OpEdNews - Page 2 of Article: AS THE BIG BANKS POST RECORD PROFITS AND PAY OUT OBSCENE BONUSES, WHAT SHOULD WE THE PEOPLE DO: STAND UP OR ROLL OVER?

But can we still Bank On Banks Like The Bank Of America?
(You may not recall but the first bank to go in the great Depression was called the Bank of the United States.)

Banks R'Us. Today, there are bank branches in almost every neighborhood--except the poorest ones where pay day lenders reign with their usury on their mind and in their interest rates. When it comes to credit, the poor pay more--and the banks know it and profit from it. There are also mortgage brokers galore in every community.

Fraud is their middle name. (I am not the only one saying this. The FBI denounces it as an "epidemic." There are arrests every week.)

The many financial institutions and sleazy lenders are there to do business but they could also become convenient targets for civic engagement.

Can they be challenged? So far, very few have been. While the Banks are agressively lobbying; citizens groups are passively sending e-mails. Never before have so many allowed so few to dominate this discourse. The banks are clearly winning over the regulators and critics. Even Barney Frank's committee has capitulated.

Nevertheless, protests against the big banks are beginning. There
will be one at the end of October at the American Banker's
Association convention and greedfest in Chicago.

But you don't have to go to "Sweet Home Chicago" to find targets of outrage, or even trek down to Wall Street. You know where you bank! True, many branches are just made up of ATM machines which want your money, not to hear from you. But the bigger branches are not far away. They advertise. They are everywhere, doing business as usual except lending to people who need it most.

Your money in; their profits out.

This could change or at least become "more challenging." Think of the Greensboro 4, just a few people then made enough noise to get things going.

Today, you don't have to call them sit-ins, just polite but firm
and "protracted" conversations with the banksters. If a million
people called their 800 numbers at once, what would happen?

Why not informational picketing to advise consumers about how they are getting ripped off with high rates and excessive fees? Why not bring the pain of excessive debt and dispossession to the people who are causing it and profiting from it? Student loan victims, are you listening.

What if families who can't afford day care turned their favorite
branches into day care centers? What if their profits and bonuses
were posted neatly on their windows? What if". (You fill in the
blank!)

Lets say, concerned folks assembled at bank key bank branches
during the noon hour--Mondays at Chase, Tuesdays at BOA, Wednesdays at Wells Fargo, Thursdays at Wachovia etc and then spent dress down Fridays at Goldman Sachs or Morgan Stanley?

I am sure the bankers will welcome the opportunity to "dialogue"
with their enraged critics and customers. This can only work if it is
done regularly, week after week. One shots won't work. They may make protesters feel good but that's all they will accomplish.

You will be surprised because the acts of a few can inspire action by the many.

Think of Brian Haw, camped out in front of the Parliament in London every day since the Iraq war started in 2003. He knows we are in a marathon, not a sprint!

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