Bugink Avocado took this shot of my piece (left) and one of Pronoblem’s prints at the Taber Gallery opening last night at Holyoke Community College.
Speaking of Occupy, I have been asked to post the following rebuttal on my blog so it can be linked to.
Even as OWS protesters were being brutally forced from their tents, their possessions confiscated, and a library of over 5000 books tossed into a dumpster, Penn State Prof Dennis Jett was publishing an editorial in the Kansas City Star accusing the OWS of being a mob that will fail to bring change.
Although Jett spent most of the op-ed lambasting the Tea Party, he had little to say about OWS that was anything but pessimistic:
“The Occupy Everywhere crowd is also eventually going to be equally disappointed with their inability to bring about change. They refuse to have leaders, agendas or proposals, other than for the top one percent to be more generous with the bottom 99 percent.
“Fat chance. If Ronald Reagan accomplished anything it was to make greed a virtue and government a vice in the eyes of many. The rich think they have earned their status and will never believe they have too much or even enough. They don’t believe in any government program that redistributes income. Occupying the public square and only using shame to bring about change is not going to work. It would be like going to Las Vegas and demonstrating in favor of good taste, moderation and the arts. A few laughs will be the only result.”
My comment:
Dear Mr Jett,
I agree with you about the Tea Party. But your jaundiced view of the OWS movement is, in my opinion, sadly misinformed.
Those who say that the OWS movement has no platform, no agendas or proposals are parroting the movement’s detractors who, at least in the so called “mainstream media”, have distorted and ignored its message.
I have been to Zuccotti Park, and I have in my possession a fine pamphlet that I acquired there, entitled “The Declaration of the Occupation of New York City (by the NYC General Assembly)”, a publication which quite clearly and definitively states the concerns and intentions of the group. The fact that this statement was reached by consensus makes it similar to the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution, documents that were drafted by a group of citizens who eschewed a hierarchical process, having come together as equals to create a consensus regarding the future of their infant state.
The movement’s inclusiveness and compassion may make it look messy and chaotic from the outside, but the strength of the movement comes from these qualities. Arrest one and a hundred more will take her place. This is because the movement’s leaders are all of us: thinking caring human beings who understand that freedom means nothing without accountability, and who are willing to work hard to make the world better for everyone, not just a few. And although there have predictably been a few incidents on the fringes, many caused by self-avowed right-wing provocateurs trying to sabotage the movement*, what’s truly extraordinary is how gentle and genuinely thoughtful the OWS protests have been, at least from the side of these unarmed, peace-loving citizens themselves.
The important work being done by the protesters in the Occupy movement is already having an effect. In a time when a small percentage of the wealthiest citizens feel entitled to dictate the conversation in the public forum, and silence the voices of the majority of Americans, OWS has succeeded in making it into the spotlight. We the 99% have succeeded in giving voice to points of view that have previously been left out of the conversation entirely, and in so doing, have already managed to shift that conversation toward the real center of the debate. People are angry because the political debate in this country has been arbitrarily moved toward the right. It is a conversation between the middle of the road and the far right extreme, but the voice of the left has been ignored. How can a meaningful compromise ever be reached if so many of the speakers are gagged?
Your job, if I may say so, is to take the trouble to find out what OWS members agree upon and what their concerns are, and report this. You have in fact identified one of the primary tenets of the movement in your article, although you present it as a personal viewpoint: the repeal of Citizens United is of course a major rallying cry at OWS.
So before accusing OWS of being useless, think about the fact that your own voice is being amplified by ours, and that our voice is in return being picked up and amplified by yours– whether you are aware of it or not.
I am convinced that the tactics of OWS are not only effective, they are necessary, and they are working.
RIP People’s Library at Zuccotti Park. Long Live Free Speech!
*1. Conservatives trying to sabotage the 99% movement (Thom Hartmann, Truthout.org): ‘Over the weekend – an assistant editor with the right-wing magazine “The American Spectator” – bragged that he infiltrated a group of protestors as they marched to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum on Saturday and that he was at the forefront of provoking the police to respond violently. The group was protesting the museum’s unmanned drone exhibition – and were pepper sprayed after a confrontation with museum security. Patrick Howley – the right-wing editor whose only intention was – as he put it in an article he published later – “to mock and undermine” the movement, was one of the first to taunt and confront the Museum’s police.’
2. And on Daily Censored, HurricaneDean debunks the “OWS are anti-semitic” myth: ‘Well, I searched YouTube for a video clip of the “Hitler Banker” sign and found the guy shouting anti-Semitic comments amongst the OWS protesters. What Greenwood doesn’t say in his comment is that the OWS protesters had surrounded the Hitler Banker guy and were holding up handmade signs that read “He’s Not With Us”,with arrows pointing to the Hitler Banker guy. But what is more telling is, if you listen closely, you can hear all the actual OWS protesters are telling the Hitler Banker guy to “Go Away” and “Nobody wants your hate” I found stories about the Hitler Banker guy on a half dozen website and not one commented on or included the audio of the actually OWS protesters shouting out “Nobody wants your hate.” ‘
3.Occupy Oakland is being endangered by right wing vandals and violent rioters (Occupy Oakland site 11/3).
‘Those black-clad masked young men are copying tactics from Rome and Washington D.C. Defense against “dark arts” provocateurs has to begin with a thorough commitment to non-violence….
‘This sabotage is likely arranged and paid for by the same parties who flew James O’Keefe and Joseph Basel around the country pumping up the early Tea Party rallies and then carried on with the false videos attacking ACORN plus false-ID burglary to enter a Senator’s office.’
