Forum Post: October 16 Concert Rally NYC
Posted 12 years ago on Oct. 16, 2011, 4:18 p.m. EST by studentrallynyc
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Music For Change Student Concert Rally Demanding Mandatory FREE Education On Debt And Credit!
OCCUPY WALL STREET Re: October 16 Concert Rally Contact: studentrallynyc@gmail.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
[NEW YORK, October 16, 2011] - People of all walks of life have taken part in the Occupy Wall Street protests to voice their needs and hardships. Although there hasn’t been a list of clear demands from protestors, one group has a distinct demand–mandatory free access to personal finance education in colleges and universities.
In the wake of the fairly recent economic downturn, many college students and recent college graduates are finding themselves among the Wall Street protestors to raise awareness of mounting debt and no clear understanding of how to effectively manage it.
For the first time, as part of the Occupy Wall Street campaign, students, graduates, and Occupy Wall Street protestors will gather on Sunday, October 16th, at 7 p.m., in Sullivan Hall, at 214 Sullivan Street in New York City for Music For Change.
Music For Change is a student concert rally for credit education. Using social network sites, this leaderless movement, founded by students and recent grads, and concerned with convoluted practices and weak regulations of the credit card industry, has created a united front in support of their demands for transparency and education.
The general feeling expressed by the rally organizers is that 99% percent of the general public has room for knowledge on how Wall Street and financial institutions operate. Resolving the lack of financial education is the major step required to fix Wall Street and get control of growing debt. Therefore, one of the protestors’ demands already expressed prior to the rally is to have personal finance education mandated by the U.S. Department of Education in all colleges and universities, with free access for all students.
"Students have been hit hard by rising tuition costs and the government’s increased belt-tightening on contributions towards education; students are increasingly feeling the squeeze. Like their predecessors of the 1960s, they're using music as a form of expressing their loud and evident dissatisfaction!" said Michael German, PR Director for the Student Credit Card Education Initiative, who will provide the venue and logistics for the event.
The Music For Change rally is also a concert featuring six bands from various ethnic backgrounds, which so vividly captures the cultural diversity of New York City. The rally will feature music by the acclaimed Judah Tribe, singer and activist Ellina Graypel, as well as other free spirited performers, including GoldenChild & The Chosen, VJ Chris Landry, and (I am) Isis. In addition to sharing their vast musical gifts, performers will rally with Occupy Wall Street protestors, voicing their discontent with growing debt.
Each and every one of the concert’s musicians was drawn to this cause due to their own personal finance histories. Ellina Graypel, for example, achieved fame as a teenager in the former Soviet Union before moving to New York and finding herself forced to declare bankruptcy. "I was a kid making more money than my parents. We had money, so we spent money. I had no clue about money management ... most of my friends are in their 30s and they still have no clue," Graypel said.
Since then, Graypel has worked hard to right her financial wrongs. In just four years, she has boosted her credit score from under 500 to over 800, and is the proud recipient of a small bank loan. "I was clueless about credit. Only after ruining my credit history, I realized its importance. We want sound awareness with our music, so that others will not repeat these mistakes."
I think these demonstrations, and this concert, shows that protest can be fun and uplifting for the participants.
How many of those protesters secretly want jobs on Wall Street?
This will all blow over.
Actually, I’m a little older, and I want to get the same kind of financial education.
I think teenagers are brainwashed into thinking they can have anything they want, so they don’t see the consequences of their spending.
If kids don’t want to have so much debt, they should learn to control their spending.
Student debt and credit card debt are taboo subjects. Everyone thinks it’s their own problem, but people in their 20s are really feeling it.
You know, it’s not just young people. Unions joined some of the protests in Occupy Wall Street.
Do these people even vote?
I think everyone in OWS should just go home and stop bothering everyone. They’ve had their time.
I think it’s a good thing that a free concert can also add some rallying and education to the mix. When people are disheartened, they need their spirits boosted.
The politicians will have to answer these protests. Questions will come up in debates, and thorny ones! Occupy Wall St. comes at just the right time to enter the campaigns. And not just on the presidential level, there are Congressional races, and state and local races going on.
I see all this discontent as very unorganized, so far. I think it will take a while for them to formulate any plan. By the time they do I think the presidential race will knock them out of the news. The TV news would rather cover the campaigns they way they always have. They will move away from these protests.
Colleges? I think this kind of learning would be good in high school, and even below.
Why don’t colleges train kids in all this stuff? They certainly know how to get loans in place for them.
Colleges should include financial education in the curriculum.
I think, if the economy were a little better, college kids could get themselves in good shape. They are feeling sad now.
They’re after banks because they’re the only ones who got bailed out.
Someone should get moving on the jobs bill. Can’t they all go to D.C., where the real problems are?
Why are we fighting banks?
I don’t know if you should still be calling these people “scraggly,” since people from all walks of life have joined in.
Actually, the situation we’re in is a little bit similar to 1776. You have a lot of dissatisfied people who want change.
1776 it is. Take a look at the country. Take a look at Balance Transfer Day http://www.facebook.com/BalanceTransferDay
Students need to learn more about financial issues. They usually find out too late what it all means.
You are right. Please support our movement, search Balance Transfer Day, and visit facebook.com/MusicForChangeRally, and help spread this message!
I don’t know if you can really compare these people to the American Revolution. As the article points out, they at least have free speech and the right to protest, things people in 1776 did not.
I think the group this article is talking about is at least trying to make some kind of difference. They should be applauded.
Not everyone there is unemployed. One protester had started his own business, was doing okay, but felt he had to be there.
I think there has been some demands, didn't they appeal for auditing the FED?
So now the board of ed is afer my money, and they ruined my credit history, yet there are no jobs that I can use to pay the credit
Wow dude, you really need to get of them but and get a job
Think banks get the most of it. I mean they control the colleges and universities financing. No way these colleges are greedy by themselves.
It all stems from the banks
I don't know, so what do you propose - no banks?
People, this is right, we need more education on money and debt. I my kids have put me in 35,000 credit card debt
Finally some music we need some music out there
Painted my face like a flag at TmsQuare you should see. Why do they forbid masks and on Halloween its ok
Is this far from the parK?
A lot of the occupiers are students with debt. I heard one interviewed on the radio today. She’s a history major getting out without any job prospects. She has crushing student loan debt. All of her friends are working three jobs.
I don’t see the problem. Someone’s giving a free concert.
Good for you guys.....
I firmly believe that one of the ways to immediately and effectively deal with student ( and graduate student) debt is to demand that the university and college foundations which hold hundreds of millions and billions of dollars be opened to pay down student debt.
This money is invested in securities,private equity, and investments held at wall street banks and wall street hedge funds.
It is there for the retirement benefit of former professors and employees and future professors and employees who have been guaranteed an over the top standard of living in their retirement.... mostly at the expense of mounting tuition costs that in part go to rising salaries.................all at the expense of students.
As an example take a look of the outrageous salaries of the people who run the money in these endowments and foundations.....!!
You students should be protesting your own universities, both public and private............. to open the spigot of their foundations for the benefit of the students.
Occupy Wall Street, as Mayor Bloomberg said, is just getting in the way of people who are trying to get to work themselves.
Don’t think anyone knows what to do. That’s what the protesters are trying to figure out.
They are definitely making their voices heard, but I’m not sure what their demands are. Do they even know?
I don’t think they have a “lack of representation.” They can all go to the polls and vote.