To Occupy or Not to Occupy

As I listened to the founder of Occupy Charleston last night, I felt a frisson of fear creep up my spine.


This is because this movement is young, idealistic and uncompromising.  These are good things.


But I recalled the last time young people had an opinion and were willing to take to the streets for it.  In 1968, the hippies were against war and capitalist greed, and mocked the old folk who had got us where we were.  They didn't care if it was Hubert Humphrey or Richard Nixon (or Richard Daley for that matter).  They were rejecting and rebelling against the status quo, the comfortable middle class who were sending their sons to Vietnam, the corporations that were profiting from that war, the universities and the politicians that were colluding with the military industrial complex.


They didn't care who won the election; they were both the enemy.


So last night, when the speaker said he didn't really care if Obama got re-elected, or if it took ten years to reach their goals, I shuddered.


I'm older now, lots older.  I may not be around in ten years, but if I am, there is a good chance we will still be controlled by corporations that sleep with politicians and supreme court justices alike.  I will probably have had to work longer before I can collect my social security, which will be too little to pay the bills.  My kids, who are not corporate executive/financial kingpin types, will probably be lucky if they are able to support their families without having to worry about housing and healthcare, and truly fortunate if their children are well educated.


I look at our democratic party, and I see people who are afraid to stand up for democratic ideals.  I see people who are elected promising campaign finance reform, and once elected decide it's not good to bite the hands that feed them.


In South Carolina, I see a party so stuck in its rules that the corruption that was the Alvin Greene debacle of 2010 did not allow them to support a truly democratic candidate from a third party.  And democratic candidates who would not stand with that third party candidate, although we really do know that there is strength in numbers.


I believe that the hippies of 1968 would call that all bullshit, and the Occupy movement would give a downward finger wiggle to anyone running for office who defines their campaign by what is rather than what is right.


I believe Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are candidates this movement can support because they will unflinchingly support the ideals behind this movement.


And it will be a sad, sad day for us all if our democratic candidates are not able to get on board, not because that is where the votes are, but because the cause is right.

Occupy Charleston Y'All

I was delighted to find that Occupy Charleston has its own website.  Visit the site and become a follower.  Let's build this movement!


Even those folks who voted for Jim DeMint are the 99% -- they just don't know they are one of us yet.


Just as the Occupy Oakland protesters shouted to the police, "You are the 99 percent!", we need to let those who have been led to vote on the right that they are indeed one of us.


They too are unemployed or underemployed, their children unable to afford college, or get a job after graduation.  They may have to choose between health care and mortgage, or may no longer be able to afford either.  They are unable to retire although they are exhausted.  If they are employed, they are constantly at risk of losing their jobs or of wage and benefit cuts.


They have learned, as have we, that while their incomes stagnate, insurance costs skyrocket.  They continue to not have alternatives to being gouged by the oil industry because deMint and his ilk continue to vote cuts for mass transportation and alternative energy exploration.  They are unable to get loans because Wall Street is hoarding the billions it has made through gambling with our hard-earned savings.


And when their bodies ache from standing in front of a classroom or behind a sales counter or tending patients in a hospital or nursing home, they too will be told to tighten their belts and wait another year or two to retire, while those earning over $107,000 will continue to not have to contribute a penny over that amount.


So this Occupy movement can only grow, as long as we all fight the lies and let our friends, family and co-workers know that we are all in this together -- we are the 99 percent!


occupycharleston.com