My husband and I marched in a local OWS protest on October 15. I live in a liberal, suburban/rural county in the San Francisco bay area. We had a strong showing, with crowd estimates between 3 to 4 thousand, the 6th largest in the nation, and surely the largest suburban OWS protest. Our protest and march through the streets of downtown Santa Rosa were peaceful and respectful of drivers coming through. We even stopped for a while at the transit mall to let the buses through. No violence. No arrests.
I have continued following the OWS protests in the news. Encouraged by the unions joining with the OWS protesters, I felt more hope than I have since becoming discouraged and disillusioned with President Obama. I respect civil disobedience as a form of protest, and have not been disturbed by the arrests made around the country at the protests. Let Fox News do their best to marginalize the OWS movement; it has been hitting a chord with a large part of the country.
And then the vandalism and fire setting happened in Oakland. I felt sickened by it. From what I have read, it was outside agitators that did it. But that won’t change the spin of the media on it. I also read that the protests are costing Oakland a lot of money, both in expenses and lost revenue as businesses pull out. Is this the point in the movement when the rallying cry of “We are the 99%!” becomes obsolete? A joke? Will the most disenfranchised, rightfully and righteously angry, alienate the other disenfranchised struggling to make it in a country whose politics and policies have been taken over by corporate greed?
As large corporate interests have gained more and more influence on policy, with the Citizens United ruling putting what feels like an irreversible lock on that influence, the ballot box has felt more and more like a useless exercise. If corporate-funded lobbyists continue to have a strong-arm influence on policy, then what is the point? We vote and think it matters, and then things continue as they have been, or worse. But, you know, if we really let that feeling sink in and take over, then the Koch brothers and their kin have really won, haven’t they?
I implore the OWS movement to remember that we are the 99%, and that actions taken that adversely affect small business owners and communities as a whole will weaken the potential of this movement. And, I’d like to respectfully suggest some additions to some of the more popular OWS signs:
I believe that corporations are not people, and I vote.
I am tired of corporate greed running and ruining our country, and I vote.
I believe the rich should pay their fair share, and I vote.
I believe we need jobs, not cuts, and I vote.
I want corporate tax loopholes to end, and I vote.
You get the idea. Since we aren’t the ones with the big bucks, we need to remind the powers-that-be that we vote.