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| Picture from AlterNet |
Today. AlterNet has some articles about the protests on Wall St. I've not seen anything about these in the media 9/28/11 in the evening though they have apparently been going on for more than a week. It is now starting the 13th day. It always saddens me when the media decides it will censor from the public what is really going on. Citizens with cameras are now posting so that might kick the media to action.
Arun Gupta writes: The Revolution Begins at Home: A Clarion Call to Join the Wall Street Protests He writes: "We all need to go down and join the occupation -- and not just by "liking" it on Facebook, signing a petition or retweeting protest photos" I find this a commentary on the passivity that modern technology has allowed us, and in many cases, anonymity, He continues: "At some point the number of people occupying Wall Street -- whether that's 5,000, 10,000 or 50,000 -- will force the powers that be to offer concessions. No one can say how many people it will take or even how things will change exactly, but there is a real potential for bypassing a corrupt political process and for realizing a society based on human needs, not hedge fund profits.
Arun Gupta writes: The Revolution Begins at Home: A Clarion Call to Join the Wall Street Protests He writes: "We all need to go down and join the occupation -- and not just by "liking" it on Facebook, signing a petition or retweeting protest photos" I find this a commentary on the passivity that modern technology has allowed us, and in many cases, anonymity, He continues: "At some point the number of people occupying Wall Street -- whether that's 5,000, 10,000 or 50,000 -- will force the powers that be to offer concessions. No one can say how many people it will take or even how things will change exactly, but there is a real potential for bypassing a corrupt political process and for realizing a society based on human needs, not hedge fund profits.
After all, who would have imagined a year ago that Tunisians and Egyptians would oust their dictators?" For the entire article, click here.
A second article from the same source, written by Sarah Jaffe, is: 'Occupy Wall Street' Fighting Bankster Greed and the Surveillance State While the mainstream media has tended to ignore this, tourists are taking pictures and publishing them on the Internet. Will average citizens help bring the media to heel? . She writes: "While even theoretically like-minded folks had been a bit dismissive of the Wall Street occupation before Saturday, the heavy-handed moves by police to control a small march have brought worldwide attention to Zuccotti Park, formerly Liberty Plaza. The Guardian has broken stories ahead of the New York media, outing the police officer caught on tape pepper-spraying penned-up protesters as the same officer named in a wrongful arrest lawsuit from 2004's Republican National Convention protests."
Without question, if these people are ignored and harassed, we can only assume there will be violence against police brutality and many will be hurt. History has recorded similar processes many times. It will be interesting to see if there is any action taken against the policeman who pepper sprayed the group in the cage. Many of us remember the Kent State fiasco of May 4, 1970. This action should never be repeated and goes into history as a shameful blemish on the US.
Is this now our democracy and our America?
1 comment:
The protests may not gotten the coverage that the organizers had hoped for, but it did get coverage, for example this New York Observer piece:
http://www.observer.com/2011/09/50-portraits-from-occupy-wall-street-slideshow
The reason why the protests did not get wider media coverage is that they were not well attended, nor very effective. Mother Jones magazine, a publication quite sympathetic to the protesters' aims, has an article on what is wrong with the protest:
http://motherjones.com/mojo/2011/09/occupy-wall-street
Finally, I do agree that the police response was excessive and should be investigated.
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