Editor: The following piece by Ernie McCray ran in today’s Op-Ed section of the San Diego U-T, as Ernie is a member of their Community Dialog partnership. Yet, we couldn’t find it online today.
More and more people are assessing the “Occupy Movement” with statements like: “We don’t think their way is working” or “There’s no single leader” or “It’s anti-capitalism.”
Now who can say at this stage of the movement what’s working or not working? Besides, there wasn’t a single leader in the Great Civil Rights Movement until Martin came along. And how does pretty much labeling something as Un-American promote positive social change?
But, we might consider that all the finite organizing that some think the movement should be doing, with clear goals and objectives and the like, under the guidance of some master leader who can, without bashing capitalism, articulate that we simply need a little more justice and decent paying jobs – well, maybe this is not for Occupy to do alone.
Come on, the hard work is already done. Marches have been staged throughout the world, featuring people of all colors and religions and ages. In particular, Occupy has gotten our young adults up on their feet and into the street. And wasn’t that a concern of ours, that our youth seemed to be apathetic, that events taking place around the world like Arab Spring seemed uninteresting to them? I submit that since the Occupy movement has awakened our youth, that alone should mean that “their way” has, up to now, worked extremely well.
From my life’s experiences with people becoming aware and involved, a significant number of them continue to take part in improving their various communities from that moment on. I’ve met young people in Occupy San Diego who definitely seem excited enough to contribute to the world from now on.
So I would suggest that it would be wise if more of us 99 Per-centers jumped into the fray, with our combined talents and skills, to help these newborn activists and organizers hone their views and values in a more organized manner so that the movement can stay alive and thrive.
Who knows what turning our economy around will entail in the long run but we do know what the issues are. Unemployment and foreclosures have plagued people we all know and love. College fees have brought some of us to our knees. Most of us have, as the movement posters have pointed out, been sold out while the corporations have been bailed out. Corporate greed still runs rampant with too many CEO’s being compensated with millions upon millions of dollars while the masses barely hang on. We know that the pictures of the protestors assembling and marching peacefully is what “democracy looks like.” We know that the very rich, out of respect for fairness, could share more of their wealth.
And we certainly know that: “The people united will never be divided!” That being said we need to seek ways to become more united because nothing divides us more, as it pertains to the Occupy Movement, than the ongoing misconceptions and misrepresentations that indicate that it consists mainly of misfits, people looking for handouts. But I saw the truth as it really is recently in a picture on my Facebook page that captured my attention and held it for a long while. It featured a woman in the midst of an Occupy gathering whose face seemed to stifle a smile as she held her baby in her left arm and a sign in her right hand that read that she was not a hippy, a freak, an anarchist, a mob, or a punk; nor was she vague or a leftwing nut job. Her poster then summed up her list of what she was not with who she is: “Just a Mom Here for a Better World for My Kids.”
That said it all for me as I feel that we, to play on the sentiments of the movement, might want to Occupy our Minds with the Idea that we need to be about just that: making a better world for our kids. They are the ones who will inherit the debris left in the wake of these troubled times. What they see in our efforts to create a better existence for all humanity will dictate to a large degree how they pursue such a task.
Hey! We are the 99 Percent!
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Ernie- this is magnificent!
Thank you.
The Corporate Occupation of the United States
Our corporate controlled government (through corporate lobbying and election funding ) is out of the peoples control. People want government control back. Makes sense to me… I feel US corporate capitalism (corporatism) is a type of economic fascism: To have a corporate being where the chain of command eventually muddles all responsibility to any human being. These corporate beings are running your life and controlling your government. (Enough to really make an individual mad and protest.) The corporate being does not exist, and when it comes to face it’s corporate responsibility, it is a piece of paper. That is plain and simply wrong. Restore capitalism to individual responsible chains of command, or this struggle will be lost. (This also includes corporate lobbying and corporate election funding, being outlawed; and a new form closer to individual control is established.)
Please Sign the petition to amend the Constitution for revoking corporate personhood at:
movetoamend.org
January 20, 2012 – Move to Amend Occupies the Courts!
Move To Amend is planning bold action to mark this
notorious date — Occupy the Courts — a one day occupation on Friday January 20, 2012, of the Federal Courts, including the Supreme Court of the United States and as many of the 89 U.S. District Court Buildings as we can. Inspired by Dr. Cornell West, who was arrested on the steps of the Supreme Court last month, Move to Amend will lead the charge on the judiciary which created — and continues to expand — corporate personhood rights.
http://open.salon.com/blog/kennspace/2011/10/28/corporate_occupation_of_the_united_states_1
I’m with you, Kenn.
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