I woke up early this morning and clicked on HBIII's post "OWS Taking Back Zuccotti Park" and of course, read every comment and looked at all the available videos. And true to form, the New York City Police responded to this, seemingly spontaneous action with more violence and another attempt to suppress the press. A commenter in that thread wondered what the positive purpose of this Occupy action was.
What was the point, to be out on the street in the cold on New Years' Eve?
I nail a new calendar to the wall and celebrate this day as most everyone else does. We replaced the 1 with a 2 today but what's changed? Over 20 million of our brothers and sisters are still looking for work and many of these folks have been evicted from their homes. Banks that are accessing capital from the Fed at 1%, are refusing to renogotiate mortgages. Banks, that we the people bailed out, are stealing homes with fraudulant documentation. Executives at these banks are escaping prosecution as they try and figure out how to spend, obscene year end bonuses.
Corporations are still exporting our liveliehoods and slashing every possible benefit, to the benfit of shareholders. There doesn't seem to be much grumbling from the 1% these days and why would there be? The staggering wealth inequality that exists, resides in their bank accounts, not ours. Corporate profits are at near record levels, as folks struggle to make meager ends meet, squeezing every last penny until the next paycheck or unemployment check arrives.
Sick folks don't have health insurance and how this is acceptable, in this country, is a crime of morality that needs an explanation. Students are saddled with debt they can't discharge, for educations that are worthless, if there are no jobs. More of our neighbors and children, are falling into poverty than anytime since the Great Depression.
Well, this is our Great Depression.
I'm glad Krugman finally verified it but we the people knew it long before he wrote that column, in which he finally used the D word. We understood how awful it was out here, how unaffordable it is to live in our own country, even as the T.V. box was smooth talking us into believing otherwise; continously seducing us to buy the new, shiny thing. These days, the new shiny thing is not a car or a computer, it's being thankful you can pay your rent, it's finding work, it's surviving on cheap food til' the next check. For more and more folks, the new shiny thing is out of reach and completely out of synch with their day to day lives.
HappyTalk is starting to lose it's appeal because Occupy Wall Street and the brave frontliners have flipped the switch to ON. Occupy has exposed the Big Lie and for more and more folks, the lies don't work as they once did. The truth is out and it's not going back in the bottle.
So, what is the point, to be out on the street in the cold on New Years' Eve?
It's a reminder. A reminder to the police, to the wealth extractors, to the oligarchs, to the plutocrats and the politicians that no, we have not gone back to sleep. A reminder that no, we will not turn our backs on injustice. A reminder that no, extracting every penny of our present as they rob us of our future, is not as acceptable as they think. It's a reminder that we are a nation founded on the Rule of Law, not the rule of priveledge and although it might take some time, we the people, will apply the law to the crimes that have been committed.
So yes, it's winter and it's cold and sure, they've removed the encampments but they can't snuff out an idea, they can't erase the truth and they will not intimidate us into submission. So whether Occupy had plans to retake Zucotti Park is less important to me, than the fact that they were there, again, to rattle the cage.