Occupy Wall Street marked its one-month anniversary Oct. 17, and the one-month mark shows the group doing some growing.
“Occupiers” have cropped up throughout the U.S. and the world.
Media reports focus on a long list of questions about the protesters. Among them:
- Who is in charge?
- What do they want?
- Who is backing them?
- When will they stop?
- What do they think they can accomplish?
- Is what they do more meaningful than or connected to the Tea Party?
Critics focus on signatures of the group that have little to do with its focus — shining a light on the ills spawned by the banking and finance institutions.
It seems that opponents ought to offer some defense for those institutions other than “capitalism is a great thing” and also move beyond name-calling and mocking personal hygiene.
For me, it makes little difference whether it’s an Occupy Wall Street gathering, a Tea Party rally or an Arab Spring movement.
When people get tired and angry enough about lethargic leadership or having their lives twisted by the system, and take to the streets, I think it’s a good thing.
Yes, exercising the right to assemble and petition grievances comes with a downside — law-breaking, violence, the amount of time the occupation of “public” space can last and the pressure on local government to make sure the rights of non-protesters also get protected.
And yes, whether they get portable toilets along the way.
But if lawmakers fail the test of leadership, then someone else needs to take the lead. No better group than the people.
Resources:
- http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/…
- http://abcnews.go.com/US/…
- http://news.businessweek.com/…
- http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/16/…
- http://online.wsj.com/…
- http://occupywallst.org/
- http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/16/opinion/…
Wakeup call for big business, big government!
I agree, and not to be dismissed as a passing fad. The Tea Party crowd is miffed that the Occupy crowd is getting so much attention, when they deserve it. Interesting. Thanks for the post. Mac
Patrick: Thanks for the post. I took up this conversation with one of my students yesterday. And I reiterated that critics of OWS do not want to talk about the impetus for the movement. They talk about "wealth redistribution" and that OWS is "anti-capitalism." I am not seeing that. OWS is angry: about banking-finance institutions bringing our beloved capitalism to the brink of destruction; and about their savings and investments disappearing because of reckless institutional investment practices and ponzi schemes, another multimillion dollar one reported today. And they are angry about the extremely wealthy using their wealth to avoid having to pay their fair share of the tax bill. But the naysayers loosely toss about the word "socialism" and criticize personal hygiene. Best- Mac
What do you do when you can't change things with your vote? You protest and occupy. I wholeheartedly support the occupiers and there cause. The founding fathers didn't wait around for change, they had a revolution.The occupiers are revolutionizing change. I hope the Occupy Wall Street movement gets the attention of our government leaders and something good comes out of this. If it doesn't, well, we may all be out on the streets because our economy will be more in the toilet than it is now.
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