Osceola County, Florida is home to many Orlando suburbs where the majority of residents are people of color. Kissimmee, a city in Osceola has strip malls, K-marts and a few driving ranges but there are also miles of verdant green space with tall yellow grasses and knotted trees that line the highway. The streets appear to be built around the green-space instead of the trees sacrificing themselves for a new street or highway. Residents of this community have been able to take part in the “American dream” of buying a house and living in large beautiful tract homes with green manicured lawns. Some residents have known each other for years but most have seen their neighbors come and go in just a short time due to predatory lending practices that brought new neighbors in only to be evicted by not keeping up with the escalating fees on their mortgage payments.

Along with Nevada and California, Florida has some of the highest foreclosure rates in the country. In the last four years, this region of Osceola County has had its fair share of foreclosures and evictions. Many homes look like shells, visibly empty with frayed lawns growing wild. On many blocks, out of ten doors we knocked on, only five where inhabited, the others appeared desolate suggesting foreclosure.

Florida represents one of the state's hardest hit by predatory lending, destroying the American dream for the working class, mostly African American and Latino residents. It has been a painful lesson of this economy and the importance of this election as we've knocked on door after door to find that people have been forced to abandon their homes—the homes they worked hard to attain and thought that finally they would get a piece of the pie by sharing in land ownership.

The economy is foremost on people's minds right now. As I have polled residents in home after home, each person had something to say about it. One woman told me that though she was voting in this election, she abhors politics. She feels that this is an important election and that she is voting for Barack Obama. She told me that she was living with her parents and trying to save up her money so that she could move to Houston and away from an abusive husband who almost killed her.

In home after home, people have stories to tell, reasons why this election season is important to them. Many are out of work and concerned about losing their homes and they are disappointed with the past eight years of Republican leadership. Even in Florida, many people see Obama as only leader that can guide us through this current crisis.

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