From today's Christian Science Monitor:
While it may be too early to say for certain, David Johnson, an Atlanta-based Republican political strategist, suggests the former.
"It's drawing in everyone across the political spectrum," he notes, pointing to the range of voices being heard in the media coverage. "They have everyone from libertarians, to liberals, moderates, socialists, and hard-line conservatives," he says, adding that this sort of coalition works well for a short period of protest.
"This kind of fractious group won't hold together for the long run," says Mr. Johnson. "They can do a short protest, but they're much too disparate to be the beginnings of a long-term movement."
I think Mr. Johnson doesn't see the point. They are not disparate; most people in this country have a common idea of fairness and compassion which has been violated increasingly over the last forty years. The last couple of years with the increasing stoking of hate and fear, and now national Presidential candidates openly (and proudly) espousing death by neglect for the unfortunate or merely different, and Congress on both sides of the aisle valuing profits over people, has galvanized at least the Occupy protestors.
All of those shotgun issues have a single source - the valuing of profits over people and the harnessing of righteousness over compassion to defend those profits. Mountaintop removal, C8, Marcellus drilling, climate change, industrial agriculture, big pharma, big banks and hedge funds, inefficient and ineffective healthcare, and ultimately our ill-health, dwindling liberty, and foreclosed ability to pursue happiness go back to that.
And now we have Ben Bernanke saying, with ridiculously dead-pan understatement
Bernanke replied: "I think people are quite unhappy with the state of the economy and what's happening. They blame, with some justification, the problems in the financial sector for getting us into this mess. And they're dissatisfied with the policy response here in Washington. And at some level, I can't blame them."
"Certainly, 9 percent unemployment and very slow growth is not a very good situation," he added. "That's why they are protesting." (AP)
We are all the 99%. If each West Virginian gave all of their wealth, we couldn't beat the Koch brothers. But we each have a voice and a body. Most people don't know the facts, and we can't just keep talking among ourselves. Occupy wherever, and spread the facts. Talk to your friends and neighbors, the guys at the gym, your high-school classmates on Facebook. Just keep saying "People are more important than profits" and point out how people are being sacrificed for profit in whatever. Non-violently, quietly, with compassion. Occupy wherever. Do it in groups, do it individually. And do it with solidarity. Remember that there aren't really coal thugs, corporate shills, environmental terrorists, wingnuts, whackjobs, greeniacs, or whatever - we're all in this together and people react to misery with what comes to hand. Give them a positive take on solutions.
Foxfoot had a great post on this last winter:
Don't Bow Down. Stand Up Together!
If I am not for myself, then who will be for me? And if I am only for myself, then what am I? And if not now, when?
-Rabbi Hillel |
