It had to happen. The Revolution had to come home.

The unquenched coals that remained of Occupy Wall Street and Zuccotti Park was destined to search out the dry tinder of community disgust and outrage over the single issue that united them all – the foreclosure of their neighbor’s homes, the home across the street, the home of the retired and the invalid, even their own home.

And when those embers and the people carrying them found this explosive environment in the East New York neighborhood of Brooklyn yesterday, Dec 6, not even the intermittent sprinkles and overcast skies could dampen the angry heat of several hundred marchers who had converged to protest the heartlessness of the banks and the financial systems.

Each home visited, with boarded windows and doors and festooned with yellow tape marked “foreclosure,” had its own story. Once prosperous families, no longer – first the job, then the home, lost. A mortgage “re-fi” and impossibly escalated payments moving a monthly payment from $1,200 to $4,300…and this from a woman who had never been late on a payment before and who was still grieving from the loss of her son to “friendly fire” in Iraq.

(That same day, a major news story was run nationwide in which a distraught broker described how Chase Bank pushed minorities into subprime loans – paying pumped up commissions to motivate sales to accounts which they knew would end in foreclosure)
Speaking into the Human Mic, each told their story of attempts to deal with their bank or mortgage holder. Each described similar tales of unhearing, uncaring or incompetent bank employees who could not or would not help and the form letters that arrived with the same lie: “We are sorry…”
One woman, standing proudly on the stoop of a boarded-up home, recounted of not weeks, not months, but years of dealing with banks absorbed by other banks with the new mortgage holder starting the eviction process for the second and third time. As for the previous paperwork? No one could be bothered to research records showing agreements in process but never completed and prior bank promises broken.

“I am here to tell Jamie Dimon that I want him come here and talk to me,” she shouted out to the applause of the marchers and supporters. “I no longer am alone in my struggle” she said, each sentence reverberating back from the crowd in the call-and-response now made famous by the movement.

“WE will not give up or give in, Mr. Dimon. Mr. Dimon, CAN YOU HEAR US NOW?”

The only sure thing in life, we are told, is death and taxes. That needs to be more correctly restated as death, taxes and the bill collector.

In prior blogs and radio interviews I have entertained a wide range of topics and interview subjects. I have needled my own industry (collection agencies) on the way it has treated whistle-blowers, lusted after student debt, and their purchase and pursuit of questionable debt.

I have also solicited the best wisdom of their former Association (ACA) CEO, singled out the “good guys,” and even celebrated the industry for its generosity in supporting worthwhile causes. But, I had yet to meet debt collectors who really have to “dig” (pun intended) for their money, but did with respect and sensitivity.

Steven Godzisz, CEO of CCR Collections, operating in both in Canada and the U.S., has concentrated mostly on collecting for funeral homes and cemeteries for the past 20 years. And, he has developed strong opinions regarding the proper way to operate in this niche. Given mounting complaints against the industry at large, he finds a lot to fault in both the approach – and the ethics –his sister agencies employ.

He may be alone in this criticism within the walls of his industry, but not in the world at large. Media outlets ranging in size from hometown papers and television stations to The New York Times and CNN weigh in with unfavorable stories about agencies who use every trick possible to extract the last dollar possible out of the pockets of the deceased.

In one instance cited on CNN, a credit card operation (first party) contacted a deceased woman’s Daughter and suggested, politely, that she take over her Mother’s cards, or simply pay them off. Surprised, the Daughter asked how the company had discovered that the mother had recently passed on. The answer: “Social Security told us.”

As the reporter put it, this had to be “the most macabre phone tree ever.”

Now, let’s be clear, the contact was made on a legitimate debt and it is in the creditor’s interest that it be paid. This is considered fair game, as monies left in an estate can be used to settle debt and is often directed in that fashion.

But, to attempt to extract that debt from the daughter? The woman was neither Executor nor Administrator of her Late Mother’s Estate.
“That’s little more than ‘emotional extortion,’” Steve says. “Generally, survivors are not required to pay a dead relative’s bills from their own assets.”

That’s not the only bone that Steve has to pick with some of his peers.

“In theory, collection agencies can go after any property inherited from the deceased, whether that is cash or a physical asset. This can be a tortuous process, so many agencies play hard on the sentiment and loyalty of the relative,” Steve adds.

“It is the unethical agent who plays that card without first, and clearly, letting the relative know that they have no legal obligation to pay the credit card bill.”

Steve is firm in his belief that an approach with integrity will – even if a bill is not paid – produce desirable if ancillary results. Especially so, in this day of “Social Media.”

“Think about it,” he posits, “Regardless of the amount of money owed by a deceased’s estate, it is the estate’s responsibility through an Executor/Administrator and a due process is set up for dispensing payment. Heavy-handed collection actions can lead to substantial, if unquantifiable, losses in potential business. Not only with this family, but every one of their friends on Facebook and Twitter who have been alerted to this ‘mistreatment.’

How many people if pressed too hard on a deceased’s credit card bill or unsecured debt would ever want to do business with that creditor again? How many of their friends will hear this tale?

For a funeral home, this is a major consideration. Funerals are by nature “family” affairs, and a significant amount of trust and sensitivity is at stake. Upset one person – and there goes an entire “family tree” of future business.

“Unless a living member of the family has co-signed the funeral contract and the estate is insolvent or creditor proof, I generally advise my funeral or cemetery client to consider forgiving the debt. The cost outweighs the results.

If action is required and appropriate, reporting the debt to a credit bureau is very effective and inexpensive for the client. The filing of a legal claim beyond the bureau is up to my client. That is their right: to accept or decline an action. Making the right credit decisions are essential, all the while preserving the family heritage and relationship – present and future,” Steve added.

“Enough about the creditor,” I asked Steve, “what advice would he give the deceased’s relatives vis-à-vis funeral documents?

“If you are not an Executor or Administrator and are concerned about your personal liabilities, sign the contract with your name, and add “on behalf of the estate of the deceased,” he advises.

As for his advice for his fellow agencies to improve their successes (and image)? “Tact & Diplomacy – Professional first and foremost…and be securely grounded in the FDCPA.” And if the estate goes into probate? “Stand in line.”

Our full WGRNradio.com interview with Godzisz at: http://bit.ly/v0SnNy

Steven Piccarrillo - Multi-tour veteran of our wars in the Middle East. Unemployed father of four, and another on the way.

INJUSTICE DELAYED.  10-14-2011:  What would have to be acknowledged as a clear “win” for OWS, NYC backs down on its threat to “clean” Zuccotti Square…which most saw to be a ruse to get the protestors out of the Square.  A significant tidal wave of phone calls and strong cautions for the Park’s owner against unleashing the police.

All in all, it would appear that my blog below which was posted last week was more prescient than I imagined.  Hang in there, troops.

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In Judeo-Christian-Muslim theology, when Adam & Eve ate of the Apple from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, they were expelled from Paradise.

I suspect this will happen again, generations later, in lower Manhattan in an area we call “Wall Street.”  Where snakes do abound, I understand.  Not too far from a temporary Paradise, where the innocents are coming out of the Garden of Ether.

As the story goes, the snake tempts Eve to eat the apple telling her that she “surely will not die” in spite of the commandment’s edict to not even touch this fruit.  Eve proceeds to eat, and then gives the fruit to Adam, who also eats.  At that point, the two become aware… ”to know good and evil.” 

God finds them, judges them, and expels them from Eden…the last paradise they, or their children, may ever know.  Let’s fast-forward and extend this experience to the Occupiers of Wall Street and draw some very broad parallels.

My first question would be, what is it about eating from this “Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil” that is so bad?

Shouldn’t it be good to know the difference between the two? To have knowledge of right vs. wrong rather than remain ignorant?  Surely, the tree could not have existed unless good and evil were a reality.  Why can’t we, why shouldn’t we, be made more aware of this fundamental truth of existence – that there are starkly opposing forces in this world?

Because, in this world of the profane, knowing the truth will surely eject you from a fantasy paradise.

It is as if The 99% – me and our fellow Americans – have discovered themselves evicted from the dream… from the “America of bounty” which promised so much and mostly delivered on that promise.  Dazed, hungry, we look around in disbelief at a world which seems alien and even impossible.

That bankers steal from us.  That politicians lie to us.  That the medical industry, at great profit, allows us to suffer and to die.  That people in authority use their position for their own advantage and against the common good.  That “K Street” money is more important than Main Street votes.

And, that The 1% – actually, the greediest amongst them will always… well, maybe not always…own and control the America that I once was told by Woodie Guthrie was “My Land… and Your Land.”

Taking a bite of the Big Apple – and still demanding to stay in the garden?*  Now that we know what we know, and causing others to know, is that even possible?

No, and that is the point of the expulsion. It is now time for us to leave illusion behind, take our knowledge with us, and follow the directions which were given:

“Go forth, and multiply.”

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(*Let’s go into detail about the “garden,” itself.  It is an amazing, and up-to-this-point protected, 33,000-square-foot oasis for those who would act on their new-found knowledge of good and evil.

“Liberty Square” is more formally known as Zuccotti Square, named this in June 2006 by its owners, Brookfield Office Properties (TSX: BPO) in honor of John Zuccotti, its chairman and luminary in New York City.  (Ironic – that its original name was Liberty Plaza Park?)

The idea of liberty, tolerance and freedom is actually part of the management lineage of Brookfield, the park’s owner, and it must be with mixed emotions that they see this park – their property even if by law a publicly owned space – being used in ways that amplify awareness about the greed and excesses of Wall Street.

Politically, Zuccotti has loyalty threads not only with his Big Biz neighbors, but from his former work as serving at times on the National Republican Congressional Committee and even Joseph Biden’s Presidential campaign.  Even though as a “Big Landlords” his firm is not being targeted by #OWS, I am sure they are feeling the heat reflected back from their Wall Street tenants.

It is known that Brookfield people are “actively working” with the City of New York to “restore the park to its intended purpose.”  Will he see to it that his namesake park is freed of these peaceful, if noisy, squatters?

Actually, many people would assert that it is fulfilling its extended purpose.

I know, I know, I’m asking my brothers and sisters in the collections industry to get into the game a bit late, but this may be a singular chance to not only get deservedly positive press but to get on the right side of the creditor-debtor equation.  We can start by not pursuing “coerced” or illegitimate debt.

It’s time to Occupy Wall Street.

What’s that, you say?  Leave our comfy desks and auto-dialers and join a bunch of recycled or reincarnated Hippies to bite the manicured fingers on the hand that feeds us, to attack the very same financial institutions which have filled our calling queues and pockets for oh-so-many glorious years?  Yes.

Hear me out as I present a considerable number of reasons for us to weigh in on the side of these protestors and others of us who comprise the “99ers.”  (1% rich; 99% poor)

#OccupyWallStreet (on Twitter) is a movement that began in NYC on September 17 with an encampment in the financial district.  The occupiers proclaimed their methods to be non-violent and their purpose to be the ending of the moneyed corruption of this country.

Like a spark to tinder, it caught fire.

What started out as an isolated protest group unacknowledged in the mainstream press has spread nationally and internationally, reaching Madrid, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Madison, Toronto, London, Athens, Sydney, Stuttgart, Tokyo, Milan, Amsterdam, Algiers, Tel Aviv, Portland, Chicago, Palestine, Phoenix, Montreal, Cleveland, Atlanta, Kansas City, Dallas, Orlando and Miami…some 1,500 worldwide at last count.

Notice any positive parallels we can hang our hat on?  Our industry is certainly people-powered, we can be found in cities nationally and internationally, we largely demonstrate that our methods are non-violent, and our purpose is to…make a buck or two?  (That last doesn’t seem catchy enough; needs some work.)

And, we have common ground to attack Wall Street transgressions.  After all, have these people not undermined the very source of our own revenue – uncontested debt?  Legitimate debt, legitimately owed, has always given our industry a fairly decent shot at working hard to both satisfy our clients, help the debtor to pay what they are able, and make a fair return on that effort.

Thanks to Wall Street, this is becoming impossible.

Think about it.  Even if a debt we are pursuing is undisputed and acknowledged by the debtor, thanks to the ripple effects of the Great Recession (which no one disputes was brought on by the greed and excesses of Wall Street), fully one-sixth of U.S. citizens live in poverty and overall some 18% of our workers are either unemployed or underemployed.

The “Getting-blood-out-of-turnips” problem:

Medical.  Roughly 40% of consumer collections is in the medical field.  With roughly 50,000,000 Americans without health insurance and health-profiteering by Big Insurance and Big Pharma unencumbered by legal strictures adding to what is owed, how do we expect to collect from a shrinking pool of those who are still well and still employed?

School Loans.  Wall Street contaminated this world a few years back by bankrolling For-Profit Colleges.  These, in turn, charged excessive tuition (by any standard) for what many consider to be a shabby product and then annually proceeded to dump students into the workforce burdened by tens of thousands of dollars in loans.  Student debt is reaching 1 Trillion dollars – already passing credit card debt – and is seen as the next “meltdown bubble.”  Student loan default rates are vaulting into the teens, and fully 50% of these defaults are from students who attended for-profit colleges.

Our industry has already begun to collect on those accounts, and we are surely “feeling their pain.” Try getting as much as a $50/Month payment out of a kid who is saddled with as much as $100,000 in debt and flipping hamburgers at a local fast-food outlet.

In fact, there is a major anger-stoked national campaign that is demanding that ALL student loan debt be forgiven – and this is gaining momentum.  Put THAT in your portfolio and smoke it.

Credit Cards.  Speaking of credit cards – a major source of lust and revenue for debt purchasers as well as traditional agencies – Is it really profitable, or even ethical – to collect on?  Banks not only ran up amounts owed by the unconscionable escalation of interest rates and service fees, but then sold our industry hundreds of millions of dollars in “tainted” write-off’s which never should have been sent out to third-parties to start.

I am referring, of course, to the famous “Linda Almonte” whistle-blowing case at JP Morgan Chase which is still wending its way through the halls of government oversight agencies.  That shoe, when it drops, will not land lightly.  It will shake the banking – and our – industry.

Mortgage/Home Loans.  Faulty foreclosure paperwork, loans proven to be incomplete and in some cases downright fraudulent, and the outrageous robo-signing of mortgage with or without proper authentication; how it is that not one banker or wall street executive has been arrested?

Things are so rotten in Bankster Land that the Attorney Generals in a number of states are refusing to release a number of our major banks from lender liability.  Banks have been seeking broad releases to protect them from legal claims growing out of securitization, servicing, loan costs, unresponsiveness to requests for modification and robo-signed foreclosures, etc.  Santa will not grant them their wishes this year.

Collateral Damage.  Yep, you know them well – the people who acknowledge their debts, are more than willing to pay them off, but due to job or home loss brought about by a bankrupted economy – have barely enough to meet even basic needs for food and shelter.

Now, let’s get back to our thesis – that the Accounts Receivable Management Industry would be well-served by joining our young and unemployed friends on the protest lines.  Let’s let them know that they are not the only ones who feel, in their words, “wronged by the corporate forces of the world” and that “upon corruption of that system, it is up to the individuals to protect their own rights, and those of their neighbors.”

As responsible citizens and business owners, we must stand up for the legitimate rights of the debtors, our neighbors.

See you at your local “Liberty Square.”

Russell Simmons – One “Occupy Wall Street” Person the Cops Won’t Pepper Spray

I confess, he could be as compelling a target as the young female protestors they penned in with orange netting traps and sprayed with mace and pepper spray this past weekend.  But, this guy’s a little – nay, a waaaay big – different.

So, if one is NOT a Media Mogul, what exactly is it about the 1,000’s of protestors…and many more thousands to come…that invokes official wrath?

OccupyWallStreet is a people-powered movement for democracy that began in NYC on
September 17 with an encampment in the financial district and which declared its purpose to be non-violent.  Or, as close as they could get to that goal, given the physical force and intimidation that soon emanated from the ranks of blue and white.

Mr. Policeman – What is it that invokes this anger and overreach?

Is it their vow is to end the monied corruption of this country? Is it because the protest area you established for them wasn’t suitable to that purpose, or that free assembly really does mean free – not corralled – assembly?

Is it because the demonstrators hold teach-ins, engage tourists in discussion and debate (which you aggressively discourage), and wave about such America-damaging statements as “Revoke Corporate Personhood” or “Democracy Not Corporatization?”

Is it that your own, excessive use of force and intimidation was caught on video and transmitted around the world – much as had been done on Tahrir Square and the Spanish acampadas or the uprising of the Chilean students? That this shame is now public, and not private – even though the mainstream media somehow has been reluctant to show up to create this indelible record?

Is it that Occupy Wall Street is a leaderless resistance movement that demands police leaders to actually jail offenders in their rank for the unprovoked spraying or tackling of protestors.  Which, in reality, is essentially no different their request for jail time for the Wall Street crooks who plundered America?

Is it that there is an ongoing mass outpouring of prepared food donations the protestors receive daily to feed their numbers – that local pizzerias are given scores of food orders charged to credit cards daily from people all over the country, and the world?

Is it that this is not an isolated instance, but that these people stand in solidarity with Madrid, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Madison, Toronto, London, Athens, Sydney, Stuttgart, Tokyo, Milan, Amsterdam, Algiers, Tel Aviv, Portland, Chicago and Palestine? That soon they will stand with Phoenix, Montreal, Cleveland, Atlanta, Kansas City, Dallas, Orlando and Miami – some figures placing this number as high as 130 locales?

Is it that high-profile figures, such as Russel Simmons, Michael Moore, Susan Sarandon, Radiohead et al, are showing up to support and further advertise this cause?

Whatever it is that is causing you to forget your Credo “ To Serve And Protect,” I join all like-minded fellow Americans in asking YOU to stop protecting Wall Street from The People, and start protecting The People from Wall Street.

You likely have not heard of the healing properties of the “goat exchange” as practiced for reconciliation purposes in Africa. It is more likely that you have heard of the ferocious enmity between the Hutu and the Tutsi which was graphically portrayed in the film “Hotel Rwanda.”

In this acclaimed work of cinema, the protagonist and Hotel Operator Paul Rusesabagina is fortunate enough to be the manager of a compound protected by the U.N. during the fierce hunting down and massacring of the Hutu by the Tutsi extremists. Through his ingenuity and efforts, over 1,000 lives were saved by this hero (a Tutsi by birth) from slaughter, most certainly including himself, his children, and his Hutu wife.

That “war,” if we want to call genocide by that term, was encouraged and enflamed by the government in its allowing of vicious hate attacks on national radio in which the Hutu were demonized.  Militia mobs broke into homes, schools and hospitals to literally hack their enemies to death. Entire families, and clans, lost their lives – over 1,000,000 dead at war’s end.

That was back in 1994.  As of 2011, the picture shows painful, but halting, progress.

One of the players in this is David Zarembka, author of A Peace of Africa – Reflections on Life in the Great Lakes Region, Quaker and Peacemaker. Since 1998, he has been the coordinator of the African Great Lakes Initiative of the Friends Peace Teams, an organization promoting peace activities with local groups in the region.

As he explains it, “Working Together” is the overarching theme of the work these Quakers and local partners do to rebuild relationships between ex-combatants and others that were broken during the twelve years of civil war.

The “goat project” consists of pairing together a Hutu woman and a Tutsi woman by giving them a goat to share.  The mechanics are simple; one woman is to house the female goat during which time it is bred and through pregnancy to birth.  Both women are required to tend to the welfare of the goat.  One woman gets the goat manure to use in enriching her garden and the other will be the recipient of the kid.

Once the baby goat is weaned, the cycle is complete.  But, the friendships that has been developed…continues.

Project leaders, Elin Henrysson and Andrew Peterson express the core principal, that “the healing of inner wounds and trauma go hand in hand with reconciliation and the building of relationships.”  By pairing a Tutsi woman from the displaced persons’ camp with a Hutu woman who had remained in her community during the bloody days of strife, of necessity the two women had to cross ethnic – and household – boundaries.

The experience in scores of pairings was not problem-free, but even that friction served as a bonding and healing opportunity. In one case, one community argued over who would get the “biggest, healthiest looking goat” until a system of random distribution was agreed upon. In cases where there was the death of a goat or kid, forums were created to handle upsets and conflicts.

Significant ceremonies were created as well. The two describe the eventual exchange of the kid:

“Groups gather together, bringing the goat along. They sing, pray and talk about their experiences of the project…after which each member of a pair who kept the goat in her own home ceremoniously hands over the kid to the partner, often with a heartfelt speech, the naming of the kid, and a hug.”

Can’t you just imagine Obama and Boehner doing that?

Would anyone here happen to have a spare goat?

How the Working Poor Became Big Business and Tempted The Collections Industry

UPDATE 10-24-11.  When I first posted this piece, my intent was to feature and support the author, Gary Rivlin, in getting out the word about how Wall Street has financed its stepchildren, payday lenders and pawnshops, on Main Street…and that these offspring are just as greedy as their parents.

With the Advent of Occupy Wall Street, it became quite evident that others had already noticed this – if their hand-scribbled signs were any clue.  Interestingly, that same creeping and unhappy realization that something is amiss is coming about for people in the collections industry – you know, the third-party bill collectors who chase after all the bad debt.  Even though the article was directed to this industry, anyone in debt will find it to be educational.

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Once again, my people, the collections industry, are caught in their age-old quandary – do they Follow the Golden Rule, or the Rule of Gold.

That this decision is made almost daily (and that the temptation of “going for the gold” rules seems to be the default choice) was brought into sharp relief in a recent WGRNradio.com interview I conducted with author Gary Rivlin in which we discussed his revealing and hard-hitting book, “Broke, USA – From Pawnshops to Poverty, Inc. – How the Working Poor Became Big Business.”  (Find the Recorded Segment at this site under the tab “Radio Show.”)

This book, “with the potential to stimulate outrage – and political reform” as one reviewer described it, served as the inspiration for me to devote my show and this blog to this author, his book, and this particular callous – and even criminal – treatment of sub-prime borrowers in the U.S.

Some of you reading this blog may legitimately question my including the bill collector – no matter your personal feelings about the work they do – in this scenario. After all, they don’t run pawnshops and lend money to people who are “in between paydays.”

FACT: in one way or another, too many in the collections and bad-debt-purchasing field are complicit in furthering and sustaining the damage being done by predatory lenders. Whether it be that of actually collecting on such debt, or simply turning a blind eye on those activities in order to secure otherwise “legitimate” collections business, they are enablers at best and conspirators at worse.

The working poor are big business in this country.

No less than seven publicly-traded companies are in the payday lending business and six are in the check cashing business—or seven if you include Wal-Mart, which started cashing checks for a fee a few years back.

How a payday loan of $100 works:

• Consumer with an ID and proof of employment writes a check for $100
  Consumer gets $85
• In two to four weeks, the lender cashes your check
• APR is 459 percent and you paid $15 to use $85
• Sadly, Social Security recipients comprise one-quarter of all these borrowers

Rent-to-own, pawnshops, subprime auto lenders—that’s just a few of the other multibillion dollar players that make up what Gary Rivlin dubs “Poverty, Inc.”  These businesses manage to stay sooooo under the radar, despite their size and the millions of people they call customers.

But, they are a group as “venal as the most heartless hedge fund manager,” Gary states in his book (and this interview – go here: ) which details the “systematic, widespread economic abuse of the poor by supposedly respectable corporations.”

I may sound like an odd champion of this cause, or even viewed as an industry “turncoat.” After all, I cut my teeth in the collections industry, ran multi-state sales forces selling account recovery services to help businesses extract monies owed by “deadbeats,” and eventually created a successful Staff Outsourcing and Consulting firm that chased after (quite successfully) millions and millions of dollars. Unpaid loans of any sort, have always been a profitable source of business for me.

But, I only worked with clients who generated a clean receivable for reputable and honorable services and goods delivered to a customer who had – for whatever reason – chosen not to pay in a timely fashion.

Never would I have elected to chase down victims of mortgage fraud and overselling, payday loans, monies owed pawnbrokers or loan sharks, or credit card issuers.

Perhaps motivated by the excesses which have been exacerbated by the Great Recession, it is my purpose to expose the abusive practices in my industry, the bottom-feeding debt purchasers that violate federal and state statutes, and the rapacious lenders and businesses for whom they collect.

Today’s lending and collecting predators have no compunction against putting people at risk and then driving them over the line with their aggressive collection tactics. This is being proven true on a daily basis, and which is why this industry must draw a line in the sand and say:

Enough!

Agencies would do well to take a close look at their clients…and the portfolios they provide to be collected on. The argument that there is nothing wrong with making money on the working poor sounds fair enough, until you realize that these businesses – and we include Wall Street and Big Banks – generally make more money dealing with the “single mom working as waitress” than more prosperous customers. They are easy to victimize, and they are too poor to mount a counter-attack.

This industry needs a gut-check. Are they willing partners in extortion, or savvy businesspeople who work hard to earn a legitimate profit on debt, regardless of its origin?

For all too many of them, I think we know the answer.

A video going viral, http://bit.ly/rmGr8a, features the voice and thoughts of American Indian famed Hip-Hop photographer “Brother Ernie” is almost as interesting as the man himself and how this video came about. Perhaps you would like to know the “back story.”

This piece was recorded in the U.S. in 2004 when Ernie was invited to sit in on a music session for Mike Badger of Liverpool, “Jodan” of Morocco, and Yungchen Lhamo of Tibet.  Ernie was there at the Mike’s invite based on their chance meeting in NYC at a gallery show of Ernie’s work in NYC.  The trio asked Ernie if he would like to say something as they played a background piece for him.

At first, Ernie demurred, but after their insistence began a free form stream-of-consciousness ramble – just one more “instrument” in the recording. The result – a beautiful, poetic, strange and improbable statement on the human condition showcased within a velvet musicbox.

How Ernie was introduced to the result of that session was equally as interesting.  In 2006, invited to London by Mike Badger, he was introduced to “Henry” over dinner and subsequently invited to Henry’s home, along with Mike, for breakfast the next day.

Arriving at the home, he walked into a surreal display of Beatles memorabilia of all sorts and complimented Henry for having collected such remarkable pieces. “I didn’t collect them,” was the response. “I inherited them – from my Uncle Brian.”

And so, Ernie was introduced to Henry Epstein. A bit later on, Henry and Mike offered to play a CD for Ernie. Ernie expected to hear some original and, perhaps, previously unheard musical treasures from the Beatles.  Instead, Henry Epstein played “Say Thank You” which Mike had produced.

Pressing the “fast forward” to today, this piece is now on YouTube and making its rounds. That this is happening at the same time that Ernie is going through extensive chemotherapy for cancer, is also an oddity of time – and appropriately so – to get greater exposure for this piece and Ernie’s power and promise. Perhaps, just perhaps, this audience will choose step up and contribute to his medical expenses.

Consider this a formal invitation. Visit Ernie Paniccioli’s Facebook Page to learn how to give to a man, himself a giver, and to keep his poetry and pictures coming.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=585790376

http://bit.ly/rmGr8a

Want to hear for yourself the power of Ernie’s words and observations? Visit my blog, Red Eye: An American Indian Photographs Hip Hop here at WOAA.

I posed a provocative question to fellow members of my industry – collection agencies and bad debt purchasers and their clients and original creditors.

If you aren’t already aware, the “bill collector” seems to constantly get bad press. Whether it be for real (or purported) violations of the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act (FDCPA), being over-aggressive even in their legitimate pursuits, or just being single-minded and heartless in their work.

“What if,” I asked my brothers and sisters, ethics were to be promoted as an essential ingredient in this industry’s cookbook for individual, corporate and agency success? What if they were to ensure that its presence in their operations were to be enshrined in our policies and procedures, our Mission Statements, and enforced in our daily actions?

Although the subject was generic – the need for vetting a company’s ethical and moral construct, I couldn’t help but wonder if putting ethics “first” could make a difference in the way the collections world is perceived. Would my reader (and listener) hold this profession differently – in the way we deal with both our clients as well as their debtors? In the way we are held by governmental agencies and consumer advocacy groups?

If you are to believe what you will hear in this compelling and concise interview, you could only answer this in the strong affirmative. In his opinion – and experience – internal auditing in any industry is the “corporate conscience” and its practitioners are the “shield bearers” of an organization.

But, simply defined, what is “ethics?”

eth·ics

1. a system of moral principles: the ethics of a culture.
2. the rules of conduct recognized in respect to a particular class of human actions or a particular group, culture, etc.: medical ethics; Christian ethics.
3. moral principles, as of an individual: His ethics forbade betrayal of a confidence.

According to Michael, the quality of the ethics and compliance systems in place in your operation will be a relevant factor when people judge the good faith and fiduciary duties of a company’s leadership and management.

In fact, given the myriad laws that affect the collections industry, there is precedent in the Federal Government Code of Ethics that asserts that if a U.S. Corporation can demonstrate that their Ethical system is designed and operating to a higher standard of fitness than that of the federal entity trying to regulate them, the constructive argument of “qualified immunity” is plausible, reasonable and compelling.

(“Qualified Immunity?” Too delicious a thought, and too much to go into here, lads and lasses, so you will have to listen in on this intriguing conversation with Michael.)

Many of my readers already know of my series of blogs excoriating JPMorgan Chase for firing veteran Credit and Collections (and Black Belt) veteran, Linda Almonte. Had Chase had in place a Code of Ethics which they followed diligently and faithfully, that firing would never have taken place as there would never have been cause. Linda would still be happily employed instead of become homeless and jobless, and Chase would have saved countless dollars and hours defending – and continuing to defend – their actions. (more at http://onforb.es/iVprb0)

Let’s take this Ethics adoption a step further…way further. What if, just what if, an agency were to require a standard agreement in place with its clients and prospective clients that stated such concepts as:

• We will not work accounts out of statute;
• We will not work accounts that cannot be documented in full as necessary to satisfy the court;
• We will not work accounts that have been secured by the client by way of predatory lending practices,
• We will not work accounts that have been subject to accelerated fees,
• We will not work accounts that have been created through unethical sales practices.
• We will not (fill in the blanks)

Could you do that? Would you do that? Stop chasing those payday loans, the faux mortgages, the out-of-statue or poorly documented credit cards? Would you turn down that business just because of….ethics?

Time for an industry gut-check. Enjoy Mr. Brazetti’s talk which you will find here: http://bit.ly/q6iBNe. Take good notes; the company you save might be your own.

Update 10/31/11 – (dedicated to the #Occupy forces all over this nation and this world. )

With a firm date set for a General Strike in Oakland for Wednesday, November 2, I felt it a good idea to introduce my Occupy Friends to the original architect of Effective Strikes, Ray Rogers.  Enjoy the reading, learn more about the history of civil disobedience, find a few surprises, and then put this wisdom to work for you.  SOLIDARITY

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Whenever I conjure up the Great Depression in my imagination, I think of the dust bowl, long lines of unemployed, people on streetcorners selling apples for a nickel, and…Labor Unions.

Americans think that we have it tough in this financial malaise we are calling the “Great Recession” – and we do – but nowhere close to what was experienced during the Great Depression of the 30’s. As poor a “safety net” we seem to have, there was nothing remotely equivalent to unemployment insurance, health care, workers rights, etc.

It was during this time, while Americans were scratching for bare survival, that the Union movement became energized. Over time, by standing up for worker’s rights they became big, powerful, didn’t back down from intimidation, and they set the stage for a better life for all of us.

A better life that appears to be evaporating, it would seem.

As much as he has accomplished given the financial mess he inherited, Obama has not proven to be the “second-coming” of FDR. That Democratic President of the 30′s said of his political opponents, “They hate me, and I invite their hate,” and then he proceeded to bulldoze progressive programs and reforms so as to see that the common citizen would have a “fair deal.”

That was just the encouragement Union people – your great grandparents, aunts and uncles in faded tintypes and photographs – needed to hear. Here are the fruits of their activism:

March 3, 1931 Davis-Bacon Act The Davis-Bacon Act requires that federal contractors pay their workers the wages and benefits prevailing in the local market when working on a public works project. The law keeps employers from importing cheaper workers from outside the region.

March 23, 1932 Norris-La Guardia Act The Norris-La Guardia Act proclaims that yellow-dog contracts, which require a worker to promise not to join a union, are unenforceable, settling a long-standing dispute between management and labor. The law also limits courts’ power to issue injunctions against strikes.

March 5, 1933 Perkins Named Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins becomes Franklin Roosevelt’s Secretary of Labor, the first woman in U.S. history to hold a cabinet post. She favors a comprehensive, pro-labor agenda including minimum wage laws, unemployment insurance, old-age pensions and abolition of child labor. Her influence on labor policy in the New Deal will be huge.

July 27, 1935 Wagner Act President Roosevelt signs into law the National Labor Relations Act, known as the Wagner Act. The law safeguards union organizing efforts and authorizes the National Labor Relations Board to assure fairness in union elections and during collective bargaining with employers. The new law tilts the playing field significantly in labor’s favor, prompting a huge unionization drive throughout the late 1930s.

June 25, 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act The Fair Labor Standards Act sets a 40-hour workweek with time-and-a-half for additional hours. It also establishes a national minimum wage and puts severe restrictions on child labor.

No, Dorothy, businesses did not “give” workers a 40-hour week, overtime pay, social security – they were taken as legitimate rights for ALL workers. And, where do Unions stand today? Greatly weakened by business-friendly government regulations, smaller worker populations, and public apathy.

Let me assure you, Unions are “Down, But Not Out,” if people like Ray Rogers, the most recent subject of my PWRNradio weekly show, has his way. “You must confront power with power,” he declares, and it demonstrating that with a vengeance in his campaign against the excesses and crimes of the Coca Cola company.

As part of this fight, Ray Rogers is the subject of a Documentary being filmed by Pulitzer-Prize Winner Nancy Siesel, called “The Man Corporations Love to Hate.” (Take a peek at the trailer here (cut and paste into your browser):  http://bit.ly/n8ejz8. Ray is an acknowledged and important pioneer in the Union Movement, described by The Boston Herald as labor’s most innovative strategist and “one of the most successful union organizers since the CIO sit-down strikes of the 30’s.”

Tune in and hear what this man has to say, then go out there and do your part. Being silent, is being complicit. The job and country you save, may be your own.  To hear this interview (cut and paste into your browser):   http://bit.ly/pG0ieL.