The Great Awakening
In the 1990s with the downfall of the Soviet Union, people in Eastern European countries and the former Republics that made up the former USSR, took to the streets and demanded freedom and democracy. They did not have the right to free speech, they did not have the right to free assembly, but they took to the streets anyway. Hundreds, even thousands were killed, beaten and imprisoned, but they continued protesting until the had the change they believed in.
At that time, I thought, when are the people in the United States going to wake up? But most Americans had jobs, homes, and enough money to buy toys. It did not happen.
Then in 2000, the election was stolen from the people. I thought, maybe now the people will take to the streets and demand their will be done. Aside from blogs, opinions in newspapers and magazines, and a few sporadic protests, it did not happen. Americans had jobs, homes and enough money to buy toys.
In 2009 following rigged elections in Iran, the people took to the streets demanding that their will be done. They did not have the right to free speech, the right to free assembly but they did it anyway. Hundreds, even thousands, were killed beaten and imprisoned but they kept it up for several months until they were beaten down.
We had our economic meltdown and a great wave of public sentiment welled up finally in the United States. The Tea Party was the first uprising. They took to politics and elected people to Congress and those elected did not have any idea how to fix anything. The Tea Party got co-opted by big business and big money.
In 2011, all across North African and in the Middle East, an uprising of yet another people finally rose up to demand their freedom. They did not have the right to free speech, they did not have the right to free assembly, but many rose up and hundreds even thousands were killed beaten and imprisoned. They did not stop and some today have become liberated. Many are still fighting for their liberation through nonviolence and some through insurrection.
Finally, a large movement in the United States has finally arisen. The will not be bought, they will not be co-opted. Hundreds, even thousands may be beaten and imprisoned and some may even be killed but we will not back down.
A global movement is upon us. We will stand together and we will win.
What will we win? Maybe the rich folks will just pull all their money out of wall street and bring the financial system to a screeching halt. That would be considered a “win” for the protesters, right? Since the protesters apparently have no jobs (they have been protesting for weeks now). A collapse of this country’s financial system will only bring another taxpayer bailout from Barak Obama—and so like David Byrne would chortle: “Same as it ever was…”
No. This protest is phase 2 of the American Jobs Act rollout and promotion. The takeaway that the Obama administration would want people that are not good at connecting the dots is that these protesters are out of work. They have too much time on their hands and so the rich folks need to call, write and email their wealthy class representitives and urge the passage of this bill.
You forgot to mention the wildly disruptive G8 and G20 protests around the world that did not accomplish a single thing except show the republican party how to silence the protesters in NYC for the RNC convention. You forgot to mention the “We Are The World” global protests that did nothing to stop the USA from starting wars. You forgot to mention Live Aid, Farm Aid and the Million Man Marches…
It’s media theater, all of it. I am sorry to disappoint you, Allah O Achbar….the world is not changing. Your expectations are.
Be ready for yet another soul crushing realization when these protesters lose interest because suddenly the sammiches and coffee supplies run out and the snow falls.
Can we please move on from Dana who doesn’t get it?
I am reminded of Missouri for some strange reason, though I haven’t been there since I left St Louis at 5 yrs old.
As for the topic, it does my heart good to see people fucking doing the damned thing. I am just a non combatant once removed rear echelon mothafucka and armchair participant in this particular battle, alas, and may John Wayne have mercy on my worthless ass….. But if circumstances were different, I’d be 99%ing like a hard charging Marine Corps infantryman and Lance Corporal.
Righteous entry, man.
The value of this movement can be seen directly in who it pisses off. So far, it’s pissing off all the right people!
Thought you might like this. A couple servicemen tell Sean Hannity exactly what they think of his opinion on Occupy Wall Street (warning, contains some cussing):