The temperature is rising. The camps are swelling. The volume, both physical and audible, is increasing and becoming more and more difficult to ignore. The ranks continue to grow, and there are many more than those visible on the street. For every person marching, there are countless others donating supplies, money, and services to the longevity of these camps and this movement. With each swell in numbers, the movement becomes stronger and more unstoppable. This is the power of the people.
As in our history, when countless other injustices needed to be dealt with, people have come together to take the wheel and steer the country back into the hands of its citizens. These movements have not failed. The evidence of their successes are written in our history and in our present: women’s suffrage, child labor, civil rights, the closure of the Vietnam War,… Time after time, the brave people who walked into the line of fire and those who supported them did, indeed, change their world and the course of our nation. And, like those before us, we too shall succeed.
Learning from those who have marched to victory before us, we know that successful movements require certain strengths. Commonality, for us, is a strength based in our diversity. That which seems to the contrary is that which makes us most alike. We represent the reality that the struggles we face are not unique to one group, one class, or one color. It is proof that the problems we face are universal and wide-spread. Solidarity, this we have in force. Through technology we are able to communicate across the nation, comparing notes and coordinating efforts. We can rally support, secure donations, offer advice, and organize unified demonstrations across the country, something no other movement was able to do with such ease and precision. Commitment is a strength that is revealed over time. While it takes courage to step across the line, to set up camp, and throw yourself in the fight, it is commitment to your cause that separates movements of change from passing arguments. As time presses on and the season grows colder, it will get harder and harder to hold your position while your foe waits in the comfort of his home for you to crumble. With support, which grows each day, your commitment is made stronger. The more people in camp, the warmer you will be on a cold night. Cohesion is the final piece to the puzzle. There is no movement to ever achieve its goals without knowing clearly what they were. From the child newsies of New York taking down the almighty Joseph Pulitzer to the aptly themed “Eyes On The Prize” Civil Rights crusade, every successful movement had a set of demands that they put forth and unrelentingly pressed as the only satisfactory resolution to their qualm.
The largest criticism of the Occupy movement is that it lacks a central message. For us, we understand that it is that very thing that makes this movement most meaningful. We are not a special interest group propelling a single message forward. We are a massive collection of individuals who are each holding a different piece of the shattered American dream. The fact that the movement is about so many different things is the best example of how badly our nation has been ripped apart. There isn’t a single answer, a simple sentence, a uniform response to what is happening within this movement or in the forces we are contending with in our country. However, to ensure the success of our movement and the future of our nation, it is time we start to look at the root causes of the problems we face. Through insightful discussion in each camp, research, and coordination, we can find the common threads that connect the problems plaguing our society, demand they be addressed in manners that meet our standards, and remove from power those who attempt to stand in the way of liberty.
For the past 50 years, we the people have been falling asleep in the LazyBoy while our country was systematically dismembered and divvied out to special interest groups. We were drunk on sitcom-soma, snoring off the Cheetos and cola, while the fox we left guarding the henhouse was making off with our future. Thomas Jefferson said that “eternal vigilance is the price of democracy;” we were none too vigilant. Now, we reach the moment in which we snap back into consciousness, like the hero of a story coming to as he is being held by the throat, dangerously close to the edge, by the villain that intends to finish him. We find ourselves awake and aware but struggling for footing at the edge of our proverbial cliff. All we need to do to turn the tables, to win the struggle, to change how our story ends is shift the balance of the situation.
We can bring the power of government back into the hands of the people, where it was bequeathed and where it belongs. We have all the pieces in place and all the strengths we need. Now we need to put words to our actions, to put unified meaning to our movement, to design a cohesive message that we can send out to the powers that be, loud enough and clear enough to rattle the walls on their glass castles. Until we are united in our mindset and in our goals, we lack cohesion, an essential element of success.
Read Occupy Wall Street’s first official release. Start the conversation in your camp today. Start a committee to organize these goals, and communicate with those committees in other cities. Together we can change this world, but to do so we need a vision!
Occupy Wall Street’s first official release: http://www.occupywallst.org/forum/first-official-release-from-occupy-wall-street/