Des Moines, IA - An organizing organization with strong ties to both Occupy Des Moines and Occupy Iowa chose not to participate in Tuesday's Occupy Our Homes National Day of Action out of frustration with what they called President Obama's habit of "punting on policy" they say would help resolve the financial crisis.
"ICCI members place responsibility for the continued foreclosure crisis completely with the Obama Administration," said Chris Neubert, an organizer with community based grassroots organizing group Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement (ICCI) in an email Tuesday. "President Obama has failed to crack down on Wall Street greed. His administration has interfered with the negotiation being led by Iowa Attorney General, Tom Miller, and the potential settlement has been whittled to worthlessness as a result."
Attorney General Tom Miller leads a 50-state bipartisan mortgage foreclosure working group, as part of a coordinated national effort by states to review the practices of the mortgage servicing industry. According to the Attorney General's website, The Mortgage Foreclosure Multistate Group, comprised of state attorneys general in all 50 states, and state banking and mortgage regulators in more than three dozen states, is also exploring whether individual mortgage servicers have improperly submitted documents in support of foreclosures.
With actions to stop and reverse foreclosures taking place in over 25 cities across America, protest organizers hope to urge "homeowners, former homeowners, and people who are fighting for a place to live" to stand united against "Wall Street greed." Occupy Our Home actions are being joined by the Occupy Wall Street movement and allies in their communities.
While Occupy Our Homes website does not list any scheduled actions in Iowa, Neubert stressed that his organization is no less committed to addressing the foreclosure crisis in Iowa.
"We are standing in solidarity with homeowners in Iowa and across the country who continue to face foreclosure three years after the start of the financial crisis," he said.
In lieu of participating in any of the day's actions, Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement planned to send a letter to Iowa Democratic Party Chairwoman Sue Dvorsky on Tuesday asking for a meeting with her and officials from the Obama administration before the end of the year.
"They need to hear from homeowners in crisis and realize that their failure to control the big banks is having devastating consequences for everyday people," he said.
As of 2p.m. Tuesday, the Iowa Democratic Party's Communications Director, Sam Roecker, stated that their office had not received any such correspondence from ICCI. Meanwhile, Roecker was confident that Dvorsky would issue a comment if and when the letter arrives.
Michael J. Hunt is a political observer, trained in Oakland, based in the Heartland. If you would like to contribute as a citizen journalist to the Huffington Post's coverage of American political life, please write to us at www.offthebus.org.