Jim Hightower

Bankers and their lobbyists would have you and me believe that all our borrowing woes will be OK if we just let the big banks get bigger. I tell you: If ignorance is bliss, these guys must be ecstatic.

Ask Delilah Black. She s someone the big banks forgot a long time ago: the little customer.

Ms. Black, a 41-year-old mother of five, is a computer file clerk in Dallas. She needed a small loan so she could replace her old, wore out 79 Chevy. But those Gucci shoes in the gleaming bank towers in downtown Dallas would turn-down Delilah Black faster than a hog eats supper. And be a little snooty about it, too.

Luckily, she found another way: something called Common Ground Credit Union had opened right in her own community. They put her behind the wheel of a 1990 Corsica, and she went down the road with a smile and--can you believe it--a warm feeling about a bank. I felt so honored, she said, because they trusted me. I paid my first bill before time and plan to pay the next one early too. I want them to know how much I appreciate what they did for me.

You see, even though a lot of Common Ground s borrowers are poor folks, they have a loan repayment rate 10 TIMES better than the national average.

The giant banks just want to loan to the High Rollers, like Donnie Trump, General Motors and Brazil. Which might explain why they re always in Washington asking for more bailouts and special breaks.

Community banks belong ... well, to the community. Hundreds of them are sprouting up around the country helping families buy a car, start a business, improve their home ... things that make a community better.

These little bankers know that money is like manure it doesn t do any good until you spread it around.

This is Jim Hightower saying, don t let em tell you that bigger banks are better ... They re only bigger. If you don t have a community bank ... Start one!