Doing God's Work in DC

How the faithful city has become a whore!
She that was full of justice, righteousness lodged in her—but now murderers!
Your silver has become dross, your wine is mixed with water.
Your princes are rebels and companions of thieves.
Everyone loves a bribe and runs after gifts.
They do not defend the orphan, and the widow’s cause does not come before them.

Isaiah 1:21-24

The assertion that Washington, DC has ever been a faithful city can certainly be debated. Dan Brown has some interesting insights about the "faith" of the founders and the capitol city in his latest novel The Lost Symbol. Having just returned from another pilgrimage to the "holy city" of free-market capitalism, I am more convinced that Isaiah's harsh indictment was and is right on the money.

The prophet Isaiah, of course, was holding accountable the corrupt leadership of ancient Jerusalem who had misplaced their trust in nationalism, gross national profit, national defense, and institutionalized faith. The powerful elite were using their religion and their roles in government for their own personal gain without regard for those who were suffering as a result of their policies and practices. Religious policies, which claimed the male as the dominant gender and were designed to perpetuate male power had made the widow's life a living hell. Orphans were suspected of being possessed or otherwise bearers of bad luck. Female orphans were simply out of luck. Palace and Temple were selling their souls for personal gain and the nation at the expense of the poor and estranged, all the while claiming to be doing God's work.

I was in Washington DC area last weekend to co-chair the annual National People's Action Leadership Conference at the 4-H Conference Center in Chevy Chase, MD. I was fortunate that Teri was able to join me for the weekend, and as with the Showdown in Chicago I was proud to see her stand up for justice and to begin new relationships with NPA folks. The three day excursion was non-stop activity from the time the plane left Bloomington, IL early Saturday morning to the time it touched back down in high winds and significant turbulance late Monday night. Teri and I owe a debt of gratitude to Rev. Charlotte Dotts for staying behind in Chicago so that Teri could fly home that night!

As a co-chair, I was blessed to work with Lisa Colon from Alliance to Develop Power. She has a deep passion for justice and was fantastic to work with! On Saturday and Sunday we worked to develop our leadership skills and to strengthen our relationships as we prepared to take our big ideas to the hill. On Monday, I chaired a meeting with the Consumer Affairs Department of the Federal Reserve along with Rev. Tony Pierce from Peoria, Rickie Coleman and Monte Shaw from Kansas, Brenda LaBlanc from Iowa, Heidi Hynes from the Northwest Bronx and Jordan Estavo with NPA. After clearing with security, we sat down for a 90minute meeting with the officers of the Fed who had visited nine cities over the past six months to see and hear how the poorly regulated financial industry has crushed neighborhoods with foreclosures, vacant and abandoned properties, soaring unemployment, and predatory lending practices. The Fed officers found the visits extremely helpful and have begun looking at ways the data may influence policy, such as examiner guidelines that grade banks on their performance in Community Reinvestment Act zones. We have asked that those guidelines including grading down any reserve bank that capitalizes predatory lending which would then make the bank less eligible for interest rate discounts when they borrow from the Fed. Why should a bank get cheap money to loan out at usury rates?

Our meeting was intense at moments as we explained that, while we are certainly grateful for the investment in time and resources expended on the field visits, the economic situation in our neighborhoods has not improved since last March when we met with Chairman Bernanke. Instead, 2.1 Million families have LOST their homes in 2009. Let that sink in for a second. Eight Million jobs have been lost. And, big banks are recording record profits in many cases, setting aside billions of dollars in bonuses after WE bailed them out to the tune of a trillion dollars. Eight Thousand people protested in Chicago over three days in October marking it the largest protest for financial reform since the crisis began. Well, here's where we are in our relationship with the Fed: Chairman Bernanke has agreed to meet with us again soon to continue working for solutions to the crisis, a Governor of the Board will be appointed to be our liaison as we work for community economic development, the Fed will continue to work with regional reserve banks (Chicago for instance) to convene banks in an effort to create alternative lending products in place of payday loans, and we will receive formal feedback in a timely fashion.

Our next stop was the US Treasury where NPA held an action calling on Secretary Geitner to clean up the HAMP fiasco that has NOT saved American homes due to systemic failures and lack of direct influence upon lenders by the FED.

Next, we took our action back to the DC offices of Goldman Sachs to call on their CEO Lloyd Blankfein to donate the $23 Billion set aside for bonuses to save American homes from foreclosure. The Rev. Tony Pierce also had a clear message for Mr. Blankfein who claimed in a recent interview that "he's just a banker doing God's work." As the prophet Nathan said to King David indicting him in Uriah's murder, "you are the man" AND YOU ARE NOT DOING GOD'S WORK! While millions of American's suffer, big banks continue to grow and prosper. And, when financial reform is greatly needed for recovery and prevention of another economic disaster, Goldman Sachs and their ABA comrads line the campaign funds for members of the house and senate who serve on financial services committees to insure that the policies, that rape the American people of their hopes and dreams, continue to enact economic violence on our neighborhoods and communities. Congress has sold itself to these too big too fail monstrocities and it is time for the men and women that WE sent to represent US to choose WHOSE side they are on! Too big too fail is too big too exist and it is time for PEOPLE to be put BEFORE profit!

Other meetings were held with FDIC, HUD, Homeland Security on Immigration Reform and with several congressional offices.

As people of faith, we believe in redemption and we believe that the financial industry and federal officials must be held accountable for the disastrous consequences of gambling with our hopes and dreams, squandering the abundant wealth of our nation, preying on the vulnerable, and stealing from our children's future by heaping mountains of debt upon them! Enough is enough! It is time to Make Change Happen and that begins with each and everyone of us! We cannot live the lies of the past that serve to perpetuate corporate profit while they crush the poor and under-resourced. We cannot trust the self-correction of the market that was never free in the first place. We can no longer buy the fallacy that everyone has an equal start in life and can therefore pull oneself up by one's boot straps (if you have boots!) and succeed. We cannot stand by as our elected leaders cave to the big banks and Wall Street firms while neglecting their own communities. We are the change! We can make it happen! And, that my friends is doing God's work!