I was born over a decade after the "day that will live in infamy" but it’s still hard to believe that seventy years have passed since the attack on Pearl Harbor.  

I’ve been to Hawaii twice and on both occasions (once with my then young children) have visited the Memorial.   The power and emotional impact of the Memorial and its surroundings cannot be described.   Sites such as Pearl Harbor and the beaches at Normandy instruct all of us in ways that mere words cannot about the sacrifices made by countless young men and women to protect the freedoms we all too often take for granted.

I’ve opened my most recent seminars with a summary of a very unsettling story that recently appeared on "Sixty Minutes" about families that were forced to live in cars and trucks because they could not afford any other type of shelter.   That the families featured in this report lived in the Orlando area was even more distressing.

I’ll have yet another upsetting article to discuss at this month’s remaining seminars:  a report that over 4,500 homes owned by members of our military may have been illegally foreclosed.   I hope that this story does not get buried and becomes a primary concern of our legislators and the agencies that we entrust to protect the rights of those that serve to defend our liberty.  

Jody Gabel and I have filed numerous eviction or foreclosure actions for the community association we represent and have always taken great care to follow the provisions of the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act.    That includes verifying whether or not the homeowners against whom eviction or foreclosure is being sought are currently serving in our military.

Our country’s Supreme Court has stated that this Act must be read with "an eye friendly to those who dropped their affairs to answer their country’s call."

Given the tremendous price that our servicemen and women pay every day on our behalf and the growing number of homeless families in our country, ensuring that the homes of our fellow citizens serving in the military are protected from wrongful foreclosures and evictions seems to be the least that we can do.  

I hope to see many of you at our seminar tomorrow at Venice Isle Estates, next Wednesday at Westwinds in Bradenton, or at my presentation at the SWFROC meeting at Tamiami Village in North Fort Myers on December 21.