America is in trouble! It's rich elite and corporate interests have bled us dry for their own pleasure. Our pension funds have been raped and pillaged! Jobs have been packed up and shipped off to Mexico or other third world countries. Our home values have been stripped away to the point that foreclosure is the only option for some. Medical costs are so unreasonably high that employee benefits are being reduced or elimated altogether! For graduating seniors and college students, there is no longer belief in former American ideals. The few jobs that are available don't pay enough to fund a home and family. It's as if Bernie Madoff has been running Washington for 30 years and no one knew! The American Ponzi scheme has reached the point that there isn't much more profit that can be had!
Then, along comes Occupy Wall Street. The following is a quote from their website...
Occupy Wall Street is leaderless resistance movement with people of many colors, genders and political persuasions. The one thing we all have in common is that We Are The 99% that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1%. We are using the revolutionary Arab Spring tactic to achieve our ends and encourage the use of nonviolence to maximize the safety of all participants.
This ows movement empowers real people to create real change from the bottom up. We want to see a general assembly in every backyard, on every street corner because we don't need Wall Street and we don't need politicians to build a better society.
Their mission statement is long, but well worth reading...
As we gather together in solidarity to express a feeling of mass injustice, we must not lose sight of what brought us together. We write so that all people who feel wronged by the corporate forces of the world can know that we are your allies.
As one people, united, we acknowledge the reality: that the future of the human race requires the cooperation of its members; that our system must protect our rights, and upon corruption of that system, it is up to the individuals to protect their own rights, and those of their neighbors; that a democratic government derives its just power from the people, but corporations do not seek consent to extract wealth from the people and the Earth; and that no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power. We come to you at a time when corporations, which place profit over people, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality, run our governments.
We have peaceably assembled here, as is our right, to let these facts be known.
They have taken our houses through an illegal foreclosure process, despite not having the original mortgage.
They have taken bailouts from taxpayers with impunity, and continue to give Executives exorbitant bonuses.
They have perpetuated inequality and discrimination in the workplace based on age, the color of one’s skin, sex, gender identity and sexual orientation.
They have poisoned the food supply through negligence, and undermined the farming system through monopolization.
They have profited off of the torture, confinement, and cruel treatment of countless nonhuman animals, and actively hide these practices.
They have continuously sought to strip employees of the right to negotiate for better pay and safer working conditions.
They have held students hostage with tens of thousands of dollars of debt on education, which is itself a human right.
They have consistently outsourced labor and used that outsourcing as leverage to cut workers’ healthcare and pay.
They have influenced the courts to achieve the same rights as people, with none of the culpability or responsibility.
They have spent millions of dollars on legal teams that look for ways to get them out of contracts in regards to health insurance.
They have sold our privacy as a commodity.
They have used the military and police force to prevent freedom of the press.
They have deliberately declined to recall faulty products endangering lives in pursuit of profit.
They determine economic policy, despite the catastrophic failures their policies have produced and continue to produce.
They have donated large sums of money to politicians supposed to be regulating them. They continue to block alternate forms of energy to keep us dependent on oil.
They continue to block generic forms of medicine that could save people’s lives in order to protect investments that have already turned a substantive profit.
They have purposely covered up oil spills, accidents, faulty bookkeeping, and inactive ingredients in pursuit of profit.
They purposefully keep people misinformed and fearful through their control of the media.
They have accepted private contracts to murder prisoners even when presented with serious doubts about their guilt.
They have perpetuated colonialism at home and abroad. They have participated in the torture and murder of innocent civilians overseas.
They continue to create weapons of mass destruction in order to receive government contracts. *
To the people of the world,
We, the New York City General Assembly occupying Wall Street in Liberty Square, urge you to assert your power.
Exercise your right to peaceably assemble; occupy public space; create a process to address the problems we face, and generate solutions accessible to everyone.
To all communities that take action and form groups in the spirit of direct democracy, we offer support, documentation, and all of the resources at our disposal.
Join us and make your voices heard!
I like that! I also like the quote from George Zornick, in the article Why Occupy Wall Street has Left Washington Behind. "You know what you did. You have our stuff. Give it back." Also, look at this article showing four charts the protesters are angry about. There are some good video's on YouTube from the movement as well. Ready to join now?
The movement has even spread locally with a large group participating in Birmingham, Alabama.
As a card carrying member of the 99%, I fully support the movement. I do believe the 1% will eventually fight back, so don't believe they'll roll over and change their belief system(accumulating money/power). God's way is still best! Love for others IS the answer but the Bible and spiritual beliefs have been tossed under the bus years ago.
As Christians, most of us tend to be passive when it comes to fighting. We still follow the Good Book but haven't completely forgotten our Revolutionary War ancestors. We can put up quite a fight when duty calls! Our trust in the Republican party is all but gone now, as we look for individuals with statesmanship and backbone! The national party probably won't give us one(remember John McCain) and the Democrats are just along for the money ride!
I'm sure there is a master plan, because the Master has the plan. Join in with the 99% if you can, they can always use a few more good men like the Revolutionary War's Nathanael Greene. I'll leave you with a quote of his, It had been happy for me if I could have lived a private life in peace and plenty, enjoying all the happiness that results from a well-tempered society founded on mutual esteem. But the injury done my country, and the chains of slavery forging for all posterity, calls me forth to defend our common rights, and repel the bold invaders of the sons of freedom.
