Is This Where We Are Headed?!!! Depression Is A Synonym Of Recession!

They might as well call this a depression. Why give it the alternative name of recession? They both mean the same damn thing! The way my life has been going I might be in the same situation as the lady in the picture. In fact, many people will. The financial crisis is a very real one for me. Currently, I am in dire need of money. Luckily, I had the good fortune to avoid being stuck in a sub-prime mortgage that I could not pay off. In 2003, my sister & I sold the property we inherited from my grandmother. But before we did, we were the victims of such a loan.

We did not qualify but there was a reason why we sought a loan. There was structural damage that needed to be repaired before we could sell it. Well, we made a huge mistake by using a lady who was quite cunning to help us in this process. But first let me give you the backstory. You see, my grandmother died in 1998. After her passing, my sister & I learned that we had this inheritance. But to complicate matters, we were in probate & the executor was beyond non-compliant on everything. She was my grandmother's friend but not ours. Her only interest was the money that she would get for taking on this role. The executor wanted us to hurry & sell. She was combative & evasive whenever we asked her for money from the trust. Even though she was the guardian of the money. This went on from 1998-2002. We were in probate for almost five years!

While all this was going on we were trying to get through the grief that we felt. We had neighbors who had known us since we were children turning on us. They were fearful that we were too young to handle the property. It was a large house that we had no money to keep up. That is how we got caught up in a terrible loan with a balloon payment after 2 yrs. Thank God we were able to get through that long drawn out probate & sell it. Look what happened just five years later. In 2008, people are being foreclosed on & they are having difficulty unloading their property. Sometimes people get taken advantage of in times of grief. That is what happened to my sister & I. We had noone on our side except God.

I listen to a lot of commentators on various cable t.v. shows. Whenever they comment on the bailout, we always hear about the people who got these loans for selfish reasons. Maybe we should not have gotten a loan that we did not qualify for but we bailed ourselves out of it. No government help at all. Why are we only talking about the recipients of these sub-prime mortgages? What about the persistent lenders who prey on those who really need help? The people who provided us the loan knew our situation. They were predatory lenders who were hoping we would default on it. We almost did. These people were the ones who were greedy.

In the end, the house sold for $100,000 less than it should have. The woman who arranged the loan offered to do everyhing for us since we were obviously grieving. Her brother was a contractor who could offer us a deal on the repairs. His "deal" was to start working on the house for a cheaper rate. We needed a new foundation & roof due to earthquake damage. All he did was jack up the price & avoid all of our calls until we agreed on his new price. The windows were still out when we got rid of it. And his sister made a hefty commission from her loan referral (that was through a lender she knew)& she disappeared. We made a lot of decisions that we would not have under normal circumstances.

Before people make judgments, they should understand there are a lot of victims out there. We were incredibly young greiving heirs to my grandmother's fortune. We did not go out and buy a house we knew we could not afford. The loan was taken out for repairs & got spent on the ridiculous $2,300 monthly mortgage payments. In addition to that, we had to move out of the house & rent an apartment for $1600 a month. About a month after my grandmother died, we discovered that there were rats. They were getting in because the foundation was basically gone. IT WAS A HORRIFIC NIGHTMARE! I've learned a invaluable lesson from that experience. And now that's my depressing mortgage loan story. What's yours? Leave me a comment & let me know where you think the country's headed. Are we in a depression now?

The Meaning Behind Josh Howard's Statements

As a child who was ordered to sit down during the pledge of allegiance to the flag, I understand Josh Howard's comments. It has to do with the residual anger that comes from having enslaved ancestors. Do people live in the twilight zone or what? You know what I think it is? I think that americans are in a state of denial when it comes to reality. We know why he does not care for the national anthem as black people. It has nothing to do with being unpatriotic either. It is the mistreatment of blacks that has persisted to this day. But it makes no sense to make belligerent outbursts like that.

African-Americans helped build this country along with everyone else. It hurts to have no claim to any land even if you descend from the founding nationalities. The Indians who were on this land when it was pioneered. The Europeans who settled it. The Africans who slaved over the cotton & tobacco fields of America. I am an african-american with pictures of three generations of my maternal grandmothers in it. They all were Chickasaw. Do I receive any compensation as the descendant of an american indian tribe? No! They make it too difficult for you to do so. There is so much bureaucracy involved that I have decided not to bother. I know very little about my family history which used to anger me. But from what I can discern in family pictures there is european in my bloodstream as well. I don't know the story behind that but it's there. Of course, I have no idea which part of West Africa my ancestors originated from. It is a mystery that I am trying to undertake. First, I have to go to Mississippi to do that & get to know my relatives.

Sadly, all the africans I have met are distant & seem to want no part of me. I have dated quite a few men from Nigeria & other parts of Africa. There is disdain & disgust in their conversations with me about blacks in America. One guy told me that we are ,for the most part, underachievers. I felt like he thought I was lower than him because I am black & not african. It was disappointing & it made me angry. I wanted to rediscover my african roots. What is my true culture? As an african-american, our culture had to be recreated. Although I look african, I am not accepted by them because I have no tribal connections. Where do I go when I go to the land of my ancestry? I don't know my ancestry which has hindered me in school projects & in life period. Why is it so hard for me to build my family tree? It's because America was not the land of the free. It was the land of the defeated. The home of the slave.

The national anthem does not have the lyrics that every american can identify with. Specifically "the land of the free" because of the history of slavery. Those words are still like a slap in the face. Remember, we were likened to cattle. Blacks were possessions in the minds of many americans. Heathens who needed to be enslaved. Blacks weren't the "we" hailed at the twilight's last gleaming". That song was made by & for white countrymen. There was a lot of literature out there saying that we were less than human. It is painful for african-americans to this very day.

That is the reason Josh Howard said "Fuck that, I ain't singin' that". He feels like blacks can reject a song that was never intended for them anyway. Maybe he's feeling a little cocky because we finally have a black presidential candidate. Who knows? The point is blacks were not free so who is this patriotic song directed to? Not all americans because blacks didn't count, remember? This kind of attitude hearkens back to the not so distant civil rights movement & black power era. It's hard to call someone un-patriotic when you know the history of America. Josh Howard does not seem like he has much black pride though. He seemed like he was just trying to be provocative & illicit anger. I do not think he is trying to be the next civil rights leader. But I like that he supports Barack Obama.

Rednecks?!! Isn't that A Racist Term?

I have no more words! We know what term she uses to describe blacks. Watch!!