Your stories have inspired me to reach out to as many people as humanly possible, and urge them to think about this major societal crisis. Today I feel as if this work is beginning to pay off.
A few moments ago I was delighted to have received a few Tweets from Lynnette Khalfani-Cox . I sent her a quick tweet last night about the student lending crisis, and here's what she said in response:
-"The student loan crisis is very important to me. I had $40K in college debt. Have written about this problem for years."
-"Under the Obama administration, I think there will ultimately be a push for more student loan forgiveness too."
Khalfani-Cox has a high media profile. She has appeared on Oprah and is frequently interviewed on CNN, MSNBC, etc. about issues relating to debt. It's a good thing that she responded, and I want to publicly thank her for her remarks.
On another front, I am working with a loose coalition of people, some of whom are connected to the Rev. Jesse Jackson, about the student lending crisis. (The group I've mentioned several times, TICAS.org, is also a part of this group. That's a very important group. TICAS was founded by Robert Shireman who is now the Deputy Undersecretary of Education. So, yeah, they're a critical connection to the White House). More details about this collaborative work will follow, but for the time being I wanted to provide you with a quick update of activities and correspondence. (I still need to post about my email correspondence with Dr. Noam Chomksy, too).
Also, many of you are encountering some serious problems with CITI. As many borrowers are aware, CITI took over AES. I am in the process of responding to several people who have asked me for advice with this situation and some other lenders. I have specific instructions and will send that out to the people who requested help shortly. NOTE: If you feel that your lender may be up to illegal activities, I urge you to get in touch with me ASAP. There are ways we can combat these problems, and I can provide you with assistance. (Please email me here - ccrynjohannsen@gmail.com).
All right, that's enough for now. Phew. I am excited! This Thanksgiving will be much better than I thought. And, yes, I will be working tomorrow. The student lending crisis continues at a rapid pace, so there is no resting at this point.
On a final note, I got a great job, and it will allow me to devote more time to my advocacy work and writing. That means I'll have more time to be of assistance to more people who feel trapped by the student lending crisis.
I hope all of you have a wonderful Thanksgiving.
Hooray! Perhaps we're being heard!
5 comments:
Hey Cryn that is wonderful! I had this crazy thought today, wouldnt it be great to have some type of celebrity be a spokesperson for our movement? Imagine if someone from Twilight could talk about us, what exposure that would be. Im dreaming for now, but if I befriend any celebrity, I plan to tell them about us. I also had another thought, can we make Rob a judge who can forgive all of out debts? did you see the story in the new york post titled Judge blasts bad bank, erases 525G debt. Thank you so much for doing what you do, happy thanksgiving!
Thanks! Happy thanksgiving to you too. Is that article about the Canadian case? I know that a student won in a court case there. He owed about 50K.
It was in New York. Here is the link:
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/judge_kos_mortgage_to_slap_bank_28ZS1oW8Y58z6gu1AQbWMI
The Candians seem so much more civilized than us!
Thanks! Haha. They do have nationalized health care - gasp. The insanity of that!
cryn, i'm really thankful that there are people like you out and about, using your gifts to help others and hopefully change things for the better. you are doing some truly amazing work! the letters, emails, and templates you've shared are all so beautifully written -- it has been very inspiring to see that someone has been able to verbalize these very troubling thoughts and feelings surrounding higher education in such a succinct, thoughtful manner. this is an enormous problem, and i think many are just too intimidated to really try and do anything about it. i'm not much of a writer myself, but your advocacy and efforts thus far have inspired me to initiate correspondence of my own with people like the president and members of congress (something i had never done before reading your blog or joining fsld).
i'm also thrilled to hear that you've found some meaningful employment -- congratulations!!!
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