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Occupy Your Living Room! What? #OccupyWallStreet Via Foreclosure

Fri Nov 18, 2011 by on Florida Law News

Some underwater and financially fractured homeowners are supporting the Occupy Wall Street movement from the comfort of their own living room.

As the Occupy Wall Street completes its two-month anniversary and demonstrators were removed from Zuccotti Park, let’s take a moment to reflect on why these demonstrations are now resonating with both Main Street America and homeowners that are underwater or in foreclosure.

Maybe because it’s a revolution born by the systemic arrogance of the banking and Wall Street community that pushed our economy off a cliff and now continues to hold the whole country at bay.

“Our political system should serve all of us — not just the very rich and powerful. Right now Wall Street owns Washington,” said participant Beka Economopoulos. “We are the 99% and we are here to reclaim our democracy.”

Flash Back – Shays’ Rebellion

If we just go back a few years to the height of the economic crisis in 2007/2008, I did a short video on Shays’ Rebellion 2.0. In that video I discuss how the farmers in Western Massachusetts ended up protesting an unfair system that forcibly foreclosed upon the farmers during a severe economic recession caused by a severe drought. Shay and his compatriots ended up storming the courthouse and judges that were allowing the banks to foreclose on the homes and farms and in fact placing some of the debtors in jail at the time.

For those who know their history the great irony of Shays’ Rebellion is that it caused post-revolutionary colonial America to reassess their government structure and was in fact a key catalyst for the formation of today’s United States of America.

Fast Forward – Today’s Deck of Marked Cards

Today we look at the Occupy movement. The support resonates due to the fact most people believe they are dealing in an environment that is no different to a casino where the house is caught cheating. Where the house marks its cards, where the house loads its dice and where the house does anything and everything in its power to make sure that it is “heads they win and tails you lose”.

Standing and Taking a Stand with the “F” Word – Foreclosure

Thus, when someone enters a strategic default or decides to fight their bank on legal and constitutional issues such as standing, a bad assignment of a mortgage or a bad transfer of a note and the use of the judiciary as a privatized collection agency or when the public learns that Congress is involved with systemic insider trading where Members are buying and selling stocks to and from the public knowing full well that legislation that is before them will in fact have a positive or negative effect on a stock price… people know that something is wrong with their system of government.

It is when people decide they are no longer going to pay their mortgage and instead, are going to become a squatter in their own home or a silent member of the Occupy Movement they in fact also are taking a stand.

The Pursuit of Happiness

I, for one, have always believed in both democracy and capitalism and the right for individuals to a pursuit of happiness. I am not one for crony capitalism that is based on basically a type of welfare for the rich and powerful, at the expense of everyone else.

We the People are the New Government

Ironically, when I grew up as a middle class kid in the Bronx I always had a healthy amount of cynicism about the political and power structures in this country. I always thought it was possible if one went into public office you could conceivably have a positive impact on society and the community. That does not seem to be the case today and I further believe it is the collective force of the people that will have more of an impact on our sociopolitical and economic structure than anything else. We the people are collectively more powerful than any governmental structure. We the people are the government and we must not ever lose sight of that.

Some Just Don’t Get It!

When I hear social commentators mocking and deriding the folks who are involved with the Occupy Movement I realize they really just don’t “get it.” I guess they don’t get it because they are part of a system that has two sets of rules. One set of rules for those banks and corporations that are too large to fail, that are too large to be governed and have literally intertwined itself with the governmental structure to the extent the distinction between the public and private sector has been so blurred that it may not even truly exist anymore.

Foreclosure is Part of The Occupy Playbook

On the other hand I smile when I see the protesters taking a stand for what is right. I believe that these protesters are no different than Shay and his people who ultimately we can thank for having formed a more perfect union.

Off the Sidelines, Foreclosure Plays in Movement

When homeowners decide to strategically default on a mortgage, or don’t have the ability to continue paying; there is no embarrassment or moral issue. Instead, this is a moment to be proud you have become part of a movement that includes not only Occupy Wall Street but occupying your own living room.

From the Trenches

Roy Oppenheim

Tags: Occupy Your Living Room

One response to “Occupy Your Living Room! What? #OccupyWallStreet Via Foreclosure”

  1. […] founders had in mind and further enlarging a movement that includes not only Occupy Wall Street but Occupy Your Living Room and Occupy Your Car. As a reminder of a piece we published when the whole foreclosure crisis […]