ABC News to Run Piece on Plight of Millions Losing Unemployment Benefits

Failing to pass the unemployment benefits extension bill, the Senate went off to their comfortable homes this weekend, leaving millions of unemployed Americans to wonder if they will have a home at all much longer.

Hundreds of thousands of the unemployed had already exhausted their tier of benefits and have been waiting for weeks for the bill to extend the filing deadline so they could apply for the next tier. Now, with the unemployment benefits extension bill still languishing in the Senate, they will have to continue to wait with no income coming in as hundreds of thousands more join them. Millions more nearing the end of their current tiers are left to worry if they will be given the opportunity to go onto the next tier once their current benefits are exhausted.

Additionally, those unemployment benefits recipients who have been suffering from this recession the longest, those that thought they were at least secure in their Fed-Ed extension tier, are learning this week that their benefits have ceased as of June 12 because of the failure of the Senate to pass the unemployment benefits extension bill. (Read "Fed Ed Benefits Cut Off ...") Regardless of how many weeks they had remaining or how much more in benefits they were led to believe they had, no more checks will be coming, only a letter notifying them unexpectedly, "we regret to inform you...". I am part of this group.

I can't tell you how many hundreds of stories I've read of the hurt and the fear and the anger that my fellow unemployed Americans are feeling; the losses they are experiencing; the helplessness - to find a job, to feed their families, to hang on to some semblance of the lives they had worked decades to build, to find a way to survive at all, and TO BE HEARD.

It has seemed so odd to me that, not only our legislators and our President, but even the news media has seemed uninterested in what is truly the biggest problem and tragedy going on in this country - Unemployment. It was said that during the Great Depression people used to say that if you had a job, it was a recession; if you didn't have a job, it was a depression. I agree.

But at last, just today, Diane Sawyer of ABC news is running a piece about how unemployment and the problems with getting unemployment benefits extensions are effecting us. According to an ABC source:

'World News with Diane Sawyer wants to hear from you. We are working on a piece for tonight and want to hear your personal stories about struggling with unemployment. Please share your story below. A World News producer may contact you for more information or an excerpt of your message may be used in a future news piece." (http://abcnews.go.com/WN/mailform?id=10954569)

This is our chance. We had better take it. We need to get the word out to the media, to our leaders and to the world what we are going through so they will stop ignoring what is really going on.

Diane Sawyer of ABC News is asking for our stories. Tell them who you are, when you lost your job, what you've experienced trying to find a new job, and what will happen to you and your family if your unemployment benefits end.

Send your story to: http://abcnews.go.com/WN/mailform?id=10954569

They can't, of course, run all of them and yours may not make the news piece tonight, but please do it anyway. They've opened the door, so let's just keep sending them! It's so important that ABC News is DELUGED with letters from all of us so they begin to feel how much and how many Americans are hurting because of the failure of the Senate to pass the unemployment benefits extension.

And continue to phone, mail, fax and email our Senators. (For a comprehensive contact list of legislators, click here.)

I'll be talking to you again soon, my friends. Hang on - and pray!