I need your help to locate someone at the protests who was a middle class person but has now lost everything and is now struggling to get by.
I am sorry for the short diary but I have been approached by a Swiss TV Producer out of Washington DC. Here is the body of the e-mail I received:
Dear Sir,
I am the producer of the Swiss Television in Washington DC. We are working on a 5/7 minutes feature story about the "death of the middle-class" in the Unites States. We would like to illustrate it by telling someone's story.
We are looking for someone willing to be filmed next week, for at least half a day - between October 10 and October 13. Someone who suffered in the last years because of the consequences of the economic crisis, who was definitely part of the middle class - but lost a lot (job and/or foreclosure) and is struggling now in the actual economic climate. We would like this person to be also part of the demonstrations ("Wall Street Protests") in NY or in any other part of America.
This can be an individual, or a family portrait.
I hope you could help us find someone who would agree to be filmed.
Swiss TV is the primary public broadcaster for the country of Switzerland. We have three channels for each of our three languages. In the DC bureau we cover news, politics, and other US-based stories for our nightly news programs in Zurich, Geneva, and Lugano.
You can find our news stories, from our three channels, here:
http://www.sf.tv/
http://www.tsr.ch/...
http://info.rsi.ch/...
I was approached due to the fact that I own a small website called Save The Middle Class This seems like a good way to publicize the protests and the reasons for the protests to a broader audience.
I would also welcome help in developing my website. I am fortunate enough to still be working so my time to concentrate on this site is limited. I can tell you that three times I have been approached by right wing groups to buy the name. I would imagine they saw it as a way to propagandize and confuse Americans about exactly why the middle class is an endangered species.
My current idea is to build the site out to include pages for each state which would educate on voter suppression tactics, corruption and other needed information on a statewide level. This could also be used to bring people together to get prepared for the 2012 elections. We are a nation in trouble. The influence of big money on our politics has turned our political system into legalized bribery and this bribery goes all the way to the Supreme Court.
If people understand who is the enemy they will know what needs to be done to stop this madness.
I can also be reached through twitter @savethemiddle.
Any help you can give to find a compelling story from the protests would be greatly appreciated.