After being arrested with 740 others for taking the Brooklyn Bridge I was asked by a relative to clarify what our protest is about. Here is what I came up with:
We protest the growing inequality in this country, where the collective wealth is increasingly concentrated in the hands of the very few while the middle class is steadily eliminated and the poor are left without basic needs.
We recognize that while the economic recession has greatly worsened matters, this is not a cyclic phenomenon. This has been the story of the last thirty years. This has been the story of our generation. Middle class income has stagnated while the wealth of the few has grown exponentially. For many years the middle class felt that they shared in that prosperity, but that was proven largely illusory. Our wealth was a bubble, while the few continue to enjoy record profits. Their greed can never be satiated.
We realize that these economic inequalities are brought about by political inequality. Our politicians are bought and paid for by the ultra-rich and the industries that they commandeer. They raise tens of millions of dollars from the corporate elite, and like the mayor of New York they are increasingly of that elite. We speak out against a government of the rich, by the rich, and for the rich. We demand democracy.
We protest because if left unchecked our economic inequality will continue to perpetuate our political inequality, and our political inequality will likewise perpetuate our economic inequality. We recognize that extreme disparity of wealth is fundamentally incompatible with democracy. We call upon democracy to defend social justice, in the knowledge that social justice will in turn defend democracy.
We thus demand an end to the nefarious influence of money on politics. Our politicians can only serve the monied interests or the people, not both. Our supreme court has sided with the wealthy and thus against the people. We reject the opinion of the politically appointed court. We define the laws of the land. We the people write the constitution and we demand democracy.
The religious among us believe that god frowns upon greed and smiles upon charity. The righteous among us care about justice for the poor, while the wicked turn a blind eye. We cannot serve god and money. We stand with god.
We cherish the fact that human beings possess the remarkable qualities of altruism, empathy, and compassion. While we are all self-interested, we are also concerned with the welfare of others. Corporations share not in this concern. Their sole purpose is profit, regardless of any consequences to others. If corporations are people then they are sociopaths. We reject the notion that corporations are people.
We laugh at the idea that the wealth will trickle down if only we trust the free market. While our generation is young, we have studied history. We know of the gilded ages when the robber barons amassed enormous fortunes while the masses lived in squalor. We revere the heroes of the progressive era and generations past who fought to gift a better society to us. We are angry that their dream, far from being built upon, is being eroded, and we will speak out and fight rather than be complicit in the destruction of the great society we were gifted.
We reject the idea that only the wealthy understand economics and should be trusted with safeguarding our prosperity. While we may not be economists we know that productivity is maximized when each of us is maximized. Unemployment is not economically efficient. A lack of education is not economically efficient. Environmental destruction is not economically efficient. We nevertheless reject the rich man's view that humanity's progress is measured solely by its gross domestic product.
We recognize that our cause shares many of the frustrations that led to the Tea Party movement. Our government is fundamentally corrupt, bought and paid for, and rotten to the core. Many in the Tea Party have honest intentions and we call on them to join us. Yet the Tea Party would cut off its nose to spite its face. They are being used as pawns by the rich and powerful who wish to destroy the democratic institutions that stand between them and greater profit. We reject the notion that government must be eliminated because it is presently corrupt. We realize that without government we are entirely subject to the free market, each with no worth other than our net worth. The free market would let the poor die. The free market would wage violent war for profit. We reject the notion that the free market is inherently benevolent. We demand a body representing our empathy, compassion, and collective will. We demand a functioning government, of the people, by the people, and for the people. We are the descendents of the revolutionaries and we carry on the struggle.
We are a global movement. We stand up against the race to the bottom that pits nation against nation in an attempt to marginalize us all. We stand in solidarity with the oppressed masses of the developing world, who in many cases do not have freedom to speak out. We cherish our freedoms earned through centuries of struggle, and we use them to speak out. We speak for the masses of the world to be lifted up, and reject the notion that their oppression justifies our's.
We note that our fundamental economic and political inequalities have resulted in a multitude of injustices. We are morally outraged by the fact that tens of millions in the richest country in the world do not have access to health care. We are angry about the rapidly increasing cost of education which denies opportunity to an entire generation. We are upset that our environment is spoiled for future generations due to lobbying for corporate profit. We are furious that powerful financiers walk free after committing massive fraud, while the powerless are arrested for speaking out.
We reject the notion that our numerous grievances indicates a lack of message. Our message is simple - we speak out against fundamental economic and political inequalities. If we have a multitude of grievances it is because our problem is enormous. We have been apathetic for far too long. We have taken progress for granted for far too long. But no longer.
We, the 99%, will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1%. We add our voices to a long tradition of protest, upon which our very society is based. For the first time our generation's voice will be heard. Their greed has awakened a giant. Their corruption has stirred a mighty voice that they cannot control. We now control our own destiny, and it is up to us.
We are on the right side of history.
They have ignored us.
They have laughed at us.
They are fighting us.
But know that we will win.