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It just dawned on me.

Banks (not people necessarily, but banks themselves) actually WANT foreclosed homes.

Why did this just dawn on me?

I've been asking myself how a bank could want foreclosed homes.

How could it be good to have entire neighborhoods of homes that are sitting empty?

And in order to finally understand this, I had to get into the mind of someone who's not me.

I tend to think that people are good.

I tend to think that most people want to do what's right by their fellow man.

I tend to think that most people will take care of one another.

However, when it comes to the bottom line, it's not as black and white as that.

It should be...

It can be.

But only for people really willing to stick their necks out and find creative solutions to very big issues.

If you're a person at the head of the mortgage department at a large bank, you are responsible for making sure that:
- investors get paid on the loans they have put their money into
- the bank generates larger than average returns.

What's better than collecting really high interest from someone who probably can't afford it?

What's better than locking someone in legally to a binding agreement that you know they will sign without having an understanding of what they are signing?

What's better than charging usurious rates of interest that adjust upwards and upwards, every 3-6 months?

Here's what's better: Having someone up and walk from their home.

When someone walks, as the bank you can foreclose.

You now have an asset that you
1. Sold to someone for $200,000 (maybe more, or maybe less)
2. Collected $15,000 in interest for (in two years or less)
3. Adjusted their rate upward, collecting an additional $3,000-$5,000 in interest (in maybe just the next 6 months)
4. Had them walk away from the house because they could no longer afford the payments
5. Foreclosed on their property
6. Sold the property again (to someone else) for $150,000

You figured out a way to earn $370,000.00 on a $150,000 house in less than 3 years.

This is a poem I wrote in 1994, when I was 14. I woke up with it on my mind this morning (for obvious reasons), and wanted to share it here.

- - - - - - - - -
If people would quit complaining about being in the minority, we would all be in the majority of human people fighting to become something much greater.
- - - - - - - - -
Overcome
To Martin Luther King
-Let us keep the dream alive-

We shall overcome
without violence, without hate.
We shall overcome,
and not use others as the bait.
Where'd the spirit go?
a different cause, yes,
but we've laid down on the job,
and forgotten about the rest.
The violence which surrounds us now,
hurts us even more.
In the end, it will kill us all,
and hurt us more than the worst war.

Those who died, was it in vain?
Don't we get the message?
If we don't stop violence, it will stop us,
and leave us behind in the wreckage.

Their cries for help are being ignored,
by those of us still here.
Why don't we try to stop the violence?
Is it simply out of fear?

Or maybe it's just easier,
to turn away and not see,
the headlines in the paper,
and the pictures on TV
The violence on the streets,
so easy to ignore.
When you're not involved in it,
but what happens when knocks at your front door?
The others will have turned their heads away,
just as you did too.
So when you see violence heading your way,
don't expect anyone to save you.
But what if you stop it,
before it closes in?
What if we can stop it?
The all the world will win.
When violence is stopped for all of us here,
the world will work towards peace.
We'll all be able to join hands and fly,
in a V for victory, just like geese.
Time to stop turning the head,
It is time to work together.
It's time for us to live out our creed,
and keep the peace forever
We shall overcome,
without violence, without hate.
We shall overcome,
and our world will be great.

Wikileaks called the video "Collateral Murder".

I don't know about all of that, or know about the political forces which drive our planet.

What I do know is that the family of Saeed Chmagh lost someone they cared for deeply.

They didn't just lose him... they had him taken from them.

After watching this video, I felt compelled to reach out in some way.

And so I did what I do... I wrote to them.

To the family of Saeed Chmagh

I came to know your face
And the tragedy of your story
As I watched images
horrible images
which ripped at my heart
and churned my insides.

I don't think I have the imagination
to know what this must have done to you.

I never met him
But I saw your face
As you clutched that picture of your father
A man gunned down by carelessness

I wanted to write you a letter
to tell you it would all be okay.
I wanted to scream at the video
And make it stop, so that it never happened.

But my language failed me.

The words to assure you...
The words to speak, which can turn back time...
I don't know those words.

I saw your face.
And I understood.
I don't have the words.

I am crying with you
And I am sorry that I don't yet know
how to give you more than my tears.