Nine years ago I was an AmeriCorps VISTA worker for Just Harvest. Today I am a research director for Public Citizen.
Public Citizen’s work is to defend democracy and protect the public interest from corporate power. We lobby, we litigate, and we educate. Overturning Citizens United, fighting unfair trade deals alongside our friends the Steelworkers, and protecting consumers from ripoffs like the EpiPen price gouging are just a few examples of our priorities.
Last week, I read a story in the New York Times about Wells Fargo. In the story, a former Wells Fargo employee described bankers taking advantage of their most vulnerable customers as “lions hunting zebras.”
“Lions hunting zebras.” Think about that. I’ve heard of predatory banking. But hearing it described that way from the inside, I was outraged.
And I was reminded of a group of young men and women I met during my time at Just Harvest.
I was doing outreach at the McKeesport Employment Training Center, talking with these young men and women about the tax preparation assistance that Just Harvest provides. Meet the income guidelines, and we’ll prepare your taxes, free of charge.
It was early in the “tax season,” as we call it. Many were happy to hear about Just Harvest’s service, but several were dismayed that they hadn’t heard about us sooner.
They’d already had their taxes done by one or another of the corporate tax preparers, which of course set up shop in every low-income neighborhood and run incredibly aggressive advertising campaigns to lure in community members, and often take, as a fee for their “service,” a major chunk of the tax refund these struggling workers need.
Even worse, some of these corporate preparers take further advantage of their customers by pushing them into predatory “refund anticipation loans” that are designed to trap them in a cycle of debt.
In 2013, families that qualify for the Earned Income Tax Credit, a major benefit for low-income working families, had more than $2 billion taken from them by these corporate predators.
But here’s the thing: The lions aren’t only on the side that exploits the poor.
There are lions who fight back.
At Just Harvest, under the unbelievably generous direction of Ken Regal, then co-director Joni Rabinowitz, Rochelle Jackson and Kristie Weiland-Stagno, I learned how to be a lion who fights back.
The work I did at Just Harvest, preparing taxes, helping people apply for SNAP benefits, organizing benefits recipients, and watch-dogging welfare offices put me on the path toward a lifetime of fighting for social and economic justice.
I will be forever grateful for the opportunity to do the work I did as Just Harvest’s VISTA. And I’m thrilled to know that Just Harvest now hosts three VISTAs at a time instead of only one.
Because now more than ever, we need more lions on the side of the poor and struggling.
Just Harvest’s tireless efforts activating and empowering the people who Wells Fargo would call zebras and turning them into lions give me hope that the vision of social and economic justice we believe in might one day be within reach.
And with that hope, we can always live to fight another day.
No comments yet.