This compilation is an good example of what really creative people can do. It is awesome. Martin Luther King and Barack Obama, brutal police crackdowns on our own people, an angry white student and an angry African American lending their voices in protest to what is wrong in this country.
Monthly Archives: November 2011
Rep. Bernie Sanders, Independent From Vermont Giving Them Hell
Please share this with as many people as you can.
This is The Future…
This is absolutely awesome. Please share widely. Mitchell is a frequent visitor to the camp in Portland, Maine with his parents Delina and Jay. I shot this today, Sunday, November 20, 2011. I can only wonder what his future will be like.
Calling All Churches, Synagogues and Mosques
In yesterday’s blog about violence being a good thing, I expressed my surprise that the churches of America have been conspicuously absent from the Occupy Movement.
Today, I am calling on all churches, synagogues and mosques to file out of their pews and into the streets armed with their holy scriptures and join the Occupy Movement against social injustice, economic inequality, and the violation of our Constitutional Rights.
It is time to take their sermons into our public places now or risk becoming irrelevant in the greatest conservation this country has had in a generation. This goes way beyond gay rights, contraception, divorce and remarriage, Catholic vs Protestant vs Jew vs Muslim. Occupy is a fundamental expression of everything all Americans hold sacred: true democracy, freedom of expression, the freedom to peaceable assembly, the freedom to place our common grievances before the Government.
Church leaders have been condemning the violent persecution and oppression of peoples in far-off lands at the hands of brutal dictators. But, where are they when our own children attending universities are brutally attacked, beaten and sprayed with chemicals? Where are they when senior citizens are dragged off and arrested? Where are they when members of their own denominations are beaten on the streets of NY, Seattle, Portland, Salt Lake City, Oakland, and Chicago?
Where is the outrage coming from the pulpits of America at the crimes of Wall Street and the banks that have forced their own into poverty, foreclosures, and unemployment? Where is the outrage at a government that has become the pawns of corporate American?
Today, I call on every church, synagogue and mosque, not to open their doors to those camping out, but to get out there in the streets and public places and join in the demand for a better country, for social justice, for economic equality, and for a government that represents all of the people.
Police Attacks on Demonstrators is Actually a Good Thing!
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmJmmnMkuEM&w=640&h=360]
This video shot at UC Davis during a peacefull Occupy Movement protest, captures a campus policeman mercilessly pepper-spraying seated, non-threatening UC Davis students who were … protesting police brutality.
How is this, and dozens of other examples of police beating and spraying peaceful demonstrators a good thing some might ask? Well, contrary to what the “authorities” and the police might think, this only adds fuel to the fire and is the best recruiting tool we have.
As Americans we are outraged at a corrupt political and economic system that serves the interests of the few and not the common good. But until now, until Occupy Wall St., we were without a voice. We are outraged to see riot police and anti-terrorist units from NYC to Seattle mercilessly beating and spraying peaceful Americans who are exercising their Constitutional Right to peaceable assembly, the exercise of free speech, and the right to express our grievances to the Government. (The Bill of Rights)
As Americans we have to wonder about the hypocrisy when our President and Secretary of State condemn the very same acts of brutality and violence we have witnessed in Iraq, Afghanistan, Egypt, Libya, and Syria to name just a few, at the hands of oppressive dictatorships. So, I ask, why have President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton remained silent when our own mayors and governors are unleashing such brutality on our own people?
Police brutality and violence on our own people is a good thing because this will only cause students from Maine to California to stand in solidarity with each other and all of us who are protesting injustice and inequality in America. Just yesterday, students at Casco Bay High School in Portland, Maine formed an Occupy support group and published a Facebook page. This will hopefully encourage other high schools to form their own groups.
And maybe churches of all denominations will realize that they need to be involved in this movement. I find it ironic that churches which have traditionally been at the center of social justice and human rights issues have been mysteriously silent and invisible. It is time for them to convert their holy book messages and sermons into action and take to the streets. The churches in America have the infrastructure to educate, lead, and mobilize millions of Americans who have been standing on the sidelines.
When our churches and educational campuses show up en masse, this movement, which has been spreading like wildfire, will explode in every corner of America from border to border and from sea to shinning sea!
Dr. Martin Luther King showed us that non-violent protests can and will overcome injustice and inequality, and the willingness to be beaten and to die for a just cause can inspire a nation and change the order of the world.
(To see more videos of police brutality on Occupy demonstrators, go to Youtube.com and type Police Brutality into the search bar.)
Occupy: We are not Hippies, Drunks, Vagrants, Homeless, or Lazy
Hateful and bigoted comments appearing in the Portland Press Herald and Bangor Daily News comments following articles about the Occupy movement are shameful and have no place in the America I believe in.
Unfortunately, the mainstream media continually focus on the camps and the people in them who fit certain stereotypes, and they are constantly on the lookout for bad behavior by a few, arrests, and police brutality.
I have been documenting the movement in Maine since the beginning with a focus, almost exclusively, on those of us who do not camp out in public places, but come from all walks of life. Most are well-educated, working people who love the country but don’t like the scene. This movement is far bigger than the encampments. In NYC, for example, there are only a few hundred people camping out, but tens of thousands taking to the streets to demonstrate against a political and financial system that has run amok.
It is amazing how those same people who hurl vicious slurs against the people who make up the Occupy movement and are exercising their Constitutional Rights (Article I of the Bill of Rights) to peaceable assembly, freedom of speech, and the right to petition the Government for a redress of grievances,
- don’t like the partisan gridlock in Washington and the fact that our representatives are all bought and paid for by corporations and lobbies and do not represent us (Congress’ approval rating is at 9%);
- agree that our political system is dysfunctional and broken
- agree that Wall St. has forced the economy to the brink of disaster;
- they are outraged that the bailout money was used to reward their executives with million dollar bonuses;
- they agree that hedge funds, junk bonds, derivatives, Ponzi schemes, and other financial gimmicks have cheated them out of their 501Ks and pensions;
- they agree that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have added billions to the national debt;
- and they are concerned that unemployment is hovering just below 10% nationally
These are the main reasons why this movement will not go away until these crimes against the American people are eliminated. On the contrary, it continues to grow exponentially every day. In fact, this movement has grown faster and spread wider than the Civil Rights Movement and the protests against the war in Vietnam. This movement will not go away until We The People take back our country and restore it based on the Constitution which guarantees life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for all. The Constitution is based on the belief that true democracy is concerned for the common good and not the interests of any one person or group of persons.
Occupy Liberty Square Response
This Is What Democracy Looks Like: Huge General Assembly in Progress at Liberty Square
Posted 30 minutes ago on Nov. 15, 2011, 8:40 p.m. EST by OccupyWallSt
Occupy Wall Street and the 99% Movement Persevere
The feeling here at Liberty Square tonight is the feeling of a movement that is rising, building, and making headway.
Following the 1am eviction of Liberty Square early this morning and a long day of legal wrangling, the park was reoccupied late this afternoon. This evening, just after 7pm, the first General Assembly at the reoccupied park began. Using our ‘people’s mic’, we declared together:
“They showed us their power. And we’re showing them ours.”
We are here because we believe a better world is possible. We are willing to endure mistreatment, if by doing so we can help re-enfranchise the 99% and reclaim our democracy from the stranglehold of Wall Street and the top one percent.
We will push back against billionaire Michael Bloomberg and any politician who wantonly tramples on proud American freedoms: freedom of the press, freedom of speech, and the freedom of Americans to peaceably assemble and petition for change.
We will overcome the obstacles placed before us. We will not be deterred. We will persevere. Our message is resonating across America, and our cause is shared by millions around the world. We are the 99%, and we want to live in a world that is for all of us — not just for those who have amassed great wealth and power.
You cannot evict an idea whose time has come.
NYPD’s Finest
Is this just wunnnerful, or what? NYPD 9/11 heroes…now what? Look at the anger and hatred on this cops face as he beats an unarmed, peaceful Occupier! Gotta love “Merica.” Fuck Yeah!
NYC Occupy Movement Response to the Raid
Occupy Wall Street
You can’t evict an idea whose time has come.
Posted on Nov. 15, 2011, 1:36 a.m. EST by OccupyWallSt
A massive police force is presently evicting Liberty Square, home of Occupy Wall Street for the past two months and birthplace of the 99% movement that has spread across the country and around the world
The raid started just after 1:00am. Supporters and allies are mobilizing throughout the city, presently converging at Foley Square. Supporters are also planning public actions for the coming days, including occupation actions.
You can’t evict an idea whose time has come.
Two months ago a few hundred New Yorkers set up an encampment at the doorstep of Wall Street. Since then, Occupy Wall Street has become a national and even international symbol — with similarly styled occupations popping up in cities and towns across America and around the world. A growing popular movement has significantly altered the national narrative about our economy, our democracy, and our future.
Americans are talking about the consolidation of wealth and power in our society, and the stranglehold that the top 1% have over our political system. More and more Americans are seeing the crises of our economy and our democracy as systemic problems, that require collective action to remedy. More and more Americans are identifying as part of the 99%, and saying “enough!”
This burgeoning movement is more than a protest, more than an occupation, and more than any tactic. The “us” in the movement is far broader than those who are able to participate in physical occupation. The movement is everyone who sends supplies, everyone who talks to their friends and families about the underlying issues, everyone who takes some form of action to get involved in this civic process.
This moment is nothing short of America rediscovering the strength we hold when we come together as citizens to take action to address crises that impact us all.
Such a movement cannot be evicted. Some politicians may physically remove us from public spaces — our spaces — and, physically, they may succeed. But we are engaged in a battle over ideas. Our idea is that our political structures should serve us, the people — all of us, not just those who have amassed great wealth and power. We believe that is a highly popular idea, and that is why so many people have come so quickly to identify with Occupy Wall Street and the 99% movement.
You cannot evict an idea whose time has come.
NYC Wall Street Occupiers Evicted
Daniel Webster, in the U.S. Senate on January 26, 1830, discussing the limitations of state’s rights and the supremacy of federal law had this to say:
“It is, Sir, the people’s government, made for the people, made by the people, and answerable to the people. The people of the United States have declared that this Constitution shall be the supreme law.”
Early this morning, riot police and even anti-terrorist units from the NYPD forcibly arrested and evicted the Wall Street Occupiers from Liberty Plaza. Billionaire Mayor Bloomberg said they could demonstrate in the park, but no tents. He went on to say they would have to use the strength of their arguments in the future. “The strength of their arguments?”
When millions of Americans, and millions more around the world, stand in solidarity against the oppression of those who govern and rule the financial world, he has the f-ing balls to question the strength of their arguments?
Here are a few thoughts about this gross and blatant denial of our constitutional rights!
- The American Constitution guarantees everyone the right to free speech and to peaceably assemble.
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“No law shall be passed abridging the rights of the people
peaceably to assemble …” – New York State Constitution -
Where’s President Obama in all of this? We send billions in weapons and aid to assist the popular uprisings in the Middle East, and insist that President Bashar al-Assad of Syria step down for killing thousands of his own citizens and denying them the right to create their own future, but right here in America the same things are happening and he does nothing?
- Where are President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton opposing those who abuse the basic human rights in far-off lands, but do nothing when our rights, protected by the Constitution (which he swore to protect), are being denied.
- Those in power lose their right to govern when they oppress their own people or when they fail to protect them: Mayor Bloomberg, Governor Cuomo, the mayors and police commissioners around the country who are using force to disperse the Occupiers, Congress and finally, President Obama.
- In 1936 President Franklin D. Roosevelt sent in the national guard to protect the workers of General Motors who went on strike and had occupied several plants. He sent the guard in to protect them from the local police who were sent in to evict them and crush the union.
- NYPD sent in the anti-terrorist unit last night to assist with the eviction, when the real terrorists are on Wall Street and in corporate board rooms. After 9/11, the NYPD were heroes to all. What a shame they have turned on their own citizens. Will they say they were just following orders? Will they say the Occupiers were breaking the law?
All of this is happening in other places where ruthless tyrants have been oppressing and killing their own people for years and even centuries. I can’t believe this is happening in the United States of America, the land of the free.
I posted a blog yesterday entitled, “Violence is just a ‘spark’ away.” Bloomberg, President Obama, those in Congress, those on Wall Street, and those anywhere in this country that choose to use the power of the police against their own citizens or to turn a blind eye to what is happening will discover “the strength of their argument” when millions more rise up and force them to listen.
We The People are making the argument, peacefully for now, that this is our country. The closing words of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address on November 19, 1863 is what Occupy is all about, should anyone doubt.
“We here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom; and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”