Occupy what? Does lack of clear leadership discount a protest?

I’m tired of people armchair quarterbacking the entire “Occupy Wall Street” movement.

You can’t protest without knowing exactly what you are protesting? You must have a clear vision statement. Without a mission we need to form a panel to come up with recommendations that are acceptable to a majority, and of course, politically correct.

I can’t join them because my job depends on Wall Street.

The list goes on.

The media, not quite sure of what the hell this is, has discounted “the movement” and given it short mention. A favorite thing to do is grab on to the most odd demands to try to marginalize the whole- I’ve heard more people run their mouths about the PETA sounding parts of the manifesto- complaining that animals don’t deserve a part in the discussion- much the way industrialists like to call environmental science poppycock if it means they actually have to spend some money to make sure they don’t dump toxic waste into the land/air/seas.

To be truthful, the whole thing reminds me of the 1984 (how appropriate) movie “Footloose“- where a young Kevin Bacon (later to be known for only being 6 degrees from everyone) comes to a town where dancing and listening to rock music is illegal, and proceeds to teach them to dance. Does it really take a leader to show you how to do something that most people can manage to do pretty naturally? Must we be able to  dance  only like “Dancing with the Stars” in order to shake our groove thing? Do we have to have approval to be able to stand up and say “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore” (as long as we’re using movie metaphors).

It’s time to talk about what politics in the United States has devolved to (and as an active participant- having run for office, or tried to, more times than any of you will ever dream to) I feel qualified to tell you: the “2 party system” isn’t the democrats vs the republicans anymore- it’s purely just the rich vs the rest of us. Why does it cost a million to run for Congress and Presidential campaigns cost billions? Our elections are more like auctions, our laws are written by lobbyists who get paid much more that the people we supposedly select to do our lobbying for us (that’s what we elect people for).

Yes, we have too much government, and yes it’s become to complex, and our laws aren’t even ours anymore, but who cares? The Occupy Wall Street movement doesn’t have a soundbite speaking head that looks like he’s from central casting. Nope, they look like us (well at least some do).

Even the President sort of is getting it, in his press conference yesterday:

“These days, a lot of folks who are doing the right thing aren’t rewarded, and a lot of folks who aren’t doing the right thing are rewarded,”

via ‘Occupy Wall Street’ Protests Offer Obama Opportunity and Threats – NYTimes.com.

Does that sum it up for you? Does that explain the part about 1% of the country having the ability to control the other 99%

When the limits on corporations donating to political campaigns were lifted by the Supreme Court, it should have been the last straw, the people of this country should have risen up instantly and demanded an overthrow of the government, but, no, we’ve been beaten down for so long that most didn’t see it as the final straw, they just took it in stride like the other sinful screwings of the people who are subsisting on the scraps the rich don’t care about.

Somehow, “The American Dream” now includes wealth and riches beyond compare. We all may not be able to make millions playing basketball like Michael Jordan, but we can all be Steve Jobs and sell our VW microbus and rise to the top of Apple and be worth a paltry $7 billion (one Wall Street hedge fund guy took home $5 Billion in one year- and Delphi retiree’s have no clue where their pension fund went, really?)

My American dream was always different. As a first generation American, it was the freedom to speak freely, the right to protest, the right to be equal under the laws that made this country great.

Think about who buys elections these days, think about who provides your “news” and think about how equal is it when you go bankrupt and lose everything, but when Goldman Sach’s does it- your tax dollars prop them up?

Do you really need a leader to tell you that this isn’t the same country anymore?

It’s time to learn how to dance to your own interpretation of this mess- by joining the “occupy” movement. It’s OK to just shake your fist without having someone tell you why or how. Just know that if you aren’t just a little mad at the way things have turned out, you’re either stinking rich, sucking on their teat, in denial or too tired to do anything about it.

You shouldn’t need me, or anyone else to tell you that our democracy died.

Let’s bring it back.

Occupy Dayton, Courthouse Square, 2:30 to 4:30 Saturday Oct. 8, 2011. You are invited.

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