Been a long time gone, hunh? Life gets in the way of blogging sometimes. But no worries. All is well. Life is good.

I’ve been somewhat preoccupied with the Occupation of late.

I’ve been discussing the Occupy movement on Twitter, have been finding and sharing information there and on Facebook, have had some fascinating email conversations about it, and then I remembered…Oh! I have a blog! I could expand this conversation, couldn’t I?

I want to share with you an email I wrote the other day in response to a series of tweets between me and a friend who was not sure how she felt about the Occupy Wall Street movement. It was the beginning of an excellent discussion, one that’s still going on. I’d like to invite you to join in. Here’s what I wrote (edited some, to respect the privacy of the other participants), where I stand:

“I think the Occupy message is actually quite clear, and it has nothing to do with jealousy of the 1% and some misguided idea about the “American dream.” …The message is this: We have two major political parties in the United States. Effectively ALL the political power is split between those parties. And both of those parties live and die by donations from the extremely wealthy and from large corporations, and so government time and time again chooses the well-being of big business over the well-being of the citizens of the US.

And no, I don’t think it’s a disconnect that this movement is happening with the aid of smart phones and laptops. As I said, the problem isn’t that corporations and consumer goods exist (though certainly we’ve been distracted by our “toys” while our rights were being undercut). The problem is that corporations hold all the power. I learned about the movement online, mostly by following links on Twitter. And then we went downtown as a family and marched with the Occupiers, and took part in a General Assembly. And you know what? It was democracy in action, that General Assembly. (Slow, cumbersome, messy democracy. Damn, it’s a lot of work.) It was real people, brought together–mostly online, by this movement–meeting in real life, in the real world, and having a vitally important conversation. It was so damn beautiful.

I’ve got my family to take care of, my two young kids, so I can’t be downtown camping with the occupiers. But I can follow the movement online, on the Occupy websites, on twitter, and I can take part in the conversation that way, too. That’s how I know what the occupiers need when I do get the time to get down there, maybe bring some warm, dry clothes, some food. That’s how I know when the marches are happening and where. That’s how I know what’s going on with the other occupations around the country. Occupy Boston was raided by the police and I was one of thousands watching and witnessing on the livestream. Technology connects us all. I don’t think it’s a failing or hypocrisy of the movement that it’s being used to great advantage.

When the banking crisis (caused by the irresponsible actions and extreme greed of the financial sector/Wall Street) happened, our government bailed out the big banks. Massive amounts of US taxpayer money went to save these institutions that were failing as a direct result of their own actions. (And not a single person has been brought up on criminal charges for what they did.) The banks “needed” to be bailed out to save the economy. The thinking was that they had to have money to keep offering credit, so that our economy would keep rolling. Except that they then STOPPED lending. They did not keep offering credit. They sat on that money, earning interest on it. Meanwhile the Fed has kept interest rates at near zero (to encourage lending) so the banks have been making money hand over fist. And the bankers getting huge bonuses still. And the US economy continuing to circle the drain, and people out of work, losing their homes because they’ve lost their jobs, no jobs out there to get… I don’t think I need to tell you how bad it is out there.

And while all this is going on, there’s the super-rich 1% of Americans with 40% of the nation’s wealth. They’re being taxed at 30%. The working poor? Taxed at 16%. If the 1% were taxed at a higher rate, we’d be able to make a huge dent in the deficit. I don’t have those numbers in front of me, but I read somewhere recently that all the cuts to social programs that are being proposed by Congress would result in the same $ as some miniscule raise in the taxes of the super rich. Why isn’t that happening? Because the super rich own our politicians.

So what’s the goal? Get the money out of politics. Separation of government and corporations. Real democracy, for the people, by the people. I think the goals are still forming. Think evolution, rather than revolution. What’s happening in the Occupations is conversation. Desperately needed conversation. Yes, there is grave inequity between nations and peoples outside of North America. Yes, children and adults alike starve to death on a regular basis here in North America and around the world. Yes, we’re caught up in ridiculous wars. Yes, the environment is in deep shit. But you know what? It’s like on an airplane–you have to put your own oxygen mask on before you can help anyone else with theirs. Our country is failing. It is absolutely, unequivocally going to shit. And many of us are finally waking up to the fact that we need to ACT. That it is on us to act if we have any hope of things getting better. More equitable. If we want to keep those kids from starving. If we want to end the wars, save the environment. It starts with taking our government back from the corporations. Starts with cutting those puppet strings. No, I’m not sure how we’re going to do it. I know that the Occupations feel like a good starting point.”

I’m nervous about putting this out there. I’m no great political or economic thinker. But this is what I believe to be true. I’d love to hear what you have to say for, against, on the fence… To that end, I’m changing the way I handle comments from this post forward. I used to reply via email, an old habit from the early blog days (2003). From now on I will respond to comments within the comments, so we can all join in the discussion together, unless a comment merits a private reply.

You can also find me going on about this and retweeting the hell out of related tweets on Twitter, but be warned that I also talk a lot on there about my kids, and making pickles, and freelance deadlines, and writing. (Basically, Twitter ate the blog content.)

Want to read what people with more political and economic savvy than me have had to say?:
The Awakening in America
A Warning to OWS–and the Rest of Us
Occupy Your Conscience

Want to get involved? You don’t have to camp out to help out. Check in with your local occupation! See what they need! Join in a General Assembly! (I’ve only attended one so far, because they conflict with the kids’ sleep here in Portland, but the one I did attend was fascinating. The human mic gave me goosebumps.)

Occupy Wall Street
Occupy Portland