feel so bad for these people that I'd go broke giving them discounts on memberships out of my own pocket? Did I really want to sit in an office with a line out the door of people who wanted to tell me they were broke and have nothing better to say to them but, "I'm poor too, let's swap spam recipes?"

WHY DO MINORITIES GET LOANS THEY CAN'T PAY OFF?

I was able to talk to many of the hundred or so people who attended the ACORN housing committee meeting by which I had infiltrating working undercover as a ACORN staff. Indentured servitude in action. The main thing I noticed while briefly working for ACORN was that JP Morgan/Chase/Washington Mutual and Bank of America were the main lenders of these really crappy home loans. The other thing I noticed was that no one spoke English. They were all from Africa or Latin America.

In fact, the meeting was more interactive than any community meeting I have ever attended. The meeting came to a halt when some lady stood up and shouted that she no English. There was a really awkward pause. Luckily, there were some bilingual people in the audience, and soon we had a panel of translators who stood at the front, next to our local city council man and they all took turns speaking.

There were a bunch of people clutching their closing papers in overstuffed title company binders. The papers that I looked at were clearly in violation of many ethical and legal statuettes. For one thing, these people were non English speaking, and the contracts were all in English. Not good. Who were the ones translating for the clients? Their English speaking real estate agents!! Real estate agents, by law in Arizona, are not able to give any legal advice to their clients, and yet here were all these really horrible death papers, signed, notarized, sealed, and recorded.  Really sad, lame.

How is that okay? To target a group of people because of their race, and then take advantage of them? That's called predatory lending. Illegal. I really doubt these people jumped the fence that George never built and then demanded that someone, please take thousand dollars of theirs in commission cause they were wanting to buy a big house as soon as they took a shower and wash all the desert grime off their travel weary illegal asses. 

TRUST NO ONE, BELIEVE NOTHING

I talked to one man who I would say was represented every single person I talked to, with an interpreter when needed. Let's name him something to disguise his ethnicity, Sam. Sam works legally in construction as a framer. He makes about $2,000 a month according to his tax records. He bought a house, was current on all his bills, mortgage, car, utilities. He even had all his receipts. He also had proof of making an additional few hundred a month making jewelry.  He bought a house for $160,000, with 1 % down, or $1,600. His mortgage was with a 5% interest, not bad. Before taxes and insurance, it came to about $900. After two years, his mortgage would 'adjust'. It would rise from 5% to 10% . Now his mortgage payments would be $1430 a month. In 5 years, his mortgage would rise to 12% making his payment $1666 a month. 

His real estate agent, who he had met when she had come knocking on his door, had told him that if he paid all his bills every month and kept his income the same and his debts down, he could refinance in a couple years so that he would not have to pay the extra 10% interest. He worked hard, paid his bills, stayed out of debt and even kept all his records. But when he went to refinance, no one would give him a new loan and if he couldn't refinance he wouldn't be able to afford his own home anymore and he would lose all the equity he had built up over the two years and may even have to sell his house and still owe the bank because the value on his house had dropped.

Why had he done this? A very nice lady, with a very reputable real estate agent, had promised him that he could buy a house. She introduced him to her mortgage broker who gave him a loan on a house he fell in love with. The mortgage broker and agent reassured him that he would have to keep his payments paid and refinance in two years. They also told him that this was a very safe thing to do, so safe in fact that they named examples of success stories for over two hours. Everyone seemed to be doing it, this was how it was done. He had never bought a house before, and he trusted these people and believed the stories that they had told him. But when he went to refinance in two years like they had told him, the mortgage company was no longer there and his real estate agent was no longer with the agency. And he could not get another loan.

The real estate agent, for a few hours of cajoling and really hard selling, had made $4,800 gross. She probably paid 10% of that to the broker, $480 for his half a days work. Another 10% for her fees to her broker and agent. Not bad. How many closings a day were agents doing two years ago? Many.

I did call the real estate agency that the Sam's agent worked for. They did not have a comment. I also emailed several real estate agents that work there and have not heard back from them.

What could Sam do? He could sell and still owe money to the bank and have no home. He'd lose his investment. He could sue but that would take years and cost money. He would not be able to refinance and he would not be able to pay the increased mortgage payments. I wanted to vomit. I felt sick to my stomach. I didn't want to tell him the truth. That if he were not such an easy target, he could have qualified for a conventional loan on a house he could afford. What is the lesson? Trust no one. No one. Assume everyone is trying to take advantage of you. 

COMMIES AND ACORN

The director was giving me a ride back from the American Legion's hall where the forced labor/community meeting/scam o rama was held. She brushed aside a few empty Starbucks paper coffee cups from the passenger seat so I could sit down. I had never ridden in one of those really cute, new, vw convertible bugs with flower stickers on the back before. I asked her how she got involved in ACORN. She had joined the communist party when visiting Austria in her college jr. year abroad and one thing had led to another. I told her I had learned to ski in Austria. I couldn't help myself. Clichés sometimes have a life of their own, and why else did I learn to ski in Austria if not for this very purpose? 

I also told her, that there were a bunch of really active communist in Tucson. Not a total lie. There are like ten and they are all really gung ho, bearded and always wanted to mate. 

Since we were confiding, and maybe because I seem so competent, she told me that she was going to Phoenix in the a.m. to talk to a bunch of the ACORN financial people. It seemed, she said, that ACORN had been a party to some sort of financial hooligans and now were at risk of losing some legitimate big funder. I seemed impolite to press for more details. She seemed really tired and over worked, which she was. It was 9:00pm and she had been working since 7:00a.m. I reassured her that non profits get into finance problems all the time, not to worry. I wasn't really sure if that were true, it just seemed like a plausible thing to say.  She agreed. It was all routine lameness about something that someone had done years ago that was now being dealt with. Like an audit type of thing. I wondered to myself if I would quit now, like tonight. Or wait until the morning. 

THE PROBLEM WITH THE POOR

I never showed up for my second day of work. 

I had already worked for Americorp, when I was too young to know better. I didn't need the sequel. I did get something for my two days of  'working' for ACORN. A feeling that something was not quite copacetic in the not for profit world. I felt ACORN was as shameless as Wal Mart, both assuming that jobs are needed so badly that they can drive wages lower and lower and ask more and more. I would be peddling and selling poverty issues to the poor, for $8.50 an hour. If ACORN really cared about economic justice, it seems they would start with paying a living wage, hourly or by salary, whichever is greater to their employees. After working as a social worker for many years, the novelty of working in a sweat shop to fight poverty has worn thin.

BARAK OBAMA IS A HERO FOR HIS COMMUNITY ORGANIZING WORK

I have a compassion for community workers, the same kind of compassion that I have when I remember the days when I waited tables and decide to leave a bigger tip than I can afford. I realize how hard core Barak Obama is for being a community organizer. A graduate of Harvard law school, Obama could have worked anywhere, for any amount of money. Literally anywhere! That had to be such a humbling experience, to know you could be making a lot of money like all the other guys who graduated in your class but with worse grades. To know you could have the 'good life'. An easier life. A more secure life, full of well deserved grandeur and privilege. But to willingly pass all the shiny black SUV BMWs, and the men with their women in their dresses and diamonds that cost more than a really nice house. To say, thanks but no thanks. I'd rather eat tuna fish from a can and take the bus. I mean, I had been given the chance to be poor! To help people!

My enthusiasm for poverty lasted a day. To be a community organizer takes something I have not much of, a willingness to sacrifice my own comfort for the hope that what I am doing will make someone else's life a little better. All hope is based on risk. Hope is a gamble. And community organizers don't often get to know if their gamble paid off. They don't get the instant gratification that the stock broker or corporate lawyer gets. The sort of success that you can count at the end of the month by your bank account's status. Many times, any discernible improvement to a community will not be quantifiable until a whole generation later. 

A community organizer gets the privilege of malnutrition and scraping by on the hope that the hour spent with the newly widowed woman, who is dealing with the inability to pay the mortgage, will assist and comfort her just enough to get by another day. It's a gamble, to have faith that you may see her again some day and to hope that if you do, she will be smiling. Not out of gratitude for the hand you had the humanity to give, but out of the genuine, reciprocating nature derived from the pleasure of simply flourishing in the presence of true kindness. 

A person does not graduate from Harvard, at the top of their class, with hundreds of thousands of dollars in student loans, to be community organizer. As imperfect as the community or the organization, the only reason why a person would become a community organizer after graduating with staggering student loans from Harvard, is if they believed, like I did, that fighting for the injustice of homeless veterans was noble and important. More important than money. That helping people devastated by Hurricane Katrina or dying of AIDS is more important than money. That an end to starvation in America and the right of every American, rich or poor, to a quality education is more important than all the money in the world. That money does not buy dignity,  truth, or freedom. I did the community organizing until I was forced out by the reality of my financial responsibilities. No one in America can afford to be a community organizer forever.

GOP HATERS: PATRIOTIC OR JUST DON'T GIVE A SH*T ABOUT YOU? 

It is so sad to be asked to sacrifice so much in order to help improve the lives of others and then get attacked at the GOP convention for being a community organizer. To be called unpatriotic. Or a socialist. Whatever the economic theory that the right attaches to community organizing wither it is  socialism, Marxism, or leftist tax policies, does not mean that trying to help the really, really, poor Americans among us, is an actual threat to American taxpayers and democracy? People donate money to non profits all the time, republicans and democrats, because they support the goals the non profit is working towards. So how is being one of the people who actually works to run these non profits, often sacrificing their own best economic interests, how is that somehow unpatriotic, un American or bad for democracy? We all do what we can, based on our diverse beliefs in what works, what the problem is and how to fix it. It's like saying McDonalds is good and Burger King is evil. The hamburgers eaten by the Burger King customers are so corrupt that you hope the customer dies from the stupidity of eating there.