DETROIT, Mich. -- U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) commended ACORN members Sunday, June 22 at the ACORN National Convention for their work in getting Congress to pass legislation to extend unemployment benefits last week and for warning the country about the dangers of predatory lending long before the foreclosure crisis struck and wreaked havoc on our communities.

"ACORN doesn't just talk about issues, you do something about it," Waters said to a crowd of 2,000 cheering ACORN members at the Cobo Center in Detroit.  "A lot of folks talk the talk, but ACORN can walk the walk."

"The failure of this nation to address the needs of our communities has left them vulnerable to the subprime crisis," Waters said.  She said that the government has failed to regulate the mortgage lending industry because many members of Congress are friends with the people doing the predatory lending.  The country's largest lending institutions, she added, give special consideration and better interest rates to the privileged few, including members of Congress who are making at least $160,000 a year, while targeting low-income, African American and Latino communities for loans with terms far worse than they could have qualified for.

But she stressed that the work that ACORN does "is going to make this world a better place."

"You've got power," she told the crowd.  "If we use our power, we can make America better than it is."

Waters implored ACORN members to tell young people that we need to stay in the streets to make real change happen.  "The right-wingers want to keep you out of the street," she said.  "We need to tell young people, 'the reason you got to go to college and you got that job is because somebody marched.  You stay in the street.'"

After calling the current administration "the worst president this country has ever had," Waters stressed the importance of getting every American registered to vote so that we can seize the opportunity to elect Sen. Barack Obama as the next president.

"This is a very proud moment," she said.  "But we're not going to let Obama off easy either.  He has to keep his commitments and his promises.  We need real change."