My Message: A Statement

According to an Associated Press-GfK poll, A majority of Americans today say the Occupy Wall Street and other Occupy groups have a right to protest and speak their voice. In that same poll more than a third of Americans polled supported the Occupy movement. A National Journal poll found that more than half of working-class, blue-collar Americans support the Occupy movement. A Time poll found similar numbers, with a large portion of Americans supporting the Occupy movement.

The reason I point out the above is because they are evidence that a number of people in Dallas who support the Occupy Dallas group and the Occupy movement in general. It's also very likely that a lot of those folks in Dallas and the surrounding areas can't make it out to City Hall Park in Dallas (or to the Occ. Ft. Worth gathering). There are Americans out there who are also tired of the richest 1% taking advantage of the other 99% for their own gain, their own profit, and their own future. The part that upsets those Americans the most isn't that the 1% looks after their own future, but that the 1% has been doing so at the expense of everyone else.

Not all of us always agree who is at fault for the worst offenses. Is it a political group-- Republicans, Democrats, both? Is it the growth of political lobby groups and superPACs? Is it that corporations are allowed the rights and protections of people, but aren't required to have any of the responsibilities?

The reality is that the answer has several layers. One of those layers is "all of the above". Another layer is "unregulated and unrestricted greed". Saying that a layer is "wealth" would be insufficient, but "wealth waged as a zero-sum game" is more like it. Many of the individuals at the Occupy locations have different layers that they're protesting, but to claim that the Occupiers have no focus is a display of ignorance, misunderstanding, and misguided attempts to politicize a movement that contains people of all political affiliations.

So, a message to the media: don't mistake a plurality of ideas for the lack of ideas.

To those who are critical of the Occupy groups: it's not quite irony that the people out there occupying the many locations around the country (and now, the world) are doing so because they want your voices heard and heeded as well; but it's damned close.

To politicians local and national: the Occupiers aren't going away. Listen to them. Talk to them. Work for them for a change.

To the top 1%: You've been given favors, hand-outs, and many forms of government welfare for many years now. We're not demanding you start paying your fair share to put money into our pockets-- we work hard to do that on our own. What you need to start paying is the massive tab you've amassed over the last 40+ years of government hand-outs and subsidy. Time to behave like adults and take your medicine.