How a Victim of the Housing Crisis Was Saved from the Brink of Eviction

By Linda Milazzo, AlterNet. Posted October 20, 2008.

Jocelyn Voltaire is an émigré from Haiti who has lived in this country for 45 years. She's a United States citizen, a college graduate, and the mother of four. She recently suffered the unbearable loss of her eldest son -- a Marine who had served in the Gulf. Atop the unthinkable pain of losing a child, Jocelyne's Queens, New York home of twenty years was set to be auctioned on Friday (October 17th), due to a predatory lender scam.

But miracles do happen! Thanks to the brilliant work of independent media, American News Project (ANP), which captured Jocelyn's story in the video below, and Codepink Women For Peace, who after seeing ANP's video launched an appeal for funds to stop the auction, Jocelyn's home was saved. Miraculously, in one day, Codepink raised $30,000 from 650 patriots who stepped up to "spread their wealth." Below is the incredible video produced by American News Project that captured the "heart" of Codepink and inspired Jocelyne's patriotic "angels."

Needless to say, corporate media was much too busy camped out at the home of plumber Joe to pay Jocelyne Voltaire any mind. It took the efforts of independent media heroes ANP, generous spread-the-wealth patriots, and the inspired community organizing of Codepink to let humanity prevail. As Codepink says,

While our government has taken billions of our tax dollars to bail out the wealthy, we came together to bail out a desperate mother We modeled exactly what we want our government to do -- bail out families facing personal disaster, not financiers.

Now, my friends, isn't this the real America we want? Not the America of corporate greed and CEO bailouts. Not the America of Wall Street fat cats rescued by their elected and appointed government friends. Not the America of selfishness, avoiding taxes, and only caring about me! The values demonstrated by ANP and Codepink represent the America I want to see. Isn't it time this government honored we the people and used our taxes to take care of us rather than their friends in Forbes and Fortune?

Permit me to share just one more story:

In the first years of the last century, my paternal grandparents, Giuseppe and Liboria Milazzo, emigrated to the United States from -- you guessed it -- Italy. More specifically, Sicily. As my family tells the story, my grandfather was a fairly educated man who'd planned to become a priest -- until he met his Liboria. After coming to America, Giuseppe and Liboria settled in Rockaway Beach in the New York City borough of Queens. They opened a tiny food store -- an Italian apetito shop. As the story goes, during the Great Depression after the Stock Market crashed, my grandparents' customers couldn't pay for their food so my grandparents extended them credit. When the credit they extended depleted all the food, Giuseppe and Liboria lost their shop -- as they knew all along they would.

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Linda Milazzo is a Los Angeles based writer, educator and activist. Since 1974, she has divided her time between the entertainment industry, government organizations & community development projects, and educational programs.

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