January 15, 2007

Thank you Robin for that kind introduction. Congratulations to you and all the winners of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Spirit Awards.

I’d like to recognize all the elected officials who came out this morning and thank you Village President Mark Stricker for inviting me here today.

I know it was hard to lose Robin as your State Representative.

But by joining my team as chief of staff, she is bringing the south suburbs new exposure and is improving the way state government and the treasurer’s office serves her constituents.

When I was invited to speak here today, I reread Dr. King’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech.

As the state’s treasurer, I thought it was interesting that when Dr. King marched in Washington in 1963 he said he came to the nation’s capital to cash a check.

He said the check held the promise that all men -- black and white -- would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

He said that America had given African Americans a bad check, a check marked “insufficient funds.”

Being the people’s banker, that metaphor struck me. Like Dr. King, I refuse to accept that the bank of the United States of America, that the bank of justice, is corrupt.

Because not only I am in charge of investing your money, I also have a social agenda.

It is my responsibility to help parents save money for their children to attend college and find ways to spur economic growth and development.

I am making it my job to create jobs, promote financial literacy, protect against predatory lending, support the development of alternative fuel sources and bring ethics back to state government.

But there is one particular goal that I want to share with you today, one that I think is keenly appropriate for the celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday.

As you know, Dr. King was a driving force in the pursuit of racial equality and desegregation in the 1950s and ‘60s. And in 1963, King focused his efforts on Birmingham, Alabama.

He and his followers -- men, women and children -- marched and protested non-violently. They were met by police dogs and water cannons. The vivid picture of hate forced the white leaders of Birmingham to concede to some of King’s anti-segregation demands.

It was only days after Dr. King’s tragic assassination in 1968 that Congress passed the Fair Housing Act.

Forty years later, fair housing -- the right to live wherever you want and can afford -- remains at the heart of the American dream.

Unfortunately, a less-than-perfect credit rating can make that dream seem like it’s never going to come true. We’re working to change that through a program called Our Own Home.

Our Own Home is a homeownership program that has helped hundreds of Illinois families purchase their home or prevent foreclosure.

Almost $19 million in mortgage loans have been financed using our program, loans that otherwise would not have been made by the bank.

The people who have benefited from this program are your neighbors. Twenty seven percent of the loans in Cook County were made in the south suburbs, from Markham to Lansing, in Blue Island and Dolton.

But we can do more.

This program has been on the backburner at the Treasurer’s office for many years. I am making it a top priority in my administration.

In four years, I want to say we guaranteed one loan every day I am in office. That’s 1,460 low to moderate income families who will be able to say “Welcome to my home.”

Why is this important? Homeownership is a key to realizing the American Dream, the dream of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

When you own your own home, you make an investment in your community. Your children do better in school and are less likely to be involved in crime. Homeownership strengthens families and it strengthens communities.

As Robin has told me, those are strengths you know about here in Matteson, a village that I have called a microcosm of the state.

Matteson is a diverse community. Property values are rising. District 162 has some of the highest scoring schools in the state. Really impressive is the letter writing campaign you’ve undertaken to recruit high-quality businesses to the village.

I will do my best to make sure all people have access and opportunity to the wealth of this great nation.

Access and opportunity are important to me as a banker and as a son.

My parents immigrated to Chicago from a war-torn village in Greece in 1962, the heart of the civil rights era. My father sold pickles and worked odd jobs while my mother sold sewing machines at Sears and raised three boys.

Through hard work and dedication, my father was able to found a bank in Chicago’s Edgewater community. He made it his life’s work to help others. The bank made it possible for thousands of people to buy homes and start businesses.

Now, I hope to build off of Dr. King’s message and do my part to help people realize their dreams of homeownership, strong families and strong communities. I thank you for the opportunity to share my dream with you.