Forum Post: The Strength of the Occupy Wall Street Movement

The strength of the Occupy Wall Street movement is that for which it has been most criticized. By not curtailing its message to one form or one demand or one leader that would inevitably begin to isolate and exclude individuals, it has permitted expressions from all parties and all peoples. It has invited those men and women who may not fully align themselves to any one particular creed to align themselves to a particular feeling of injustice. The strength of the Occupy Wall Street movement is that it is not moving. It is standing side-by-side and one-by-one in place. With each individual’s stance, Occupy Wall Street is clearing and establishing a platform for the expression of the emotions that are the natural bi-products of a greater and greater disparity. It is this very diversity of expression that gives Occupy Wall Street its stability. If this diversity is unnecessarily homogenized, the Occupy Wall Street movement could become especially vulnerable.

Occupy Wall Street is not a form, and it is not a demand and it is not a leader. It is a platform. And if it is to remain a platform for the expression of the people, it must fight the demands and urge to organize into anything greater than the individual. It must allow the expression of each person to work. It must be patient for change, not in a policy, not in a party, and not in a politician, but in the real and lasting change of the heart of the people it speaks too. And it must eventually call out and embrace not just the 99%, but the entire 100%; because humankind is not our enemy. Our enemy is and always has been the existence and perpetuation of inequality.

Thank you Occupy Wall Street for the immense courage it took to begin this global conversation. Thank you for the extreme effort and determination it takes to keep it going.