Forum Post: How Can I Help?
Posted 13 years ago on Oct. 17, 2011, 11:25 a.m. EST by XDPANDA42
(2)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
I'm a seventeen year old girl who lives around Houston area. I believe in what OWS is standing for, but as my dad puts it I don't have a dog in this fight.I would love to help somehow, is there any way out there? I mean in two years I'm going to have to jump in this mess, I might as well contribute to a better tomorrow instead of sitting at home wondering how I'm going to survive this.
Bravo! If the movement is to succeed, it needs people like you, but not in this string of protests. If any movement is to succeed, it needs people ready for the second fight against the corporations, the current actions are doomed to fail in its goals, for they are too chaotic, but they have attracted attention from both the people and the media. The best thing you can do is begin talking to people and helping them see.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QrDLwSgg24
What a brave young woman! I live in southern New Mexico, which is not exactly a seat of financial power. There are probably few significant edifices of the 1 percent here. Still, 'they also serve . . . '
That being the case, I believe XDPANDA42 can do much by preparing herself to articulate the grievances and goals of this movement to its critics within her own sphere of communication and influence.
This would involve [1] Researching the history leading to our current troubles, both financial, environmental and political. [2] Familiarizing herself with the movement's core values and actions [3] Knowing how to specifically and authoritatively answer common criticisms of the movement and its participants [4] Be able to list a few significant and achievable goals commonly articulated by the movement.
Above all, she should be calm and peaceful. She should show respect even for the malign opinions of others, and avoid personalizing the grievances that drive the movement. While wealthy financiers may seem like villains, they may well be people who have lost their way in the pursuit of reward. Such can be lead back to a more humane path, if they are not angered or hardened.
Heavy programme, hold on baby ! She is seventeen years old...Don't forget that.
Hmm . . . thanks for the perspective. As a middle-aged man, my resources are different from hers. Perhaps there is a way to make this easier? Does anyone have a link to resources that she (and I) can read over, in order to be prepared and informed when confronting and informing critics?
Certainly, when I look at comments to news articles online, there are plenty of critics against Occupy whose disinformation needs to be countered. I try to reply to their vitriol with clear facts in a passionate message. This is not done to convince the critic, who is unlikely to change, but to give a distinctly appealing message for other readers.
I think that's be an important point. A critical "seeing" about manipulated information is a good starting point, for exemple "separate the wheat from the chaff" between Fox news and RT news, to understand the differencies...and little by little get more knowledges of the movement, but finding these will take time and demand patience...
Yes, join the cause. Empty out whatever savings you have and donate to this site. We need everything we can to keep the movement going. Thank you!
Seriously? You would take money from children for your own agendas?? Get a grip and leave this little girl alone...she is only a child for a little while. To her...honey, this isn't your fight..yet. Concentrate on you, your social life and going to prom. The time for you to deal with this crap will come soon enough...don't rush it.
Well, OK. I agree that asking for her money is inappropriate. I was hoping the suggestion was tongue-in-cheek. On the other hand, XDPANDA42 is not some little girl. At seventeen, she is what this movement is all about (to paraphrase John Wayne in "The Green Berets"). There are greedy forces arrayed against her and her future, who have been largely unopposed while the people of this country distracted themselves with LOLCATS, Michael Jackson and the like. After that prom, XDPANDA42 will find herself in the middle of the fight, and losing.
I think you are enought mature to have an opinion , and you 'll be concerning by the problem in a foreseeable future , but i guess you haven't the age of majority in your state, so be aware of that , i don't want to discouraging you, but you have to speak with people settled in first, and get tips about your situation, before protesting, if you lets me give you a tip...
Just show up at a protest.
sweet girl . .you already have
Need knowledge, self-control, and RESOURCES to have freedom and if 1% owns all the resources the rest can not be vary free. Life is all about relationships and getting them right. Put your faith in truth which is about knowing relationships in your life. Put your hope in freedom which is about choosing relationships in your life. Put your trust in love which is about caring relationships in your life. Truth, freedom, love are good. Deceit, slavery, hate are bad. Choosing good is moral. Choosing bad is evil. Of these values freedom is the easiest to loose because you need resources to have it, but if you have to many resources they end up owning you and when resources are wasted it means less freedom for someone somewhere.
If you share these values spread the WORD, I took years getting this right and you may say that it should have been easy but like the knowledge that the earth goes around the sun if you did not know it that knowledge would be hard to get, we have to teach knowledge or the knowledge dies with us. Have faith, hope, trust in truth, freedom, love David McDonell of Ironwood MI debdaveandpets@gmail.com
Really.. you know what the OWS stands for? What is it... tell me too..
O.ccupy W.all S.treet
Let me do it!
It stands for correcting the economic and political systems such that they better serve the vast majority of the people. Because they don't do that anymore.
For a good twenty years now, increasing deregulation and entanglement of politics and money have lead to the stagnation or contraction of income for the vast majority of society, the increasing concentration of wealth in a minuscule minority and the emergence of a bloated and irresponsible financial sector.
Not all solutions have been agreed upon or found. But that's okay.
It's perfectly legitimate for a layman to go to a nuclear engineer and say :
"Look, your centrals, they're blowing up every other year. Now, I'm not sure why, I'm not a nuclear engineer, but that just doesn't cut it."
And if the engineer then goes :
"It can't be helped. You see, nuclear reactors just blow up like that. It's a fact of life. I know. I'm a nuclear engineer."
It's fine to then say : "Okay. Fuck nuclear reactors then."
And if the engineer then goes : "But you need nuclear reactors! Why, the whole of society would collapse without them!"
Well, it's simply time to fire that incompetent con-artist and try to find a legitimate nuclear engineer. Or go for alternative energy sources, but the metaphor is getting away from me at this point.
Note : I'm not actually against nuclear power.
Right, so like you said, it's simply time to fire that incompetent con-artist. Or, go for alternative energy sources.
Going for alternative energy, or firing a nuclear scientist is a specific act. Occupying the nuclear reactor is not.
This is what I was referring to. What does the act of occupying wall street itself stand for? Nothing. Unless the movement articulates a more tangible, sensible objective.
Look at the current protests as a Termination Letter sent to the con-artist. It simply signifies he is fired. The job he's been doing simply will not do. This, I feel, is the foundational consensus of #OWS. Discussions are ongoing as to who we should hire, and what we should set as his specific goals. It's a process.
OWS was not born as a vehicle for a ready made message. It was born from discontent. It knows something isn't working, and it has a pretty good idea what it is (deregulation, financial shell games, money in politics). That's important. That's a start.