Forum Post: OWS are a bunch of wussies and other lessons from my grandfather
Posted 13 years ago on Nov. 15, 2011, 9:47 a.m. EST by SavetheWorld
(14)
from Jersey City, NJ
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
Talked to my grandfather(immigrant to US), who was a surviving EDSA 1 protester during his days, basically told me that OWS protesters are a bunch of wussies. During his days protesting, they were clubbed, beaten, got taken away and never to be seen again and hosed with water, and get this, its not clean water, but raw sewage. Try googling raw sewage water in Philippines, that will make anyone puke.
Basically talked to him and i got great insight from him:
Protest with a single big demand. Too much demands and truths, it will all just become noise.
Protesting with a single big demand will deter some of troublemaker groups. During his time protesting, there were some attempts of various individuals from communist party and other rebel groups to ally themselves to the movement
grab each other elbow to elbow, and never let go, my grandfather was beaten with a club, bleeding on the right temple and held on and was able to stand up because other people were holding on to him
Have faith with your co protester
I don't know what the difference is between people today and people back in his time, except that we faced an immediate threat from war and nuclear destruction. These were daily realities. We hid under our desks to practice what to do if the bombs came up from Cuba, we knew that when we reached 18 we would go off to Vietnam and probably be forced to kill women and children. We saw our black neighbors get run out of town or even lynched. These realities put your options in perspective. They were harsh futures to contemplate and our response was to realize that our lives and our equality and the future of the planet was under attack. With a certainty of that, willingness to stand ground and be beaten to send a message to the world was a thinkable option. I think the focus is not so immediate now, the enemies are not so clear, and the battleground is not so official as it was then. So we will not see that sort of certainty in the protestors. You can't fault them. You have to fault all of us for allowing our freedoms to erode away quietly while we sleep. The awful future is real and we need to wake up.
I have 2 great uncles who protested the communist government of Hungary and the resulting Soviet invasion on Hungary. Both of them say OWS protesters are a bunch of pussies.