Tag: Occupy Wall Street

Occupy America

therightliberalLeave a comment

If this video makes you sick, good.

The video was taken at the University of California, Berkeley. And where on campus was this brutal beating in? Free Speech Square.

Now as the title says, this was one of many of the “Occupy Wall Street” protests going on around the country. It was made up of students from the university who were not being violent or trespassing. The college did not ask for the protest to be broken up.

So here is a video taken from the same spot, but from 1964. This was from a protest regarding the lack of free speech for the students.

The irony is clear that students were being attacked by police for speaking their mind in the FREE SPEECH SQUARE.

What is wrong with our country, people?

We have people who have been peacefully protesting, upset with the current state of our economy and our society. And yet, police feel the need to go through and violently break up many peaceful protests.

Now with that last video, look at the people running. Look at the woman running and the people taking pictures. Now do those people look like violent and dangerous people to you?

Before, I was very questioning of the 99% protests and the “Occupy Wall Street” movement. I thought it didn’t have a real object and that it seemed unorganized.

But that has changed. If I didn’t live in a small town, I would be right out there with them. These people are fighting for what the majority of our people want. They are fighting for a change that this country needs. To be honest, and I hesitate to say this, this could be one of the first steps to a full revolution.

But I don’t want to make it seem that they are working towards anarchy. They are working to find more equality in this country. It may seem that everyone here is equal but look at the separation between the uber-wealthy and the rest of America.

And now there is a movement towards change. So if you can do anything to help this movement, go do it. Bring a positive change to our country and support these brave people who are out in the cold fighting for a better country.

Occupy Wall Street 2.0

therightliberal1 Comment

I last wrote about the subject of Occupy Wall Street when  it was a relatively small protest in New York.

And then bang!

The protests started spreading throughout the country, with people even protesting overseas. It has turned in to quite the movement, with the media giving the protests quite the coverage (despite my complaints about their reasons).

But I still have some concerns. I agree that the top 1% needs to stop hiding and start being more responsible. That small population controls such a large percentage of the money in the country that they can control most of the goings on. And with things going so poorly with the economy, they need to stand up and explain why and give some solutions.

But the protesters have not been clear on what they are looking for. The go around marching with 1% signs but they have no specific demands.

There may be a good reason for this: they don’t (and most Americans don’t) know what the answers are, only that we are in trouble.

It is quite obvious that the general public is upset at the state of our economy. We need change. But what change do we need?

Here is what the protesters should be demanding:

Higher taxes on the wealthy. They are wealthy which means they have excess money. Why not tax them and help the country? Obviously giving the rich tax breaks have not worked because look where we are now.

Education. Our education system is quickly system towards the middle of the pack, and that’s a big problem. If we want to have a wealthy country that leads the world in most areas, we need to have the most and best educated young people. Let’s cut spending from other programs if we need to (defense spending) and use it wisely; on education.

Inaction. What has been done by the wealthy to help? To be honest I do not think it is the individual’s job to voluntarily help but the job of the government to enforce their help. Politicians in Washington have been so busy bickering over every small issue that they have forgotten that we need progress now.

I support Occupy Wall Street and I think that the people out there are doing a good job of showing the people’s frustration with the government.

That being said, I highly suggest they focus their protests and start suggesting solutions. By doing that, they could really make a huge step and make some large changes in our country.

“Occupy Wall Street”

therightliberal2 Comments

Currently there is a movement to protest the actions of the economic top 1% of Americans called “Occupy Wall Street.” Not just a verbal movement, an actual protest in New York.

Chances are you haven’t heard about it, and I believe there is a reason for that: News corporations don’t like covering protest unless things are on fire and the police are involved.

Now I could write a book on how much I despise the choices of most news organizations, but instead I want to focus on what Wall Street has done to this country.

It all goes back to greed. Traders on Wall Street work for companies, and at the helms of those companies are CEO’s. I have nothing against CEO’s in general, more the ideas that their job title in general seeks to accomplish.

They want power and money. They want their shares to boom and then they want to create more shares which will boom some more. Yes, there are some advantages to this system of market (Yay Capitalism!), it encourages competitive businesses and seeks to advance our markets.

But what is the cost? Well, I think we are seeing the cost right now. Wealth in America is incredibly concentrated, with the middle class shrinking at shocking rates. These trends are due to the greed that has been encouraged through our system of economics.

The whole goal for most Americans is to get rich. Children are encouraged to choose jobs that will make them wealthy when they grow up. But then we reach the problem of having such an elitist society that money passes from hand to hand, instead of from hand to hands.

Don’t get me wrong, I love money. I love the finer things in life, from food to fast cars, probably more than many people. But what I want to think about is greed and how much money we really need as individuals. Go and buy that nice car, that nice house, that perfect vacation. But in the mean time, think about what you can buy for others with what you have.

And now we come back to the Occupy Wall Street protest. Thousands of people have been protesting, not just in New York, but in major cities across America. They want the top 1% to look and listen to what is happening in America. They are not asking for the wealthy to give up their lifestyles, all they are asking for is less greed and more sympathy.

We are a country, we are supposed to look after each other (to what degree can be debated all you want). Corporations (who are not people by the way) and the CEO’s (who are people) who run them need to get their priorities in line and start supporting the country that gave them what they have today.