This blog started a year ago with the release of new Census Bureau information on soaring American poverty, and about one week before the Occupy Movement made its debut in Manhattan. Little did the diarist know, at that time, we were about be chronicling, for better or worse, a major American uprising.
Events also coincided with the execution of Troy Davis, another story the blogger happened to be following, and seemingly not "just coincidentally" connected to events unfolding on Wall Street-- with "justice" failing at all levels of the system-- its economic and social savagery revealed in a full panorama -- and public outcry spreading from New York and Georgia, to the midwest, the west coast, and over 1200 cities globally (and still spreading) by early October 2011.
What now? Some feel that the uprising has been rapidly quashed, others, that it lives, or others, that it has been absorbed into various activist movements ranging from housing to food to student debt to electoral politics to the peace movement. That, to me, sounding similar to thoughts on where activities during the sixties went.
Myself, I can't wax profound on the subject; I think Occupy has taught us that we have more power than we think, that we are stronger together than separately, and that we have more common grievances than we are otherwise aware of-- or that the mainstream media would like us to know about, and, that we have so many brilliant people in our ordinary midst, like lights to lead us out of darkness-- we must believe in ourselves and each other.
If Occupy Wall Street taught us how quickly things can happen "overnight," how quickly a mass movement can "spread," how many incredible people are "out there" standing up for change and resistance -- can we not see how quickly things could, indeed, similarly change in terms of ending homelessness, hunger, war, poverty, unemployment, and crippling debt?
As an imagination artist, I believe this is possible. And I know we have many imagination artists on this tiny, tiny planet spinning in vast spaces of a universe that dwarfs even the great star we call our sun. With so many of us imagining a better today, can we make it happen?
Like I said, I never started out intending to write a blog about the Occupation. You can see for yourself that this blog started about one week earlier. I simply felt a responsibility, when I saw what was happening, and what the mainstream media was doing, to keep chronicling this uprising as it took place, and with respect to the contributions of citizen journalists, alternative media, and those I can only describe as true patriots. Those who wanted to tell the story, not suppress it and thereby stop change from happening. Those who were there "on the street."
For the record, I would say that the diary is conscientiously continued through the National Gathering in Philadelphia. I don't know how long the chronicle will continue from this point onward.
This entry marks my (more or less) personal statement on the subject of the Occupation and the blog itself. A one year bookmark, so to speak.
Power to the People. Peace.
Courtesy of Occupy Eugene, Oregon
Photographer: Brenna
Children Occupy protesters carrying signs reading,
"Invest In Me" and "People (and Pandas) Before Profits."
"Invest In Me" and "People (and Pandas) Before Profits."
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