Post with 4 notes
As a general point of information:
To all those who think the Occupy movement is “dead.” My response, the movement is only dead if YOU say it is. The Occupiers who have been with the movement from the start have not rested a day since it began. Even though the numbers have dwindled since our Times Square march, or our walk over the Brooklyn Bridge; I can assure you there are far more than the original 20 members who decided to sleep in the park in the beginning. Whether or not it can resurface as a force to be reckoned with is up to just one thing. How much YOU want to come out and support. Occupiers can, and do, work tirelessly to feed one another and organize events every day, and build community. The only thing that will allow us to grow is whether or not YOU support it and work with what you have.
True there are problems with it. True we have issues with organization. However, considering the fact that there was NOTHING there when it started on September 17th, I’d say it’s come a long way. To put it into another perspective, the idea of “self-governance” has never actually been attempted in modern civilization (this eliminates Ancient Greece btw). We usually do not even pay attention to our lawmakers until an election year comes around. When the election year does come around the attitude is pretty much this: “Okay, this guy seems nice. Okay I’ll vote for you, just don’t fuck up.” Then we barely even think about the laws which are being passed for the next 2 years. Then we have a “choice” between Democrats and Republicans… again.
One obstacle for organization which Occupy has had to deal with is that we have NEVER self-governed before. So yeah this shit is not going to be easy… especially since it started as a bunch of really really really idealistic 20-year-olds. This is not to say government should be encouraged on us, but rather NO ONE should be afraid of the idea of self-governance and discussing the issues in a public forum. I understand that a smooth transition to “self-governance” in the grand scheme of things may be necessary to carry out. However, there’s no reason to hold our difficulties against us, at least we’re trying.
Allow me now to address quickly the issues of “leaderlessness” in the movement. It still is a leaderless movement, yes. True we don’t have a Martin Luther King Jr., or a Malcolm X, or anyone else to rally behind. However, if you think about it this way, I HARDLY think that MLK or Malcolm X were at every civil rights protest back in the 50’s and 60’s. No. Those courageous individuals marched on their own and stood proud on their own. There may have been a household name whom everyone could reference, but it’s not like those figureheads were in every state at once, and it’s certainly not like in-fighting didn’t occur.
One more thing, it’s a little hypocritical for everyone to keep voting for candidates who consistently disappoint us after being elected, meanwhile everyone seems to expect a group of protesters to have EVERY possible answer and for that reason maybe dismiss the movement if no answers are given. We cut slack to those whose “job” it is to know what they are doing but don’t cut any slack to those who are learning as they go along; but have some damned good ideas which might just need a little tweaking.
Now back to the original thought. Occupy is far from dead. Whether or not it becomes a MOVEMENT is up to YOU. We do not go out and impose our beliefs on others. We march a lot. We hold demonstrations a lot. We have discussions a lot. We do not however go out telling you what to think, that’s the Mass Media’s job :) All Occupy has ever wanted to do was expose the truth (which is evidence based) and work together to find solutions, and if you have different perspectives we’d LOVE your input.
Sure you would be welcome to knock the movement all you want for being “leaderless,” or “disorganized,” or having too much in-fighting, or lacking demands, but tell me this “do you have another option?” Sure you can start another protest organization and try to build it, but at the moment is there ANYTHING else out there with as notorious or formidable a name as Occupy Wall Street? Please let me know about it if you can think of it.
When I first went to the park back in September I was confused and after a week I didn’t know what the hell they were doing. It was disorganized, it was leaderless, it had no demands, and there was in-fighting. What made me stay was I had NEVER seen the discussions they were having in a before in my life IN A PUBLIC FORUM. This was not school, or amongst a bunch of friends in a park, or watching a debate on TV. This was a bunch of people from around the country, who’d never met one another before, trying to figure stuff out. Please if you can think of another place where that has happened recently I implore you to bring it to my attention. The only reason I stayed at Occupy after that first week was because my thinking was this: “Well shit, there are so many problems, but you know what? This country is starved for these kinds of discussions and I’ll take what I can get.”
So one more time I’ll tell you straight away the Occupiers are not stopping. They never will stop. You don’t go and sleep in a park on concrete only because you are pissed, and stop working when things get difficult. The question is: will you join us? The movement can only grow with public support. The only way the movement will “die” is if you ALLOW it to. The ball is in your court, do what you will, but we aren’t leaving anytime soon. Get used to it.
Post with 40 notes
So these days, if you look up 1 sentence descriptions of any historical figure, and it tries to put them in a positive light it will always say “this person had a great respect for people, and always donated to the poor.” If we lived back 50 years ago and were looking the person up then we’d probably see this “this person hated black people, jews, and hispanics. the irish were growing on him but he could do without them. he never wanted women to vote though. most important though, he was a WASP.”
Much to many democrats disapproval Obama went ahead an offered a daring compromise with house Republicans in the recent spending negotiations. Boehner still rejected the proposal because he was not happy that billionaires would get taxed. I say this loud and proud, Boehner is a cunt.
I’m not happy at all with what Obama proposed, but at least he tried.
The biggest irony of all of this is that many people who would complain if they lost Medicare, Medicaid, or Social Security voted for the same Republicans who want to cut funding to these programs. I’m sorry but this really reflects a severe lack of foresight and intelligence in the people of this country.
I really couldn’t describe in elaborate enough detail just how irked I am with all of this but whatever. Welcome to the first time America declares bankruptcy. All of this in the name of politics to make Obama look bad as well. In reality the ones who should, and do, look bad through all of this is those who cause the bankruptcy. I just really hope people realize that if there is a default on America’s ability to pay it’s obligations, it will NOT be Obama’s fault. He tried. He tried in a way that was very unfavorable to many of his core supporters, but he tried nevertheless. For that he gets my vote in 2012.
