Occupy This

So you cheer when various Occupy Movements are asked to vacate an area, when protesters are pepper sprayed, arrested and generally brutalized. So you comment on social media, write letters to the editor and call in to radio shows to say you agree with all this and as a matter of fact, the protesters should get out of your parks, off your streets and just get a job and while they are at it, a bath . You pay taxes and they are in your parks that are for walking your dogs, pushing your strollers and for you to sit on a bench to enjoy the sun and eat lunch.

So you claim you have no idea what the occupiers want; if only you had a clue what they were protesting and the worst of it, who are their leaders? How can there be no leaders. Well, without leaders, how can the media cover the protests? God forbid reporters have to drag their butts to the occupy sites and talk to protesters to understand a wide range of issues and report on them without spin.

So you think they have made their point and should just move on and let you get on with your so very important life ‘cause fighting for rights has a timeline. Don’t you remember such timelines from the civil rights movement? Okay Mr. King et al, two months tops to get your points across and then you need to stop your marching and sit-ins and boycotts and general bellyaching and return to the back of the bus and remember your place.  You don’t remember this? Well shame on you. Bone up on your history and you will see that all revolutionaries had a timeline dictated to them by the oppressors.

During the Arab uprisings, did you cheer on protesters in Egypt’s Tahrir Square? How about in Libya? What about the other nations like Tunisia and Syria fighting to determine their destiny? If you rooted for any of these protesters and high-fived when Mubarak resigned, leaders in Sudan and Iraq announced they won’t seek re-election and when Gadhafi was captured and killed, then hypocrisy is thy name.

You cannot have it both ways. You cannot claim to be for democracy but only when it suits your definition and timetable. You cannot talk about “exporting democracy” but try to stifle it at home.  You cannot insult the protesters by calling them “dirty hippies” and worse and at the first sign of inconvenience to you, run to the mayor’s office to request the full force of the law to be turned on them.

Democracy is not neatly packaged. It is not fought for exclusively by the nicely dressed and well-scrubbed. It’s not meant to make the few comfortable at the expense of the many. A lot of us would never join a protest group, rough it in a tent in a park in sunny weather furthermore in inclement weather so when some are willing to do all these things and more, they need understanding and support not pithy comments, ridicule and the heavy hand of law enforcement.

The Occupy Movement protesters may be evicted from their camps but that does not mean the movement is dead. It is now a world-wide phenomenon whether you agree with it or not.  Tents may be dismantled but an idea, awareness, knowledge and the fight for social justice cannot be dismantled and carted away.  

Injustice has been magnified. Frustrated people who thought they were alone fighting against “too-big-to-fail” companies now know they have numbers that matter and can bring about positive change. Those who thought their vote did not count and who did not vote now, hopefully, realise they should pick a side, not because some talking head said how to vote but because they have done their research and will support the side that best represents their views. The fight will continue.

Will keep you posted.