Forum Post: Insights from Thomas Jefferson: Showing Solidarity with the OWS Movement

As Michael Kranish, explains in Flight From Monticello: Thomas Jefferson at war, following the Boston Tea Party, “[t]he British believed that Virginia was its bulwark against revolution” due to the colony’s economic dependence on trade with Britain (46). Similarly, those citizens not present at OWS demonstrations are seen as the US government’s bulwark against forced change. We are perceived as too indentured into servitude to dissent, and it’s true. I am. I work every day, and I’m in debt. I can’t afford to stop and participate in a movement despite that fact that I find it integral to a necessary redirection of our out of control system. I support what the protesters are doing, and I see my responsibility as a citizen to support steps away from the direction of corporate-fascism and toward representational democracy and community-interest, interest in the benefit of the nation, which is necessarily a collective benefit of every citizen. Most recently, polls indicate that between 44%(see note 1) and 46% (see note 2) of respondents support the OWS movement. However, our voices are not heard in our absence at OWS demonstrations.

Integral to the success of the colonial revolution “was whether Virginia would lend its support to Massachusetts” despite its economic dependence on trade with Britain (46). In Virginia’s demonstration of solidarity with Massachusetts, Jefferson offered a very real method of making widespread solidarity with the OWS movement visible and present in a powerful way. “[I]n May 1774,” some five months after the Boston Tea Party, “Jefferson, [Patrick] Henry, and some other legislators met in the book-lined council chamber of the Capitol. Jefferson wrote later that he and Henry were in agreement ‘that we must boldly take an unequivocal stand in the line with Massachusetts.’ They ‘cooked up’ a resolution, as Jefferson put it, and on May 24 the House of Burgesses approved a ‘Day of Fasting, Humiliation, and Prayer’ to be held in solidarity with Massachusetts” (47).

Following the steps of early revolutionaries, I propose a similar day of prayer/meditation and fasting to demonstrate solidarity with OWS on November 17, 2011.

In response to the recent acts of violence against protesters, solidarity must urgently be made manifest among the citizens of the US and among those across borders if we are to speak truth to power.

Notes:

1. Nov 9, 2011: http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2011/11/six-in-10-support-policies-addressing-income-inequality/
2. Nov 11, 2011: http://www.rbj.net/article.asp?aID=189411

Kranish, Michael. Flight From Monticello: Thomas Jefferson at war. New York: Oxford U Press, 2010.