With many of our camps packed up, at least for the winter, our reduced visibility is an issue for contention.  However, with regional and national coordination on the rise, we can start to hone in on what we need to accomplish and how.  Pressure from the outside to “boil it down” into a short list of statements is routinely rejected, and with good cause, but can we be all-encompassing and still generate distinguishable outgrowth?

The idea of creating a set of focused goals seems contradictory when working within a grassroots movement.  Moreover, an inventory of demands, not matter how thorough, could become a checklist for appeasement from our current political leaders, who would pass legislation only to repeal it after the “uprising” is disbanded.  Conversely, avoiding a list of solid messages and concrete objectives could translate as political ineptitude, stunted maturation, or just plain wishy-washy.

The trick is to move forward simply and become the organized extension of the people’s voice.  By participating in local politics, – backing or rejecting local and state legislation, becoming a consistent presence at meetings (from school boards to state committees), working with charities and social projects, and so forth – we can start to make ourselves a admissible political force.  We can be direct democracy in direct action with a representative Republic which has lately tuned its ear to the loudest voices in the room: the lobbyists.  In order to combat the forces in power (the corporations), we must infiltrate the system and create recognizable political change.

Occupations in urban (or town) areas must make a point to reach out into the suburbs (and rural communities).  We must bring our messages to those who don’t follow us on Twitter and who haven’t liked us on Facebook.  We must make our intentions known to them and hear their voices as well.  We must understand that connecting to everyone is essential to our mission.

By involving ourselves in local politics, we can push for the changes that we need within our communities and claim substantial victories for our movement.  We can reach out to the people who misunderstand or simply don’t connect with Occupy and increase our numbers, support, and strength.  We can begin to list the accomplishments of our movement in places where the world can see it: in legislation.  We can begin the hard work of changing our government by changing our approach to politics, raising awareness where there was illiteracy and involvement where there was absenteeism.

It is easy for those who man the battlements and protect the aristocracy with smug indignation to discredit us for our lack of order, our missing spokespersons, and our cries for justice scribbled on fragments of former refrigerator boxes.  What isn’t so easy is to contend with an organized movement that is forging real bonds with people in every nook and cranny of the country, that is uniting communities and marrying local people to the idea that they “can, too” make a difference, and that brings forth a sudden outpouring of consciousness and participation from their previously comatose constituents.

Apathy put us here.  We, as a nation, sipped the Kool-Aid and went numb on the couch; and sometime between Mork and Paris Hilton, bandits made off with the nation.  We were warned repeatedly by our leaders over two centuries about these types of criminal enterprises and how they would loosen the democracy, but we stopped teaching history with the depth it deserves to make time to practice for the standardized tests – something else that was lobbied into existence while we snored through our artificial-cheese powdered lips.

Marches build our solidarity and visibility.  Occupations symbolize our idyllic society.  Civil disobedience and our constant entanglement in their red tape can bankrupt the system which attempted to bankrupt us.  But it is through sincere and direct local political action that we will build the strength, character, experience, and support that we need to take this movement “to the house” (…of Representatives).

In time, we will amass the things we need to ready ourselves for our active restoration of this nation.  We will have rooted leadership, widespread support, and deep understanding of our local needs and national issues.  We will add these things to the treasure trove of strengths we already possess.  Combining our assets with profound and impacting accomplishments, we can move forward toward the ultimate goal: a truly free America in which we stand together as a citizenry fully conscious and taking responsibility for our democracy, our neighborhoods, and our future.

As a child, my mother always reminded me that I was a “pebble in a pool,” my actions rippling across the whole of my life and family.  I employ this fitting metaphor here.  We are the pebble, and our local actions are the first of many circles flowing outward to impact greater and greater space.  No matter how small it appears, even when compared to the vastness of the water it breaks, that one pebble can affect everything… even a nation.