OCCUPY AMERICA

Come senators, congressmen, please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway, don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt will be he who has stalled
There's a battle outside ragin'
It'll soon shake your windows and rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'.

-Bob Dylan

The mayors of Oakland, California and New York City apparently have no understanding of human history - not to mention human nature. They attempted this week to shut down the Occupy Wall Street movements in their respective cities through means of violence and intimidation. It didn't quite work out too well for them. Quite to the contrary. Not only have they not weakened the movement, they have instead strengthened it - tenfold.

When people have been subjected over long periods to injustice, it's only a matter of time before they revolt. Revolution is not something that can be swept away by think tanks or police riots. It's a bit more complicated than that. Revolution-in-reaction-to-human-cruelty is as natural as the sun rising in the eastern sky. All the king's pepper spray and all the king's soldiers can't stop a rising sun either. Try it sometime.

The comedian-turned-activist Dick Gregory once compared revolution to a boiling coffeepot. When the pot starts to boil, it protests by making a whistling sound. It is giving us a fair warning and a choice: We can wisely take that pot off the fire, or we can plug up the spout that's making all that hideous racket. If our choice is the latter, eventually that pot is going to explode, burning everybody in the room.

The people who are now in the process of occupying this once-great nation can be likened to that boiling coffeepot. They are sending the "rulers" of this country a clear and unmistakable warning: Give us economic justice or be prepared to live with permanent civil unrest. Here's another pearl of wisdom courtesy of Dick Gregory:

"Repression is more detrimental to the ones who are doing the repressing than it is to the ones who are being repressed."

Something to think about. The ground of the planet earth is littered with the graves of regimes and ideologies that fell of their own, bloated weight. The times they are indeed a'changin'. Get out of the way or get rolled over.

It would seem to me that “the suits” don’t take the power of the American people all-too seriously. That shouldn't surprise us. Sooner or later they’ll realize that we have the power to shut this country down. They don’t. In fact, even if they did have the power, they wouldn’t dare shut it down. The need for the machine to keep churning out bodies. Lots and lots of bodies.

And as is usually the case, most of the main stream media refuses to understand what is happening. Rupert Murdoch's propaganda empire has been busy portraying the movement as a cabal of thugs and perverts. The main charge that has been leveled by the talking heads against the Occupy movement is this little gem:

"THEY CANNOT DEFINE AND DO NOT EVEN KNOW WHAT IT IS THEY'RE PROTESTING AGAINST!"

Sure they do. I do not attempt here to define myself as a spokesman for this movement. One of the neat things about Occupy Wall Street lies in the fact that, unlike their Tea party counterparts, there is no cult of personality. We do not have our own Glenn Beck - and that's a good thing, I promise you! But let me take just a brief moment to step into the roll of interpreter. First, a quote:

"Governments are instituted among men [and women - fess up!] deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."

NOTE TO SEAN HANNITY:

NO, that wasn't from the Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx. Nor is it from the pens of Che Guevara or Stokely Carmichael. That nasty little bit of revolutionary screed was written by none other than Thomas Jefferson, and is from a document which was ratified on 4 July 1776 and now rests snugly in our national archives. When this country was formed, those present - and succeeding generations of Americans - were given an instruction manual called the Declaration of Independence. It may be found at all public libraries and any computer search engine. I'm also certain you can find it in audio form on CD. Hell, it might even be available on 8-Track tape somewhere for all I know. Its message is as clear as sunlight. When those who govern become destructive toward the happiness and well being of the governed, revolution is not merely an option. It is a duty. Ting-a-ling-a-ling!

Thirty-one years ago this month, on Election Day 1980, the American people were placed on a path that would eventually lead to the destruction of their social and economic infrastructure. Deregulation of the marketplace - and tax cuts for a class of people who already had more money than they knew what to do with - were the new and seemingly permanent reality in America.

We are now learning the extent to which private banks went to gamble on and squander the money - our money - only to be bailed out of the mess by the same people whose treasure was squandered in the first place. We had no say in the matter, and not a single condition was placed upon the corrupted banks. In the meantime the middle class, the engine that once fueled our economy, is falling apart. The American dream is as dead as a doornail.

And they're wondering why we're pissed off. Imagine that.

What do we want? We want economic justice. When do we want it? NOW, BABY! But we're realistic. We can wait them out for as long as it takes. The plutocracy has one of two choices. This is black or white. There are no subtle shades of gray that can be misinterpreted. Either the wealth of this country will be redistributed via the route of taxation - or they can expect civil chaos for as long as it takes to wake America up from its stupor. If it takes decades, so be it. If it takes a century, so be it. If it means the complete and utter destruction of the Republican and Democratic parties - even better. For as long as it takes. In the long run it will cost them a hell-of-a-lot less to give in than to keep obstructing the will of the majority. To paraphrase Mick Jagger (0r was it Keith Richards?) Time is on our side - yes it is.

You say you'll change the constitution,well you know
We'd all love to change your head
You tell me it's the institution, well you know
You'd better free your mind instead

-John Lennon

But if you go carrying pictures of Rush Limbaugh
You ain't gonna make it anyone anyhow

-Me

We are at a point (according to the pollsters) where the popularity of the congress is at an all time low (hovering just below nine percent). They're telling us that Paris Hilton and Communism have better numbers. I'm not surprised. What is surprising, and in spite of the propaganda aimed against it, is that the Occupy Wall Street movement's numbers are comparatively high, and rising by the hour. This movement ain't no fad, boys and girls, and the good people out in the streets are in it for the long haul. I was just reminded of a great quotation from Mahatma Gandhi:

“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”

We win. Isn't this a neat time to be alive?

Tom Degan
Goshen, NY
tomdegan@frontiernet.net

AFTERTHOUGHT:

In an appearance this morning on Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer, Ron Paul made the following statement:

"To argue that they attacked us on 9/11 because we are free and prosperous is dangerous because it's not true"

Old Ron is correct here on more levels than he realizes. We are neither free nor prosperous. Hi ho.

SUGGESTED READING:

AFTER THE TEA PARTY IS OVER:
Creating the Founding Fathers' Vision of America
by Devon J. Noll

Special thanks to John Harragin and Brother Jeff Degan for the photograph at the top of this piece. To John for taking it; and to Jeff for doing all that cool stuff to it!

In the words of Lenny Bruce: "Is that an album cover or what???"

For more recent postings from this LIBERAL CESSPOOL OF IMPUDENT, COMMIE PROPAGANDA, kindly go to the link below:

"The Rant" by Tom Degan

You ought to be ashamed of yourselves for reading this stuff.