Every Saturday, Fred Kayiwa of Uganda leads our chat. Join us at our chat
room - our help room - http://www.worknets.org/chat/ where we come to help
each other in every way, including tutoring, research, shopping, contacts,
help with our projects, and morale support. Thanks to the choir of
St.Benedict the African for making this possible.

I also share my latest post for the Includer. It is David Ellison-Bey's
hardship letter which we wrote so that his mortgage company does not take
his house away. I appreciate our thoughts and also our comments at
http://www.pbs.org/idealab/ where you will find many links.

Andrius Kulikauskas
Minciu Sodas
http://www.ms.lt
ms@...
+1 312 618 3345

The Includer
Episode 5
Hardship Letter

The Includer is a device for listening to a person’s deepest thoughts.
This may take twelve years, which is how long I have known David
Ellison-Bey. In July, his house was foreclosed. He then asked for my help
to review his many bills. They reflect the American economy, which weighs
on his shoulders. Please think of him as your mother or father, or your
grandmother or grandfather, who rely on your help to make sense of the
mail they get, even more so when they are shocked, dismayed or confused.
You are their shield, their sword, their justice, their advocate, their
Includer. David and I share his hardship letter to Aurora Loan Services.

Am I able to pay my mortgage?

Yes. I have a pension and Social Security sufficient for my needs. I
worked 20 years as an office assistant for the State of Illinois. I have a
college degree in accounting. I have addressed many questionable aspects
of my financial situation. I am getting help from my friend, Andrius
Kulikauskas. We are writing this letter together.

Why did I not make my mortgage payments on time?

I was disoriented - discombobulated - because of too much pressure in my
life, as I explain below. I am a sensitive, compassionate, elderly man,
and thus vulnerable. I live in a vulnerable neighborhood that suffers the
worst exploitations of the racial caste system. I was not able to put my
problems in perspective because of a tricky and corrupt system, a lack of
peers, and a lack of human contact with functional people.

How did this happen?

I am an observer of the human condition. All of my life, I have worked
towards fellowship of all peoples. I have dedicated myself to uplifting
fallen humanity. I am a minister of the Moorish Science Temple of America.
I am Assistant National Grand Sheik. I have invested myself to help my
people, the Moors, but sadly, so many have died by foul play, old age,
sickness, FBI, gangs, AIDS. I live in this house which my grandparents
left me. I choose to stay here because I don’t want to abandon the
children. I have taught them for years - yoga, spirituality, recycling,
gardening - my Moorish Cultural Workshop - so they can be responsible and
useful members of society. People come to me for help, many of them
abusive and unreliable.

I lived next door to my mother. December, 1996, she had a stroke and I was
forced to put her in a nursing home until she finished her rehab. My
relative took her from the nursing home without my permission, took her
out-of-state, and I never saw her again. I was traumatized because
everywhere I went for help to get my mother back, I was turned away. I
went to the Veterans Administration and started seeing a psychologist /
gerontologist who prescribed medication so that I could sleep, eat and
concentrate. My mother passed away September 14, 2007.

I asked the State’s Attorney’s office to find my mother. They asked
whether the estate was worth over $35,000 ? If not, they couldn’t do
anything. In 2000, while I was visiting my psychologist, I met two Moorish
brothers who had a company, Axiom Mortgage Corporation, which helped
arrange loans. I felt that if I had $35,000 in the bank, then I would be
safe from what happened to my mother. If anything happened to me, they
would investigate.

I received a mortgage loan of $41,250 from Accredited Home Lenders. The
servicing of my mortgage loan was transferred to Advanta Mortgage. In
2003, I was enticed to redo my loan with Mercantile Mortgage Company, and
it went up to $57,000. It was transferred to Mortgage Lenders Network USA,
Inc., and then to Aurora Loan Services on March 1, 2007. I fixed my roof,
put up siding and storm windows. In 2003, I got a second mortgage from
Green Tree through a contractor. They redid my bathroom, which was
important to me, because I was crippled with arthritis. In 2007, I had
$22,000 in CDs.

These last two years I suffered pressures that were too much for me. One
thing after another! I conducted so many funerals for my associates. My
mother died and I couldn’t go to her funeral because there was nobody I
could trust my house to.

I helped the caretaker of our temple’s farm in Pembroke. I paid the taxes
on the land. My truck broke down driving back and forth. I then purchased
a used car at an auction. I got a ticket after the temporary license plate
expired and I never received my license plate through the mail. It was
misdirected to the auction house. In July 2006, the court dismissed the
ticket, but I had to pay $27 for parking downtown. Then I started getting
tickets every week, mostly at night, parked in front of my house, because
the car had half-mirrored tinted windows, which I didn’t realize was
illegal to drive, and I didn’t know could be stripped off. Meanwhile, the
caretaker was starving, without toilet, electricity or phone. I felt like
the system in Chicago, Illinois - the auction place, the courts, the
police, the city, the state - were set against me. Illinois Governor
George Ryan and Chicago City Clerk James Laski were put in jail, Governor
Rod Blagojevich is under investigation, and the City of Chicago is run by
the machine. I also got tickets on my truck because it was broken, I had
to park it on the street and I couldn’t move it for the street sweepers. I
was alone, everybody turned away from me, nobody championed my cause. You
can’t fight City Hall. I believed that these injustices must come to a
head. People must become aware. I refused to pay until I just had to. The
city bullied me, multiplying the fines, towing my truck, holding it and
threatening to crush it, and threatening to put a lien on my house. The
supervisor of the administrative judges laughed at me. November 2007, I
paid $2600 to free my truck and then $600 for my car. I cashed some of my
CDs for that and then to pay for mechanics to work on them, but neither of
them runs.

June 2007, I asked my doctor’s office, who could take care of my ingrown
toe nails? They suggested the podiatrist across the street. I believed
that my insurance company, Humana, would pay for the procedure. They
refused to pay the $500 bill because I did not have a written referral
from my doctor.

That summer, ten or twelve young people attacked me as I was stopping my
truck at a stop sign. They had blocked traffic. I signed up for a cell
phone. My friend referred me to a Sprint plan which would allow us to
speak nights and weekends for free. I went into shock when I got a bill
for $325.74. They were charging me $1 per minute. I felt paralyzed. I
didn’t pay the bill and I was too shocked to call them. I didn’t use the
phone, but they kept charging me for service, until the bill was more than
$600. This summer, my friend helped them understand the situation, and
they agreed to settle for $240.

That fall, a US Energy Savings representative came to my door and claimed
that if I signed up for them to be my gas supplier through People’s Gas,
my prices would stay fixed even if the price went up in the world markets.
That winter, I got bills that were much higher than before, and kept going
up. I had trouble coping and so I simply paid what I could every month.
The outstanding bill grew to $1,700. In June, it’s not clear why, US
Energy Savings was dropped as my supplier.

Around that time, my bill was readjusted to reflect the actual usage, and
it went down. Finally, a charge of $719 was removed from the bill, and US
Energy Savings is asking me directly to pay that bill. I don’t yet know
whether to pay this bill or not. I have learned that in February, 2008,
Attorney General Lisa Madigan filed a lawsuit against US Energy Savings
for using deceptive sales tactics, especially against the elderly.

December, 2007, my basement flooded and my space heater was knocked out. I
had to pay about $800 to two handymen and a professional. August 2008, my
basement flooded again, this time knocking out my water heater. I was able
to get it fixed for $120.

Meanwhile, my AT&T telephone bills were getting higher. This summer we
became aware that a chain of phony services had attached themselves to my
phone bill without my permission. Since the beginning of the year, AT&T
collected more than $400 for them. These services agreed to desist and to
refund me this money, but appeared again on the very next bill!

I’ve stopped going to my doctor and my psychiatrist. I’ve gone without new
glasses. My dentures are broken.

As we are writing we have heard two episodes of half a dozen shots. The
police have not shown up during the hour. This Monday, a man was killed
and two others wounded in the empty lot next to me. We have turned out the
lights. I have the shakes. My chest became tight and my breathing shallow.

I think you understand my state of mind. November 2007, I paid my house
insurance. Usually, I receive a letter from my mortgage company, asking
for my policy. I don’t know if I didnt receive one this year or I simply
forgot to send my policy to Aurora Loan Services. Please note that my
insurance company has recently sent you this policy. Also, every year I
qualify for the Senior Freeze so that I don’t have to pay the $1,500
property tax. However, this year my cat pissed on the bill, my duplicating
machine broke, my twenty cats died, my cars aren’t running, and so I never
got around to making a duplicate of the form. For these reasons my
mortgage payment was recalculated at the beginning of the year and went up
from $480.63 to $950.36. I didn’t understand the amount. I called up
Aurora Loan Services to inquire and they said that I had missed a month.
That didn’t seem right, but I sent in the payment. I got confused. I kept
getting such large bills. I thought I was catching up with them. Then in
July I was served with foreclosure papers. The check which I had just sent
out was returned. I called to set up a payment plan, and wired the first
payment, but Aurora Loan Services returned that payment because I had not
yet signed the papers which it was late in sending out to me. I have made
the first three payments as agreed in the forebearance agreement.

What do I ask for now?

I wish, as before, to pay off my mortgage with monthly payments of $480.63

I have been billed by Aurora Loan Services for legal fees of $1,546.
Please explain and itemize these legal fees.

I wish I had a relationship with a person from Aurora Loan Services.
Giving loans is a privilege chartered by the government for the good of
the people. (Or is it to fleece, to rob the people? That’s what I get out
of it. Black people are sent into black neighborhoods by white people who
have educated them into how to talk and convince unsuspecting people how
to help them. And we fall for it because we always need money. We never
get paid as much as white people get paid. I have never made more than
$25,000 a year. But I have always worked, even before I had working
papers, since I was eleven, for a dollar a day, summer and winter.)

Aurora Loan Services purchased my mortgage and never sent anybody to build
a personal relationship. I wish for face-to-face rapport. I almost gave up
on white people. They try in every way to not be in a black person’s
presence, beyond any length of time they need to convince them of what
they want to convince them of. Once they convince them, they are out of
your life forever. Then they sit back and count your money into their
pocket with fees, fines, penalties, taxes and interest. I have documents
regarding the non-profit status of my Moorish Cultural Workshop (part of
the Moorish Science Temple of America), my status as a minister, and
guaranteed home loans covered by the Veterans Administration, but nobody
cares. I get no respect.

I wish for your computers to identify people who need real help, such as
the elderly who have no family, no relatives, no peers, and live in a
hostile neighorhood. Pay attention to unexpected behavior, such as not
renewing the Senior Freeze, or not sending in various documents. We are
bombarded by bills every day, including lawyers and experts offering to
assist with foreclosures, whereas noone actually volunteers to help. Your
computers identify the vulnerable for marketing, and they can identify
them for your good service as well.

Aurora Loan Services discouraged me from getting a lawyer, right after it
had served me papers and then forced me to pay its legal fees. The lawyers
did no work, but they are the first to be paid. Not a fraction of that
money was spent to investigate my situation, serve my needs, and heal our
relationships.

I ask you to pay for your own legal fees.

I inform you that I wish to pay my property tax myself. The clerk at the
County Assessor’s office instructed me not to pay the latest property tax
bill because she approved my Senior Freeze application, but you insist on
paying this bill and adding it to my mortgage and charging me interest!
Why?

I am bitter. I always pay my bills because my parents brought me up to pay
my bills. This house was paid for, free and clear, when my grandfather
left it to me in his will.

This house is and was a home for many generations of my family. It is also
a cultural center known as the Moorish Cultural Workshop, a positive
influence on children, youth and adults. It is known internationally as an
office of Minciu Sodas, a worldwide laboratory for independent thinkers
working for world peace and understanding. I invite you to partner with
us. Contribute to this house as a center of rebirth for our neighborhood
and all the world. Let our activity be a touchstone for borrowers and
lenders. You might find your role. We can share our resources so that we
own our blocks. I might be bitter, but I am still hopeful that we might
come together in peace and love and understanding and overstanding.