dagblog - Comments for "Occupy Baltimore Day 18"

I don't think anybody has to

Dan Kervick — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 00:48:40 +0000

In reply to A fellow from Altoona visits

I don't think anybody has to feel intimidated by the processes and attiitudinal preferences of OWS. Its great that people without much of a voice in our society have found a movement that appears to give them a voice. And its great that there is finally a noticeable mass movement calling attention to inequality, greed and corruption in the US.

But if one already have fairly definite ideas about what kinds of things one wants to push for, there is no reason to feel you have to wait around for something the to congeal from OWS, so that you can take the lead from them. Instead, find some like-minded folks and go out and start your own movement. Among other things, you can pool your talents and energies to educate the folks in the OWS movement. They seem quite open to suggestions.

I agree that the opposition

Dan Kervick — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 00:39:43 +0000

In reply to I feel that. As I talk to

I agree that the opposition ot Citizens United seems to be one of the few areas on which there is broad agreement. The liberatians don't like it because they think only individual human beings with human rights are people. The lefties don't like it because they think the last thing the power of concentrated wealth needs is even more teammates on a playing field that is already unequal.

Neverthelesss, some people hold out their opposition to Citizens United as though it's the key to the whole problem of the dominance of the 1% in politics, and as though there was no problem with wealthy contributers, wealthy backers and wealthy lobbyists in politics before Citizens United came along. Obviously, Citizens United is just one small piece of the puzzle. It has important symbolic significance, but I hope people continue to refelct on what it's a symbol of.

I feel that. As I talk to

synchronicity — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 23:57:32 +0000

In reply to A fellow from Altoona visits

I feel that. As I talk to people to wide varying views are overwhelming at times. I was just getting gas noticing that every vehicle in the place was positioned the opposite of the way direction I needed to face to get gas and it reminded me of how insignificant one view point can be. I have been able to find people that agree with me that we should not come up with 'demands' but instead vision, mission, goals, steps etc.

There is the constant push back of we'll have to do that later after more people join us...

And there is some agreement as in working to help the majority to reclaim their political power with some agreement that we need to get big money out of our elections/government, and to undo the affects of Citizens United. But much less agreement as to how we would go about doing that.

So my counter to waiting until more people join us, is that it could take years for us to agree on anything in the first place so maybe we should start now;)

A fellow from Altoona visits

Donal — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 22:15:21 +0000

In reply to Occupy Baltimore Day 18

A fellow from Altoona visits Occupy DC:

My group was quickly stumped on the first question. What change do we want? I, being the educated history teacher, spoke up immediately and said, "We need to reinstate the Glass-Stegall Act, break up the banks that are larger now than before the 2008 crisis, and hold President Obama personally accountable for not prosecuting the bankers and banks who defrauded the American people out of billions of dollars." Instead of resounding applause I was met with dead silence. I clearly did not understand the movement. These people were looking for an all out revolution.

Another participant suggested the entire decolonization of the United States. Were we not in fact occupying space that had belonged to someone else even before Columbus set sail? She went into great detail as to what she meant but to be honest with you I still didn't get it. A young man piped in that perhaps a good start would be getting the 99% group to actually reflect the 99% of Americans. Afterall the majority of the crowd in the park was under 30 and white. Finally an exasperated girl remarked that she had heard plenty of people speak and she'd read lots of articles online and how she couldn't help but feel frustrated that no one was making a coherent argument. No one could agree on anything.

I think that's when I had my first "ah, ha" moment. No one could agree on anything. The goals of the 99% were not clear and the movement was fairly small. If a goal were too narrowly defined the movement would lose support, but without a clear purpose the movement would also lose support. What to do? What to do? Rather than focus on the Unted States at large it was decided to focus specifically on the change Occupy DC wanted for Washington, D.C.

Well I do own a saw....

synchronicity — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 15:02:51 +0000

In reply to http://www.christianpost.com/

Well I do own a saw....

http://www.christianpost.com/

kyle flynn — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 14:52:46 +0000

In reply to I started commenting here and

http://www.christianpost.com/news/over-540000-sign-home-depot-boycott-over-gay-activism-53907/

Thanks. It certainly is

Donal — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 14:04:38 +0000

In reply to Thank you for a very

Thanks. It certainly is interesting to go see things for yourself.

I started commenting here and

synchronicity — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 09:36:00 +0000

In reply to Occupy Baltimore Day 18

I started commenting here and it got too long so I blogged it.

Definitely sounds like there is a lot of expression going on.

Boulder was interesting today. Boulder is a college town with a lot of wealth. I recently moved to a nearby city but prior to that I lived in Boulder for 20 years mostly in the suburb type areas. But it makes the occupation of Boulder interesting...

I made a new sign for the rally today and I bought a piece of wood at Home Depot for it. When I checked out and the cashier asked me what I was going to do with it I told her. She said funny that I would buy it at Home Depot. I said something to the effect that I wasn't going to cut down a tree myself and that I don't think all corporations are bad... just the corruption and abuse of power. I don't know... was I wrong are we to boycott everything at this point?

Occupy Boulder had their GA scheduled for 9AM on a Saturday... not exactly begging for participation lol. But that was changed during the GA for the future. Occupy Denver had a big all day event with music and speakers today at the Civic Center Park. Boulder is competing to have people come to their march and rally on the same day that Denver has their big rallies... not sure if it works? For example, next Satirdau is global Occupy your capital day...

We have two GA's before then to discuss that.

I am undergoing Occupy facilitator training this week. Should be fun:)

Thank you for a very

trkingmomoe — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 06:47:03 +0000

In reply to Occupy Baltimore Day 18

Thank you for a very interesting read.