A Public Spanking

I sat just a few rows behind Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke as President Obama signed the financial reform bill in the Ronald Reagan Amphitheater yesterday.

I was in the fifth row along with Gordon Whitman from PICO National Network and we were both just looking at everybody who had come to be a part of this historical moment. As you looked around you saw legislators and the president. But you did not see the bankers—I don’t know if they were invited but they were not there.

In fact, they were not invited, according to reports. That’s not surprising since the bill is a public spanking--an arrow straight to the bankers’ heart in terms of no more free reign on Main Street. Wall Street is being checked.

Everyone in National People's Action can say they helped bring that about. We can all feel that we’ve been a part of this, because we have. The administration made it official, but you and I--we’re the ones that brought it into being. That’s what we do: take the impossible and make it possible.

Round 2: The next step is holding the banks accountable to reinvest back into the communities that they have ravaged.

We’re trending in the right direction, pushing the right buttons and getting it done.

We see that our efforts do have results. I think that’s comforting for the organizers and leaders who agonized and paid the price, and see now that there is a victory.