Saturday, November 26, 2011

Occupy and the 99%

"There's something happening here
What it is ain't exactly clear"

The Occupy Movement, the 99%, have been criticized by the Left, the Center and the Right.  They have been criticized for not having a clear agenda.  They have been called to task as agitators, whiners, complainers, misdirected, lazy, indigent, opportunistic, subversive, dirty, affluent, hippies, yuppies, gen-X'ers, millennials, hipsters, veterans, peace freaks, elders, and general trouble makers.  They have endured weather, police brutality, media dismissal, pepper spray, hunger, fear, arrest, humiliation, taunting, violations of civil rights, violations of legal rights, even the tongue lashing of political pundits and prognosticators who spout vitriol in print, radio, television and the Internet.

"There is a man with a gun over there
Telling me I got to beware"

The militant arm of the Establishment has been used to send the clear message, "Submit and withdraw."  Under the auspices of maintaining the democratic rule of law corporate government has chosen to again to address the perceived symptom while appearing unsympathetic to any possible reason for social unrest.  Instead of representing the people the corporate government has instead attempted to maintain the status quo - the very environment that has fostered such a grassroots backlash, an Occupy Movement.  Sadly it is the Establishment's insistence on submission that fuels the fire of dissent.  Quite simply, submission does not equal freedom. 

"I think it's time we stop, children, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down"

The Occupy Movement and the 99% did not evolve in a vacuum.  It is an attempt by a social entity to acknowledge the disparity in values espoused by the leaders of our corporate government and the on-the-ground real-life issues facing not just Americans but the entire Human Family.  In the simplest terms we, the 99%, can no longer reconcile our wealth and well being when so many children across the planet are feeling the pangs of hunger every minute of every day.  As we stand in our hot showers we cannot accept that many of those same children do not have safe drinking water.  While I enjoy the freedom to express myself there are those who cower in fear that truly brutal dictatorial regimes will 'disappear' them for uttering even the most superficial yet obvious criticism.

"There's battle lines being drawn 
Nobody's right if everybody's wrong"

"Nobody's right if everybody's wrong" is a convenient excuse for drawing the battle lines.  What must come of these growing pains is the moral and ethical sense of Human Responsibility.  We must promote change that speaks to the disparity of the Have's and the Have-Not's.  Somewhere along the line we have lost track of the sense that "with great wealth comes great responsibility."  That responsibility should not be solely to the shareholders, the profit takers.  That responsibility should not be solely to the corporate sponsors of our government.  That responsibility should be to the greater Human Family.  We must turn the perspective - Everybody is right when nobody is wrong.

That being said, the Occupy Movement does not support a Rob-from-the-Rich or Communist position.  It is clearly understood that free market Capitalism serves as the best means of transferring value for value.  Moreover, it is not realistic to suggest that Capitalism can function without the impetus for realizing a profit.  What the 99%+1% must do is assure that the children do not go hungry or thirsty or cold.  The 100% must assure that children do not become wage slaves in order to survive.  The 100% must assure equal human rights.  The 100% must assure a just and fair world that we all can live in together.

The 100% is the Human Family.

For What Its Worth
Buffalo Springfield

There's something happening here 
What it is ain't exactly clear 
There's a man with a gun over there 
Telling me I got to beware 

I think it's time we stop, children, what's that sound 
Everybody look what's going down 

There's battle lines being drawn 
Nobody's right if everybody's wrong 
Young people speaking their minds 
Getting so much resistance from behind 

I think it's time we stop, hey, what's that sound 
Everybody look what's going down 

What a field-day for the heat 
A thousand people in the street 
Singing songs and carrying signs 
Mostly say, hooray for our side 

It's time we stop, hey, what's that sound 
Everybody look what's going down 

Paranoia strikes deep 
Into your life it will creep 
It starts when you're always afraid 
You step out of line, the man come and take you away 

We better stop, hey, what's that sound 
Everybody look what's going down 
Stop, hey, what's that sound 
Everybody look what's going down 
Stop, now, what's that sound 
Everybody look what's going down 
Stop, children, what's that sound 
Everybody look what's going down 


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Friday, November 25, 2011

We Are The Hope

we are the hope

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Because in America you can pitch a tent for Capitalism, but not for Democracy.

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Damned Conservationists

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Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Memento

Memento
by Eamon Grennan 

Scattered through the ragtaggle underbrush starting
   to show green shoots 
lie the dark remains of rail sleepers napping now 
   beside the rusted-out wreck 

of a Chevy that was once sky-blue and now is nothing 
   but shattered panels and
anonymous bits of engine in the ditch by a path that 
   was once a railway line 

cut between small hills whose silence hasn't been 
   broken by the rattle and 
lonesome-blown whistle of a train for fifty years and 
   whose air hasn't filled 

for ages with my childhood's smell (set by Seapoint on 
   the coastal line) of coal 
smoke and hot steam puffed up in great cloud-breaths 
   out of a black-sooted chimney.


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Monday, November 21, 2011

Where to make the cuts!

Where_to_make_the_cuts



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Predicting the future... in 1964



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Sunday, November 20, 2011

Occupy movement is limited to the people on the street? Surprise!

If the powers that be think that the occupy movement is limited to the people on the street, they are going to be shocked - I have had so many people who are not active in it - total stranger - mention their support.  

- Sister Beth "Question Authority"



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Moonlight

Moonlight
by Sara Teasdale 

It will not hurt me when I am old,
     A running tide where moonlight burned
          Will not sting me like silver snakes;
The years will make me sad and cold,
          It is the happy heart that breaks.

The heart asks more than life can give,
     When that is learned, then all is learned;
          The waves break fold on jewelled fold,
But beauty itself is fugitive,
          It will not hurt me when I am old.


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