Occupy Your Democracy

Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. 

We are the ones we've been waiting for. 

We are the change that we seek.

 - President Barak Obama.

Remember . . .

 It's amazing how few words would need to be changed to make this speech appropriate 

 for here (the US) and now (2013).

The difference is that only a portion of our lawmakers are holding the entire government hostage, demanding the right to strip us all of our remaining rights - healthcare, education, the vote, collective bargaining, safety nets for the poor & unemployed, and anything else they can get their greedy little fingers on - or they'll crash the entire economy. 

The scene has played out repeatedly over the past six years. They have actually admitted that they will oppose president Obama on everything, even if opposing him is bad for the country. 

Who then are the real traitors, the terrorists, the ones trying to destroy our democracy? 
 

Good evening, London. Allow me first to apologize for this interruption. I do, like many of you, appreciate the comforts of the everyday routine, the security of the familiar, the tranquility of repetition. I enjoy them as much as any bloke. But in the spirit of commemoration - whereby those important events of the past, usually associated with someone's death or the end of some awful bloody struggle, are celebrated with a nice holiday - I thought we could mark this November the fifth, a day that is sadly no longer remembered, by taking some time out of our daily lives to sit down and have a little chat.

There are, of course, those who do not want us to speak. I suspect even now orders are being shouted into telephones and men with guns will soon be on their way. Why? Because while the truncheon may be used in lieu of conversation, words will always retain their power. Words offer the means to meaning and for those who will listen, the enunciation of truth. And the truth is, there is something terribly wrong with this country, isn't there?

Cruelty and injustice...intolerance and oppression. And where once you had the freedom to object, to think and speak as you saw fit, you now have censors and systems of surveillance, coercing your conformity and soliciting your submission. How did this happen? Who's to blame? Well certainly there are those who are more responsible than others, and they will be held accountable. But again, truth be told...if you're looking for the guilty, you need only look into a mirror.

I know why you did it. I know you were afraid. Who wouldn't be? War. Terror. Disease. There were a myriad of problems which conspired to corrupt your reason and rob you of your common sense. Fear got the best of you and in your panic, you turned to the now High Chancellor Adam Sutler. He promised you order. He promised you peace. And all he demanded in return was your silent, obedient consent.

Last night, I sought to end that silence. Last night, I destroyed the Old Bailey to remind this country of what it has forgotten. More than four hundred years ago, a great citizen wished to embed the fifth of November forever in our memory. His hope was to remind the world that fairness, justice and freedom are more than words - they are perspectives. So if you've seen nothing, if the crimes of this government remain unknown to you, then I would suggest that you allow the fifth of November to pass unmarked. But if you see what I see, if you feel as I feel, and if you would seek as I seek...then I ask you to stand beside me, one year from tonight, outside the gates of Parliament. And together, we shall give them a fifth of November that shall never, ever, be forgot!

Here is the original:

Female War Veteran Violently Arrested For Playing Banjo In The Wrong Place

Occupy Art.

#OccupyTogether.

A Thought for May Day . . .

Outside of the United States, May 1st is international workers’ day, and it's observed with speeches, rallies, and demonstrations.

But did you know that:

 

1). This celebration of working-class solidarity originated in the US labor movement in the United States, and . . .

2). It soon spread around the world, but . . .

3). It never earned official recognition in this country.

However . . .

Since 2006, however, American unions and immigrant rights activists have resurrected May 1 as a day of protest.

 

from: Occupy Activists Resurrect May Day for Americans,

 Peter Dreier.