Fed Up with Wall Street

Black Liberal Boomer October 4, 2011

http://blackliberalboomer.posterous.com/

[Video: http://tinyurl.com/3ekh2tz ]

My first reaction when I saw the stories about the
protesters doing their occupy Wall Street thing was to
raise an eyebrow, sniff, then mutter to myself,
"Really? Hmm. Interesting." Then move on to the next
story. Because at the time this particular story didn't
move me much, and there didn't seem to be much
direction or focus to the whole campaign other than a
whole lot of pissed off folks who were sick and tired
of being sick and tired of corporate greed to the point
of where they just couldn't take it anymore 'cause it
made them wanna holla and...

Wait a minute. I get it now.

One of the occasional drawbacks of growing older
(which too often is accompanied by having made too many
compromises just to get from Point A to Point B that
you swore you would never make when you were younger)
is this regrettable tendency, unless heavily guarded
against, to lose touch with that youthful no-compromise
attitude. This is quite similar to the I-ain't-got-a-
damn-thing-to-lose-anymore attitude one tends to
develop when...well...when you just don't have a damned
thing to lose anymore. Having lost my job two months
ago, I am being swiftly reacquainted with the college-
aged me who led Black Student Union protests down the
street against the Klan and chastised fellow students
to leave the lunchroom and that sorry-assed food they
were hewing on and join us in protest.

Anyway, when you lose touch with that (provided you
ever had it), chances are you have forgotten that not
all protests are meticulously planned in advance,
complete with position papers, a speakers roster,
PowerPoint presentations, and press releases. Most
uprisings are ordinary folks rising up against a
perceived injustice, and that's how it always begins.
Over time some form of what is commonly recognized as
an organization may take form - then again it might not
- but the overall point of the uprising is to draw
dramatic attention to an egregious wrong that must be
corrected.

Take the Tea Party for example. To say they make me
sick would be quite an understatement, but one thing
that cannot be denied is that this is most definitely
an uprising and it has been outrageously successful to
the point where it has scared the Republicans to death,
crippled the Democrats, and single-handedly redirected
the national agenda. Sure, word is out that they are
receiving considerable funding from wealthy arch-
conservatives, but this wouldn't be the first time that
an uprising received funds from the more well-to-do.
After ll, where is the money supposed to come from?
Taxes? And where do you think the money came from for
many of the activities engaged in by the civil rights
movement? Just ask Harry Belafonte and he can easily
tell you where a lot of that money came from since he
was one of the principal fundraisers for the movement.
Martin Luther King delivered a ton of speeches to raise
money for the cause.

So here's the thing to keep in mind whenever you hear
critics saying that the Wall Street protesters just
don't have it together and their demands are all over
the place and they're too damned disorganized;
revolutions/protests/uprisings are not known for their
flawless organization. Especially not in the early
stages. What they ARE known for is getting the fire
started.  Will they ultimately be successful in what
they are trying to accomplish? Let's just say that
laying waste to the American corporate culture of greed
will require...damn...I don't even know all of what it
will take to bring down that house. But I do believe
that if there is even an inkling of a chance that any
progress at all can be made toward this goal, then the
Wall Street protests are the definite first step in the
right direction. Because if the Tea Party can set fire
to common sense and compassion as successfully as they
have in such a short time, torching the middle class
and the poor in the process, then certainly if enough
of us raise our voices and begin to disrupt, somebody
will have to listen to us too. Because as both the Tea
Party and the Civil Rights Movement have made
abundantly clear; you don't have to be in the majority
to effect tremendous change, you just have to be pissed
off and fearless enough not to take 'no' for an answer.

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