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More than 1,000 Rally to Save the American Dream
Grassroots movement taps growing support for Main Street businesses, financial institutions and values
Glastonbury, Conn., June 21, 2012 – More than 1,000 business leaders, community banking and credit union leaders, taxpayers and civic leaders from around the country gathered at the Gaylord Palms Resort and Convention Center in Orlando, Fla. on April 17th to rally and sign a petition in support of Saving the American Dream – a movement promoting change in America’s economic and social policies that focuses heavily on repealing or revising regulations that impair the vitality of small businesses and the community-based financial institutions that support them. The movement also seeks to preserve America’s leadership as it faces increasingly competent global competitors by rethinking our nation’s approach to education, innovation, opportunity and entrepreneurism.
The movement, which brings together small businesses, community banks, credit unions and community members around the nation, was initiated by Open Solutions chairman and CEO Louis Hernandez, Jr., author of Saving the American Dream – Main Street’s Last Stand, a recently published book that lays out the basic premises and agenda for the movement. The rally in Orlando was the first of several similar rallies planned throughout the summer and fall of 2012 in Basking Ridge, N.J.; Hartford, Conn.; Ontario, Calif.; Harrisburg, Pa.; and Austin, Texas, with additional locations to be added at a future date.
The Orlando rally generated more than 500 signatures for the Petition to Save the American Dream, which was passed among the crowd. The petition will be delivered to The President of the United States and Congress after the November elections, to prove that the public believes in the American Dream and demands change in order to protect it. An online version of the petition, along with video of the rally and other information, is available at the movement’s web site: http://www.SavingTheAmericanDream.org.
Louis Hernandez, Jr. provided the rally keynote address. Other speakers included Florida State Representative Geraldine F. Thompson, ranking Democratic member on the State Affairs committee and a contributing member of the Tourism and Trade Committee and the Government Efficiency and Accountability Council; Dennis Dollar, former chairman of the National Credit Union Administration, former two-term member of the Mississippi House of Representatives and principal partner in Dollar Associates, a consulting firm focused on public policy; James Robinson, partner with Human Capital Management, an Orlando-area company that designs training platforms and mentors entrepreneurs and small businesses; Christopher Rivera, former interim director of the Florida Farmworker Jobs and Education Program and current VP of Business Development for AEG Communications Inc.; and Carly Hernandez, high school student and daughter of Louis Hernandez, Jr.
Commenting on the rally, Louis Hernandez, Jr. said: “I am immensely gratified to see so many people standing up for the American Dream. With its promise of opportunity and the values that it represents, the American Dream has always been a Main Street dream. It is responsible for creating vibrant communities, fostering innovation, encouraging entrepreneurs to start businesses and raising our overall standard of living. But today, the dream is at risk from policies that have tried to make it too easy to achieve and the cumulative weight of regulations that are killing small businesses and the community-based financial institutions that support them. What this rally and the petition are doing is sending a clear message to our policymakers to take the necessary actions that will prevent America from becoming the land of lost opportunity.”
Open Solutions Inc.
Open Solutions Inc.® helps community-based financial institutions around the world enrich their local economies by providing innovative technologies and insights that enable them to operate more profitably, efficiently and collaboratively.
Industry pioneers, Open Solutions revolutionized enterprise technology with DNA™, the first open, relationship-centered core banking platform built for global collaboration. This radically different approach to enterprise technology enables banks and credit unions around the world to leverage the power of community through DNAappstore™, the first-ever collaborative marketplace for user-created core enhancements.
Extending the power of DNA further, Open Solutions offers a full range of complementary software solutions for payments, item processing, distributed capture, internet banking, mobile banking, CRM, business intelligence, loan origination, financial accounting, account analysis, wealth management, digital document and interactive voice response. It also offers complete hardware solutions, plus independent industry insight and guidance from Raddon Financial Group.
For more information, visit Open Solutions at www.OpenSolutions.com, like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/OpenSolutionsInc, or follow us via Twitter @OpenSolutionsCC.