Editor:
This last Saturday, November 5th, Sonoma County residents converged in Santa Rosa, in league over 1,000 cities nationwide in ‘Move Your Money’ rallies, launching here locally from Occupy Santa Rosa. In just the last month, hundreds of thousands of American citizens have moved their money out of the “too-big-to-fail” corporate banks, whose very survival is due to the unprecedented intervention of the U.S. government, to locally based community banks and credit unions.
These same Big Four corporate banks, you will recall, got the sweetheart deal of the century: their bad bets paid off 100 cents on the dollar, and a get-out-of–jail free card. Their CEO’s and senior staff have shown not a shred of social conscience over continuing to shower themselves with outlandish pay packages, not missing a beat during a period when millions are losing their homes and entire neighborhoods are being destabilized, scattered, and demoralized by chronic joblessness and the consequent poverty. They refuse to take even the tiniest ‘haircut’, while demanding payment in full for houses now worth half the paper price on the note. This, after we ‘made them whole’ in The Great Bail-Out. No wonder folks are riled up. That’s why we have an Occupy Movement.
This one simple act of ‘moving your money’ is a concrete statement that we as a free people can make: “We will not invest in our oppressors”. Move Your Money (www.moveyourmoneyproject.org). Put your money where your beliefs are, and invest in locally owned banks and credit unions who have a stake in our community and whose fortunes are aligned with our own. Make the move and feel the power of acting on your convictions.
Ben Boyce
Sonoma
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