It was a busy, irresponsible summer full of visiting and hiking and revisions. But not much in the way of blogging. I’m not apologizing, I’m bragging. Just to be clear. There may or may not be in increase in posting now that the weather may or may not be getting less cooperative. Then again, there’s hockey to play.
Today, however, I came across the following - a creative, subversive, beautiful, and heart-breaking response to media complaints that the Occupy Wall Street
This is their response, as copied and pasted from wilderside.wordpress.com:
On September 21st, 2011, Troy Davis, an innocent man, was murdered by the state of Georgia Davis
Ending capital punishment is our one demand.
On September 21st, 2011, four of our members were arrested on baseless charges.
Ending police intimidation is our one demand.
On September 21st, 2011, the richest 400 Americans owned more than half of the country’s population.
Ending wealth inequality is our one demand.
On September 21st, 2011, we determined that Yahoo lied about occupywallst.org being in spam filters.
Ending corporate censorship is our one demand.
On September 21st, 2011, roughly eighty percent of Americans thought the country was on the wrong track.
Ending the modern gilded age is our one demand.
On September 21st, 2011, roughly 15% of Americans approved of the job Congress was doing.
Ending political corruption is our one demand.
On September 21st, 2011, roughly one sixth of Americans did not have work.
Ending joblessness is our one demand.
On September 21st, 2011, roughly one sixth of America
Ending poverty is our one demand.
On September 21st, 2011, roughly fifty million Americans were without health insurance.
Ending health-profiteering is our one demand.
On September 21st, 2011, America
Ending American imperialism is our one demand.
On September 21st, 2011, America
Ending war is our one demand.
On September 21st, 2011, we stood in solidarity with Madrid , San Francisco , Los Angeles , Madison , Toronto , London , Athens , Sydney , Stuttgart , Tokyo , Milan , Amsterdam , Algiers , Tel Aviv, Portland and Chicago Phoenix , Montreal , Cleveland and Atlanta
You have fought all the wars. You have worked for all the bosses. You have wandered over all the countries. Have you harvested the fruits of your labors, the price of your victories? Does the past comfort you? Does the present smile on you? Does the future promise you anything? Have you found a piece of land where you can live like a human being and die like a human being? On these questions, on this argument, and on this theme, the struggle for existence, the people will speak. Join us.
We speak as one. All of our decisions, from our choice to march on Wall Street to our decision to continue occupying Liberty Square
I shared it on FB and Twitter, but I thought it was worth sharing here. Not because more people will read it here than might follow the links there (more crickets read the NYT than my blog has readers, and I'm okay with that), but rather because I wanted there to be a record, for me if nobody else, that I agree with this existential manifesto of the moment. With my whole heart.
If I had only one demand, this one would (mostly) suffice.
Logging you in...
-j- · 705 weeks ago
My recent post Being brave, being seen and claiming your freakdom
tolthinkfree 66p · 705 weeks ago
My favorite quotes on this subject of demands, from the activists on the ground, are more about how it's a demand-less protest; about how there's more value in it signalling a coming together of the disaffected who are awake to the injustices inherent in our system; about how it's an awakening more than a goal-oriented exercise.
giulietta nardone · 705 weeks ago
I'm going to check out this occupy wall street group. Enjoyed the list.
it has seemed to me for awhile now that Wall Street and the stock market may be the cause of our world problems. It's wall street that has to keep growing, that demands its publicly-owned companies grow. It's this demand for uber profits that's sending jobs overseas. That and the discount mart mentality. Those two in combo are deadly. We're actually helping our jobs go overseas by buying stuff that can only be profitable if made by slaves.
And then the psychological drama of folks watching this index go up and down, when it's not even real. If we bring back Main Street, we take back our economy. But to do that we need to pay livable wages. But but, we've been taught to go for the lowest price, to beat folks up to give us the lowest price, to spend our weekends driving around at $4/gallon to save $1.
Why can't we all see that? G.
tolthinkfree 66p · 705 weeks ago
We live in an aquarium, albeit a large one, but with 7 billion fishies swimming around in it, the relative size is shrinking every day.
Kcecelia · 705 weeks ago
tolthinkfree 66p · 705 weeks ago
Most people, I think, don't see much of a problem. Or even if they do, they feel utterly powerless to affect it. They/we have been taught to rust the powers that be to fix this stuff and, if they can't, then there must be no fix around. And so most people walk around like the sheep they've been trained to be.
For their own self-preservation, because they don't think they can have any impact at all, they stuff the anger way down far enough that they manage to walk around looking like they don't care. It hurts, after all, to care. To care for a long time and see little to no real change hurts even more. The stamina involved is monstrous, and allusions to abusive relationships start dancing around in my head.
If only there were shelters for abused citizens. If only we could divorce our countries and get restraining orders. If only we could try to pick up the pieces somewhere else.