I laughed, I cried, in Durham

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I'm on my third day in Durham, NC and all is well. I got here Monday night around 10pm, and stayed at a new (for me) hotel downtown. Spent Tuesday and Wednesday attending a conference at the same hotel on the new green economy. I moderated a panel on Tuesday morning of three people talking about social and green entrepreneurship and it went well. They gave me some amazing chocolates made by a local entrepreneur as a moderator gift. I was happy. ( I am so easy to please! :) )

Two of the keynote speakers were highlights for me. One was my friend Melissa Bradley Burns who spoke with passion and spunk about the opportunity we have at this moment to link social justice with the new movement toward green jobs and sustainable enterprise. She has just joined Green for All in Washington, DC, which is working closely with the Obama admin. to to just that. They want to be sure jobs are not just "shovel ready" but are available to people of color and rural populations and that they come with training so these people can get back into the mainstream economy for the long term. She was amazing, a lighting rod of energy, deep commitment and self-effacing humor. She had everyone chuckling the entire time she spoke. I gave her a big kiss and hug afterwards and told her she rocked!

The other speaker, who had me in tears nearly the whole time, was Martin Eakes of Self-Help. He has nearly single-handedly been the truth teller David standing against the corporate goliaths of the predatory lending industry. He started working with local families in North Carolina in the 80's, and found some of the mortgages people had been given were nearly criminal - they sold one man a mortgage for the home he built with his own hands and the payment ballooned about 15 years in. When he went in to refinance, the finance company added 15K to his loan and raised his rates to 15%. Martin showed us that if he had gotten a loan from Self-Help, the guy would have paid off his mortgage and had 10K in savings instead. Martin showed us graphs of the scope and regularity of predatory lending and it was simply appalling. They designed those mortgages to require people to refinance and to incur larger debt - to the point where over 50% of the houses owned by people of color become foreclosed in the US today. 50%! And that's across all income levels, urban/suburban, etc.

Also had some good meetings with colleagues, and enjoyed seeing the new offices of SJF Ventures Advisory Services, whose board I am on. Today I'm set to have some meetings at Duke and spend the afternoon looking at local real estate. Just to explore, you know... Then, I'll drive home tonight.

Happy Thursday all!

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