Where to start? Well, I have been a mother for many years. I have a 37 years old son who is married and has four children of his own. Then 11 years ago I gave birth to a daughter. The difference in their ages is the point of many jokes and starnge remarks but the truth of the matter is it has given me a perpective on life few have ever experienced. First, the value of time and truely fast it does go and once it is gone there is no amount of money, power or influence that redeem it back to you. People always say "if they had it to do over " they would do things differently. I did have that and I DID do things very differently over the past 11 years. I VALUED the time differently. I tried to be more patient. Things like that. And though I was and have always been very interested in my right to vote and such I never was involved in politics and policy changes the way I am now. I grew up in the 1960's with groups like The Black Panthers and Abby Hoffman making the news and making change. It was a turbulent time in our nation and one that I though had made alot of lasting change. Boy, was I wrong! In today's America I see and hear so many people absolutly disgusted with what is going on. I have been asked to run for Mayor, Senator and Congressperson by many who know my views and involvement in trying to make positive change for people in our nation and not the corporations who are now running virtually every aspect of our government. I think it is a frightning trend and one that sacrifices our freedom, liberty and very way of life for virtually every American out there. I no longer "belong" to any party affiliation. I resent labels such as liberal or conservative because they never truly explain in one word who we really are. I beleive in the death penalty and a right to bear arms. I belive in a womans right to choose. I believe in freedom...Freedom for the peoplenot for corporations. I believe in regulations, laws and mandates to keep us all safe, and to keep all forms of business on the up and up. I believe people should pay taxes to run our infrastructure but multi billion corporations need to pay more than we do. I believe that this country is worth fighting for, dying for but not one single corporation is worth dying for. No industry is worth dying for. If a business goes away another will come in to replace it just as the shoe cobbler and candlestick maker of the past came and went so will the many other businesses that technology and time have seen their usefulness come and go.
I spent a few years in the financial services industry and during that time i learned alot as I wore many hats over those years and it really was a education of a lifetime. One of the things i saw come and go was the personal banker at the local town bank. Kind of like Jimmy Stewart in It's a Wonderful life. The days when you had a personal relationship with a banker and he made lending decisions on a hand shake and faith that you would do the right thing and pay back what you borrowed one way or another. Then came Mr Issaic and Mr Fair who decided more needed to be done. Mathmatics was the answer! Formulas and quotients was what was needed to make these decisions so they devised the credit score. Sure, everyone thought they were crazy and no one used their wacky system having little to no faith in it until almost 20 years later when just one bank decided to give it a whirl! The next thing you know it was follow the leader and one bank after another started to use it too because now the personal banker was being phased out. His personal decision making was no longer valued as towns and bank grew larger and less and less people knew one another. In walks the credit score. Out walks trust and common sense. It would be another 20 years before credit checks began to impact the lives of every man and woman age 18 and older. I personally witnessed this change in direction credit checks were making in our society and how it was effecting the masses. In August of 2007 then President Bush began discussing providing TARP money to bail out the large financial institutions in our nation. Iwrote the President, Barnet Frank of The House Financial Services Committee and my local Senator Harry Reid asking them to demand reforms in the financial services industry in exchange for the money taxpayers were providing and I asked for comprehensive reform of the three major credit reporting agencies, specifically credit reporting and credit scoring. Though the buraues are not part of banking they are now so tightly bonded they have meshed into one hand that definitely feeds the other. Restricting how banks utilize credit reports would be one solution. Restricting the bureaus themselves would be the best course of action. I was most applauded at how credit checks were being used in the workplace and demanded this be eliminated right away as our country was just entering into a recession. I could this in the future as a major obstacle to hiring and therefore a catch 22 for the American worker who was struggling to stay a float. My letters went unanswered but I continued on writing, calling and trying to find others who felt the way i did about credit checks. Nothing. One year went by and I did everything I could. Attended Democratic strategy meetings, Caucuses and other events but everywhere I went I got no respect. I was shocked how few people knew of this practice and how few thought it to be a issue at all. I persevered. Another year came and went with no help, no support, no other supporters. Then in January of 2010 I found a union is San Fran who was publishing some web materials and a facebook group that was beginning to focus on this issue as a organized labor issue. I wrote to him and we hit it off. I was so glad to find even one other person who believed as I did and who was working toward change in this regard on a daily basis as I was. Then I met Ron Congress on Facebook and he had started a group called HR3149 named after a piece of federal legislation proposed by TN congressman Steve Cohen to stop credit checks in the workplace. What a Godsend! The congressman who lives in a prodominatly AfroAmerican district was approached by constituents who could not get work in this district due to credit checks in the workplace. So in July of 2009 he wrote the bill to bann them and quickly gained the support of many other members of congress. In the mean time, 16 other states took up this issue. Hawaii and Washington State Passed the legislation to ban it. Oregon heard the bill in January of 2010 and it passed there and began being enforced in July 2010. So it sound like things are just moving right along, right? Not at all.....In comes the credit reporting agencies, private investigators, lobbyists and the US Chamber of Commerce all wanting their piece of the 700 billion dollar pie credit checks generate each year. What's a Radical Mom to do?
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