Politics

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.

Erosion

/ JillArcangela / 1 Comment

A game of legal cat-and-mouse is in full swing as legislatures scramble to outlaw everything that falls just outside the perimeters of that which is constitutionally protected.  You can protest, but not near any political figure relevant to your message.  You can vote, but not without this single, specific form of identification.  You can have an abortion, but not until we are done violating and humiliating you.  You can get an education, but not without the burden of lifelong debt.  You can have a picnic, but not without a permit.  Like a plane working its way across a piece of wood, the layers of our civil liberties and their protective laws are shaved away, landing coiled and useless on the floor as the corrupt and insane shape the new America.

Just beneath the gliding sound of the plane’s dark work, you can hear the lapping of the ocean – a vast body of corporate initiatives and the endless goals of the financially insatiable – as it pounds its relentless force against America’s delicate social fabric.  Cultural and religious freedoms, logic and reason, checks and balances, individual liberties, privacy, personal choice are all eroding along the edges of our society.  Each tumultuous swipe of the sea strips away more and more of that which we hold most dear.  Yet, unbelievably, the lemmings – distracted by imbecilic obsessions (“Did you watch Idol last night?!”), led by the cunning and manipulative (“Fracking is safe.”), and obliged by the insanely religious (“[The Christian] church needs to be the conscious of the nation!”) – keep marching headlong into the cold and terrible depths.

America was a nation built by people seeking freedom from judgment, discrimination, persecution, and fear.  It was a nation designed so every citizen could create a life individually tailored to him or her, in which personal goals could be set and met through hard work and determination.  It was a nation of hope and liberty in which all voices and matters could be heard and what is best for all could be deduced from intellectual debate – free from the slant of varying religious ideologies, unencumbered by the motives of small-minded men, and unmarked by the scars of ancient human error.  She has sadly now become her own adversary, blanketed in the filth of bigotry, hot with the tempers of misogynists and racists, and corrupted by limitless, unethical, and vicious greed.

Soldiers called by moral obligation, Occupiers and their supporters stream into the streets, driven by a fiery sense of urgency and invited by promises made to them in our founding documents.  The peaceful warriors who deny the continuously slipping status quo and fight for the fundamental rights that keep us from a swift descent back to the 14th century are met by the private armies of billionaires, both hunter and hound donning the uniforms of those sworn to protect us.  Like the Reich marched from the basements of Munich’s brew houses into the heart of the German people only to butcher it with a knife of pure evil, our public servants wear the badge of honor and the mask of deceit.

Make no mistake, our government is working quickly, quietly, and pointedly at political, societal, and legislative manipulations intended to control and stifle us.  Undoubtedly the new laws and market manipulations (from the Trespass Bill to the doubling of student loan interest rates) are maneuvers of those in power to improve their position, gaining from what the rest of us lose.  The steady erosion of our freedom serves to strengthen their political hand in a high-stakes game between the haves and the have-nots, America’s new aristocracy versus the strong and faithful who built this country with their bare hands.

Inevitably, the makers of this war on all that is fair and just will come to find that the people will only take so much.  Eventually the sugar-coma of modern life (or should I say, “high-fructose-corn-syrup-coma?”) will wear off.  The lemmings will realize, as they stare at the lessening shoreline, this year they don’t feel much like swimming.  With Occupy opening up in the spring warmth like the impatient crocus, spreading out across the land, carrying its message of freedom and justice farther than ever before, the criminals on the Hill will find the masses at their feet growing in number and in rage.

Rise, my fellow Americans, like the mountains – higher than the sea.  Stand up and preside over your nation with the same majesty and immovability.   Spring forth from the depths of those waters like the beautiful, volcanic islands that defy that rippling temper.  Push back against their attempts to strip from you that which is yours by birth, yours by right, yours by law.  No matter how many profanities they scribble on the pages of our history, they cannot erase what is already written there.  We have been endowed with certain unalienable rights.  We have the right to speak or yell or write…; we have the right to assemble peaceably and to be left in peace while we do so; we have the right to demand our government hear and address our grievances; the right to a trial by jury; the right to live free of involuntary servitude (even if those who attempt to enslave us are corporate entities); the right to a free and appropriate public education (for all students of all ages – post-secondary included); the right to a clean and safe abortion; the right to practice our religious beliefs even if those beliefs compel a person to practice no religion at all; the right to a safe work environment and fair compensation; the right to live without fear of discrimination – be it racial, gender-based, or for sexual preference; the right to drink clean water and breathe clean air…  the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

These things cannot be taken from us unless we let them.  There are no laws, no chains, no cages that can contain what is right and good and fair.  We are not the sand and soil that washes clean away with no resistance to the ebbs and flows of their temperamental tides of change.  We are the rocks, the roots, the concrete pillars of a people who have proven time and time again that in the face of grave injustice, we stand united.  We will prevail.  We Will Prevail.  WE WILL PREVAIL.

Work In Progress

/ JillArcangela / 4 Comments

Critics and naysayers love to ask the “tough questions” about Occupy, striving to stump or embarrass us.  What they fail to realize, and what was incredibly apparent during this past weekend’s Northeast Regional Meeting, is that no one is asking tougher questions about Occupy than the Occupiers.

Walking into the meeting, I saw surprised at the incredible mix of people there.  I’ve marched with Occupy in Philadelphia, seen GAs via live stream and countless photos of occupations nationwide.  I’ve noted the diversity before, but nothing is quite so intimate and surprising as walking into a 20’x20’ room and shaking hands with 80 year olds and teenagers, hippies and bikers, long haired guys and buzz cut women, professors and janitors, residents of Society Hill, and people who sleep on benches all before finding a seat.  In fact, the only thing that most of these people had in common was their shared belief that our system has gone insane and needs to be 302ed.

After a long introduction and some fun and introspective group exercises, we moved on to do the work of the day.  Our mission was to discuss, in small groups, topics we think are important to the movement.  First, we had to determine what those topics would be, so we were asked to make suggestions.  The numerous proposals revealed a variety of powerful issues.  Everything from “what do we do with the farm this guy gave us?” to “where are we taking this movement?” and “how do we get there?” to “how do we confront agitators?” came to the table.

With incredible patience and an unbelievable amount of respect, we managed to whittle the intimidating list down to several groups by folding similar ideas together and relating our individual focuses to broader spectrums.  The process was a bit long and tedious, but we sighed with pride and relief when it was over.  We took a breather, ate some lunch, networked and chatted, shared amazing stories and ideas, and returned to meet our groups with clear heads and full tummies.

The group I worked with was focused on the national goals and the organization required to accomplish them.  People raised questions and ideas that centered on things like improving communications between camps, honing a unified message, coordinating localized efforts, creating powerful political change at all levels of government, and developing regional and national working groups.  Some people spoke from logical stand points in calm and down-to-business voices as they suggested improvements to our networks, websites, and conference calls.  Others spoke in voices teeming with passion and threw around expressive hands, talking about things like “guerrilla gardening” and street art.  Still others pointed out necessities like controlling our narrative and avoiding media coopting, reaching greater numbers of people, and creating meaningful statements and documents.

The array of insights and visions was awe-inspiring and simultaneously daunting.  We realize that we have some serious work to be done.  Not just work on our government, but work on our movement.  If we are going to get inside this beast and make the changes we understand to be critical for the future of our nation, we have to be more than loud.  We have to do more than march.  We have to build more than an idea.  We have to plan, inspire, educate, and coordinate.  We have to broader our vision while narrowing our focus.  And we have to keep returning to meetings like this one.

Our time to work in our topic groups was limited, and the process that got us there was trying, but we are learning.  In every action and every GA, at this regional meeting and at the many that we know must follow, we are finding our way through the complexities of direct democracy to become a living, breathing reality of change.  We realize that we don’t have to have all the answers today.  Just sitting together and sharing our thoughts is a revelation, but we also know that it isn’t enough.  We do have to find those answers, and we have to do it sooner than later.

As I try now to compile my thoughts, reach out to new contacts, and take advantage of new opportunities for involvement, I find myself feeling similar to how I felt looking at the mammoth list of pressing issues raised at the regional meeting.  The feeling is nothing short of overwhelming.  Tackling the task and backing it down to a manageable undertaking is not as daunting as it seems.  The key to success lies in the simplest lessons: take one step at a time; listen to others; take advice in earnest; learn from past experience; and above all remember that this is a work in progress.

Any artist, any writer, anyone who creates something for a living (or just for the sheer pleasure in it) will tell you that our greatest work is never done.  There are always things that can be done, visions to be intensified, thoughts to be clarified, systems to be perfected.  This is especially true in the case of our democracy.  Believing that the work was done, that we could sit back and let the cogs turn, is what got us into this mess.  So, we are as our nation is: a work in progress – always growing, always changing, always improving, and always searching for the answers to the tough questions.