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-- 2 May 2007 -- |
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Welcome and thanks for joining! As our campaign picks up momentum, we use this newsletter to keep you informed about the latest developments and to provide educational articles and tools to manage debt & credit.
While raising awareness is the first step, the next is to engage in solutions. We are now actively assembling strategic partners who fit the following profile: decent and ethical solution-providers who make consumers' protection and well-being their top priority. If you'd like to recommend such an organization, please contact us. YOUR STORIES If you've endured a personal debt experience that taught you something about the debt industry, the world, or yourself, please take a few minutes to jot it down and share it with us. We'll share it with our readership so that others may learn from your experience. The AFDRN team. |
A TIME TO ACT In Debt We Trust Director Danny Schechter reports on the film and campaign. When I started making IN DEBT WE TRUST, I knew the credit squeeze was a big problem and that an audience would resonate with my film if we could get it seen widely. Now, after a few months of showing the film around the country - at festivals, in theaters, on campuses and at other venues, I realize I UNDERESTIMATED the need for the information and message we are offering. The response is not just
enthusiastic: its often emotional, personal and raw as if seeing the
documentary gives people “permission” to speak A year ago, even close friends counseled me to pick another topic because this one was a non-starter - complicated, and hard to engage viewers with. It did seem remote, stuck back in the business pages and comprehensible only to a few. Today, all that has changed. The debt crisis is page one news because it has triggered a housing meltdown which has brought the economy to a major slowdown. Everyday, there are stories about the wave of foreclosures that threaten TWO MILLION families with the loss of their homes. There are exposes on corrupt student loan practices and hearings in Congress and at the State level about outrageous credit card interest rates and predatory practices. As the price of gas goes up, as virtually all costs creep up, Americans (and people in other countries) are in a squeeze. There’s talk of an impending recession as the value of the dollar drops. Wall Street experts are projecting a “global bubble: even as they take the money and rub, (Goldman Sachs gave out 16 BILLLION dollars in Christmas bonuses last year. ) The gap between the super rich and everyone else is growing. That’s why IN DEBT WE TRUST is so relevant. It helps explain why this is happening and discusses what we can do about it. We set up the STOP THE SQUEEZE website to encourage action for debt relief in America. We are working with organizations to get people more active on the issue. We are being bombarded with calls and inquiries from all over the country. A former civil rights leader in Mississippi called to tell me about “mortgage flipping” that is driving up the foreclosure rate all over the South. A student wrote me for suggestions on how to get out of the noose his loans have tied around his neck. I showed the film twice at the annual conference of the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy lawyers and heard tales of more economic pain and the ways that the new Bush “reform law,” passed last year by Congress on a non-partisan basis, makes it even harder for people to discharge their debts and get a second chance. They loved IN DEBT WE TRUST and promised to get it out to their clients and communities as part of debtor education. I feel like a yo-yo - going here and
there, I will be in Washington State, New Mexico next month. And in
June, I will discuss these problems at an international Student
Conference in Germany and then show the film at a big festival in
South Africa. All the while, I am contributing to a
debt
blog with constant updates on the
INDEBTWETRUST.ORG website and in my own I am only one person. I need your help - in watching the film (now available on DVD) and and setting up screenings in your home, campus, community, or local theater. It just takes being willing to reach out to your neighbors or on email to spread the word. We don’t have a big promotion and advertising budget but we do have a lot of heart and commitment. Will you join us in fighting for debt relief - including reforms, more consumer protections, regulations, and a moratorium on foreclosures until we have a real investigation of the who profited from the misery of others. Send us your stories and suggestions for actions If you are made and had enough, take action. Our personal pain has to be translated into a political issue. Where are the political representatives, churches and community leaders? Let's get them to speak up and join the campaign before we all have nothing left. Write to me: Dissector@mediachannel.org Danny Schechter |
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SPONSORED ARTICLE suggest your own If you're a professional in a business related to the debt & credit industry, and think you can contribute to the readers of this newsletter, please contact us to discuss ideas for an article to be published in this space.
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