Even as we slide the slope down into worse and worse economic times, we are still the privileged. That is so easily and so quickly taken away by those who wish to be in power and will do anything to get there.
I am registered as a democrat in name only. I don't feel at this point that there is a whole lot that the president, who is a democrat, is doing for the people of this country. I believe he came into the job with good intentions, but I believe he was easily bought out. Prove me wrong please, I would be happy to be wrong in this instance, but every move I've seen has just made me feel more and more that this is true. However, voting Republican is not the answer. A good thing may be that at this point, if Democrats are going to do the Tea Parties bidding, I won't feel that voting for a third party candidate will be throwing away my vote. Of course having Republicans in the white house is worse, but we need to have more than a two party system, so if we have hit bottom with both parties than I can freely vote for whom I truly believe will do the best thing.
There are some great Democrats in the government and I would gladly vote for them again, but this is because they have not compromised their morals to be there. Just because I don't believe in a two party system doesn't mean I wouldn't vote for someone in that party if I thought they were the best candidate. Of course you can't vote in the primaries but that was one reason I stayed in the Democrat party.
When I was younger, probably starting in elementary school, I began to think the world was basically screwed. By screwed I mean that things were going to hell and they were irreversible. This, of course, is depressing. This was a sort of brainwashing that I got from the media and sadly from my school. I believe their intention was to actually awaken a sort of activist in all of us, but instead, the things we learned all ended with 'and the damage is done and there is no fixing it.' I would have to assume that somewhere, a lot of people got this same education or same idea because it has been so hard to mobilize progressives all of my life. There are a few instances when I thought people would really change. The WTO protests, which sadly turned into riots, but they only turned into riots (most likely, I can't actually say this with total certainty) because of the police violence. I was in High School when this happened and we were are shocked at the amount of violence, even shown on television, that the police were carrying out, and when people were arrested they were treated quite horribly. I remember hearing stories from people who had gone out to Seattle and been held by the U.S. Marshalls who either do, or think they do, have higher authority to be total bastards. That seemed like an awakening, because that was about the banks, it was about the level of evil, and corruption, in places like the world bank. That was a good fight. But then people got lazy again. Who organized that? Why did that get so big?
Now we have the 'Occupy' movement. That is fantastic. I love that this is going on because I think it incorporates everything about my generation. The frustration, the unity that we still have even though we thought we had lost it, the real giving nature of the majority of us. The excepting nature of our generation. And most of all, there has to be someone to start the movement because we are scared to show up for whatever reason. I'm scared that I will be seen and people will ridicule me for being a part of a pointless movement. Some people are just lazy and want someone else to do it. There are a lot of reasons I can't even begin to think about. Some people think that it's not important enough to take time out of their day. It really is. It is really important for us all to be involved in our government, in our country and in the decisions made with our money and when those decisions FUCK us over, we should be speaking out to make sure that it does not happen again! This also means that people need to start voting. Part of the problem here is that the Republicans have a better strategy. They are better at mobilizing. Does that mean they are less lazy? Maybe it does, maybe it doesn't, but it does mean that they know how valuable voting is. Voting can get anything done. Voting is why there are the laws there are and the people who are getting more than their fair share of the profit when the majority get almost nothing. The Republicans know that if they want to make more money, all they have to do is get their constituents to vote, and they know how to word things to make everything sound black and white.
What the democrats need is honesty. Honesty and strait forwardness. That is what we thought we were getting with Obama. We thought that when we elected him, he stood for Democratic values. It turns out, he may have at one point, but he wasn't strong enough to stand up to the decision makers. The people behind the scenes...the "advisors."
So I am happy to see that people are standing up and doing something. I'm overwhelmed with excitement that this has spread to every city in America including my small city (yes we have an Occupy Humboldt movement!). I do have this nagging feeling that when this is over, when everyone goes home...it will go back to how it was after the WTO protests. We were fighting the same fight back then and then we let them go on with their corruption.
I remember protesting with the Student Worker political activist group that myself and some other students started at Boulder High, and we went to Denver to protest the WTO and the IMF and education cuts. We were at the Capitol and someone asked the person who was with me, what the World Bank had done, and what the IMF was that we were protesting, and to their credit they were honest and simply said 'I don't know.' I did know, and I'm not saying I'm always better than other protesters but I was actually there for a reason. I was there because I knew and I was angry. Do your fucking research! If you aren't angry about the shit that they have done, than don't get involved, but I don't see how anyone could not find it disgusting. Two good examples of why the IMF is a terrible organization: Bolivia, Jamaica. Look it up, there are two movies about it if you are interested, there is: "Life and Debt" a documentary, which is about Jamaica's loan from the IMF and how they subsequently forced the country into poverty (worse poverty, and irreversible - or hard to reverse poverty), and there was a movie (not a documentary) called "Even the Rain" about how when the IMF gave a loan to Bolivia they told the government that they had to start charging their people for water, even the water that fell from the sky. I wish I had a documentary about this but I couldn't find one, the movie touches on it but doesn't explain a lot so you would have to do some reading and I don't have any specific links to share, but that's an extremely disgusting situation as well. It's worth doing your own research on both of course.
The IMF is doing what banks do, protecting their investment (so they say), but at what cost? They are making situations that mean that the country will forever be in debt to them and forever paying off their debts - which means constant payment to the bank and usually at a huge cost to the country and their well being. Protecting their investment by corrupting entire nations to the point that they are owned by the bank.
This is exactly why these demonstrations are important. Why the Occupy movement is important. Banks do this, they put you in debt and then they own you. This is what mortgages are, this is what student loans are, especially for anyone who wants to go to school for long enough to get a real degree. Think about medical school. Think about someone coming from no money and taking out loans for school when in this country medical school can cost you over $100,000, plus living expenses. This is one way that the poor are going to stay poor and the rich will stay rich. School should be free. We shall see how England fares with their income disparities as they keep raising their school tuition.
I have a new child, and I am extremely lucky to have all I have. I truly am. I am going to admit that now I am scared of joining any movement because I don't know what they would do if I was arrested. I don't want to risk having my child taken away from me. But that's fucking sad! It's sad that asking for corruption to stop, and be investigated, can get you arrested. And it's sad that I have to be scared to voice my opinion. That is not what this country is supposed to stand for, and I believe that my generation is starting to realize. I think that those who can go out there and don't have to worry about things like that are representing those of us who do. Those without jobs are staying at the parks overnight (in the Occupy movement) so that those with jobs can be represented even when they must be working or taking care of their families.
We must become a society that values one another! We must all begin to know one another and care for one another, because in that society, we are all much safer and much better off. When we can support one another and take care of others when they are down, then we all have more power. That's how Unions were started, when people went on strike they had people to help out so that their families didn't starve or freeze to death. Without each other we are not even one single strength, because however much the Republicans will tell you this, no one gets to the top without help from others. No one makes it on their own because it is actually impossible. We should all care.
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