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local news Dixie continued from page 1 work, but they were nowhere to be found. Ms. Mitchell’s modification paperwork were delivered on the other side of the country to Ocwen Financial’s Florida offices in West Palm Springs. That’s when Ms. Mitchell took her story national. The unified message from Seattle to West Palm Springs was that it’s time for Ocwen Financial and big banks everywhere to stop foreclosing on Americans. Ms. Mitchell’s supporters argued, “it’s time for big banks to Pay Us Back.” With help from The New Bottom Line, an activist organization seeking to change America’s current financial structure, Ms. Mitchell launched an online petition target- ing Ocwen Financial. Petitions bearing close to 7500 signatures were delivered to Ocwen’s headquarters Oct. 16, along with loan modification paperwork. Now, Ocwen say they have received all of the paperwork and will follow-up, although she is still waiting for a firm date. Ms. Mitchell’s friends, family and neigh- bors gathered in Seattle to support her, Monday Oct. 17. The family’s problems could be solved if Ocwen Financial agrees to a simple modifi- cation. Ms. Mitchell also has requested a mediation session, Because of the new Foreclosure Fairness Act which passed last July, Ocwen is even required under law to give the name of one person who can be a single point of contact for all borrowers in foreclosure.” “The process of applying for a modifica- Dixie mitchell, 71, and her husband luster have owned their Central District home for 44 years tion has been so frustrating and so disem- powering that I’ve done as much as possible to publicly advocate about the problems within the current system. Local organiza- tions have been really helpful in assisting at the press conference ms. mitchell was overcome with emotion me to stand up and fight back,” Ms. Mitchell told reporters. Find out more about The New Bottom Lineat www.newbottomline.com/ Kings continued from page 1 beyond the `dream’ into action.” Other speakers included union leaders, the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Andrew Young, the former Atlanta mayor and U.N. ambas- sador who was an aide to King. Young urged the crowd to vote for a president who has their interests at heart. Actress Cicely Tyson said her contempo- raries are passing the fight on to a new gen- eration. She passed the microphone to 12- year-old Amandla Stenberg. The girl recalled learning about the civil rights movement in school and named four young girls killed in a 1963 church bombing in Birmingham, Ala. “As Dr. King said at their funeral, `They didn’t live long lives, but they lived mean- ingful lives,’” Amandla said. “I plan to live a meaningful life, too.” Some looked to Obama to carry on King’s legacy. Street vendors nearby sold framed photo- graphs edited to depict King and the nation’s first black president conversing together in the Oval Office, along with a wide swath of buttons, posters and other souvenirs showing King and Obama. U.S. Rep. John Lewis of Georgia said Obama’s election was “just a down pay- ment” on King’s dream. “We’re not there yet,” he said. About 1.5 million people are estimated to have visited the memorial’s 30-foot-tall statue of King and its granite walls where 14 of his quotations are carved in stone since it opened in August. The memorial is the first on the National Mall honoring a black leader. The sculpture of King with his arms crossed appears to emerge from a stone extracted from a mountain. It was carved by Chinese artist Lei Yixin. The design was inspired by a line from the “Dream” speech: paving his way to the White House, left a copy of his inaugural speech in a time cap- sule at the monument earlier in the day. Many who crowded in to see the president and hear Aretha Franklin and Stevie Wonder sing chanted “four more years” when Obama arrived. And they said the talk of economic fairness resonated with their own lives. Joyce Lansdown, 61, a retired federal “Out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope” “Out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope.” Obama, who was just 6 years old when King was assassinated, saluted the civil rights icon as a man who pushed the nation toward what it “ought” to be and who changed hearts and minds. “He had faith in us,” Obama said. “And that is why he belongs on this Mall: Because he saw what we might become.” “As tough as times may be, I know we will overcome,” Obama said. “I know there are better days ahead.” The president, who credits King with worker from Chantilly, Va., brought her daughter and granddaughter to the ceremo- ny. She was glad Obama and others men- tioned the importance of caring for seniors during the economic downturn. “My heart goes out to them,” she said. “My momma is still living on her little Social Security check.” Patricia Johnson, 50, drove with her god- father’s granddaughter from Twinsburg, Ohio, to see the president and King’s fami- ly. “It seems that President Obama as a young president is following King’s foot- “If this was about someone unjustly being brutalized, that’s an easier thing for us to mobilize around,” said Bryant, who is black, citing the recent Troy Davis death penalty case in Georgia, a diverse protest that attracted global attention last month. “That’s why I’m here,” said Henriquez, 55. “It’s incumbent on us, Latinos here, to bring more Latinos here. We don’t have to be invited to come, we just come.” On Saturday, the nation’s capital provided a sharp contrast: A couple dozen mostly steps,” she said. “I think we can continue to learn a lot from (King’s) example.” Her young family friend, 13-year-old Faron Bouldin, wiped tears from her eyes as a recording of King’s full “Dream” speech played on large TV screens after Obama spoke. “It feels really important for me,” Bouldin said of King’s message. Some 10,000 chairs set up in a field near the memorial site were all filled. Many oth- ers stood in overflow sections. The August ceremony when the memorial opened had been expected to draw 250,000, though organizers anticipated about 50,000 for Sunday’s event. Violinist Miri Ben-Ari performed an orig- inal composition written for the event and the song “Bus Passed” with spoken word artists Poem-Cees. Poet Nikki Giovanni read her poem “In the Spirit of Martin.” Wonder, Sheryl Crow and James Taylor performed in a concert after the dedication. The Rev. Al Sharpton called for people from around the world to see the monu- ment’s “stone of hope.” “When you walk through, you see a man standing in a posture of faith,” he said. “Faith that brought us from the back of the bus to the White House.” Read the rest of this story online at www.theskanner.com white continued from page 1 out to the cross section of the communities that we live in,” said Tim Franzen, one of the organizers of the Occupy Atlanta move- ment. “If you come down to the park and spend a day I think you might have a hard time saying this is an all-white movement. We are reaching out, but we’ve got some bridges to build.” The absence of diversity is particularly notable given that some of the larger issues surrounding the Occupy movement - including the economy, foreclosures and unemployment - are disproportionately affecting people of color. And the legacy of activism present in some minority commu- nities seems a natural segue for such a cause, which has been linked to the strate- gies of the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. African-Americans are more inclined to rally around social justice than financial lit- eracy causes, said John Hope Bryant, founder and chief executive officer of Operation HOPE, a non-profit organization that educates underserved and low-income Americans about personal financial respon- sibility. Minorities, who are disproportionally affected by wealth gap, have been notably absent from demonstrations The Occupy Wall Street protest in New York has been more diverse than other cities. Although the majority of protesters are white, many blacks and a smattering of Asians and Latinos have participated. Among them is Omar Henriquez, a Long Island resident who emigrated from El Salvador. He passed out Spanish-language copies of the Occupied Wall Street Journal on Friday. He has been taking the newspa- per to Latino and immigrant rights groups. He also is unemployed. white protesters congregated in Washington’s Freedom Plaza. They were separate from Occupy DC but hold similar ideals. Not far away, thousands marched to the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial. Their rallying cry was similar, if not identical - yet the vast majority were black. A few men played the bongo drums at Freedom Plaza, while a band at the nearby rally led by the Rev. Al Sharpton near the Washington Monument played a soulful, jazzy rendition of Michael Jackson’s “Human Nature” - albeit with a white saxo- phonist - and the crowd sang along know- ingly as a speaker recited the familiar open- ing theme to the “Tom Joyner Morning Show.” Phil Calhoun, 44, an engineer from Crofton, Md., who was checking out the various protests, marveled at the racial dis- parity between the two groups even though they were preaching similar ideologies. “Maybe it’s just the nature of our society, set this up this way,” he said. “But it’s one thing I think we need to bridge. We need to bridge that gap.” In Baltimore, there are people represent- ing different racial, ethnic, age and income groups, but not in proportion to the city’s population. Occupy Baltimore group organ- izer C.T. Lawrence Butler, who is white said there has been talk of going out to com- munities around the city to try to attract more people, but the group is just building steam and hasn’t had a chance to put togeth- er official outreach. Read the rest of this story online at www.theskanner.com October 19, 2011 The Seattle Skanner Page 3
