“Occupy together” is not just about banks, or finances, it is people angry and upset about “injustice and inequity and poverty and Wall Street corruption and soaring college debt and unemployment and homelessness, institutionalized racism and violence against women, the murdering of the earth, fracking and the keystone pipeline and the wars that the US has waged on other countries that have destroyed them and bankrupted us here.” (Eve Ensler)
What excites me about the Occupy Movement is that it doesn’t have a goal, or a vision, it’s not a protest, it’s a whole new thing. It’s a community BEING the change they want to see in the world. It can’t be bought, can’t be co-opted by the special interests that have bought our government….
A while back some people wrote about what government meant, what it should do, where its legitimate power comes from. They said that all human beings are created equal, and have certain basic rights, the right to life, to freedom, and to pursue the dream that most satisfies their hearts. They said that governments are created to make sure that these rights do not get watered down or ignored, and that government is given its power by THE CONSENT OF THE GOVERNED. They went on to say that if any government becomes DESTRUCTIVE OF THESE ENDS, it is the RIGHT OF THE PEOPLE TO ALTER OR ABOLISH IT.
Do these words sound familiar? They ought to, especially the words in capitals, which are a direct quote from The Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, 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 to 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.”
For the last 5 years or so, when I’m feeling hopeless, I go to the video of Paul Hawken addressing the Bioneers Conference in 2006. I just visited it again to confirm my suspicion, that he’s describing the Occupy Movement, and got goosebumps. He talks about an “unnamed movement” — “the very word ‘movement’ is too small to describe it.” “It is non-violent…grassroots.. a male vertebrate is not in charge” “No one started it, no one is in charge of it, there is no orthodoxy..” “global, classless, unquenchable, tireless…” “It is a civil rights movement, a human rights movement, a democracy movement — it is the coming world.”