Protesters in N.Y.C.
Occupy America, Really?
It has been several days since the start of protests on Wall Street in New York City and the movement has spread thousands of miles across the country. The movement has been hailed as the Tea Party of the Left and undoubtedly a boiling over of American frustration with the economy, leadership (or lack thereof) and corporate greed and special interests. With no end to the protests in sight, what can be expected to come out of this?
The Occupy [America] upheaval has travelled to my corner of the world; here in Cincinnati, as well as my hometown of Cleveland, OH so I have been able to get a taste of the heated assemblies. I will always throw my full support behind any group or anyone that wants to express their first amendment rights, no matter what their message is, of course, as long as it is non-violent and is not used in a way that would knowingly incite violence. At the same time and on the same note, one has to wonder with these protests, what is the end-goal? Is it simply to bring attention to their cause? Even if that is the case, what happens when the protests finally run out of steam? I think that most rational Americans today can agree with a lot of what the Occupy movement is protesting but without an actual goal, they're simply going to be brushed off as a group of disgruntled liberals and nothing will change.
I listened to one rally speech delivered on Public Square in Cleveland where an organizer attempted to outline just what the protest was about. He started by saying, "We are peaceful diplomats demanding resolution." What exactly is this "resolution?" Let's keep listening. "However, if the locusts of Wall Street, Washington, and Corporate America, decide not to listen, this peaceful revolution may yet become, born of blood." Did he just threaten violence of sorts? Whoa. The next part of the speech was written to "precisely express the goals and intentions of this movement." He outlines the first goal which is to cast a collective vote, as a collective group that denounces economic corruption, something he describes as a rogue cancer. He carries on calling for the end of the 99% running on a "never ending hamster-wheel of financial turmoil whilst the elite few wallow in prosperity."
I continued listening to the rest of the rally speech and it was effectively more of the condemning of the practices of Corporate America, and Wall Street and the Mega-rich but I left with, still, no clear end-goal. As you could expect, this (amongst other reasons explained later) is my major problem with the Occupy protests. They should consider how the "1%" are reacting to this movement; they're not. They aren't going to care that a bunch of college kids, unemployed lower-middle class "hippies" and minorities are parading around on their lawn everyday until the Occupy movement realizes nothing is actually happening or going to happen. I wonder... do the protesters think the corporate executives are going to suddenly start throwing their money out the windows of their high-rise offices? Or maybe half of congress is going to resign? Yes?
As I said before, I think nearly all of the rational 99% can agree with the message of the movement but the method for bringing about change they're utilizing is on many fronts, just a waste of time. I don't think any special interest lobbyist is going to wake up one day and say "those people sleeping in the park are right, it's time to stop economic corruption and give up all these millions of dollars." There are better ways of affecting change. For one, if you're the anti-corporate greed fellow, there's a simple one: STOP BUYING THEIR PRODUCT. Most of us live in, or near communities that can basically provide many of the products you need from local vendors. Here in Cincinnati, for example, there are plenty of local markets, with soaps, foodstuffs, clothing, etc. that I can purchase without going anywhere near corporate products. You stop buying their products, they get kicked where it hurts. Stock falls, investors leave them behind, they get a wake up call.
Secondly, we as a people can make better decisions in electing our officials. We need to stop electing lawyers and career politicians that have such hefty records of corruption. Perhaps the most effective way to do this is by shrinking the Federal Government. When the government is as big as it is, with as many bureaucracies and programs (of which, half don't do anything) it just leaves the door wide open for corruption. It's literally just an invitation for special interests. Consider this: a streamlined Federal Government, that only does what's absolutely necessary (and NOTHING MORE) that can easily be held accountable. Everything would be far more transparent. What States and Cities can do, States and Cities should do. There is far less likely the possibility for corruption on your local level.
And finally, similar to the first point, stay local. Put your money in a local bank, not the big Wall Street corruption facilities. Think about how different your life and community would be if we all made a commitment to cut the chains of corporate america, buy local, invest local, live local. The corporations would then and only then be forced to respond to we, the 99% of people. This is my plan for Occupying Wall Street and it should be yours too, I would hope you would share this with your friends & family. Thoughts?
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