It's not just Occupy Wall Street anymore.
According to occupytogether.org, there are Occupy events currently running or planned for the month of October in over 1400 cities across the globe, and in approximately 400 cities in 48 states across America. This is proof that Occupy Wall Street is growing, not only in its numbers, but in its ability to spread its message to as many Americans as possible in an attempt to end the financial manipulation of our government by those who bastardize the freedoms and ideals of the United States of America.
Seattle mayor Mike McGinn became one of the first political figures to not only address the Occupy Seattle protest, but also to publicly sympathize with their right to protest, as well as the actual cause at hand.
From McGinn's official statement:
I support the efforts of the protesters at Westlake Park to address this country's economic situation. In my budget speech last week, I stated:"We are facing unprecedented inequality in this country. It is always true that bad times are harder on the poor. But we have not seen income inequality this great since 1928, the year before the Great Depression started. The top 1 percent control 34 percent of the nation's wealth. The top 10 percent control 2/3rds of the nation's wealth. It is an unprecedented grab by the most powerful to get a bigger share of a shrinking pie."
I also support the right to protest, and I support the right to protest at Westlake Park. Individuals and groups are welcome to continue exercising free speech rights.
Even with McGinn making good on his threat to arrest protestors, this was an important (if not lukewarm and possibly inadvertent) expression of solidarity for citizens expressing their desire to live in a country that is legislated through voter wishes rather than corporate influence.
If only NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett, Youngstown Mayor Charles Sammarone, Birmingham Mayor William A. Bell, Sr., Miami Mayor Tomás Regalado, Santa Fe Mayor David Coss, or Lansing, Michigan Mayor Virg Bernero would follow suit with similar statements, our national consciousness could embrace this perspective that Americans from all walks of life can support. It is the broad appeal of this mindset that is rippling across the nation and transforming Occupy Wall Street from a protest into a movement.
When people hear the word 'protest,' many of them have an involuntary, defensive reaction. Those with a social conscience may often feel guilty when they are not involved in a protest that espouses principles they actually agree with. In an attempt to ease their visceral guilt, they often conjure up images of a protest as a disorganized pack of drum circles, hacky sacks and incense. They imagine every protest to be a recreation of the worst parts of their undergrad experience. But this reluctance to effect societal change and engage in a dialogue to alter the course of our nation is shifting for many people all across the country. (I am legally obligated to inform you that this statement in no way constitutes a guarantee that you won't find a drum circle at Occupy Wall Street.)
People who support the movement "in spirit" are ditching their preemptive judgments of Occupy Wall Street as a loose mass of disoriented refugees simply filling time between Burning Man gatherings. They are discovering that the protestors are actually intelligent, articulate and employed individuals who fear living in an economy that puts their families one lay-off, medical diagnosis or bank error away from being out on the streets. Many people are seeing a social movement equipped with a proliferation of smartphones, tablets, web cameras, and an impressive, organic media network.
Citizens are realizing that the protestors in 1,430 cities across the world, and in approximately 400 cities in 48 states across the United States are actually paralegals, bus drivers, baristas, retail clerks, production assistants, cab drivers, actors, dancers, associate producers, waiters, bartenders, plumbers, stage managers, butchers, bakers, candlestick makers... friends, neighbors, mothers and daughters, fathers and sons.
In short, people are internalizing the truth that they share more with this group, the 99 percent, than they have ever shared with another group of protestors. Now, people are standing up and actively making their presence known as opposed to sitting on their hands and waiting for the movement to give them a reason to watch from the sidelines.
For those who support the movement, but don't see themselves as the protesting "type," they can repost information through social networks, donate blankets to those on the front lines, or simply bring up the movement in a conversation as a means of opening up a dialogue on the viability of transforming America from a corpocracy to a democracy driven of, by, and for the people. All of these things do matter. (You could also check out the videos of police officers beating protestors and pepper spraying reporters and see where you want to go from there.)
The more support this movement garners, the more transparent and impotent things like snarky Facebook updates, ignorant rhetoric from vapid, network reporters and casual dismissals from state or federal officials become. With support, this movement is very capable of transforming specific fundamental tenets of our society; because anything is possible with enough support. Just the existence of 2 Broke Girls is enough to make me certain that a cure for cancer must be just around the corner.
This movement is about a disappearing middle class. This movement is about millions of lost jobs at the wave of a hand. This movement is about a bloated financial system that is desperately in need of substantial reform. Make no mistake, when the world's largest unsustainable financial system finally bursts, it's taking everyone down with it. It's taking every bank account, every 401(k), every lease, every mortgage, every smartphone; all of it. This is, in no uncertain terms, a fight for a stable, financial reality. And in 21st century America, this means a fight for survival.
It's no secret that Americans are angry and losing faith in the two major political parties at a record clip, and elected officials should consider themselves on probation right now. Nearly every American citizen was negatively affected by the Crash of 2008. People are still feeling the swift and severe effects of that collapse, but they are now also feeling a taste for their own power as active, empowered citizens. Once they realize the full potential of this democratic power, they will not support those officials who do not accurately represent the wishes of the communities that put them into offices. Those elected officials who stand up now and vocalize their support for the most broadly appealing public movement since the American Revolution will be remembered fondly by the voters.
Certainly all voters don't agree on the specifics of their anger; some people blame Bush, some blame Obama, some people blame the House, some blame the Senate. However, nearly everyone blames a hysterically-inflated market run by reckless financial firms who knew that the taxpayer would get screwed twofold in the end with another government-sanctioned bailout.
Don't let a simple-minded media distort the message. Business in this country needs to be allowed to do business. However, an unchecked collusion of profitlust between our business and our elected officials will continue to engender legislation that will only widen the wealth disparity in a country where the top 1 percent currently takes home 40 percent of all income; a level not seen since 1929. Does that year ring a bell? This isn't a call to dismantle our business infrastructure, but a call to separate business from our government and to accept the fact that deregulation does not lead to self-regulation. It never has, and it never will. Have you ever wiped beef jerky stains off a married man's cheek after his wife has been out of town for a few days?... Yeah.
As every day passes, more and more people are realizing that elected officials aren't put into office by magic, coincidence, foregone conclusion or even by well-edited commercials. Our citizenry is beginning to truly understand the unbridled power it wields in selecting the legislators of the United States of America. The Occupy Movement could become what we were all told Wall Street was; only this time, the people won't have to take the government's word for it. This time, it will be the people who decide whether or not they themselves are "too big to fail."
Follow Edward Murray on Twitter: www.twitter.com/WeCanBeatEczema
Occupy Wall Street | NYC Protest for American Revolution
Occupy Wall Street - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Occupy Wall Street | September 17th | #OCCUPYWALLSTREET ...
"This time, it will be the people who decide whether or not they themselves are "too big to fail." -- Murray
There is power in numbers. With enough number of people, it can tip the scale into substantial reforms in all aspects of society. All revolutions whether peaceful or not, started with small numbers, until it reached the tipping point. When that happens, change will happen no matter what. But the decision is with the people. If they really want change, it will happen because they themselves will be the cause of it.
If half the protesters were to direct some of the time they are spending protesting to the small candidates for Congress that can't afford to buy the election like the incumbents, we may have a chance at change in Congress where the problems began and can end.
One focus of awareness I pray the nation will perceive from this movement will be the need to VOTE come 2012, that is the power we as Americans have. Those who sat home in the last elections are the reason why the obstructionist gained control. If we want our proud country to regain and maintain its strength we must change Congress and get rid of the lawmakers in both parties that are employed by Wall Street.
This mess cannot be corrected within the borders of 1 nation alone. Everything is too interconnected. My gut feeling is that it is naive to think that even if Occupiers were to occupy every seat in Congress and the White House, then things could be made right. There are so many other factors at play: China, terrorists, global finance, oil, climate change, etc.
I think that Mr. Murray has a more correct view of the future, even with Occupiers succeeding, in his following statement: "Make no mistake, when the world's largest unsustainable financial system finally bursts, it's taking everyone down with it. It's taking every bank account, every 401(k), every lease, every mortgage, every smartphone; all of it. This is, in no uncertain terms, a fight for a stable, financial reality. And in 21st century America, this means a fight for survival."
My gut feeling is that the current global system will have to miserably fail and the the world rebuilt upon an entirely new model... It's not just America.
What took so long to start?
Gee, you folks are sounding just like Tea Partiers — the ones you spent all that time bashing and are now emulating, duh. Now if only you can get your violence under control and start obeying the law, and start holding your OWN pols responsible for selling you out, you might have a chance of being taken seriously. At least by your own pols.
First of all, if you don't think this is true, I don't know what to say to you.
Secondly, your comment "...start holding your OWN pols responsible for selling you out..." refers exactly to the statement you tried to undercut. Therefore losing all validity.
Thirdly, is that really the most salient point you walk away with after reading this? If so, it's pretty clear that you've simply come here to troll with a predisposition that cannot be open for debate. Therefore, you don't help build discourse, rather you create an environment of personal attacks and obstructionism that is clearly impotent.
And no one here is running for office on platforms of false promises of balancing budgets and maliciously bastardizing American ideals for the sole purpose of self-aggrandizement and pushing the corporate agenda. So there really isn't much here that is similar to the Tea Party.
Fanned and faved
The police were wonderful, smiling and nodding as we walked by. and our mayor joined us for a part of the time. The only scowls I saw were on the faces of the banksters when we passed Bank of America, etc.
And I'm SO tired of hearing the righties claim that this is a protest against capitalism. Maybe some of the demonstrators don't like capitalism and maybe some of them even think they're protesting against it, but the fact is we don't have capitalism in this country anymore. If we still lived under capitalism, capital would be at risk and wouldn't have the assurance that if an investment were to fail the taxpayers would eat the losses. That's not capitalism, that's corpocracy. (Although I prefer corporatocracy, even though I know it's incorrect ... I think people understand it more readily, and it's an expressive combination of corporate and aristocracy!)
As one of the OWS placards said, they only call it class warfare when we fight back.
And yeah...lotta smiling.
I, personally, don't believe in knocking out Wall Street. Business should be allowed to do business...but when the entire system is leveraged by a government that is controlled by business, we've got big problems.
When major corporations make record profits and pay $0 in taxes. That should anger every American except those trying to take the spotlight off that fact. When the richest Americans in the top 1% are paying a lower percentage of their wages than everyone else...we've got problems.
I'm not for knocking down anything...just leveling the playing field for all Americans.