The Occupy movement is an international protest movement which is primarily directed against economic and social inequality. President Barack Obama has said that he is “on the side” of the Occupy Protesters, House Minority Leader, Nancy Pelosi, gives her “support” to the movement. Almost every piece you either see on television or read in the press show the movement in a positive light. Well, I don’t think the bank bailouts and the government takeover of GM was a good use of my tax dollars-am I one of the 99%?
If you educate yourself like a lot of Americans do- TV, magazines, or maybe even the newspaper- you probably are. Why don’t you have a corporate jet and why does Warren Buffet’s secretary pay more in taxes that he does? I think Thomas Jefferson said it best, “The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers.” Pretty insightful, I wonder what he would have thought had he known about television and radio and how far in bed cooperate mainstream media would get with the Left.
So, what is this movement all about? They are about change, like Obama’s 2008 campaign of “Hope and Change”. Just not the change I was looking for-was the county in better or worse shape three years ago? I am getting off track, back to these guys. The Occupy movement is gearing up for a more organized, more aggressive campaign this coming spring and summer. I also fear, more violent. The movement still lacks any official unity in message or in leadership. The one thing they do have in common is heavy funding from the Tides Foundation and George Sorros. Here is the most comprehensive list of demands (from the occupywallstreet.org website)
“In the name of the 99%, In the name of the constitution…”
- Minimum wage raised to $18/hour
- Maximum wage of $90/hour to eliminate inequality
- Institute a 6-hour workweek and 6 weeks of paid vacation
- Unionize all workers
- A moratorium on all foreclosures and layoffs
- Repeal racist and xenophobic English-only laws
- Open borders to all immigrants – Legal or Illegal
- Unconditional amnesty
- Single-payer universal health care
- Tax the rich 90%
- Lower retirement age to 55
- 5% annual wealth tax for the very rich
- Ban the private ownership of land
- Make homeschooling illegal
- Abolish the debt limit
- Ban private gun ownership
- Strengthen the separation of church and state
- Immediate debt forgiveness for all
- End war on drugs
Karl Marx would love it, “From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.” THIS IS COMMUNISM (socialism) plain and simple! It is being sold to the American people as “Take back the American Dream”. This is a foundation led by Van Jones in affiliation with the labor unions. Through this activist group, Jones is training 100,000 people on how to protest for this upcoming spring. From this website, “It’s time to reclaim our democracy; it’s time for a 99% spring.” Keep in mind that democracy is defined as mob (majority) rule {republicanism is defined as self-government}.
In case you don’t recall cooperate mainstream media providing you with any Van Jones background, here is a brief summary. Van Jones resigned in controversy as the “Green Jobs Czar” from the Obama Administration. Jones was a known and unrepentant communist and had links to a 9-11 truther organization. Despite all of this, he recently was a keynote speaker at the California Democratic convention, where he was praised by Nancy Pelosi as a “leader of the future” and even that she “was a big fan of his”. It seems as if the Occupy movement has its leader.
I agree that we are in a troublesome situation. We have ridiculous debt (both personal and national), rising gas prices, soaring unemployment, etc. However, I think the solution is with less government intrusion, not more. We need to work toward reestablishing our country on the principles of its founding, not further transforming ourselves into a Euro-Nanny state (we see how that’s working for Greece). It is just going to get worse as the summer moves forward. Here is a quote from the Occupy website concerning the organization of 50-100,000 people to protest the Chicago G-8 summit: “And this time around we’re not going to put up with the kind of police repression that happened during the Democratic National Convention protests in Chicago, 1968 … nor will we abide by any phony restrictions the City of Chicago may want to impose on our first amendment rights.”
“If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be (Thomas Jefferson).” Its time not to sit idly by as our freedom slides out of reach. We need to educate ourselves and be ready to educate others when they follow the herd. Self-government was an experiment when this country was founded and nobody said it would be easy. In fact, George Bernard Shaw said, “Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.” Freedom is worth that responsibility.
