OCCUPY 
For the Middle Aged and Confused.

So isn't this charming.  I was waking up from a years long tv coma and deciding to speak out in protest against the garbage truck that is the right wing political machine.  Only to find out, our kids were already doing it right under my nose.

I had seen a couple news reports about the Occupy movement. They all seemed to be more about how a bunch of kids moved into the parks and needed a shower.  They did not seem to have any clear leadership or mission. I am not sure what is wrong with the media, that they cannot recognize a revolution when they see one.

The movement seems to be a large, decentralized, hive mind of amazing college educated young people. They have very specific values. They  believe in love, peace, non violence, social justice, and democracy. They are smarter than me, they are braver than me, and I hope they are going to change everything.

I was playing with twitter yesterday when I saw a tweet about Occupy DC posted. Being curious, I clicked the link to a ustream by @AJWatchDC . That's when I  "woke up" and realized that something genuine is happening here. 

Here are a bunch of kids telling the whole world that things need to change.  They are camping out in freezing weather to simply explain how far off the rails we have gone as a nation. They speak intelligently about why the federal reserve needs to be taken out of the hands of the private sector. They are quite angry with a government that refuses to care for it's poor.  They are bitterly opposed to prejudice. They are disgusted with the way our democracy has been " purchased " by corporations. They recite current statistics about the unequal distribution of wealth and the abject failure of trickle down economics.

It all came to a head for the DC group last night as the police took down a small structure they had built. I watched in awe as these kids stayed resolute and non violent. A kid named David was  clinging to the structure as police roped him up like  a trussed turkey and hauled him away. Not one single time did any one of these guys lose their cool.  Instead, they used the opportunity to educate anyone within hearing about why and how things need to be changed.

I was amazed.  I wanted to learn more. Could this be real ? Were these guys actually as amazing as what I had just saw on UStream ? Last night was a long night spent on you tube. I cannot recommend this strongly enough. Anyone who does not "get" what these kids are up to  should do so as well. You won't ever understand them if you rely on the usual news media, they apparently don't "get" it.  The raw feeds with camera phones are a much more accurate representation of them.

I saw the fear in their faces as  the Los Angeles police department evicted them on Nov. 30. Still, they stood there and recited, in unison, the bill of rights. I found the real reason for all of this summed up quite eloquently by @bullet2000 on a comment on one of the you tube videos.

@abullet2000 1. get corporate money out of politics (no more buying elections) 2. re-instate the glass-steagall act 3. end corporate person-hood 4. prosecute individuals responsible for the 2008 economic collapse
WE WANT A FUNCTIONING DEMOCRACY THAT BETTER REPRESENTS THE PEOPLE. WE WANT TO STOP WASTING OUR WEALTH ON WARS AND THE PRIVATIZED MILITARY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX. we need legislation that puts HUMAN NEEDS BEFORE CORPORATE GREED.

That simple statement brought tears to my eyes.  The Occupiers now have one more person rooting them on. It is really sad that the media has treated these young hero's so disdainfully. They accuse them of being drugged out, unsanitary, and lunatics. Does this sound at all familiar to anyone who ever read about the sixties?

Here though, there is more to consider. These kids MOVED IN with the homeless in these parks. I wonder how much of what has been attributed to them, was already there when they got there. One more reason to respect the Occupiers. They pointed out with stark clarity the plight of these people that the  government has failed so miserably. They fed the homeless. They treated them with dignity. Then, they protested for their rights. Poke - right wing evangelicals- you guys know anyone else that might have done these things ?

Please, if you are reading this. Look past the colored hair and the shanty town images on the news. Listen to what these people are saying. They are the future, and the future just got a whole lot brighter.