As it turned out, his name was Dave and he was working for a third party hired by a contracting company who worked for Bank Of America to take photographs of the candidates awaiting conformation into the Making Homes Affordable Program.
I asked him why he was taking pictures of my house and what that would prove, and he let me know it was so that the bank could keep tabs on who was living here and what I was doing to the house.
"Are you kidding me?" I remember asking rather rudely. I then began to inform the unsuspecting man of my rights as a citizen, homeowner and of my private property; he had no idea what he just got himself into.
I can't remember exactly how the conversation went, but when I was done ranting, he let me know he had been doing this for a month now and had photographed many houses in the area and that NO ONE QUESTIONED WHAT HE WAS DOING.
I was appauled. How could no one care about this violation of privacy? Dave told me there were a few people who asked him who he was, and when he told them they just let him do his thing and left him alone. I asked him if what he was doing was legal, and his response was to the tune of, "as long as I'm on the street, I can't get in trouble for photographing your home."
By this time my jaw was on the floor. I asked him what information he had on me and he kindly opened his briefcase to uncover all the dirt about my underwater loan. He had my loan number, my loan balance and who was registered as living in my home.
This man is a third party... HOW and more important WHY did he have my personal information?
He could not answer that question.
So I started doing some research.
I started making phone calls to Bank Of America and no one I spoke to seemed to know why my personal loan information was in the hands of someone other than Bank Of America.
I decided to dig more into the Making Homes Affordable Program. I then began to realize it was a complete joke that was set up to qualify only a very small group of applicants. I also realized that under T.A.R.P., the big mortgage lending banks have incentive to forclose; the federal government would just pay them the difference to cover their losses with taxpayer's money. But that's not all folks, here's the kicker... Bank of America paid no federal taxes last year.
Are you mad yet?
It's corrupt policies like these that make me want to take to the streets and call out, "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore!", and that's why groups like UNCUT are so important to join and get active with. And when I say active, I don't just mean clicking "like" on Facebook, I mean REALLY getting active - like joining in on a rally to protest corporate greed in your town or nearest city. They happen now more often than you might think.
I have come to find out that apathy is a huge problem in any social movement. Most Americans are comfortable with their lives or have too much human drama to take notice of the world collapsing around them. These people need to wake up and fight back or else the tax-dodging corporations will own our Constitution.
As you are reading this, you might be thinking to yourself, "Well, I'm just one person, what can I possibly do?" Fortunately, I have an answer:
Go to a rally. Experience the energy. Tell a friend about it.
They will most likely tell someone else about it who will then tell someone else.
Maybe for the next rally you could bring that freind, and a whole new revolution could follow. Peace.
