Forum Post: It Has To Start Somewhere

Hi friends,

So most of you showed interest in what is going on down at Wall St. but aren't quite sure what its really about and why a bunch of "lazy, homeless hippies" are hanging out in a park protesting a "system that can't be defined." It can be defined. Our political "system" is a Democracy: ruled by the people, by which each person has an equal say (vote.) Our economic "system" is Capitalism: privately owned businesses operated for profit in competitive markets. Our "systems" are breaking down and in great need of repairs.

Our political "system" leads us to believe we have a say because we are given 2 or 3 candidates to choose from who get voted in, and if they haven't been already, eventually become "influenced" (lobbied, or otherwise known as bought out by big banks and corporations) to pass laws that favor the super rich. I'm not talking about the self made man who is pulling in any imagined income he or she earned and deserves from honest work. I'm talking about the billionaires who make a business trading our savings, mortgages, pensions, retirement plans, futures, and country away on Wall St. The same ones who control the oil companies who instigate wars so we can invade other countries for what is to be believed to make us safer, but it's for the oil. The same oil companies who buy and trash patents that would further clean energy, but they don't want that cause they're too busy making massive profits from hiking up the price of and using the last bit of oil. The same unneccessary wars that we send our loved ones off to die in. The insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies who have turned getting sick into business. A health care system that would rather see it's citizens die than risk profit loss.

Of course, there are some public servents in government who are trying their best to use our justice system to fix this mess, but its hard to fight a losing battle when nobody else in the country wakes up long enough to pay attention and say "Hey, I also think there's something wrong with this situation and we need to change it!" It's also difficult when the powers at the top sense a politician, who wants the best for his country and wants to make changes that will help America as a whole but might impede any of the above mentioned offenders profits. More often than not, a new politician with major backing and "can relate to the people" slips into the race, only to find out later their #1 campaign contributor is Goldman Sachs or Merrill Lynch.

Our economic "system" leads us to believe we all have an equal opportunity at making a better life. We do have an opportunity at making a better life, but it certainly isn't equal. Try explaining how being the heir to a multi billion dollar corporation is as equal an opportunity at success as an inner city kid from Chicago in a single parent household. It just isn't. And the success stories of those who fight there way from the bottom to the top are few and far between these days. 30 years ago this was more of a reality, now it's more of a memory. Many good, hard working people fall into unfortunate situations and on bad times. It's hard to be proud of a country that has so much wealth, and would still let ANY of it's people suffer while a very few have SO much excess. "We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both."-Louis D. Brandeis

This country, for at least the last 30 years, has been raised on the basis of greed. It's has been engrained in us by our schools, the media, our bosses, and the world that if we work hard, we will succeed, but recent events in history have proven that even the hardest workers can be foreclosed on and left with nothing more to cling to than a government check and no work to find (some even with a masters in their respected field.) We've come to ACCEPT the mindset that as long as we have more than our neighbor, well, at least there is someone worse off than me! There's no such thing as a free ride you may think, but look at the 2008 bank bail out, that's exactly what they got, a free ride from tax payers and we all bit the bullet without a bat of the eye. It's time for us to realize how bass-ackwards our system has began to run, because it isn't working for the people as a whole any longer, and we won't take it any longer.

"It's a lost cause" you may think. "They can protest all they want, feel like they are part of something, but in the end nothings gonna change!" Then you are proving to be part of the problem and let this go by the wayside. I know it may be a lot to wrap your head around and take in, but this is a movement to end corporate greed that screws everybody, but if its screwing you and its screwing me and we can agree on that and complain about it on the internet and in small groups at work, then why can't we actually get the fug together at a scheduled time and place, discuss it as a whole, and come up with a solution? That time is NOW and the locations are even being planned for you, you just have to show up and you are allowed to speak your mind, and what you would do to make our country better. But you have to first and foremost understand, this is the people coming together to work together to fix this problem. It's not to criticize on a prejudice level, but more so on an ethical, economical, and political level. 66 cities across the country so far have citizens committed to this movement. To come together to hear each others issues, many of which at the root of it, WE ALL SHARE THE SAME PROBLEMS!!! I bet you've got the brains to help fix this world, and here's your chance to actually be heard. Cause YOU will never be heard by your elected and corporate paid politicians. You want change, well Obama hasn't brought it and neither will any future politician under the current circumstances we're in. We need to stand strong together, peacefully, diligently, and recognize that we are a nation of many different beliefs, backgrounds, and so on, but only by coming together can we actually make a difference. You want change, then you must be open to change!

And finally, it's not just hippies down at liberty square and every other Occupy city around the USA! I can attest. It's teachers, doctors, 9/11 first responders, garbage men, small business owners, students, teachers, mothers, fathers, grandfathers, blue collars, white collars, dog collars! It's people who have woken up and realized the "system" that was designed to be ruled by them and work for them, has unfortunately favored a select few astronomically more than others, and the peasants in the bottom 99%, really have no say anymore. This is ALL our chance to get off our ass' and actually serve our country for yourself, and future generations.