Letters To The Occupants (non-fiction, op-ed)

A collection of reflections on the Occupy Movement as it progressed from its inception to the fall of the camps.

Eleven Years Later

/ JillArcangela / 2 Comments

On the morning of September 11th in 2001, the world as we knew it was shattered.  The illusion of security was revealed for what it is: an illusion; and we realized – for the first time in more years than we could even recount – how vulnerable we really are.  We witnessed the flaming descent of one of our most beloved and iconic structures, and in the smoldering remains we saw the countenance of something more terrible than any enemy we had ever known.  We stared into the face of terrorism.

Unlike the visible, targetable enemies of wars past, terrorists are sneaky, covert, and difficult to take aim at.  They hide among common citizens and use them as human shields to mask their alliances and hide their guilt.  They spring up from a crowd of ordinary people, adding paranoia to the list of fears their workings instill in us.  They are deceptive, manipulative opportunists who are capable of covering their tracks while they work patiently and relentlessly on their plot, waiting for just the right moment to strike.

As victims of terrorism, we become suspicious and uneasy.  We allow our fears to control our decision-making, selling out our freedoms for the greater illusion of security, convinced that there is a perfect combination of laws and restrictions that will protect us from being victimized again.  Like a quivering, defeated man inviting authorities to take residence in his home, hoping their presence will protect him but forfeiting his privacy, so we invited the FBI, the NSA, the DHS into our lives, turning over the only real security we had: our autonomy.  So we could spy on one another, we allowed ourselves to be spied upon, sacrificing our freedom and giving license to a new kind of enemy – a domestic enemy.

Over the past 11 years, we have seen our government rise to a level of national control that is frightening and dangerous.  While groups like FEMA construct nationwide systems of emergency response totalitarianism, others like the NSA are watching our every move, reading our every social post, and eaves-dropping on our every conversation.  Our police forces have been trained in paramilitary-style tactics and suited with the corresponding weaponry.  Even our military forces have received political license to treat us, American civilians, as aggressors.

Meanwhile, empowered by our desperate pleas for a more flawless illusion of security, our political structure has started stepping consciously toward overt fascism, using morality, security, and religion as excuses to control our voices, our bodies, and our thinking.

The political manipulations of the “Right,” which have caused the people of this nation economic, political, and personal suffering, have been justified as an acceptable strategy against a political opponent they have painted with their own crimes.  Their failure to legislate effective solutions for the worsening problems we face have been excused as them building a campaign that will ensure their victory this November.  Such a victory would guarantee them the political control necessary to further their agenda of exclusivity and entitlement.  All of this only reaffirms that they have and will continue to put the people of this country (whom they are supposed to be serving) in the line of fire to safeguard their private initiatives and personal aspirations.

The extremists that have come to dominate more than half of our political incumbents use propaganda based on false morality, racism, fear, and hate, as well as disfranchisement, legislative manipulation, union busting, and the restriction of constitutionally protected civil liberties to extend control over the population.  They have blasted us with false information and messages that are corrupting the unifying fabric of our nation, dividing us over everything from petty issues to human rights.  They have used common human weaknesses, like the fear of the unknown and basic misunderstanding, to promote ignorance, disdain for one another, and miseducated, misguided attacks between people who would otherwise rally together against their growing oppression and its deeper motivations.

It would seem that such insidious political scheming, marked by flagrant abuses of power and pointed legislative assaults on our constitution, would quickly become the focus of a national counterattack.  One would think that we, as a people, would come together to stop this political machine from their fast erosion of our liberties, our systems, and our nation.  Instead, however, the vast majority is standing by idle or willfully participating in the tying of our own noose.  Why?  Because we are being controlled by fear, fear they have gone through great length to instill in us.

The dictionary definition of “terrorism” is “a state of fear or submission produced by the use of violence, the threat of intimidation, or coercion, especially for political purposes.”

The towers are gone, and the memorials are in place.  The souls of the deceased have ascended to wherever it is they drift off to.  The suffering we faced 11 years ago during those terrible events has been diminished to the familiar pangs of the significant losses of long ago.  We, however, are greater victims now than we have ever been before, and the terrorists who are ruling our lives, hearts, and minds are hiding somewhere far more dangerous than the window seat.  They are operating from The Hill.

Mental Case, Police State

/ JillArcangela / 1 Comment

For those actively participating on Occupy’s frontline, the alarming nature of America’s increasing militancy is evident.  For those working from less exposed positions or who are supporting the movement from the background (either monetarily or with a talking campaigns to rally awareness and understanding), the brutality of police and local enforcement units are no less palpable – though less tangible.  But something happened recently that gives new meaning to the words “police state:” the arrest of one Brandon Raub.

Raub is a veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan.  Completing four tours in total with the illustrious Marine Corps, Raub has been deemed by the government and military sane and competent to serve.  He returned home well over a year ago, and he is not exhibiting any signs of post-traumatic stress disorder or any other mental illness.  He lives at home with his parents who say that he is in perfect mental and physical health.  He does not own a gun, nor is he member to any violent or extreme outlier groups.  He is an average American with some fairly common notions about political degradation and conspiracies stemming from within our national government.

Raub writes a blog on a well-established page in which he calmly, intelligently, and eloquently evaluates the state of the nation and discusses America’s tragic fall from grace.  He also keeps a Facebook page, as most of us do, on which he also makes political statements and posts links to sites that support his ideas and perspectives, as most of us do.  While some of what Raub says or thinks borders on conspiracy theory, his makes no attempt to rally anyone to any action – only to put out information and ideas that he feels other might be overlooking.

Now, we’ve all met a conspiracy theorist or two.  I have a good friend who gets rallied around some pretty bizarre ideas, but he is completely harmless – a dedicated husband, a loving father, and an avid believer that the government is capable of and carrying out incredible plots behind closed doors.  The greatest danger he poses is that someone could unwittingly touch on a topic of interest and get him ranting at an otherwise enjoyable gathering.  Raub is not unlike the beloved conspiracy theorist in all our lives.

It is true that Raub made some isolated comments on his Facebook page that, if interpreted in one of many possible ways, could seem to have some ominous undertones, but they are not in any way distinguishable as threats against America or her people.  Nor are they much different from comments most people haven’t made regarding one frustration or another when in the moment.  We have all had those moments in which we were so frustrated that we exclaimed a politician should be “hanged for treason” or that we were going to “kill” something or someone.  None of this means we are emotionally unstable, just that we are emoting with hyperbole.

Well, in the case of Brandon Raub, his emoting earned him a FBI sponsored trip to the nuthouse.  Without placing Raub under arrest, the FBI – aided by local law enforcement – arrived at Raub’s home, questioned him regarding his comments and his belief that the government conspired (through inaction) on the 9/11 attacks, and eventually slapped him in handcuffs and remitted him to a local mental institution for evaluation.

Despite a local agency working to defend and assist Raub against this unjustified detainment releasing a statement from their employed health official (who has spoken with Raub) stating that Raub is in no way mentally incompetent or suffering from any delusional state, a local judge has ordered Raub be detained and subjected to additional evaluations and reviews for a minimum of 30 days.  It is like something from a movie that we’ve all seen:  The man who knew too much gets tossed into the loony bin where he pleads his case but only makes himself seem more insane…

The FBI is insisting that Raub is dangerous to society, that he has the potential to become violent, and they have labeled him a potential terrorist.  They claim that he is in need of psychiatric assistance, though I have yet to deduce why from reading Raub’s blogs and posts.  Though I do not agree with his views or buy into his conspiracy theories (all of which are among the more popular and common theories out there), I have not found anything that Raub says to indicate any potential danger to himself or anyone else.  So, why the “302?”

You have to ask yourself what Raub is saying or what he has touched on that makes him so dangerous, and if there isn’t anything that stands out in particular then the question becomes centered on what any one of us could say or do that would merit the same treatment.

People say crazy things all the time.  Saying something crazy and actually being crazy are two different things.  Then there is being crazy enough to be dangerous to people, which is something else altogether.  Plenty of people suffer from subtle, harmless insanities – we could probably each name a few in our own lives without much thought.  Even more legitimately, countless American Vets suffer from very real and very troubling emotional and mental disturbances.  Most of them can be found sleeping on the subway vents of cities all over the nation.  What makes Raub so special that he has earned a free stay at the nuthouse?

Millions of Americans subscribe to the idea that 9/11 was an inside job – or at least a gross act of defensive negligence for the purpose of capitalizing on the resulting fear, something the authors of legislation, warmongers, and the profiteers of military and surveillance technologies are still taking advantage of.  Americans have seen and heard it all, with most doubting the government’s ignorance and innocence in conspiracy theories such as vapor trails, HAARP weather related disaster, and so forth.  Even the picture perfect era of Camelot left us with Area 51 and rumors of alien encounters that many still adamantly insist are as much a part of our history of Abe Lincoln.  None of these people have been visited by the FBI and taken away in handcuffs.

What’s more is that in a nation where a madman in Colorado could acquire an arsenal of paramilitary status in fewer than 8 weeks – purchasing gas grenades, a gas mask, a flak jacket, and more than 6,000 rounds of ammunitions to accompany his weapons purchases made from only three different locations – doesn’t so much as raise an eyebrow, why is an unarmed veteran of the esteemed United States Marines suggesting the FBI had some role in America’s most devastating terrorist attack ringing more bells, raising more red flags, and earning a swifter response from the counter-terrorist community?  Since when is an idea, an opinion, a conspiracy theory more dangerous than a cold, hard, unrelenting bullet poised at the edge of a madman’s hostility?

I’ll tell you “since when.”  …Since corporations learned the psychology of thought provocation and the art of media manipulation for its promotion.  …Since politicians became nothing more than the warm bodies required to compose legislation for nationwide, company-first, profit-yielding, social reform.  …Since the rise of a new era of business: the business of industry, the business of war, the business of subtle social terrorism, the business of addiction, the business of exploitation…

When does it end?  Well, for Raub, they are hoping it ends with a quagmire of legalisms and paperwork hold-ups that will silence him from speaking whatever truth or rumors he feels compelled to put out there.  Whether the conspiracy theories are fact or fiction bears no impact on a new American truth: that the encroachment on human life and liberty in the US is real.  And when does that end?  It ends when we say it does.

Stand up and speak out on everything as often as possible, because it is easy to throw one man in a nuthouse.  It is impossible to silence a nation.

The Myth of Islands

/ JillArcangela / 1 Comment

The recent political “gaffe” by the President in which he stated that business owners didn’t build their businesses came just weeks after I finished reading an incredible book (which I mention below) and just days before I wrote this piece.  An overburdening in my schedule left this installment of “Letters” delayed… and for that I apologize… but the article is still timely and important.  Sadly, it is most important to those who will likely never read it.  To those who do, my sincerest thanks.

 

The super wealthy and highly successful frequently express strong entitlement to their disposition by claiming that all they have achieved is the result of their own hard work, that they never took any hand-outs, and that no one lifted them up to the top.  This seems to be their way of not only propagating the myth that “anyone can grow up to be anything,” but also to lay the blame of “not having” squarely on the have-nots.  Their song of sweet success by virtue of hard work alone is not only played out but entirely fictional.  No man is an island.

Beginning with the extraordinarily obvious foundation of education, those who have been fortunate enough to be born into social classes and/or locales that have access to decent public education cannot claim that no one ever gave them anything free.  Don’t be ridiculous.  Their public education was free… Well, not “free,” but it certainly wasn’t paid for by them.  Other members of society paid their federal, state, local, and property taxes, and in turn, provided all the area children with a public school to attend.  Needless to say, those who did not attend public school must have attended private or parochial schools which yielded bills footed by their parents or guardians.  So, beginning at age five (and in some cases younger), even the super wealthy and successful were taking their first hand-out: education.

After 13 years of free education, the “haves” then moved into their post-secondary years.  During this time, these individuals plunged deeply into a world swirling with an indistinguishable blend of luck and opportunity.  In order for a person to become wildly successful, they must have not only an often self-praised, good work ethic, but also the perfect storm of open doors and dumb luck.  Since luck decides opportunity in most cases, we’ll begin by looking at how lucky a person has to get to have opportunities at success.

Luck is as simple as being in the right place at the right time.  Setting aside any arguments about genetic sequences and chromosomal normality, the idea that the right sperm has to find the right egg and develop in exactly the right way (which is the first bit of luck people have), there are countless other pieces to the puzzle.  A person must be lucky enough to be born to parents who feed and clothe them, giving them the carefree existence they need to participate in the rudimentary stages of development and the ability to focus on their primary education.  As a student teacher in one of the worst areas of Philadelphia, I often encountered children who were too hungry, too angry, too stressed, or too deprived to focus on their math or reading lesson.  Many were neglected at home or suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder after family crisis rudely awakened them from their 7-year-old lives.  Not being born into poverty, illness, or abuse is lucky enough.

Next, there is luck of basic geography.  The area in which a person is born and lives dictates the type of opportunity he or she has in terms of both education and local culture.  Not all school districts are created equal, and in many areas (including my neck of the woods) which side of the street you live on can make the difference between a thorough and competitive public education and a bankrupt school district marred by perpetual failure.  Even the best work ethic struggles to be sufficient enough a trait to pull someone out of the depths of socio-economic depression.  Rare is the individual who can use brute force to rise above that type of intensely stagnating woes and negative circumstance.

Moreover, the cultural subtleties of regions, languages, and histories impact people in far greater ways than anyone ever really perceives.  In his book, The Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell explains how the environmental influences affecting Asia came to make rice the staple of all physical and economic life, how the cultivation of rice affected political and social structure, and how the agricultural dynamics of maximizing a rice crop manifested into a culture that had not only specific social and personal commonalities but promoted mathematics as a fundamental knowledge.  Coupled with a language that treats numbers in a basic and decoded way (the number 33, for example, being 3-tens-3), Asian students end up with both the cultural and lingual benefits that put them at the forefront of the math and science worlds.  So, yes; Asians really are good at math, but not because they are smarter than other people.  Cultural implications, like the history of Asian agriculture and language development, dictate many features in various societies that give people an edge toward certain successes.

If a person is lucky enough to be born or raised with all the aspects most appointed to their culture’s version of success, the opportunity will follow.  People born to wealth (luck) will have the chance at superior education (opportunity).  A person who goes through their entire education with the son of a wealthy internet mogul (luck) will have unlimited access to costly internet time and top of the line computers (opportunity)… This person will grow up to become Bill Gates, a man who as a teenager was able to spend more than 30 a week doing little more than messing around on computers.

Today, Americans who now enjoy the tremendous wealth of their business ventures were born into a time when public schools were thriving, they entered post-secondary schools and jobs at a time when the economic world was giving birth to multinational corporations (while the government was tearing down barriers to their possibilities), and they stepped into the corner office just in time for the dispensation of the Glass-Steagall Act.  The culture into which they were born was changing, valuing financial gain over ethics, creating new avenues for corporate and investment business practices that in the past would have been frowned upon for immorality.

Did the wealthy work hard?  Sure they did, but so does the guy working three-jobs at minimum wage; so does the single-mother of two who is attending night school while working full-time and parenting alone; so does the guy serving you your drinks during happy hour.  The only difference between those who work hard to get by and those who work hard to get everything they ever dreamed of is how lucky they got and the opportunities that luck provided them with.

Do not let the rich kid you (or themselves, if you have the opportunity to intervene).  No man is an island.  In fact, when it comes to achieving great personal wealth and success, there are no islands at all.  No one gets where they are on grit alone.  Success is not the result of one person’s solitary path.  It is the sum of many, many parts… most of which can be boiled down to sheer luck leading to great opportunity presented and supported by the work of countless others.

So, the next time someone tells you that they did it all by themselves, without help or hand-outs, remind them that the help they received in life began when someone reached out and caught them on day one – cradling them into their first breath of air – and hasn’t stopped since.

A Vote of Confidence

/ JillArcangela / 3 Comments

For generations, we Americans have been facing the increasingly obvious reality that voting isn’t the sum of elections.  Debates about the Electoral College, scandals about easily manipulated voting machines, recounts, and Oval Office hijacking have all become realities that we discuss at our dinner parties with those brave enough to talk politics among friends.  We have become disillusioned, debriefed, even disenfranchised; and each year we hear the cries of millions, saying they will abstain from voting.

There are many reasons why people abstain.  Some are unintentional (“Oh, was that today?”).  Some are rooted in a misguided sense of integrity (“I refuse to vote against someone…”).  Some are founded in a complete apathy (“Who cares who the president is?”).  And some are just plain ridiculous (“The line was too long, and I didn’t feel like waiting.”)  All are based in ignorance.

While Occupy Voting Booths is making an honest and honorable attempt to reach out to voters, educate them, and help them through the voting process, other branches of the movement are speaking out against voting.  Occupy Denver even posted a recent graphic on their Facebook page with the iconic v-shaped check mark that read “F*ck The Vote,” instead of the traditional “Rock The Vote.”  While I am not criticizing the Denver camp (a grassroots movement is composed of many perspectives), I do want to call a spade, “a spade.”

Discouraging people, especially the strong, talented, educated people within this movement, from voting is a dangerous game in such critical political times.

I completely understand the ideology behind the stand for abstinence.  The system is a mess.  The players are all corrupt.  The honor has left the game.  The voting booths do not determine the outcome.  So, why bother?  If Occupy stands for revolution, why would we participate in the very system we are trying to take down?  I’ll tell you why.

First and foremost, until there is something new in place (and I don’t mean in parks across the country, I mean “in place” nationally, politically, wholly), this is what we have, and it’s in charge of our fate for the time being – like it or not, for better or for worse.  Regardless of how big the money is, how powerful the lobbyists are, how filthy the overreaching players may be, the popular vote can tip the scales.  Granted, that tilt may be quite minimal, but in cases of close elections – as I imagine this one will be – it can make a difference; and with the candidates on the board this run, that may mean all the difference in the world.

Now, I’m going to avoid the argument of which candidate would be the better choice.  I’m keenly aware of the Reagan-Era Republican masquerading as a Democratic incumbent and what a civil rights nightmare he is (in fact, he’s a nightmare in many areas).  I’m also frightfully cognizant of the vulture capitalist on the other side, who was born into the corporate world, who would undoubtedly run us even further into the crap-game of national corporative economics, and who can’t seem to commit to any point of view outside of his spiritual dedication to a human god living on the planet Kolob who impregnated the otherwise virgin Mary through quite traditional means.

I admit, for two very different reasons, these presidential candidates are both highly undesirable and extremely dangerous.  However, at some point, we have to accept the reality that one of them is going to be President, no matter how successfully we rally and march in the next six months.

It is undeniably true that we, the people, need to take the power back.  We need to combat the progress of a system that has gone to hell and taken us with it.  We need to put new political messages, means, and movements into place, but we cannot ignore the current state of things as we work toward that change.

Exercising our right to vote is one of the (extremely) few powers we still have in this country.  If we throw our hands up and walk away from the only thread, no matter how frayed, that holds us to our government, we forfeit the only power we have to influence a system that is in all other measures stacked completely against us.

Voting this year will not be about selection.  It will be about damage control.  It will not be to elect a new leader.  It will be to prevent an even more vicious reality for us to work against during the next four years.

Is this an ugly, sad, and patriotically pathetic truth?  Yes.  Yes, it is, but sometimes we have to work within the confines of what we have to get what we want.  There was never an immigrant who got off a boat on our shores and made a life for himself and his family by saying, “Forget it.  They don’t want to hire me because I’m black/Irish/Italian/Jewish/Russian/…, then I won’t work.”

The idea of abstaining from a vote because it hasn’t offered you a candidate you can believe in, and that such practice is somehow better or more noble than fulfilling your moral and political obligation to the nation you are trying desperately to save is plainly moronic.  It is fundamentally the same as the child who stomps off the playground shouting, “If I can’t win, I won’t play.”

None of this, by the way, is to mention the terrible impact it would have on the outcome if we removed from the voting pool all the forward-thinking, social-justice oriented, politically aware people who tend to flock toward the movement.

In my eyes, it is not only the duty of all Americans to vote, but the duty of Occupy to make sure people are voting with their eyes open.  After all, the only thing more dangerous than abstaining from the vote is voting misinformed.

Get out there, Occupiers, and help preserve what little we have left.  If we want to build a future worth having, we have to first secure a future to build.  The fate of this nation is in our hands… now more than ever.

Bars and Stripes

/ JillArcangela / 3 Comments

The Fourth of July has long been one of my favorite holidays.  It stands at the center of summer, begs us to eat ice cream sandwiches, encourages us to take a break from worrying about our nation and instead celebrate its very being, and lures us into the humid streets at night to witness one of my favorite spectacles: fireworks.  We wave flags and don our stars and stripes giving thanks for our freedom.  After all, we are “America, Land of the Free,” right?  Well, as it turns out… maybe not all that free.

The recent and radical defunding of education and a variety of social programs in Pennsylvania has turned my attention toward a topic I have rarely thought about: prison.  As a generally law-abiding citizen and having no one in my life who is or was incarcerated, what is going on in and around the prison system was admittedly far from my mind.  But when hundreds of millions of dollars were cut from programs I care about deeply, I went looking to find out where the money was going.

Pennsylvania’s well-oiled Republican governor, Tom Corbett, just allotted $685 million to expanding the prison system in my home state.  My first thought was that it was a great idea since he just gutted public education and social programs for low-income families.  Clearly, we’ll be needing the bed space!   What I didn’t understand was why Pennsylvania, or any state for that matter, required so large an expansion in a nation that already leads the world in prison population.

The United States of America makes up only 5% of the world’s population, yet 25% of the world’s prisoners are incarcerated here.  Since 1980 and the beginning of the “War on Drugs,” the prison population in the US has quadrupled, with 1 in 100 Americans behind bars by 2008 – even though the crime rate has decreased by more than 25% during the same span of years.  So if there are fewer crimes, why are there more prisoners?

Harsher sentencing and increased mandatory minimums are certainly to blame.  For example, a first-time offender caught possessing a small amount of marijuana, even without the intent to distribute, can wind up in jail for 1-2 years in most states.  (A more reasonable penalty might be probation, some fines, a drug and alcohol class, and being put on a watch list.)

As prisons become more and more crowded, with everyone but the Wall Street and K Street crooks, prisons find themselves overrun, stretched to the limit on everything from budgets to bed sheets.  Characteristic of American venture capitalism, someone sails in with the super-fix-it: privatize.  Privatization is an attractive option to most state and federally run prisons because it appeals to the modern elected official: less work, more payout.

Like in most situations, privatizing a public responsibility creates serious problems.  When things are that supposed to be done fairly and out of duty are turned into money-making enterprises, the quality and honesty of the project are immediately compromised.  Privatized school districts fail.  Privatized medicine kills us.  And privatized prisons imprison us.  Prisons can only make money if they are full; and the more prisoners there are, the more money can be made.  This brought me around to my next question: How, aside from the obvious tax income, are prisons profiting from prisoners?

…Are you ready?…

Corporate America.  Yup, those guys again.  As it turns out, the prison-for-profit system is a two point earner for corporations.  Prisons rent out prisoners in ever-increasing numbers to large corporations who employ these workers for wages that rival those of the sweatshop workers in third-world countries.  The corporation pays a fee to the prison for access to the labor force.  The more prisoners a prison hires-out, the more money it makes.

On the other end of the deal, corporations incur the fee, comparatively far smaller than managing overseas operations and shipping, and then pay a minor wage expense per prisoner.  Though wages vary from contract to contract, the average prisoner wage starts at just $0.93 per day.

In some cases the prisoners are bussed daily to their job.  In others, the prisoners work in facilities right at the prison.  In either case, the corporations enjoy the benefit of a cheap labor force which is unable to unionize, can never call out, and can be severely reprimanded for any infraction.  There are no legal limits to the number of hours prisoners can work in a day, and everything from attitude to productivity can be manipulated by punishment on the prison end of the relationship.

I said this was a two point earner, so where’s the second payout?  The government.  Corporations who hire “high risk” employees are given huge tax breaks.  These breaks are paid out per employee, so it pays to hire large numbers of prisoners.  Additionally, special programs are in place that refund corporations up to 40% of the pathetic wages they pay to those prisoners.  The money they are paid back with is, of course, tax payer dollars.  These incentives, originally intended to beef up return-to-work programs for prisoners upon release, have become one more way corporations are pillaging our national pocket.  Not to mention, these incentives are encouraging the back-scratching between bottom-line corporate pigs and the next boom industry of for-profit prisons.

The business of prison-letting is not just a state affair.  In fact, a congressionally established company for the leasing of workers from federal prisons, Unicor, has become a $2.4 billion a year enterprise and employs more people (prisoners) than any Fortune 500 company, excluding General Motors.

The high yielding tactic has been noticed in recent years by some of the well-recognized criminals of the corporate world like big oil and the military industrial complex.  But some of the newer sharks at the frenzy might surprise you.  Technology and textile companies, which have been widely criticized for their overseas operations, are bringing business stateside and fueling the inferno of prison expansion nationwide.  Companies like AT&T, Motorola, Microsoft, Revlon, Macy’s, and Target, to name a few, are all on the list of prisoner-profiteers.

Now having all this information, the final question that can’t help but beg my attention is: where is this going?  Well, it is hard to say.  With funding shifting from education and social programs to prison expansion in Pennsylvania, among other states, and the political and corporate profiteers having found the next great exploit, it is predictable that the rate of incarceration will continue to increase in years to come.  The frightening component for me is the suspension of habeas corpus.  I can’t help but wonder what abuses will come careening down this slippery slope, and how those abuses will affect who and how Americans are imprisoned in the future.  There is, sadly, nothing I put passed the government at this point, but these are questions presently without answers… only speculations.

What I can say is that the next time I’m picking out a sweater or a pair of tweezers and I see that “Made in America” stamp, I’ll think and feel very differently.  For years, I sought it out.  Now I’ll wonder if it implies anything honorable at all.

 

Want some references?  No problem.  Here’s some of the places I got my info.

http://hrcoalition.org/node/193

http://www.decarceratepa.info/

http://www.nonewprisons.org/prisons/

http://www.alternet.org/world/151732/21st-century_slaves:_how_corporations_exploit_prison_labor/?page=entire

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incarceration_in_the_United_States

Where Do We Go From Here?

/ JillArcangela / 1 Comment

Since its inception, Occupy has been criticized for everything from aroma to Zuccotti.  Most of these criticisms have been rooted in a basic lack of understanding of protest techniques and objectives.  Every once in a while, however, criticism comes along that should be heard, pondered, and used as an outline for improvement.  Recently, that criticism came from one of my favorite cynics: Bill Maher.

Maher has a knack for hitting the nail squarely on the head and with great force.  He holds nothing back in his flagrant (and hysterical) verbal abuses.  He is grounded so firmly in reality, it is often frightening, and his straight forward approach leaves no room for misunderstanding his message.   His “New Rule” called “The Tent Offensive” was no exception to his routinely clean and cutting routine.  If you missed it, you can see it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmtFXp9NuRk.

The point Maher made was that Occupy’s goal of world revolution is futile without distinct and focused political action within (not just against) the current political system.  He made reference to how Occupy needs to become the “Tea Party of the Democratic Party.”  While I understand the profound desire for the Occupiers to prevent the movement and its message from being co-opted by any other group – especially existing political parties, and I do not agree that becoming the left’s Tea Party is the course we need to take, I do strongly agree with the fundamental idea behind his criticism.

Throughout American history, and all political histories, parties have come and gone, rulers have ruled and perished – leaving behind them messes or legends for later generations to contend with.  What started out as Whigs and Tories in the United States became Federalists, a recognizably Republican Democratic party, and a party of Republicans that resided their beliefs firmly in the ideals propagated by today’s Democrats.  Things change, but they rarely change without organized political influence.  Even when we rose up against British tyranny, we did not do so without sending ambassadors across the pond.

There are two ways to free an imprisoned people: fight or negotiate.  However much a fan of camping and marching and music I may be, I do not believe that the world’s foremost superpower will crumble to civil disobedience and a “guitarmy.”  It just seems like the job will take longer, will be far less efficient, and would unlikely be able to withstand the real slings and arrows – which, I can assure you, the powers-that-be have not even begun to fling in our direction.  So a conversation needs to be had about how we can more effectively and swiftly move this movement into the future and toward its ultimate goal of a changed political system.

Occupy has quite effectively used today’s technologies to push itself forward despite being shunned by mainstream media.  We did this by reaching into the existing media network and creating lines for ourselves.  Then, we built those lines into powerful threads for communication, promoting Occupy around the country and around the world.  We infiltrated an existing system, propelling ourselves forward using the tools available.  Why would a political maneuver be any different an approach?

The network is already in place.  It already has the power.  Wouldn’t it make more sense to push ourselves into the current system, create lines for our movement’s message and objectives, and obtain the power to change the system from within, than it would to attempt to use cardboard signage and marching folk music to bring an empire to its knees?

This has long been where Occupy has lost many of its would-be supporters.  Many Americans agree with the messages of Occupy and want to see the same changes Occupy speaks about, but they do not want to sign on to a group that is attempting to conquer an enemy it hasn’t fully assessed for realistic victory.

Occupy is organizing protests, sit-ins, and marches – all vital as the heartbeat of the movement, as well as conferences, committees, and teach-ins – vital as the brains of the organization, but it has yet to put its feet and fingers to work, taking the movement to new places and manipulating the highly valuable and imperative channels we could and should be accessing.  Meanwhile, thousands – if not millions – of would-be supporters are still sitting on the sidelines, worrying about and brainstorming ways to effectively change the system.  They are still staring at the same old options – vote against someone they hate, while voting for someone they don’t really believe in, or wait it out and pray we don’t end up the peasants in a neo-Feudalistic system controlled by a Fascist aristocracy.

So, taking Mr. Maher and his cutting criticism to heart may be more than just demonstrative of putting on our big boy pants and facing ourselves in the mirror.  It might just be the key to our success as a movement.

No legislation was ever written or repealed, no political system was ever given power, no set of rulers were ever overthrown by people who stood outside the gates walking in circles asking to be heard.  Governments are like people.  Change comes from within.  Get in there and change it.

Class and Education

/ JillArcangela / 1 Comment

Abraham Lincoln was the first president to speak on the topic of public education.  He did not form a federal educational plan, but he put forth the ideal that every American should have access to “a moderate education, and thereby be able to read the histories of his own and other countries.”  This statement became the catalyst for the educational system we now have.  Since the time of Lincoln, many presidents have made judgments on education and set into motion practices and policies that have both bettered and condemned the system – none so treacherous a debacle as No Child Left Behind.

For those who are not familiar, NCLB was signed into law by G. W. Bush.  Lobbied into the billions of dollars, it should come as no surprise that the biggest portions of the bill’s funding came from companies that would produce and score the standardized tests.  It was just the first step in a decade long waltz intended to undermine and dismantle public education.

Before I was a full-time mother, I was a full-time teacher.  I got my degrees from a school just outside of Philadelphia that is known for its superior Education program.  During those years, I worked in some of the best and worst schools in the nation.  The dichotomy of school districts in and around Philadelphia tell a story about public education in America – a story about wealth versus poverty, about parents more than students, a story that outlines in near bullet point format all that is wrong with public education, and a story that is about to take a turn toward tragedy.

It is no secret that wealthy school districts produce successful students and low-income districts are characterized by low-performance.  The guise of NCLB was that it was going to “level the playing field,” channeling more money into low-income districts and using tests to discover which teachers were not up to par.  The trouble – well, one of the many, many troubles – with the test is that it completely and totally ignores the countless social and cultural problems low-income districts face.

I did my student-teaching in Philadelphia school district.  I was placed in the most densely populated school in the city.  My students weren’t dumb or lazy, and they were – in theory – capable of passing “the test.”  Unfortunately, my students were hungry, angry, suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, non-identified students with “exceptionalities” (“disability”), and far more focused on the father who was in jail, the mother who beat them, and the drug-dealers on the corner they walked past to get home than they could ever be on the base-10 number system.

Meanwhile, in districts like Lower Merion and Tredyffrin-Easttown, not only do the districts have a ton of money but so do Mommy and Daddy.  Breakfast was made by the live-in Nanny and piping hot 30 minutes before the bus stopped at their doorstep.  Any emotional disruption was handled by the child psychologist during their monthly visit.  Tutors were readily available.  And, not only were all special services diligently looked after by both parents and educators, but even average students had relentless advocates.  In fact, if I had a nickel for every time I or a colleague was “spoken to” by a parent about an assignment or grade, I could’ve out-earned the cushy retirement package my freshman year.  Failure was not an option… even if a student actually failed.

You see, what standardized tests embrace is that every student is capable of learning – which I believe wholeheartedly.  What the tests suggest is that the only factor in students’ ability to learn is how well they are being taught – which is completely inaccurate; and what they totally ignore is everything that happens in a child’s life and psyche other than textbook learning – which is most of his life experience.

What’s more, NCLB doesn’t apply the test to measure student success or teacher failure.  The application of the test and its scores end up more a threat.  If the students fail to perform, there are consequences… and they aren’t constructive or pretty.  Sure, they say that the funding kicks in to provide extra services but when you compare the funding to the cost of test (which is covered by the districts) schools barely break even.  The services are far more expensive than any check has ever been large, and they take time – in most cases years – to yield improvement, especially when they are educational services that fail to address the real problems in failing schools (see paragraph five).

Schools that fail to show the necessary improvement with the addition of limited and underfunded services and within the limited time frame then move into the deeper stages of intervention (more aptly: penalty).  As the years progress, teachers are fired, then administrators are fired, and as districts struggle to rehire, reeducate, and recover from these staffing shuffles, the clock runs out.  That is when the districts are taken over by larger political circles.  After all, adding bureaucrats and politicians to a quagmire always clears things right up.

Once the politicians have their greasy hands on these districts, things inevitably go from bad to worse, as they did in Chester (PA) and are about to in Philadelphia.

With the state’s incapable of remote-managing these failing districts, repeated cuts to educational funding by state officials, and the false promise of charter school’s pillaging them for millions of dollars, the districts begin to fall apart.  More and more money is siphoned off, much to charter schools that consistently fail to deliver better student performance (but are still put on the Presidential pedestal) and the rest to private companies circling the state’s education departments like hungry vultures.  These companies peddle everything from textbooks to food to entire curriculums – most of which promote corporate agendas through propaganda.

During my days in Philadelphia, I witnessed the signing of a multi-million dollar contract with Aramark, a corporate food distribution company.  The contract was signed mid-year and paid out about $14 million to install complex computer-style cash registers in elementary school cafeterias.  Meanwhile, teachers bought their own staples and copier paper, and a 10-year-old boy in my second grade class who couldn’t read met for less than an hour once every two weeks with a special education teacher that the district couldn’t afford to bring in full-time.  This is the decay that is rotting public education, and when the system becomes so fragmented, so broke, so broken, and so far beyond salvage, they cut another multi-million dollar check for some firm in a far off city to brainstorm and fix the problem.  Their solution?  The for-profit model.

What left Chester County schools in shambles, a district where teachers have been working without compensation since October, is now being proposed in Philadelphia: more money to charters and corporations, closing schools, selling the remaining schools to educational corporations, and hiring a firm to remote-manage the entire process.

This is the result of NCLB.  This is what came from a test that was ill-conceived, ill-advised, ill-applied, and sold as the promise of better education.

When Lincoln brainstormed the possibility of a nation-wide public education system, he understood that education needed to be localized.  He rightly believed that only the people who lived in the community could accurately understand and tackle what knowledge and challenges students in those areas would require and contend with.  He also believed that those responsible for the children would have their best interests at heart, a fact which hasn’t changed.

Granted, the world has become “flat” but in that flatness the horizon that educators gaze upon has become quite broad, and if anyone has the vision to take education into the next millennia, it’s educators.  So, why hasn’t anyone thought to turn to these skilled, educated, dedicated people and ask them what their schools need?  Why are they being shut out of the conversation?  Why is it assumed that a team of trouble-shooters in a high-rise 500 miles away will know better than the people on the ground?  Simple: because denying the obvious ends in dollar signs.

Like countless other things – the expansion of the military industrial complex with the end of the draft, the appointment of former CEOs to head federal agencies of conflicted interest (Monsanto execs to the USDA, chemical execs to the EPA, etc.), the farming of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans to predatory banks – education has become the next great market… poor schools first.

Tonight, in Philadelphia, the School Reform Commission (the only thing pertaining to Philadelphia’s schools that the state has managed to adequately fund) had a public meeting to announce their plan for Philly’s public schools.  It is expected to follow the Chester model… right down the toilet.  Though the meeting was “public,” police were posted at all the stairwells and elevators, prohibiting hundreds of teachers and thousands of protesters from entering.  While I have yet to hear the verdict, I am not hopeful.  In fact, I’m already depressed.

Watching the blatant dismemberment of a public school district is – for me – the equivalent of watching someone rip pieces of the Constitution to use it for toilet paper.  Where is the justice for these students?  What is the future for those who have been sold by their elected officials and educated by corporations?  And where is the line between those schools and the one my own children will attend?

Well, that last question has a simple answer, doesn’t it?

That line in a township line.  Better tighten my belt and trim my budget.  I’ve got to make ends meet and stay on the wealthy side, because a quality education just became a class privilege.

Constitutional Exchange

/ JillArcangela / 6 Comments

I have found that at times in my life when things seemed darkest, as though the last glimmer of hope was about to be extinguished by the continued efforts of forces too powerful to resist, that is the moment when that glimmer explodes into light – blinding and blessed, burning with truth, faith, and good, old fashion whoop-… Ok, enough with the hyperboles.

In typical fashion, hope has pushed back. This week, the NDAA lawsuit has taken a huge leap forward in its march to victory.

For those who were unaware (and those who covered their eyes upon its signing and have still not peeked between their fingers), a team of activist, journalists, lawyers, and others filed suit against the federal government several months ago.  The lawsuit attempts to repeal the clause for indefinite detention that blackened this year’s version of an annual renewal for a bill that funds American troops and renews our commitment to them.

Never before had this bill been called into question, but this year it was, and for good reason.  The President, unwilling to compromise his timeline for constitutional correctness and the Republican controlled House unwilling to compromise anything (ever), passed a bill that suspended habeas corpus: the thing that entitles all American citizens to a fair trial, swift and clear charges, an opportunity to mount a defense, protection from cruel and unusual treatment, and more.

The National Defense Allocation Act included not only the suspension of these inalienable rights, but it assigned the power of arrest to the military and named the President as the only person with any authority over military judgment.  Additionally, the justifiable causes for such an arrest (and the indefinite detention that would follow) were so vaguely worded that one could essentially be arrested for just about anything even remotely related to anything else that sounded terroristic in any way.

Not only was the language of the bill dangerously ambiguous and the power it entitled to one person easily corruptible and unacceptably bloated, but the clause was thoroughly unconstitutional.  Now, in the America of the very recent past, this bill would have gone unnoticed.  We would have continued in our daily grind, drunk on food additives and blinded by supermodel marketing, but in a post-Occupy America, it was contested by the public before it was even passed by the House.

Today, not only is the bill being rejected by the public, the public is actually doing something about it.  Moreover, the public is winning, because – despite their best efforts at the degradation of our promised freedoms, despite the constant legal antics of hyper conservatives and those who would rule by religion and gender, despite the growing nerve of the growing-rich who are attempting to develop an elitist sect of political aristocrats – the Constitution is still there to defend us.

I live near Philadelphia.  I love history because it is the ultimate piece of literature, real life human drama marked by the stories of once-living people who made personal choices that yielded amazing results.  The combination of my geography and my interests gives me a distinct appreciation for our national documents.  Drafted by people who walked on the cobbled sidewalks that I have walked upon, in buildings I have been in and around for decades, and fought for on fields I’ve picnicked and pondered on, the Constitution is as much a part of Philadelphia as the cheese steak and Rockie Balboa.

More than just the product of my city, more than the work of my favorite (and the most quintessential) Philadelphian: the beer-loving and brilliant Benjamin Franklin, more than that which stuck it to a British king, the Constitution is a living document.  It is the central belief system on which we not only base but build our nation.  It guides us into a future in which its fundamental values of equality and hope can be made a reality in which we all dwell and from which we lead the world.  It protects us from the foolish whims of selfish men who would attempt to rule for themselves and their benefit alone, and it stands as an impenetrable force between all of us and a few of them.

The Constitution is alive because we have kept it thus, and for as long as we honor and love and know it, for as long as we revere and protect it, for as long we respect and preserve its core values, it will honor and love and know, revere and protect, respect and preserve us.

It is no easy take, all these “men… created equal.”  The Constitution constantly asks us to look beyond the confines of other societal traditions.  It begs us to see things in ways that are often counter to our personal and religious beliefs, that stretch our tolerances, and that challenge our ideas about the role of government.   What’s more, it asks us not only to change our perspectives but to evolve our nation’s politics with each passing generation.

Since it was penned, we freed the slaves, liberated the women, and made equal the minorities.  All of these things, in their time, were fought over by those who attempted to constrain the Constitution, who wanted to keep freedom for themselves, something that is in direct conflict with its very message.  Did the founding fathers foresee a society in which we would use their words to do these things?  Most likely not, but the cultural impressions of their day should not limit the ideology behind their vision.

Throughout our history, we have been asked to fight for the vision of a handful of men who believed that oppression and tyranny were wrong under all circumstances.  Those battles brought us to the forefront of the world, making us the wealthiest, safest, strongest nation on Earth.  Even now, as we fight to restore our tribunal rights, we fight for the Constitution – and it returns the favor… as it will, so long as we keep it central in our hearts, our lives, and our nation.

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A note to my regular readers:  Thank you for your patience.  My post this week is late because my old and faithful computer finally took the nosedive into “obsolete.”  With the help of my loving husband, we were able to quickly recover the mess and get back online with a brand new piece of technology.  Also, I have – for now – reduced my posts to bi-weekly (which you probably have noticed).  With several large life-events on the horizon, I felt this would take some pressure off me and allow me to take the time to generate more researched and meaningful posts.  I hope you continue to read and share these posts, and I thank you for your support and readership.

The Many Colors of May Day

/ JillArcangela / 1 Comment

When I was a child, every May Day (or whatever school day came closest to it) the entire population of my crowded elementary school would walk down to a nearby park – our school yard being a small black top area surrounded by chain-link fence.  The boys wore ribbons around their waists and the girls wore them in their hair.  They streamed in the breeze as we walked in double-file.  When we arrived, we set ourselves around a small center pavilion and danced.  I didn’t really understand much more about the event than that it was called the May Fete.  Today, I know more.

In our American history, May Day has been – like some many things – politicized to death.  Originally a pagan celebration turned into a day to honor the working class, May Day was a European tradition carried across the sea to America.  Eventually, it came to recognize the men and women who died fighting for labor rights or in the accidents that sparked the fray.  During the Eisenhower administration, with the nation still queasy from its McCarthy hangover, May Day was legally made a national holiday called Law Day.

Dreamed up by Ike’s legal counsel, Law Day was intended to shadow the dangerous and ugly communist sounding value of appreciating worker unions, bringing instead to the foreground a celebration of the role of law in society.  Upon its announcement to the public, Eisenhower proclaimed that “the world is no longer a choice between force and law.  If civilization is to survive it must choose the rule of law.”

Today, this politicization holds a profound and unique duality.  What Occupiers rally around, and what the American government will be forced by our hands to adhere to, is the knowledge that it is the socialist spirit of banning together balanced against the characteristic American will for individual freedoms that will preserve the promise of liberty for all.  The rule of law will only ensure the survival of civilization if the law is civilized, not wielded against the masses by special interest groups and religious fanatics for the purpose of financial, personal, and societal control.

We realize that the role of governmental law is not to limit the freedoms of the people or to create avenues of exploitation for the filthy rich, but to protect all people from said exploitation, to prevent the power of one man over another – regardless of status, and to insulate the best interest of the nation from the pillaging of thieves – even those who wear suits instead of ski-masks.

We understand that unions are not socialist regimes poised to overcome political freedoms in the name of level playing fields.  They are a necessary part of a nation that allows people in menial jobs to convey their needs and issues to corporate higher-ups who are routinely detached from and negligent of the realities on their factory floors.

We see the duty of government to ensure safety and opportunity for all Americans.  All school districts being created equal, all neighborhoods safe for all children, all doctors accessible to all who ail.  How each man chooses to take or squander these opportunities is his business and will leave him in a life that is the summation of his efforts, but no one should suffer or be denied the opportunity to earn a decent and honest living in safety and health because of the socio-economic status into which he was born.

Yesterday, the streets of our American cities were alive with the spirit of our future nation and the meaning of our historical May Day.  The people who claimed the parks and thoroughfares, sidewalks and rooftops see this balance, this vision of a dualistic and perfect America.  They celebrated both the labor unions and the rule of law, because they know that through unity we find individualism, through law we find freedom, and by rooting ourselves firmly into the moment we find the wings on which we will fly into tomorrow.  They see this balance, this duality, as that which defines America and makes her different from every other place on Earth.

True to form, this year’s May Day celebrations wore the brilliant colors it has since my days of ribbons swirling around dancing children, since its pagan founders crowned queens and wrapped poles in streamers, and since the day the sun shone on the first human flesh of varied skin tone.  Let this multitude of colors serve as a reminder to us, and to all who serve us in our political and municipal offices, that there is no such thing as a black-and-white issue… and that often there is no gray area either.

Freedom is the birthright of all humans.  Equality is the gift of all gods.  Medicine, education, and sustenance are basic human rights.  And the preservation of liberty and the law that protects it is the duty of each of us.

Happy May Day, Occupiers.

Good show!

Vacancy

/ JillArcangela / 1 Comment

As cities get fired up for the coming months and camps begin “spring training,” the small camp in my town folded its tents.  What I was hopeful and excited about as a vision of Occupy’s future, became a short-lived failure that missed its mark both within the camp and with the surrounding community.  Why?  The question must be asked and answered if Occupy is going to reach all 99%.

Struggling with the complaints of area businesses who claimed to be suffering in an already fragile economy and an even more fragile location, the borough passed an ordinance banning the tents from the small center pavilion.  One tent and its single Occupant, rumored to be a vagrant who was using his Occupier’s voice and labors to advocate for the election of a write-in Democrat (running against a local Democratic incumbent), moved to a small park way out of sight, on the other side of town.  A statement released by the Occupancy stated that the camp was moved “due to a fear of tents” expressed by the director of local “’farmers’ style market.”  Disappointed by the slander and put off by the political motives that seemed to underline the camp’s activities, I’m attempting to withhold personal judgment on the camp and instead focus on what went wrong with a small town occupation that should have set up a model for the spread of the movement.

Sitting in a local business, I overheard some community members talking about the Occupation, noticing that it was gone.  One woman commented that she was not sure why they set up camp here in the first place, “after all, this isn’t a corporate center or anything.  There aren’t any big businesses or even banks with bad reputations around here.”

The issue of people not understanding the presence or point of Occupy is one of our biggest problems, whether in a small town or a huge city.  While the overall message of Occupy is one that is generally heard, the smaller works of our camps are being missed by those we need to reach.  In urban settings, it is easier to find projects to get involved in because the problems plaguing American cities are clear and numerous.  Occupy has fed the homeless, cleaned up trash, beautified vacant lots, and so forth.  In small towns, however, the problems are not so glaring.  Picking up small amounts of litter that blow out of sidewalk trash cans isn’t going to cut it as “community service.”  Small town occupations simply have to develop new and finely tuned strategies for outreach and support.

From major cities to small town America, the impact of camps on local businesses puts Occupy at immediate odds with those they are intending to help: the common citizen, and hence, small business owners.  Even taverns that bordered Zuccotti Park in the great tourism capital of New York City complained of the incredible impact the camp’s existence had on their business.  What protesters see as an acceptable loss, a casualty of war, local business owners see as counter-intuitive and extremely personal, putting at odds two groups that should be united in their vision of an improved nation.  Setting up special working groups to communicate with local business owners in close proximity to camps might help ease relations, control undesirable effects of camps, and build bridges between campers and business owners that can turn into powerful alliances for both.

Another common complaint about the occupation in our town was that there was never anyone there.  The camp consisted of about six tents, but when people would approach the camp, there was rarely a camper to be found.  In fact, one local reporter shouted into vacant tents and sat around for more than an hour before giving up on interviewing Occupiers for her story.  What is the point of tents if not to house people?

As we learned when the camps in Zuccotti were rolled up by police last fall and Occupy Wall Street answered with the biggest march of their campaign, you don’t need tents to Occupy a location.  Occupying is a lot about possessing a space, but that space is often more inside our heads than in an actual geographic location.  We cannot allow our mission to obtain a physical space become our purpose or our mission.  Our mission is to occupy the minds of people around the world, to occupy the headlines in an effort to promote our social messages, and to occupy the political spectrum with the goal of changing the game that is rigged against us.

If camps, large or small, fail to see the meet local objectives they will never meet the movement’s goals.  Occupy cannot and will not achieve anything without the support of the people.  We can battle it out against the police.  We can tolerate the elements.  We can withstand the hours of legal drama after arrests.  What we cannot do is continue to spread a message to people who are no longer listening, and the quickest way to deafen an ear is to never stop talking.

Conversation is a two-way street.  Problem solving is based on hearing all parts of the problem.  Direct democracy is about respecting everyone’s voices.  And revolution is about changing the whole game, not just one part of it.

As a movement, we need to see the common denominator (hyperlink), the root cause that connects all of our issues and attack it at its root.  Small businesses in Jenkintown (and every town) struggle because the odds are stacked against them.  Why is Jim struggling to get the loan he needs to fix up and rent his building on the corner?  Why is patronage at the Main Street Market down when grocery sales at Wal-Mart soar?  Why does it seem like the local politicians are working against us?

Occupy isn’t only about occupying.  It’s about healing, uniting, and educating.  None of those things are going to come out of empty tents.  If we aren’t going to “Occupy” these communities with proactive and productive activism, we may just as well hang signs on our foreheads that read: vacancy.