I am weary of hearing well-meaning friends question the Occupy Wall Street phenomenon. They ask, "What do they want? They don't have any clear goals -- how can they hope to bring about change?"
I want to ask:
"What was the meaning of Gandhi's fasts? "
"What was the meaning of the Watts riots?"
"What is the meaning of the young Syrian who set himself on fire because he could find no job, and started the Arab Spring?"
In other words, what is the meaning of a human cry? There comes a moment from time to time in history when a system is so patently unjust and cruel that people rise up against it and say, "No more!" Sometimes the people have not worked out a clear political agenda. Perhaps in their anger and pain, they have not sorted out the issues, or chosen leaders, or created a movement. Perhaps they never will. But this does not mean that their cry was in vain.
Occupy Wall Street has had great significance. If nothing else, OWS has changed the national conversation and shifted the civic discourse. They have made space for the voice of the people.
Since the country's founding, our national myth has been the promise of equal opportunity for all. Of course, that opportunity has never been there for everyone: we have never been truly egalitarian. However, the ideal was there, calling to us as individuals and as a nation to broaden the umbrella, including more people in that promise. And so we have recognized our theft of Native American lands and destruction of native culture; we have set a course for civil rights for those whose heritage was slavery; we have said that women should be considered equal to men and should be rewarded equally for equal work.
But somewhere during the last 30 years, we got lost on the way to the bank. We came to believe that "greed is good." The best and the brightest of our university students concluded that making a lot of money and garnering many possessions is the great goal of living. A country that understood neighborliness and compassion as positive goods began to look past the hungry, the homeless, the afflicted, as if they were in no way connected with those of us who are strong and able. We began to stop making things and began to spend our working days shuffling paper and making bets on the vagaries of the stock market. We refused to believe that the earth had limits, and we kept sucking up resources as though there were no tomorrow. In other words, we have been living in sin.
As so often happens when change is needed, we left it to our young people, to those strong enough in body and spirit, to wake us up. Occupy Wall Street is calling out the devastating results of corporate greed. The occupiers are saying this must stop. They're saying we must make human need and the care of the planet our central concerns.
At my age I am not healthy and vital enough to go downtown and lived in a tent for weeks, so I have been on the periphery of the movement. But I realize that I'm in debt to those who have been willing to shake the bars of the cage. They are serving as prophets- they have asked us to look at nothing less than the soul of this country. My only response is a deep sense of gratitude. With this new consciousness, there is at least the possibility that we can move to a new place.
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A Plea from Occupy Ogden:
We are hosting Occupy Ogden on our lawn. It has been roughly a month and a half. There have been a fair amount of changes. They come to worship and actually to every activity we have. One played the recorder during a service. They also help out the church with raking leaves and now with shoveling the snow. We are struggling with issues of caring vs care taking, and some are getting frustrated with what was to be temporary. There is stress about the budget. Occupy is taking a tremendous amount of time, energy, and resources, and with only 100 church members it is getting to be more and more of a stretch to support the camp. We have a donation page on our website: http://www.uuco.org/donations
It just feels like we are out here all alone in the wilds of Utah doing something very few other churches are doing. We are in a small city, and the movement isn't large here, about a third of whom are church members. Maybe Occupy might be the movement that saves us all, and maybe places like Ogden are where it will survive and grow.
I too have been on the fringes of the Occupy Portland movement, due to my age and family situation. I am thrilled at the accomplishments of OWS in making us look at the realities of life in America today. I hope to see more groups OCCUPY foreclosed homes this winter.
It takes - hard work. You mentioned Gandhi. Well - he worked extraordinarily hard, and was a brilliant man, with a strong legal mind. He also had a clear understanding what the British would tolerate. He had the tools to get the job done.
OWS seem determined to be leaderless and include any ax to grind. Sort of the "every child deserves a blue ribbon" approach. A fatigued public will eventually move on, and OWS will become part of the background noise. That is the danger for the movement.
Although there is a section of our citizens that have already sold their souls. This section that does control most of the media and the government and the money might just get fatigued and careless. And then the public will get their constitutional rights back.
The idea that the public gets fatigued is real , but for the first time in decades a movement that is crisp and clear about their moral position exists. This isn't a fatiguable argument that has two points of view. A pipeline protest can become a fatigued issue since we all do need gas and lower prices there may offset the possible loss to the environment around the pipeline especially if we don't intend to actually visit that area in our lives.
This movement has the morality and if there is another side.. then that side is composed of people that no longer believe in Christian or more generally moral issues, this other side simply sold their souls to the devil at some point .
And the beauty of this movement is that once you side with what is inherently moral you just feel good inside. Ask the protesters, this feeling of goodness inside is a feeling of immortality, and that is contagious. (hint: Much like that loveable Christmas Spirit)
I was there at the march on the Atlanta Capital for "single-payer" healthcare and also in Madison, where the populace refused to lay down like a whipped dog for Scott Walker's union busting. It was cold and the wind cut through you like a knife in your back so I couldn't imagine spending the night in it.
These kids need to be praised instead of dissed. They see a corrupt government now ruled by monetary fascists who know no religion, nationality, or morality and they are mad. Mad at what happened when our own generation was too busy chasing the monetary rewards of middle class contentment. We fell asleep on the job.
Now because of our negligence they have been forced to pick up the slack. These kids are brave and courageous to put their life, limb and reputations on the line in order to seek justice for the other 99% who are either too lazy, too cowardly or too foolish to know there is anything wrong.
If you are not part of the solution, than you are part of the problem. Long live the OWS and the kids who empower it. Thank GOD we have some people who are intent on seeing that justice is done.