In Need of Leadership

I was at a City council meeting recently and witnessed our tax dollars being given out. One of the five one thousand dollar awards went to teaching Tucson High students African drum beats and another went to Hip Hop appreciation. I really don't think our kids need help appreciating Hip Hop nor do they need to learn how to beat African drums. It would be great if they could just learn English, Math and Science, but call me crazy. In the face of a city budget deficit why are we giving money to foolish programs?

In contrast the same week I helped organize a luncheon with business people and council members Glassman and Romero. The business people talked with the council members about how to change the direction of our city and create a business friendly environment that would transform our city into an economic engine. One man said “I am a Republican, but I will work with you if you will work with me”. There is no question we have problems in our community and that we need change. I believe the way to do that is to influence and encourage our elected officials and if they won't listen, to elect new ones. We have a two party system and there have been good statesman from both parties. John Kennedy said that “when the tide rises all boats rise”, then he lowered taxes and stimulated our economy. Ronald Reagan said “Mr. Gorbachev tear down this wall” which lead to the the end of the cold war. We need leadership, regardless of which party they belong to.

If we don't have change in our community then our city will end up like Detroit with suburbs that are attractive and an inner city that is scary. We need to encourage our city council to work with the business community and form private public partnerships that will lead to a prosperous downtown. We also need to hold them accountable when they spend our tax dollars on foolish ideas. The scriptures tell us to pray for those in authority over us. We also need to encourage them to do what is right for our community.

Payday Loans

It has become increasingly difficult for us to have faith in and trust in what we are told. We have come to accept that the news is biased, advertising is misleading (at best) and that politicians lie. Lawyers have become wordsmiths examining news or advertising copy so that it squeaks through the crack of acceptability and gives the client plausible deniability for any inaccuracy. What about the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth? This leads me to Proposition 200. It has been tabbed as the Reform Payday Loan proposition. When I first received a postcard about Prop 200 I was excited. I thought finally we will have reform. You see one of my friends became mired in the payday loan swamp. She had no health insurance and became critically ill. The medical bills were sinking her ship and she was bailing as fast as she could. She took out a payday loan to try to bridge the gap. She didn’t have a real good understanding concerning finance, (which is exactly the type of person the payday loan company’s love). After paying extensions and interest over the course of many months she had paid nearly 300% interest! We counseled her concerning her finances and helped her get on her feet. But, this experience showed me the true nature of payday loans; oppression of the poor. Certainly we would all agree that there needs to be personal responsibility involving finances. I learned the hard way about that myself spending the first 10 years of our married life paying off student loans and credit card bills. The ultimate goal is teaching people not to be victimized by payday loans, credit cards or consumer debt. But, the short term goal is to prevent usury. I began working with State Representative McClure to try to get a proposition on the ballot that would limit payday loan companies to credit card interest rates (roughly 27%) instead of the 300 plus percent interest that they collect from the poorest in our community. So when I received the postcard I was excited, I thought that somehow Ms. McClure had been successful in getting her proposition on the ballot. But, no this was a cruel ruse. The payday loan companies spent millions of dollars getting Proposition 200 on the ballot to solidify their strangle hold on the unsuspecting debtors in Arizona. This is not about “reform” it is about reframing a decaying structure and propping it up with a lie. Don’t be deceived concerning Proposition 200, I urge you to vote no. We need to have real reform as it says in Psalm 82 “Be fair to the poor and to orphans. Defend the helpless and everyone in need. Rescue the weak and homeless from the powerful hands of heartless people.” Those of us that are strong need to strengthen those that are weak. Help stop the oppression of the poor by voting no on Prop 200 and let your state representative know that we need real reform of payday loans.