Thursday, November 26, 2009
Families of Military Suicides Seek White House Condolences
As one who lived through the Vietnam War era, I lost two friends - their family owned the summer home next to ours - who had served in the Army and came back home seriously disturbed emotionally by what they had experienced to the point that they took their own lives. A cousin also served as an Army Captain and volunteered as a nurse in Vietnam. While she never took her own life, her war experience changed her and she was never the again the happy free spirit she once had been. The two brothers who killed themselves were as much war casualties as if they had died on the battlefield. More recently, one of my clients feared for her husband who had done six tours in Iraq and Afghanistan with the Navy special forces. So far, he seems to have rebounded, but the horrors will never leave him. Yet even today, survivors of war related military suicides do not receive the standard condolences from the commander in chief. It is a sad commentary that these other war casualties are denied recognition since most would be alive but for their military service and the horrors they witnessed. The New York Times has a story today that looks at this issue. Here are some highlights: *
Since at least the time of Abraham Lincoln, presidents have sent letters of condolence to the families of service members killed in action, whether the deaths came by hostile fire or in an accident. So after his son killed himself in Iraq in June, Gregg Keesling expected that his family would receive a letter from President Obama. What it got instead was a call from an Army official telling family members that they were not eligible because their son had committed suicide.
*
The roots of that policy, which has been passed from administration to administration via White House protocol officers, are murky and probably based in the view that suicide is not an honorable way to die, administration and military officials say. . . . But at a time when the Pentagon is trying to destigmatize mental health care in hopes of stemming a near epidemic of suicide among service members, the question of whether the survivors of military suicides deserve presidential recognition has taken on new significance.
*
“These families already feel such shame and so alienated from the military and the country, a letter from the president might give them some comfort, some sense that people recognize their sacrifice,” said Kim Ruocco, director for suicide support for Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors, or TAPS, a military support group. “What better way to eliminate stigma?”
*
Through October, the Army, which far and away leads the armed forces in suicides, reported 133 among active-duty soldiers, putting it on pace to surpass last year’s record, 140. The Marine Corps, which has the second-largest number, is also likely to have more suicides than last year, 42. . . . the Army is trying to soften the longstanding sense that psychological problems are a sign of frailty. “We have to reduce the stigma surrounding seeking mental health help,” Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli, the Army vice chief of staff, said this year. “Getting help for emotional problems should be as natural as seeking help for a sprained ankle.”
*
After Gregg Keesling’s son, Chancellor, shot himself in a latrine on June 19, the family received a folded flag, a letter from the Army praising their son, a rifle salute at his burial and financial death benefits. But he views the letter of condolence as an important step toward reducing the shame and guilt many survivors feel. Hours before Chancellor, a 25-year-old specialist, killed himself, he had argued with his girlfriend over the phone and then sent a rambling, despondent e-mail message home.
*
“I can’t explain how ashamed i am i said some things out of anger,” he wrote. “I can’t cope without each and every one of you there by me the whole way. I feel alone and unappreciated for some odd reason this deployment is ending up to be like the last i thought about killing myself and went to the porti john and chambered a round into my m4 but decided not to pull the trigger. I realize i need help and i need to have family put first. Please forgive me and except my apology.” About 17 hours later, he was dead.
*
“My last words to my son were, ‘Be a man and get through it,’ ” Mr. Keesling said, recalling one of dozens of frantic phone calls to Iraq in the hours before Chancellor’s death. “I was the stupid dad. If my son had said, ‘Dad, I’ve broken my leg, I can’t go on,’ I would have understood. But I didn’t understand the mental health side.”
*
Since at least the time of Abraham Lincoln, presidents have sent letters of condolence to the families of service members killed in action, whether the deaths came by hostile fire or in an accident. So after his son killed himself in Iraq in June, Gregg Keesling expected that his family would receive a letter from President Obama. What it got instead was a call from an Army official telling family members that they were not eligible because their son had committed suicide.
*
The roots of that policy, which has been passed from administration to administration via White House protocol officers, are murky and probably based in the view that suicide is not an honorable way to die, administration and military officials say. . . . But at a time when the Pentagon is trying to destigmatize mental health care in hopes of stemming a near epidemic of suicide among service members, the question of whether the survivors of military suicides deserve presidential recognition has taken on new significance.
*
“These families already feel such shame and so alienated from the military and the country, a letter from the president might give them some comfort, some sense that people recognize their sacrifice,” said Kim Ruocco, director for suicide support for Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors, or TAPS, a military support group. “What better way to eliminate stigma?”
*
Through October, the Army, which far and away leads the armed forces in suicides, reported 133 among active-duty soldiers, putting it on pace to surpass last year’s record, 140. The Marine Corps, which has the second-largest number, is also likely to have more suicides than last year, 42. . . . the Army is trying to soften the longstanding sense that psychological problems are a sign of frailty. “We have to reduce the stigma surrounding seeking mental health help,” Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli, the Army vice chief of staff, said this year. “Getting help for emotional problems should be as natural as seeking help for a sprained ankle.”
*
After Gregg Keesling’s son, Chancellor, shot himself in a latrine on June 19, the family received a folded flag, a letter from the Army praising their son, a rifle salute at his burial and financial death benefits. But he views the letter of condolence as an important step toward reducing the shame and guilt many survivors feel. Hours before Chancellor, a 25-year-old specialist, killed himself, he had argued with his girlfriend over the phone and then sent a rambling, despondent e-mail message home.
*
“I can’t explain how ashamed i am i said some things out of anger,” he wrote. “I can’t cope without each and every one of you there by me the whole way. I feel alone and unappreciated for some odd reason this deployment is ending up to be like the last i thought about killing myself and went to the porti john and chambered a round into my m4 but decided not to pull the trigger. I realize i need help and i need to have family put first. Please forgive me and except my apology.” About 17 hours later, he was dead.
*
“My last words to my son were, ‘Be a man and get through it,’ ” Mr. Keesling said, recalling one of dozens of frantic phone calls to Iraq in the hours before Chancellor’s death. “I was the stupid dad. If my son had said, ‘Dad, I’ve broken my leg, I can’t go on,’ I would have understood. But I didn’t understand the mental health side.”
*
As one who has contemplated and attempted suicide, I believe that the stigma of seeking mental health care must be diminished. Not only within the LGBT community that suffers from so much discrimination and family rejection, but across the spectrums of society. No one should be pushed to the point where all they can think of is the need to make the pain/loneliness/alienation stop.
Happy Thanksgiving!
After a rainy week, we finally have sunshine and today bodes to be a nice day weather wise. The boyfriend and I will have dinner at the home of his niece and her husband along with a gathering of other family members. Most of my family will gather at my sister's home in Charlottesville, while my daughters will also be in Charlottesville at the home of one of my former sisters-in-law. I will do my best to not dwell on my two older children's abandonment of me. Fortunately, the boyfriend's family is very accepting of me, including his remarkable father, a retired Baptist minister who greeted me with "welcome to the family" the first time we meet each other.**
I hope all readers celebrating the holiday today will have a wonderful day with family and/or friends. I know several gay friends having events at their homes for those in the LGBT community who have been rejected by their families and who have nowhere to go for the holiday dinner. Ironically, its often the gays who act more Christian to others than the self-proclaimed "godly Christians."
*The photo above is of Berkeley Plantation west of Williamsburg, site of the actual first Thanksgiving before the claim was usurped by the Pilgrims: Historians have also recorded other ceremonies of thanks among European settlers in North America, including British colonists in Berkeley Plantation, Virginia. At this site near the Charles River in December of 1619, a group of British settlers led by Captain John Woodlief knelt in prayer and pledged "Thanksgiving" to God for their healthy arrival after a long voyage across the Atlantic. This event has been acknowledged by some scholars and writers as the official first Thanksgiving among European settlers on record.
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
When an American Idol Meets Homophobia
There has been a great deal of chatter in the blogosphere and on various news outlets about Adam Lambert's apparently impromptu kiss of a male keyboard player during the American Music Awards earlier this week (pictured at right). Sadly, I tend to agree with Lambert who believes that the reaction to the kiss is a case of a double standard: its fine two show two women kissing - e.g., Madonna and Britney Spears- but if the kiss involves two guys, the self-anointed and sanctimonious go berserk. Worse yet, a lame ABC News caves in and cancels Lambert's appearance on Good Morning America. Truth be told, the Christianists and those who are afraid of offending Christianist sensibilities want gays to simply disappear and become invisible. I'm sorry, but my attitude is that they can go f*ck themselves. We gays have been present since the earliest times in recorded history and we are NOT going away or going to hide any longer. From Classical Greece through Hellenistic times, same sex relationships were considered normal. Indeed, many of the writings of Classical Greek writers extol the virtues of same sex love and it was expected that young men have male lovers. Here are some highlights from a Newsweek story that looks at the controversy and the unequal treatment afforded gay males:*
When Star Trek's Captain Kirk kissed the lovely Lieutenant Uhura onscreen in 1968, for what is thought to be the first black and white kiss on American TV, it was involuntary—telekinesis made them do it. Whoops! (Haven't we all been there?). It was the best way to get it past the network censors of course, because a white man kissing a black woman simply because he or she wanted to would have been far too provocative.
*
When former American Idol runner-up Adam Lambert kissed his male keyboard player on the American Music Awards on Sunday night, he too claims it was not premeditated but "in the moment."
*
This was an openly gay man kissing another man on television. ABC received 1,500 complaints and promptly canceled a performance that Lambert was due to give on Good Morning America Wednesday. He did not suffer due to ABC's timidity, as CBS snapped him up immediately.
*
ABC said it was too early in the morning for viewers to be exposed to "controversial" raunch like that. Now there are many things I don't like seeing early in the morning. Sweaty joggers, dirty nappies, trash cans emptied on the sidewalk, too-bright sunlight, and plastic, hole-punched footwear. Even, or perhaps especially, people who are cheerful and talk too much.
*
But two men locking lips? Even daytime soap operas have featured gay and lesbian kisses. Haven't we seen this all before? In 2003, Madonna kissed Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera—and these starlets were not just the same sex as Madonna but much younger as well.
*
So let's be clear: a girl kissing a boy is romance, a girl kissing a girl is titillation, and a boy kissing a boy is a controversial act of perversion? What do people think gay men actually do when they like each other? . . . [T]his whole episode is surely another illustration of the generational divide in attitudes to homosexuality. I doubt the people dialing the ABC complaints line on Sunday night were spring chickens. A 2009 CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll found 58 percent of people aged 18–34 thought gay marriage should be legal, compared to 24 percent of those over 65. And young people were very cranky Tuesday: on Twitter, the hashtag "#ShameOnYouABC" started by blogger and gay activist Perez Hilton, was receiving roughly 3,000 comments per hour all afternoon. That's double the total number of phone calls ABC received—every hour.
When Star Trek's Captain Kirk kissed the lovely Lieutenant Uhura onscreen in 1968, for what is thought to be the first black and white kiss on American TV, it was involuntary—telekinesis made them do it. Whoops! (Haven't we all been there?). It was the best way to get it past the network censors of course, because a white man kissing a black woman simply because he or she wanted to would have been far too provocative.
*
When former American Idol runner-up Adam Lambert kissed his male keyboard player on the American Music Awards on Sunday night, he too claims it was not premeditated but "in the moment."
*
This was an openly gay man kissing another man on television. ABC received 1,500 complaints and promptly canceled a performance that Lambert was due to give on Good Morning America Wednesday. He did not suffer due to ABC's timidity, as CBS snapped him up immediately.
*
ABC said it was too early in the morning for viewers to be exposed to "controversial" raunch like that. Now there are many things I don't like seeing early in the morning. Sweaty joggers, dirty nappies, trash cans emptied on the sidewalk, too-bright sunlight, and plastic, hole-punched footwear. Even, or perhaps especially, people who are cheerful and talk too much.
*
But two men locking lips? Even daytime soap operas have featured gay and lesbian kisses. Haven't we seen this all before? In 2003, Madonna kissed Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera—and these starlets were not just the same sex as Madonna but much younger as well.
*
So let's be clear: a girl kissing a boy is romance, a girl kissing a girl is titillation, and a boy kissing a boy is a controversial act of perversion? What do people think gay men actually do when they like each other? . . . [T]his whole episode is surely another illustration of the generational divide in attitudes to homosexuality. I doubt the people dialing the ABC complaints line on Sunday night were spring chickens. A 2009 CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll found 58 percent of people aged 18–34 thought gay marriage should be legal, compared to 24 percent of those over 65. And young people were very cranky Tuesday: on Twitter, the hashtag "#ShameOnYouABC" started by blogger and gay activist Perez Hilton, was receiving roughly 3,000 comments per hour all afternoon. That's double the total number of phone calls ABC received—every hour.
*
The Los Angeles Times also looks at the controversy and the double standard applied to gays versus female singers/performers.
Former Airline Exec Starts Upscale Gay Tour Company
I have done a post or two before about my friend Jeff Ward (pictured at right) and the gay tour company he has started called Savvy Navigator .Jeff and his husband, Michael Klein are great guys and their wedding reception back in 2005 in Washington, DC, was fabulous not the least because Michael produces What Not to Wear and While You Were Out for TLC and the casts from both shows were at the reception. Now, Passport Magazine has a tremendous profile on Jeff and his company. While I will not be able to afford one of his tours anytime soon, I am sure that it would be an experience of a lifetime. For more information on upcoming trips to South Africa, Argentina and Costa Rica, check things out here. Meanwhile, here are some highlights from the Passport Magazine story:
*
In the autumn of 2006, Jeffrey Ward began planning a party that would change his life. Well, change his life again. For several years, Ward, who today operates the niche gay travel company Savvy Navigator (www.savvynavigator.com), had been dealing with unexpected turbulence.
*
Ward eventually took a buyout from American and started his own small executive coaching business, Northward Leadership & Development. It seemed like a logical move, “I’d spent twelve years climbing the corporate ladder, but really loving my work every single day. I never understood people who hated going to work, who felt victimized by their careers or their jobs. I felt passionate about helping people close the gap between where they are and where they want to be.”
*
Which brings us back to that life-changing party. “Michael was going to turn 40 in April 2007, and we decided to have a big celebration with about 25 friends and family in Cape Town, South Africa. It’s a place we love. We’d been there together several times, including for our honeymoon after getting married at Toronto City Hall in 2004.
*
Ward ended his husband’s South African birthday extravaganza with a new beginning for himself. At a debrief following his meticulously planned group adventure, Ward began to brainstorm business opportunities with Southern Destinations, the company he’d used on the ground in Cape Town to help coordinate guides, lodges, and activity providers for his clan. “I realized that using my connections, I could put together Abercrombie & Kent-style itineraries for about half their price. I started mulling it over and thought this could be enormously appealing to a segment of the gay North American audience.”
*
Ward, whose well-heeled guests tend to range in age from 35 to 55, notes that just because one no longer wants to flop in hostels or schlep a backpack doesn’t mean limiting one’s self to the generic five-star chic of giant hotels that may feel no different whether you’re in Brazil or Bombay. “These are first class trips,” he notes (Savvy Navigator tours run from $4,000 to $6,000 per person), “but if you’re paying for me to arrange your vacation, I want to deliver an experience you probably couldn’t put together on your own. So many tour companies, gay and straight, use the same vendors and go to the same places. Savvy Navigator is not going to take you to a restaurant where you’ll turn around and see another group of tourists. I’m taking these trips with my groups, and they get the kind of inspiring, immersive vacation that Michael and I like to take ourselves.”
*
For independent-minded travelers a bit leery of traveling in a group, Ward stresses that Savvy Navigator tours are limited to twelve guests. “My typical guest is a gay man, generally north of 40, traveling with a couple of friends. It’s about 50/50 singles and couples, and we try to avoid charging single supplements whenever we can.”
*
Clearly, Ward has found a viable niche. One unexpected revenue stream for Savvy Traveler has resulted from word-of-mouth. “I was getting calls from people who heard about their friends’ experiences on my trips but whose vacation schedules didn’t allow them to travel when I had a tour going. So I started offering customized trips for couples, using a lot of the same locations. Because of my relationships with these great accommodations and guides who are genuinely gay-friendly, I’ve been able to arrange amazing gay honeymoon trips to South Africa. And there are even some hip straight people who’ve heard about us and asked me to make plans for them.”
*
Ward eventually took a buyout from American and started his own small executive coaching business, Northward Leadership & Development. It seemed like a logical move, “I’d spent twelve years climbing the corporate ladder, but really loving my work every single day. I never understood people who hated going to work, who felt victimized by their careers or their jobs. I felt passionate about helping people close the gap between where they are and where they want to be.”
*
Which brings us back to that life-changing party. “Michael was going to turn 40 in April 2007, and we decided to have a big celebration with about 25 friends and family in Cape Town, South Africa. It’s a place we love. We’d been there together several times, including for our honeymoon after getting married at Toronto City Hall in 2004.
*
Ward ended his husband’s South African birthday extravaganza with a new beginning for himself. At a debrief following his meticulously planned group adventure, Ward began to brainstorm business opportunities with Southern Destinations, the company he’d used on the ground in Cape Town to help coordinate guides, lodges, and activity providers for his clan. “I realized that using my connections, I could put together Abercrombie & Kent-style itineraries for about half their price. I started mulling it over and thought this could be enormously appealing to a segment of the gay North American audience.”
*
Ward, whose well-heeled guests tend to range in age from 35 to 55, notes that just because one no longer wants to flop in hostels or schlep a backpack doesn’t mean limiting one’s self to the generic five-star chic of giant hotels that may feel no different whether you’re in Brazil or Bombay. “These are first class trips,” he notes (Savvy Navigator tours run from $4,000 to $6,000 per person), “but if you’re paying for me to arrange your vacation, I want to deliver an experience you probably couldn’t put together on your own. So many tour companies, gay and straight, use the same vendors and go to the same places. Savvy Navigator is not going to take you to a restaurant where you’ll turn around and see another group of tourists. I’m taking these trips with my groups, and they get the kind of inspiring, immersive vacation that Michael and I like to take ourselves.”
*
For independent-minded travelers a bit leery of traveling in a group, Ward stresses that Savvy Navigator tours are limited to twelve guests. “My typical guest is a gay man, generally north of 40, traveling with a couple of friends. It’s about 50/50 singles and couples, and we try to avoid charging single supplements whenever we can.”
*
Clearly, Ward has found a viable niche. One unexpected revenue stream for Savvy Traveler has resulted from word-of-mouth. “I was getting calls from people who heard about their friends’ experiences on my trips but whose vacation schedules didn’t allow them to travel when I had a tour going. So I started offering customized trips for couples, using a lot of the same locations. Because of my relationships with these great accommodations and guides who are genuinely gay-friendly, I’ve been able to arrange amazing gay honeymoon trips to South Africa. And there are even some hip straight people who’ve heard about us and asked me to make plans for them.”
Clergy Abuse Victims Criticize Rhode Island Bishop
As is sadly the norm, members of the Roman Catholic hierarchy are much more interested in harrassing Catholics who fail to toe the line on the Church's mandated Midieval dogma than they are in cleaning their own festering house or atoning for the massive sexual abuse scandal. Hypocrisy, dishonesty and pompousness seem to be the leading prerequisites nowadays for appointment as a bishop or Cardinal under Pope Palpatine. A case in point is Rhode Island Bishop Thomas Tobin who has the time to harass Congressman Patrick Kennedy but not enough time - or concern it would seem - to deal with abuse victims. I continue to ask myself why anybody who has not had a lobotomy continues to listen to the morally bankrupt Church hierarchy. Here are some story highlights from the Washington Post:*
PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Clergy sex abuse victims and their supporters said Tuesday that Rhode Island's Roman Catholic bishop is not doing enough to protect children from pedophile priests even as he's taken on Democratic Rep. Patrick Kennedy for his stance on abortion rights.
*
A small group of protesters gathered outside Bishop Thomas Tobin's office in Providence two days after news broke that the bishop had asked Kennedy in 2007 not to take Holy Communion because he supports abortion rights.
*
"He claims that it's important that we protect the unborn. But it's equally as important to protect those who have been born and those young children who have been raped and sodomized by clerics and priests. But yet he seems to protect those clerics," said Ruth Moore, of Hull, Mass.
*
The group called on Tobin to publish the names of priests from the diocese who have been convicted of or admitted molesting children, or if a thorough investigation has turned up credible evidence of child molestation, even if no conviction resulted.
*
Such a list could help parents keep their children away from molesters and help employers screen potential hires, the protesters said. Skip Shea, from Uxbridge, Mass., who was abused by a priest as a child, told of seeing his abuser working next to the children's section in a bookstore as he awaited trial for abusing children.
Bill Nash of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests called on Tobin to use his authority as a spiritual figurehead to protect children. "There are a lot of moral issues that he has to take leadership in, and the protection of children is a very important and critical area of moral leadership that he should be taking a more proactive stand with," Nash said.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Clergy sex abuse victims and their supporters said Tuesday that Rhode Island's Roman Catholic bishop is not doing enough to protect children from pedophile priests even as he's taken on Democratic Rep. Patrick Kennedy for his stance on abortion rights.
*
A small group of protesters gathered outside Bishop Thomas Tobin's office in Providence two days after news broke that the bishop had asked Kennedy in 2007 not to take Holy Communion because he supports abortion rights.
*
"He claims that it's important that we protect the unborn. But it's equally as important to protect those who have been born and those young children who have been raped and sodomized by clerics and priests. But yet he seems to protect those clerics," said Ruth Moore, of Hull, Mass.
*
The group called on Tobin to publish the names of priests from the diocese who have been convicted of or admitted molesting children, or if a thorough investigation has turned up credible evidence of child molestation, even if no conviction resulted.
*
Such a list could help parents keep their children away from molesters and help employers screen potential hires, the protesters said. Skip Shea, from Uxbridge, Mass., who was abused by a priest as a child, told of seeing his abuser working next to the children's section in a bookstore as he awaited trial for abusing children.
Bill Nash of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests called on Tobin to use his authority as a spiritual figurehead to protect children. "There are a lot of moral issues that he has to take leadership in, and the protection of children is a very important and critical area of moral leadership that he should be taking a more proactive stand with," Nash said.
About 22% of Mortgages in Hampton Roads are 'Underwater'
Congress and the Obama administration can talk all they want about the recession easing but as long as the real estate industry remains crippled and families are faced with negative equity in their homes, the economy will NOT really rebound. Banks have been bailed out to the tune of billions of dollars, yet they are not passing that benefit on to homeowners in the form of loan modifications and work outs or new lending. The result is that more and more homes go into foreclosure and families file for bankruptcy. *
Equally bad, it has become so difficult the secure larger loans that houses over $350,000 to $500,000 that that segment of the market remains utterly dead. Combined with crushing medical costs and it is a recipe for continued economic disaster. Particularly hard hit are military families that bought homes using VA loans who put little or no money down at the time of purchase. I began a mantra that "it's the real estate market stupid" back in mid-2007 yet little has changed, Any current "surge" in home sales remains a trickle compared to a few years ago and is focused on lower end homes being acquired by first time buyers out to take advantage of the tax credit being offered. Until the banks begin loaning money in a serious manner again, do not expect the economy to recover. Here are highlights from the Virginian Pilot:
*
*
More than 71,500 homeowners in Hampton Roads owed more on their mortgages than the homes were worth at the end of September, according to a report released Tuesday. That's nearly one in four local mortgage borrowers -22 percent - who are "underwater" on the loans, according to First American CoreLogic, which is based in Santa Ana, Calif., and tracks mortgages across the country.
*
"Things have not gotten better," said Vinod B. Agarwal, an economist at Old Dominion University. "But things have not gotten much worse." Homeowners who purchased at the peak of the local housing boom, especially with little or no down payment or an interest-only loan, are the most susceptible to finding themselves underwater in a loan. Falling home values can erode any equity homeowners have in a newly purchased or refinanced home.
*
Economists and real estate experts say that owing more on a home than it's worth is one of the most common precursors to foreclosure. Bank repossessions and foreclosure auctions in Hampton Roads have remained at high levels in recent months, and First American's report indicates foreclosure activity could grow, dampening the prospects of a quick housing recovery.
*
Across the country, nearly 10.7 million homeowners - or 23 percent - owe more than their homes are worth, First American reported. The majority of such negative-equity mortgages are in states such as Nevada, Arizona, Florida, Michigan and California.
*
*
"Things have not gotten better," said Vinod B. Agarwal, an economist at Old Dominion University. "But things have not gotten much worse." Homeowners who purchased at the peak of the local housing boom, especially with little or no down payment or an interest-only loan, are the most susceptible to finding themselves underwater in a loan. Falling home values can erode any equity homeowners have in a newly purchased or refinanced home.
*
Economists and real estate experts say that owing more on a home than it's worth is one of the most common precursors to foreclosure. Bank repossessions and foreclosure auctions in Hampton Roads have remained at high levels in recent months, and First American's report indicates foreclosure activity could grow, dampening the prospects of a quick housing recovery.
*
Across the country, nearly 10.7 million homeowners - or 23 percent - owe more than their homes are worth, First American reported. The majority of such negative-equity mortgages are in states such as Nevada, Arizona, Florida, Michigan and California.
*
Indicative of how bad things are, I received a holiday party invitation yesterday from a law firm specializing in bankruptcy work. Why? Because I have referred them so many clients in the last year. Outside of bankruptcy and foreclosure work, the legal industry is suffering severely too.
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