Occupy Wallstreet is an ongoing series of demonstrations that are going on all around the country. These protests began in New York City, and spread to other cities before it became a worldwide protest. The Canadian activist group called Adbusters instigated the protest. Last springs Arab movement in Cairo’s Tahir Square also had an influence in these protests. The people out on the streets protesting are for the most protesting economic and social inequality, corporate greed, and lobbyists over government, along with the power and influence of the major corporations, particularly from the financial service sectors.
The protests began in Mid September in New York City. A huge part of the protest is the use of the slogan “We are the 99%”. This slogan is referencing the influence of big business and the wealthiest 1% of Americans on U.S. laws and policies. By October 9th, very similar demonstrations were ongoing or planned to be held in 70 major cities and over 600 communities just in the United States. Even internationally other protests have sculpted themselves after Occupy Wall Street.
One of the big questions that many people fail to understand is what exactly many of these protesters are actually demanding in these protests. Stories vary as to the exact specific goals of the grassroots movement. The main demand of the protest is to get President Obama to “ordain a Presidential Commission tasked with ending the influence money has over our representatives in Washington. On OccupyWallSt.org, a user misreported an official list of demands for the protests, and OccupyWallSt.org went on to say it was never proposed or agreed to on a consensus basis with the NYC General Assembly, and there is no official list of demands of the protesters.
I am a firm believer in the people having the right to protest all over the country. As New York Mayor Bloomberg said last week, “People have a right to protest, and if they want to protest, we'll be happy to make sure they have locations to do it.” He gave the protesters a place in the city near Wall Street to protest and the city has paid their officers over 3.5 million dollars in overtime to the police officers for security over the past month according to
Nancy Pelosi, House Democratic Leader Representative said she supports the growing worldwide Occupy Wall Street movement, and that she includes herself in the group of Americans that are unhappy with Congress. Ron Paul, a republican from Texas and a Presidential candidate said, “If they were demonstrating peacefully and making a point, and arguing our case, and drawing attention to the Fed—I would say, ‘good.’” This is the problem, although many of the protesters are standing up for most of us, in the 99%, and we can all kind of feel their pain to a certain extent, they are simply not offering any new ideas to deal with the problem at hand. We are all fed up with Congress and the 1% controlling our country, but you cannot simply have a protest without putting any new ideas to the table.
Our country was born on the First Amendment, which provides ‘the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” So of course they are doing nothing wrong speaking out in protest, but I believe they should have new ideas to bring to the table, but they simply don’t. I am all for what they are saying, there is a massive void between the rich and the poor in this country, but I also feel that it is wrong for the taxpayers around the country to be paying for these protesters. We are paying for their security every minute they are protesting, making many officers work overtime, making New York taxpayers pay $3.5 million in taxes.
Although the millions have made their voices heard constantly on our televisions for the past month, and I agree with the message they are sending out to the rest of the 99%, that there is way too much power and influence from these massive corporations, with a majority being from the financial sector, but if they do not offer new ideas to the plate, how will they ever accomplish anything? They have finally given light on a very important worldwide matter, but no new ideas have come about of anything so far. This is currently an ongoing issue, so something new can happen tomorrow when we turn on the television, but for now, nothing new is going to change without offering new and relevant ideas.
No comments:
Post a Comment