JORDAN FOGAL

Author & Consumer Advocate

My Name Is Jordan Fogal

 I was born on a farm in Taylorville,  Alabama. I watched animals and insects. I learned they have a special sense concerning weather changes. For example ants will build higher hills right before it rains so the water does not run inside.

We the people are also like these worker ants. We sense the imminence of a storm before the obvious. We know our groceries are costing more. We know the dollar does not go as far. We  feel the pressure of our co workers being laid off.  We know we must then do the work of two or we may not have a job at all. We get the same pay and are afraid to complain. We have families to feed. We knew there was a recession long before the mention of the word. When the economic tsunami was finally recognized by our economic geniuses, they blamed us, the stupid worker ants that bought more than we could afford. We the people:  who work, pay our taxes and follow the rules of the law are the ones to blame?
We were too busy working to think up ways to cheat others out of their hard earned money. But those in power have made the path of their ill gotten gains difficult to trace with all the corporate high jinks.
Greed has infected corporate America and our government. They no longer work for the people who voted for them. They are beholden to big business. Big business bought their seats and their votes. We have no voice. We spend hours and days, we needed to work, trying to reach "our" consumer protection agencies and "our" representatives.
We are shown over and over just how insignificant we are, like the worker ants serving the queen. Our job is to work and shut up. Road blocks are in place so our voices are silenced. We try to call and are met with computerized voices that send us no where except to other agencies that send us to other agencies that keep us on hold and play music for us. If by chance a human should be reached it is not their fault, it is not their responsibility, and we are referred or rerouted or... oops you are disconnected. Hours we waste taking to computers. They wonder why consumer confidence is so low? We are beyond frustration. We are a nation of angry people. And from this woman's' prospective we have every right to be angry. We write emails that disappear in the black hole of cyberspace. If they get a response it is a computer generated, signature stamped email or letter that does not even address the subject in question.
Millions of us have been neatly hidden under the title sub primes. We know what really happened. But no one will listen because then action would have to be taken. A blind eye was turned and now knee jerk reactions pay the real culprits. And they pay them again with our money. Bail outs...  pay offs to make us, the stupid people think we  will be the recipients of assistance. The government can give no money it does not take from someone else.
When the worker ants are destroyed who will feed the queen?

Jordan Fogal, The "Lemon Lady", protests outside Tremont Towers.