As I've watch this movement grow and written about it just a bit, my understanding of it has grown. It's not just about income inequality. Of course, this is important, it's a cornerstone issues for me personally. Another huge reason that OWS has become a world wide movement though is the fact that we've become so disconnected from one another (I really hope you read this diary I wrote, Occupy Yourself) and we've stopped listening to each other and our Government has stopped listening to its people.
It's that simple.
And when I read about Stacey Hessler from a Facebook page and the smear campaign that's begun about her and her traveling to OWS and to live at that park to help be part of the Occupy Wall Street I understood her in just a few seconds.
A mother of four does not abandon her children to go take care of other people without being thought, loving and caring. The first article I read made it seem that her decision had been done in haste and without the support of her family.
Hessler has spoken with her family -- husband Curtiss, 42; son Peyton, 17; and daughters Kennedy 15, Sullivan, 13, and Veda, 7 -- just three times since leaving them. “Friends are taking care of them,” she said.
Not everyone has supported her decision. “My mother told me I was being very selfish,” she admitted.
And her husband, a former Bank of America financial adviser who now works at a local Florida bank, is perplexed. “He says he’s working for ‘the Man,’ and I’m fighting against him,” she said.
They used words liked, "ditched" when describing how she left her family behind. Of course, this is not how it happened. She left with their consent, she left with their support and she's staying with not only the support of her family, but with the support of her friends to help care for her family of five.
This is what Occupy Wall Street is really about. Supporting one another, bringing people together for a greater good and connecting with not only those we love, but learning to care and connect with complete strangers.
Drop the iPad, put down the computers, move away from the cellphone, learn to connect again with people and that we can care for people again. It is what we need to do. We have become a narcissistic society, working to own things, stuff, and become, in many cases, the people we really don't want to be. In the name of what?
Now the Village Voice has a much better story about Stacey, it clears the record to set things straight.
Stacey didn't just leave her family behind, the Post, the story I posted first, left and got their permission and is staying with their support. But of course, it can't be!
"She had been following this movement on her own through Facebook and YouTube and whatever, and she decided she wanted to come up to New York. And her family said, 'Go, mom, go. This is what you want to do,'" Napoli said. "From what she said to me, she said, yeah, her family supports her."
Hessler's aforementioned Facebook page also features a post from her on her wall dated October 15th:
I have a plea for my friends. I need your help and support. I want to stay occupying wall st. I feel my presence is very important in the support of non-violent communication and sanitation(keeping the park clean) I am willing to work tirelessly on these efforts. I need help with getting my kids to activities and stepping up with the things I help lead, such as one small village, jr roller derby, ...
Friends responded to her request and offered help and assistance. She appears to have a network of support and, according to Napoli, Hessler's husband and kids are fully behind her.
I am Stacey, you may be Stacey too. I am a forty year old Mother who yearns to be there too, to be somewhere to embrace this movement not just by my computer but to be feel part of something bigger than myself. And yes, caring for my daughter is being part of something bigger than myself. But in saying that she has abandoned her family we have some classic misogyny happening here. Her only place should be in the home, she can't be part of something political, she can't do this, she's abandoned her duties as a wife and mother.
No, she has not.
And we should support Stacey and anyone else who wants to OWS and wants to be part of this movement and push back on this bullshit.
We are Stacey. Our place is where our hears tell us to be. Our place is where we are pulled to and where our family supports us to be.
Please support Stacey.
Let her know that she is doing the right thing, she is my HERO for going there and going with her and having the support of her family, they are obviously a loving, secure and amazing family who can give their Mother and Wife the freedom to follow her heart.