Here's the thing about the rule of law: Once those responsible for enforcing it fail to do so because they themselves have become corrupted, then it is the responsibility of the people to demand enforcement. And there is no greater threat to a democracy than the ability of the rich and powerful to commit crimes with impunity.
And it is so because those types of crimes strike at the very heart of democracy. In the final analysis, they are truly heinous crimes because they cause untold misery, and pain and despair among entire populations, as it's the case today in the United States, which has allowed Wall Street criminals to loot the country and plunge the population into a great depression, while the criminals' wealth and power increases exponentially.
You can put together a list of crimes--all types--and when it comes to the harm done to "the people," to society, the crimes committed by the representatives of the richest people in this country are by far the most damaging.
Tomorrow Wall Street will meet Pissed-off Main Street on the first day of a months-long occupation-style protest. The "authorities," such as they are, had plenty of time to address the criminality, and not only did they failed to address it, they actually participated in the cover-up. And that's because the political class is on the take, plain and simple.
If you are tired of the bullshit; if you are tired of your clamor for justice falling on deaf ears; if you are tired of the fearful approach of the establishment Democrats and Liberals; support this effort. At this point there is no other alternative.
Is this the best approach? Of course not. When people find it necessary to take to the streets to demand that the rule of law be enforced, something terribly wrong has happened in government; there has been a complete breakdown of the system. And at that point people need to set things straight. We have reached that point.
There are many dangers, of course. The protesters will be infiltrated by undercover law enforcement agents; they will be infiltrated by provocateurs trying to incite violence. People will get arrested.
But this group of true patriots seems to be ready. They have thought about contingencies to deal with all those issues. They have recruited legal advice from the National Lawyers Guild for people that have been arrested. They are recruiting people to help with lodging and food (since this is going to be an occupation-style protest). They have even set up a "Global Protest TV Channel" for the live streaming of the global non violent revolution spreading internationally--against a common and brutal enemy.
There is no other way... There are plenty, who paralyzed with fear, and the brutal psychological control over them by the corporatist propaganda machine that is the mainstream media would let themselves be subjugated an enslaved. That is always the case. These people taking on Wall Street starting tomorrow (Saturday, September 17th, 2011) reject that approach, and instead choose to stand up to corruption and oppression. Support them. They are acting to save the Republic!
There will be simultaneous protests in San Francisco, Los Angeles, London, Madrid, Israel Lisbon, Athens, among other cities.
If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning.
They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what a people will submit to, and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them; and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both.
The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress. Men may not get all they pay for in this world; but they must pay for all they get. If we ever get free from all the oppressions and wrongs heaped upon us, we must pay for their removal. We must do this by labor, by suffering, by sacrifice, and, if needs be, by our lives, and the lives of others.
- Frederick Douglass
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