December 10, 2007 (LPAC)--There is a clear pattern on both coasts and in the Midwest of enraged citizens from the lower 80 percent showing up at meetings to demand a solution to foreclosures and related urgent economic problems. The turnout and the urgency of the problem is forcing high-ranking elected officials to attend. Those attending are wide open to LaRouche and the HBPA.

• At Penn State University Harrisburg campus, today, more than 500 of the 800 central Pennsylvania homeowners from Lancaster and Berks County who went to court in October to block their foreclosures showed up today for a hearing which their pressure forced the two Pennsylvania U.S. Senators, Bob Casey (D) and Arlen Specter (R), together with Congressman Tim Holden to hold in person. State Judge Jeffrey Sprecher, as EIR reported, ruled for the families and blocked all foreclosures. (They defaulted because a mortgage broker conned them into borrowing more money than necessary to refinance their homes, and then stole the money, causing them to default on their payments.) But the mortgage owners transferred the case to Federal court, where the Federal judge lifted the freeze on foreclosures. The State had on hand the head of the State Housing Agency, whose goal is to float $125 million in bonds to help only 250-300 families (!), while the homeowners are planning to file a class action suit in Federal Court on Jan. 18. All this leads nowhere, so everyone there was wide open to the HBPA, and the LaRouche representative got out lots of literature.
• In Oakland, California on Saturday, 200 people showed up at an event sponsored by ACORN on foreclosures. Person after person gave testimony on their particular plight, demanding solutions. In attendance was Don Perata, California Senate President Pro Tem, as well as two state assemblymen. Perata called for a 90-day freeze on foreclosures to protect homeowners. The three-man LaRouche Youth Movement organizing team reported that almost all in the crowd gladly received the HBPA leaflets, and were very open to discussing LaRouche's solution to the banking crisis as a whole.
• A Detroit meeting organized by the Michigan Emergency Committee Against War & Injustice (MECAWI) on foreclosures drew a crowd of 60, including Detroit City Councilwoman JoAnn Watson, whereas usual MECAWI meetings to protest the war generally consist of about a dozen people. There was a mood of real anger in the crowd as people recounted stories of recent foreclosures, including one woman whose sister had all of her belongings tossed into a dumpster on the street as she was evicted. The woman said, "These are a bunch of animals who want to kill us, and we have to fight back." A mob-mentality really began to build in the crowd, as some suggested using baseball bats to defend people's houses from foreclosure. Two members of the LYM represented the voice of reason in the almost lynch-mob like crowd, speaking about the HBPA and the upcoming LPAC Townhall Meeting. After the event, LYM organizers were approached by many attendees for literature and discussion, including a woman who is already planning to attend the Tuesday Townhall meeting.