"Mortgage Can Make or Brake You"

“Mortgage can make or break you”

In my English for class at Chabot community college the students are intensively developing ways on how to be physically, mentally, and financially stable. This semester has introduced vital notions of survival and well-being to me.

The questions that are raised in our classroom environment all have extreme important knowledge behind them. The Daraja communal legacy has enlightened me with knowledge that will allow me to proceed in the right direction.

The students have powerful, educated, voices in the Emoja family of scholars and I believe that is the exact reason why the logo of this program is a stairway to success. “When a person is able to speak out loud and proud articulately, they are considered to be less stressed out than others, and are able to conquer life’s skirmishes with pride and certainty.

 Knowing all about how to do positive and influential things that are necessary for one to be able to benefit and own land in the United States of America is very important. Having a support group like Mr. Tom de Wit fall English class of 2013, allows us to individually develop a sense of belonging. This type of atmosphere is better than the normal classroom environment. It seems as if we make up the class curriculum by dissecting deep lectures and classroom discussions. This is how all teachers can relate their syllabus to the students.

Unfortunately, my parents have never owned a home and probably never will. The United States of America economy has been scarce. There are criminals within our banking system that are currently getting away with crimes equivalent to, or worse than bloody murder. The banks are the reason why many people are homeless today.

During my research I came across facts of life in real estate, I found that people were being swindled by our United States banking system. And that everything usually goes hand-in-hand when it comes to the economic system. There is no question why our government has recently shut down.

The solutions to our problems are found in the book titled “the rich and the rest of us” by (Tavis Smiley and professors Cornel West.) Page 38 stated “to get out of this economic mess we must thoroughly dissect the missing pieces that placed almost 50,000,000 of us in this calamitous position. Greedy and gluttonous individuals and institutions must be exposed and brought to justice”... With that said, the power is within the people; therefore, we must have to learn how to effectively utilize it.

I was fortunate enough to be able to explain the way I feel about notion of our recent government shutdown in our Chabot college spectator newspaper article of Thursday, October 17, 2013. I explained with concern that, “If we are supposed to be the leading and most powerful country, how is it that we are so far in debt? It’s mind boggling to me because we are supposed to be the richest country and we also have starving children. I also feel that an investigation is necessary in order to put the ”banksters” as we should call them on trial.”

Most people were cheated into homes that they could not afford “It is up to our nation’s civilians, teachers, scholars and professors to create the blueprint of success for all, and not the blueprint of being poor and homeless for all.”

It was a beautiful Monday morning, when our English class gathered vital questions raised during our daily classroom discussion and lectures and made a list of them on the whiteboard.

These eleven important questions were raw, and real, which were made up by the students of the class, yet organized by our teacher asking the class about essential aspects of life. Questions such as what is the meaning of dismantling one’s safety net? I learned from my classmates on the day of our research data sharing discussion assignment, that this question can be answered by the notion of question number three on our list which asked, “How are our nation’s manufacturing jobs being converted into low income jobs?” And as these essential things begin to intertwine with each other I can see and feel myself and the class grow within.

By the end of the day each question 1 through 11 was assigned 3 to 4 members creating individual research groups. My group was Analicia, Valerie, Kaylen and myself, Leo Evans, we were assigned question number two. Question two asked us, “How do mortgages work?” We have to collectively gather the information that will allow us to teach our peers the proper way to successfully complete a mortgage with the banks. We all contributed in the making of the main process.

Analicia quest was to do researched to be able to Explain to us during our wed classroom discussion “what a Mortgage is she established that, according to (CNN magazine article 2013 on Are we still heading toward 5% mortgages?) “A mortgage is a loan procured by a buyer to pay off the seller of a piece of property in full. The buyer then owes the lender the total amount borrowed, plus interest and fees. As collateral or guarantee of payment, the lender holds the deed or ownership of said property, until the buyer pays the mortgage off. However, the buyer occupies the property as if it were already their own.”

Kaylen Explained returned and researched the procedures and requirements of a down payment; she taught us that according to (GMAC mortgages magazine article 2013 )“the down payment on a mortgage is the lump sum that you must pay upfront that which lessens the amount of money you have to burrow. You can put as much down as you want but the normal amount is 20% of the house cost.”

Example: If you  and your spouse together make 60,000 a year (which was the case for  first -time home buyers in 2009), you can probably buy a 180,000 home if you have moderate debt (debt payments of 12% of your income ), and a 240,000 home if you have little or no debt and can make 20% down payment.”

Valerie had the section on different types of mortgages, “What is the difference between fixed- and adjustable-rate mortgages?” She shared detailed data with us that Wednesday afternoon. Valerie found that according to (mortgage.com) “a fixed rate mortgages offers an interest rate that will never change over the entire life of the loan. Monthly mortgage payments remain the same for 15, 20, or 30 years, depending on the length of your mortgage.” The only numbers that might change are property taxes and any insurance payments included in your monthly bill.

30 year fixed rate is the longest loan; a person will pay the most in interest. That might not seem like a good thing, it also allows you to deduct the most in interest payments from taxes. This long-term loan locks in the lowest monthly payments.

20 year fixed rate are harder to find, but the shorter term will allow a homebuyer to build up more equity in their home sooner. Since they’ll be making larger monthly payments, the interest rate is generally lower than a 30-year fixed mortgage. 15 year fixed rate has the same benefits as the 20-year term meaning, (one will have a quicker payoff, and will gain higher equity, and lower interest rates), but the homeowner will have an even higher monthly payment. Adjustable mortgages are adjustable and are subject to change under the refinancing notion. She also answered the sub Question of “what would your monthly mortgage be for a $400,000 house?” your mortgage would be $2,300 per month, and that is not including property taxes.

I Leo Evans receive the research on common loans; I discovered according to the facts of (bank rank.com 2013) the process of a 30 year loan vs. a 15 –year loan. The advantages of a 30 year loan are that the monthly payments are low and with the 30 year mortgage you can qualify for a much larger loan and by much larger or nicer house. The downside is that you have to make payments for extra 15 years versus a 15 year loan you would pay a lot more total interest over the life of the loan. Yet, in most cases you will go with a 30 year loan. We then had Analicia type up all of our data so that we were able to articulate our discoveries to our peers professionally.

 We can’t get forget about closing costs you will need to pay a closing costs from your savings (lowering the amount available for a down payment), or qualify for a long that’s a little larger than the house you want to buy, and have the closing costs added to the loan (which is called “rolling the closing costs” into the mortgage).

Unfortunately, there is a higher power that has a lot to do with the evolution of poverty. Apparently, I have heard that in today’s economic challenges “the American dream can only become a reality if you are in a deep sleep.” We have to annihilate all inhumanity in order to have freedom, justice and housing for all. It is our job to promote equality and to make the evolution of property solution, a top priority within our government agendas.

Midterm Assignment #2

In the process of creating the agenda on the group research question, “how does mortgage work?” Our group met up in class and outside of the class several times organizing ways that we can each tackle sections of interest regarding the question at hand.

                We arranged four different areas of our topic splitting up the total process of how to successfully completing a mortgage in four phases.  For example, Analicia was given phase One, she had to thoroughly research the operation of the down payment part of completing a mortgage, and Valerie was given the duty of explaining the way fixed mortgages work etc. Kaylen had to research closing costs and I was fortunate enough to research the difference between a 30 year loan versus a 15 year loan, explaining the advantages and disadvantages of this notion.

The first days of organizing how we were going to introduce our discovery to our classroom we congregated and collaborated on teaching the curriculum of mortgage. Our group decided to go home after school and do our own personal, thorough, research on our topic and return the following class day on a Wednesday afternoon to share with one another.

Our class starts at 1:30 PM. The Daraja community usually starts off with our professor offering fresh fruit to the class. “It makes me feel good to know that I am in a class room that is led by one who cares for the student.”

On Wednesday, When we were given the permission to have our Daily classroom discussion, we gathered our information together and began to discuss the content of mortgage in which we individually research and collected. I was happy that we all did what we said we were going to do, because collectively we had come up with the perfect steps on the main stages on how to complete a mortgage in today’s economic time.

Midterm Assignment One Mortgages

The English 4 midterm question that my group had to research was “How does Mortgages Work?” I was pleased to be able to work on a research paper about one of the most important things for an US citizen to have knowledge of.

My classroom is full of great, young, and ambitious minds that needed to know these type things. I am one of the oldest students in this class and I am a renter, yet I was not able to explain the details or process of owning a home when the question was raised in room 805 at Chabot College, on a beautiful Monday morning of October, 2013.

.. Out of approximately eleven vital questions given to research as a young adult and citizen of the United States of America, the question my group received was the question everyone my age should have known about. I am 33 years of age I was born January 6, 1980 in south-central California. Sometime I blame my parents for my lack of these types of knowledge.

I prepared my paper cautiously by utilizing the Internet and magazine articles that explained most of the necessary information needed to explain how mortgage works to my peers. This was part of our assignment as a team.

For the past week my team; Analicia, Valerie, Kaylen and myself, Leo Evans has worked together using Google drive to organize our introduction and mission statement of the main process of successfully completing a mortgage deal.

 During our intense classroom discussions and research, I noticed that our professor, Tom de Wit was using current events, classroom ideas, and things that will surely relate and help the students in my class with their journey of adult life. I realized that Being a member of this Daraja community will definitely make me and my peers grow mentally, physically, socially and most of all, academically, and professionally.

Work cited:

1.       "Check Current Mortgage Rates." Mortgages & Home Loans. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Oct. 2013.

2.       "Mortgages." Mortgage Rates Compare ARM Loans Fixed Loan Rate by Bankrate.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Oct. 2013.

3.       "Changes at GMAC Mortgage." GMAC Mortgage. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Oct. 2013.

4.       Wednesday, On. "Are We Still Heading toward 5% Mortgage Rates?" CNNMoney. Cable News Network, 19 Sept. 2013. Web. 21 Oct. 2013.
S    Smiley, Tavis, and Cornel West. The Rich and the Rest of Us: A Poverty Manifesto. New York: Smiley, 2012. Print.
SSCHOCK, Richard. "Chabot Voices on the Shutdown." Chabot College The Spectator[Hayward CA.] 17th Oct. 2013, With the Ongoing Government Shut down Hoopla, The Chabot Spectator Asked Students to Share Their Thoughts ed., sec. 2: 2. Print.

Tavis Smiley and Cornel west debate vs. Bill O’Reily Response

Our economic system has been running unevenly, an investigation is long past due for the criminal actions that I believe caused our nation to become this far deep in debt. During the, Tavis Smiley, and Cornell west versus Bill O’Reilly debate, the question of “whether being poor is a social and personal problem…meaning that all poor people are underprivileged do to substance abuse and bad habits? Or, were their surcumbstanses caused by the banks deception. I believe that both can be true. Yet, “with every problem there is a cause and a solution to it.” Bill O’Reilly referred to the poor as a personal problem, but usually most of our problems in America are all caused by deceit and the trickery of Wall Street and our gov.

It is a fact that 1% of the population in the US has the majority of the actual currency. Tavis Smiley had mentioned that “one out of four corporations pay taxes.” My question is why and how is that legal? If you have a big corporation you should be able to afford and pay taxes. If the rich would agree to pay taxes that they evidently can afford I predict that it will allow the consumers to save more and if we the people save more we will spend more.

It is time to recognize the real. In the process of our economic evaluation and investigation, we shall demand that justice is fair and if any criminal behavior or question arise, then every person involve should be put to trail like any other person would have.  The economy will benefit and prosper without evil, and greedy, con artists.

When the notion of whether the banks committed a crime or not was raised Bill O’ Riley said that no crime was committed. Cornell West had replied that “there was never a criminal investigation  performed to have a chance to have discovered any possible criminals of the homeowner scandal. It is obvious to see that America has been built by crime and has been prospering off bloodshed and unpaid criminal acts.

 It is obvious that the banks and our government have conned the nation. it is a crime that Americas tax money is being misused and it should be a crime that food is being wasted, while American children starve as poverty began to evolve around them.
Unnecessary wars are being fought and the people of America are forced to pay with their back breaking, hard earned cash. Then Lay off season come and destroy the little income you have to support your family. Assistance is hard to get and once you get it you have to give it back, so it is actually a big loan. That is another scam, because they call it assistance.

The people who are still stuck in what i call "modern day slavery trade of (employment)," are stuck paying taxes that are being wasted on destructive war crafts “Deadly weapons of mass destruction,” such as the new F-35 fighter jets. According to [popular science magazine] “in 2001 our US taxes paid $85 billion to start paying for the construction of the F-35 fighter jet and it is going to end up costing us $165 billion dollars each plane. The rich should help pay this bill at the least.

We are spending money we don’t have on weapons of mass distraction that currently have hundreds of mechanical problems. “The Wall Street bail out was an apparent scandal. It struck me profoundly, that our nation is currently being bullied in multiparty ways. According to the book “The Rich and The Rest of Us” page 43 has a chart by “Chris Caruso and media mobilizing” that explain the "share of total wealth gain from 1983 to 2009." This page shows a graph of a real-life story of a man named, Jack. Jack like many others during the poverty research had mentioned that ‘’he wish that jobs will come through” he had wanted Obama to do what he had promised us. “Jack did not want to live homeless or in homeless shelters for the rest of his life”, he wanted to work to support himself like every grown man or woman should. “If you had any common since our a little heart at all, you would know that all people are not poor by choice.” and America is being mislead.

Responding to the "The Rich and the Rest of Us"

Responding to the argument on page 49 of “The Rich and the Rest of Us” by, Marian Wright Edelman.

            This page is cosigning the fact that we the intelligent people are faced with the need for strategized change. It is essential that we build a counteractive plan to overcome our current economic conundrum. We are responsible for making sure that our children; who are the future, are equipped with the most efficient resources in order to lead the nation.

Leo Evans

Mr. DeWit

English 4

8\26\13

“SF Chronicles Even Odds”

Education is the way out of the hood. I am a witness to that, I find school safe and it happens to be a positive way to escape being directly in the path of promised self-destruction. Having a place to go other than the streets is a blessing. It feels good coming from a place where I was not expected to graduate, stay out of the criminal system, and obtain an education. Now I am in position of achieving a high GPA in college. I am just a tad bit freer from incarceration, but headed in the right direction and learning how to prosper.

I grew up as a foster child and I feel that my plight had forced me to become a man at an early age. Part one of this article talked about fatherless children in their adolescence growing up like I did without a constant male figure or mentor. There were times when I needed fatherly support  and advice that would have saved me a trip to jail or prison. This Quote in the Sf. Chronicle News Paper hit me at home. It said, “People who don't know better often mistake their street-smart survival skills, their uniform of sagging pants and a scowl, for malice. They live by rules they didn't make: Watch your back. Be aware of your surroundings. Don't venture beyond the invisible borders where you belong.”  I had to learn the hard way. Being fatherless meant I was a child without mentorship, parental guidance, or assistance.

I have learned that time would tell when people need to change. I agree that we have to “refuse to succumb to negatives; we should learn how to replace fears with hope.”

I believe that if kids are taught how to become leaders at an early age, it will prevent them from being involved with negativity. The nation will have a better chance of being whole and successful. We have to make big plans and goals in life and believe in ourselves to accomplish them strategically, one step at a time.

Never forget, know that there are overt racist – nonbelievers, and people who are still alive to make the lives of African-American people a nightmare. The Willie Lynch letter on “how to control a slave” is still being utilized. The African-American people are still being affected by this cruel, and effective strategy that has been creating the downfall of African American people.

This is affecting the way we communicated with each other, the way African cultural tradition bonded and loved in Africa. Let us not ever lose the word African out of the word African American, because we should never let our younger, future,  generations forget where we all came from. The “Willie Lynch letter” is the reason why only 50% of Chabot college black students graduate. How else can a grade point average drop from 4.0 to a low 0.2 in grade school? Without someone or something being the cause of action.

This article explains the difference between Robison being a non-credentialed teacher and able to relate to the kids that he served, and credentialed teachers who still believe in the old school system that is failing our black students. “Time would tell when change is necessary like now; the city is attempting to fix this problem. Some questions are too late?" The first part of this article leads perfectly into the second part: titled… ‘’Oakland Class Offers Black Male Hope’’

African-American students battled a dismal reality that they are more likely to be killed than to be college ready graduates of high school.

1.       Reality Checks: Shirts with pictures of dead peers on them

2.       Fact: One hundred dead, 80 graduated students.

Robison is tatted up like Art, the Striving Black brother leader at Chabot College, and they are positive and very trustworthy individuals. Yet the police would profile people like them and mistake them as criminals. They have turned their lives around and are now mentors and teachers to our youth.

Robison and Art are prime demonstrations of strong black male role models, and that is what is needed to replace the ignorant role models, and students of malice and crime. Robinson lives in Oakland, and he described it as ‘’the nature of the beast.’’

Mid Part two: Explained - how we have to prove statistics wrong. It is time for us to elect and identifying the positive advocates for our youth. “Black boys need advocates”, the superintendent Smith said that "this notion of development is the most important efforts in the country”… But, later he stated in part two of this article that “these children are animals.” That to me sounds discouraging and incompetent. And also sounds like he was referring to the children that are results of  “the making of a slave” by Willie Lynch. His “foolproof method for controlling black slaves confirming the promise and guarantee of everyone that if installed correctly it would control the slaves for at least 300 years”…

Part two of this article also explained how Willie Lynch used slaves against each other. He use the light versus the dark, female versus the man, the old versus the young black slaves and it is still working invisibly.

Time is telling us to change by proving the statistics incorrect, and the only way to do that appropriately is to raise the percentage of African-American academics, and professional achievements.

In the’’ balancing act’’ section of part two, a student by the name of Barry Williams, shared the serious side of life without joking. He was a sophomore who said he hated white people and he began to let off his frustrations to a younger class of students. Williams asked serious questions to the class, he asked… “Who is controlling you?” and I felt that deeply. Everyone should ask themselves that question.

Art Barbosa my mentor and the director of the Striving Black Brothers Coalition once told me that “if you don’t utilize your time someone else will.”

 Jahi who is the middle school instructor at Etna Brewer middle school, stated that “we can’t change what’s happening outside in the world, we give them tools to maneuver within it.” Jahi encourages children to think, be polite, pay attention, study, contain their anger, work in teams, and respect themselves and others.  Jahi was livid when a math teacher forgot to give a young black student the extra credit that he asked for so that the young man could catch up with his school academics. This student was going through hardships as his parents moved house to house being homeless. This refers to how we have to build a blueprint of success so that we don’t end up in these types of grim situations.

“Segregation has nothing to do with it, improvement does.” When it comes to a program like this racism and negativity has no place. The third part of this article is as inspiring as when the principal, Stanley Johnston, stood at the front of the class and announces the start of a new day of academics. He projected his voice clearly, “good morning scholars, who are we?" As the young African American students replied in unison; "we are readers! We are responsible! We are empowered! We are accountable! We are excellent! We are respectful! We are scholars with the goal! We are ready to learn.” Then the principal, Mr. Johnson asked them “Who is ready to learn?” As they responded “We are.”

It felt good to hear this new start of scholastic black culture and how there are people who care, understand, and love our beautiful black children. A Hundred Black Men are giving back to society by bringing the academic strengths out of these kids. One of the officials stated “Be the player don’t get played.”