Many images have emerged from Occupy Wall Street that encapsulate, in iconic fashion, the spirit of the movement or the pervading ethos of our time in protest.
The one below is one such image that is currently resonating, and I'd like to share it with you. Nothing more needs to be said:
From 2001-2006 I served in the US Marine Corps. Now I attend an Ivy League university that I could never afford without the Post 9/11 GI Bill. I'm grateful to the taxpayers because I know there are vets in other countries who aren't afforded the same privilege.
When I say that I served my country, I mean that I put the interests of others before my own out of a sense of duty and responsibility to my fellow citizens. I didn't risk my life for American banks to swindle their customers with faulty securities, or for billionaires to weasel out of taxes that they would never notice if they didn't read about them in the paper, or for corporate lobbyists to shut regular Americans out of our political system.
I wasn't raised in Hobbes' state of nature. Nobody put a gun to my parents' or my teachers' or my coaches' head and forced them to show me how to succeed in life. They did it because they gave a damn. Now it's my turn to give back to our society by working HARD to help other people. Because I care about what happens to them.
I am the 99%.
OccupyWallStreet.org
To all those men and women in uniform who support Occupy Wall Street, such as those associated with groups like Occupy Marines and Veterans for Peace, I salute you with great appreciation and humility.
We are the 99 percent.
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