Cleveland, OH, September 26, 2007 (LPAC)--Gathered today on the front steps of Cleveland resident Ms. Marion Gardner, hard hit by the devastation of a home foreclosure, were over 100 community activists to launch a national campaign called, "Save the American Dream." Gardner's home is in Cleveland's Slavic Village, a community known to have the highest foreclosure rate in the country, with 800 homes in foreclosure and new actions being filed daily, the sponsors of the rally stated.

Initiator of the initiative is the National Training and Information Center (NTIC), a 35-year old network of community organizations active in ten states. NTIC's executive director George Goehl told the gathered crowd, "The home foreclosure crisis is a moral crisis. Greed and irresponsible lending have left millions of homeowners on the brink of losing their homes." He went on to say that no one is immune from this crisis as it hits a core component of the economy, bringing decline in property values, blight in neighborhoods, and worse.

The campaign calls for a two-year moratorium on allowing ARMs (adjustable rate mortgages) to reset to higher payments, targeting Countrywide Mortgage Corp. and Wells Fargo Bank, the two biggest originators and servicer of mortgages, to "lead the way" on implementing such a moratorium. Unfortunately, this is like asking the fox to give up guarding the chicken coop. Mortgage lenders and hedge funds care not for citizen's well-being, but only for their looting rights to profit. Cleveland, as elsewhere, need to endorse and press for LaRouche's Homeowners and Bank Protection Act of 2007 to ensure an end to foreclosures.