POST #420!! Have to Make It Count!
I've read parts of this thread and arising from the din, some few points seem to stand out that I felt the need to comment on:
1. It is clear that the Occupy Wall Street protesters have hit a nerve in the common consciousness. The Tea Party never came close to this kind of widespread passion. Maybe it's because the tea party is just more of the same that got Amerika into this mess?
2. Let it be known that I volunteered for the Army at 18- and was denied, due to eyesight. I now have LASIK. I have a lot of respect for those who volunteer to enlist, whatever their reasons. The people I have less respect for are those who would order those enlistees into fights without making damned sure that the cause is worth the lives risked and lost. No matter how 'sketchy', a veteran, homeless or not, always has a friend here.
3. I hear all the time how Amerika is 'the greatest nation anywhere, rah rah rah!!!' I call BULLSHIT! We've got to pull our heads out of our asses and get to work. Human rights? We're way behind, and with the prison industrial complex spending millions to find ways to lock up more citizens, we're falling behind ever faster. Environment? Puh-lease! Politics? When Corporations have more civil rights than living, breathing US citizens, I'd say we have some catching up to do. We CAN be the greatest nation on Earth, but we just aren't right now. Time get up, dust ourselves off and roll up our sleeves, just like our grandparents did. They're not the 'greatest generation' for nothing.
4. We HAVE been here before. The crash of October 1929 ushered in a Great Depression, not unlike the one we're suffering through right now. Don't believe me? Then why are housing values down more now than then? Why is the percentage of foreclosures to ownership higher now than then? Why is the income disparity between the 1% and the rest of us still MORE NOW THAN THEN??
5. Revolution is not the answer. That's chaos, and unlike most of you I have lived in a war zone, and chaos is not pretty. On the other hand, if peaceful protest doesn't work- and these things take time, so give 'em a chance- then perhaps it's time to call for America's first Constitutional Convention, and for those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, check out the women's rights movement of 20 years ago- the states very nearly held one over that issue.
6. Peaceful protest DOES work. Want an example? Ghandi's revolution that brought India out from under the boot of British rule. Martin Luther King, Jr's. movement was peaceful- it was the cops and splinter groups that weren't. Any thug can start a riot- it's when the people come together and protest without breaking shit and hurting people that the powers that be are forced to listen.
7. If you want change, be sure you know what change you want. I haven't heard a lot of policy papers form the OWS crowd, but I have one that makes sense: no more money from corporations in politics. Period. Not one penny, on pain of losing their corporate charter. Politics are for PEOPLE, not faceless megacorps- or the lobbying organisations their millions pay for. That goes for labor unions, too. Only individuals may contribute to political campaigns, and then it must be a small amount, accessible to anyone, like $10.
8. Legislating morality is an idea that's been dead for much longer than any of us have been alive. You mean if we create a law against something, people will suddenly stop doing it? Please... This is another obvious stand we must take against the left AND right wing zealots both here in this country, and abroad.
9. Our Federal Government has to be brought to heel. Dwight Eisenhower's farewell speech warned of the dangers of the 'military industrial complex' as a threat to democracy, but he was only half right. It's the OWNERS of those defense companies, along with the rest of the Fortune 1000, that are the real threats to democracy. We must find ways to stop them from using the Federal Government's power to abridge and deny our human and constitutional rights.
10. Ladies and Gentlemen, the definition of fascism is a free market economy run without regard to individual rights of citizens by a corrupt or totalitarian government. Sound familiar? Until we citizens recognize that our democracy has been undermined, until we see what's become of the American Experiment (Jefferson's words, not mine), we will continue to allow it to destroy ourselves, our country, our planet and our children's future.
Like it or not, you, dear reader, and I are on the front lines of this conflict. Simply because you're on this forum, reading this, you're already in the middle and no longer on the sidelines. Time to to choose; victim or activist? You don't need to march on the financial district of your town to be involved, everyone can contribute. I'm here doing what I do because I believe in the rightness of my cause, and I have already paid dearly in terms of criminal penalties, lost opportunities, fines and much more. I will keep doing it because what I am doing is the right thing to do.
Where do you stand?
Peace, and 420.
