This feels like the Summer before Occupy Wall Street began.
Past is prologue, yet in our real time age captured by the sea of social media it can be hard to orient yourself to see the bigger picture while simultaneously trying to keep track of the livestream.
If only there was a hashtag to provide that kind of perspective!
Looking back on that historic year of 2011 when revolution filled the air from Tunisia to Egypt to Wisconsin to Zuccotti Park, I am most gratified by two things:
1. That I was a Wisconsinite fresh off the plane who found myself in New York City as my beloved Madison began a monumental uprising.
2. That as Occupy Wall Street got off the ground I was fortunate enough to be charged early on with writing an essay in the book From Cairo to Wall Street: Voices from the Global Spring.
The combination of these interrelated instances compelled me to take heed of what was happening from a birds eye view flying high above my newly native New York, and it is not hyperbole for me to say that it proved to be a formative experience for which I am irrepressably grateful.
What I saw then, and what I see now, is a direct line where momentum is building, and a shifting of the ground beneath our feet that can be hard to ascertain from the phones in our pockets.
Embers were lit across the country, and what we needed was kindling, which was what Occupy Wall Street provided in bushels -- in the international media capitol of the world at that.
In my estimation we are now at a similar point. Seemingly separate efforts across the country are having the cumulative effect of inspiring the netroots and the grassroots alike to believe something new could finally happen.
The Dream Defenders in Florida occupied their state Capitol for a month in the wake of the Zimmerman verdict through the #TakeOverFL effort, fostering a movement “a new generation.”
Moral Mondays have added weekly faith-filled soulto activism at the Capitol in North Carolina protesting the civil rights crippling legislation gutting the core of what Martin Luther King Jr. had victoriously accomplished for us all.
And back in Wisconsin, the Solidarity Sing Along, a long-lasting relic of the Wisconsin occupation that has provided a constant presence in the Capitol since, has seen an all out assault on their rights to peaceably assemble. Hundreds have already been arrested with dozens more every day -- including veterans, grandparents, even moms with toddlers -- as pretty much anyone who gets in the way of Scott Walker’s insatiable Koch-powered drive to clear his conscience from dissent-filled song has been deemed a threat.
In isolation these are all innovative actions with disparate aims whose lessons we can look to add to our arsenal moving forward.
But together they are indicative of the exact same kind of burning embers we have seen before. The difference is that today we have the benefit of foresight to fan the flames of the Democratic culture they represent to unify the everyday people who are so desperate for their dreams and sacrifices to result in a tangible impact.
The notion of the 99% took hold of our society for a reason. We are all in this together, and we know it.
The question is what we can do to unite once again to rock the foundation of the powers that be in a broader fight against inequality in all its forms, and hopefully, be swept off our collective feet in the process.