I Will Occupy

[WilliamPitt]

I Will Occupy
By William Rivers Pitt
Truthout | Op-Ed

Monday 17 September 2012

When the history of this age is written - if there are people left to write it, and if there is technology left to hold it - it will speak of a generation on the brink. Financial calamity combined with economic collapse combined with endless warfare and bottomless greed united to create a beast with hot breath and blood-red eyes that stares us dead in the face. It is an age on the edge of doom, and yet we persist in the suicidal madness of deliberate ignorance. If that history is written, the first line will be, "They were fools."

That history will remember Occupy, and a year when a chance was held forth to seize on the idea that this looming collective calamity can be sidestepped. History will remember Occupy as having offered one last, best chance to be more than we are, to see the beast for what it is, and to slay it once and for all.

(snip)

Occupy is not about parties, or politics, or leaders. Occupy is about people, and their individual power to create change. The camps were a means to an end, a way to grab the news media by the throat and demand attention. Most of the camps are gone now, but the people remain, and within them lives the knowledge that they do not need to follow parties or leaders, but can act on their own to collectively drag this old, dying, deceitful way of things back from the precipice to create a better world.

One year ago, Occupy began. One year from now, I will be a father for the first time. My child will be six months old, and living in a world fraught with peril. It does not have to be how it has been, and for my child, I will Occupy. I will Occupy for an end to greed, for an end to war, for an end to savage inequality, for clean air and water, for safe food and fair work, for the new day that awaits my child if we all, right here, right now, come together and put an end to this madness before it puts an end to us.

Our history is not yet written.

Write it.

Occupy.

The rest: http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/11573-i-will-occupy

[NYC_SKP]

1. Well done, WillPitt.

K/R

[CJCRANE]

2. K&R

[madamesilverspurs]

3. Thanks, Will.

I'm sharing this with my Occupy group.

And by the way, congrats on becoming the father of a March baby -- we're the best!

-

[WillyT]

4. Most Excellent !!! - K & R !!!

& Rec !!!

[RobertEarl]

5. You forgot ecological collapse

Pretty much the economical and warfare problems have been ever present. Now with the environmental problems on a global scale growing exponentially, we as a specie have put ourselves on the chopping block.

I might say that you having a child is crazy in this day and age, but maybe you will be the type or parent who can raise a tiny human that will survive the coming collapse of the ecology?

[pinboy3niner]

6. K&R

[Electric Monk]

7. Where do I sign up to join the "Occupy Wall Street for Obama" wing of the Democratic Party too?

I know you're not advocating "3rd party" activism, cuz that's against the rules here...

[dreamnightwind]

11. What, you don't want DU to allow Occupy advocacy?

Unbelievable. It's not a competing political party. It's a vehicle which could lead to the untethering of the Democratic Party from their corporate financiers. In other words, allow the Democratic Party to serve the interests of the people rather than the interests of Wall St. Obama himself said that voting is not enough, that we'd have to continue the fight and "make him do it" for some reforms to become possible. You have a problem with that?

[WilliamPitt]

17. Don't bother.

[notundecided]

8. Just Beautiful

[OneGrassRoot]

9. Love. Love. Love.

HUGE K&R!

[OneGrassRoot]

10. Geez, man, I can't stop crying...

This really, really, REALLY got to me, because you say what I feel so eloquently and succinctly.

Thank you again.

BTW, I didn't realize that you and your lovely wife are expecting. Lucky child, lucky parents.

[porphyrian]

12. . n/t

[tama]

13. Thank you for sharing

And may your child live a good life.

[OneGrassRoot]

14. kick n/t

[tavalon]

15. This is a great piece of prose though I guess by now,

you know the timing sucks or maybe it doesn't. There's something ironic about the one year anniversary of Occupy coinciding with the end of Romney's stupid ass run for the Presidency.

Today, you need to get up, get some coffee and write a brilliant epitaph. Willard Mitt Romney's campaign for President ended on Sept 17th, 2012. Next week we can talk about Occupy and in fact, this suicide by mouth by the Mittster will likely spark some fire under the Occupy movement. As it should. Our 1% Ken doll talked himself right out of the White House.

This week we must talk about political seppuku as practiced by the sociopathic Republican "nominee".

On another thread, someone came up with a new word, a very useful word. Mittastrophe.

Oh, and congrats on becoming a new father. That's some scary shit, eh? Wait until you hold him or her for the first time. All the fear melts away.

[marions ghost]

16. Congrats Will ...(but)

speaking from my more advanced perspective, it is all too easy to get mired down in daily life once you have a child. Too many of my Boomer generation focused inward on the nuclear family and left no time for working on the bigger issues.

Some of us are atoning for it now, but all too many did not know what hit us when the Bushites & the extreme right hijacked the country. Don't let this happen to you. Without parents actively working for a better future for their children we will not overcome the forces against us. Parents today must rise to the challenge.

I know you of all people, know that it's a long term struggle. Impart that to others. Write and speak. Do not be lulled into silence, the "wake me when it's over" pretense that one can hide out in a myopic microcosm and emerge unscathed. There is no safe house, there is no safe community. We are at a pivotal crossroads in this cold civil war. Keep it non-violent, but act. Find the time.

This message goes to all those in generations following the Boomers. You will live to regret it if you don't pay attention.

Occupy everywhere.

[ananda]

18. Occupy.

..

[woo me with science]

19. K&R We are being whipped up into hatred and our red and blue teams again.

Talk radio this morning was viler than I have ever heard it, with the dehumanization and demonization of the 47 percent.

We need to be the 99 percent, now more than ever. We need to point out all of these attempts to split us into factions and set us at each other's throats, and distract us from focusing on the real problem...the one percent who are oppressing all of us. We need to focus on being one country and calling attention to what is being done to all of us.

Occupy.

[PowerToThePeople]

20. Nice

I like it. I like Occupy. Being a wage slave with a child, I have not had spare time to personally join the movement.

There is one thing I am not sure of. This:

"History will remember Occupy as having offered one last, best chance to be more than we are"

I would wish to think of the movement as a new beginning, not the "last chance" to be more than we are.