In less than three months, the Occupy Wall Street movement has gone from inhabiting hundreds of physical spaces in large cities, to occupying public discussion and action in thousands of small communities everywhere, including here in Maine.
Instead of city parks, the decamped occupiers opened up vast public space in the American cultural and political landscape, and made it possible, finally, to discuss and debate once taboo subjects vital to a healthy democracy. The “99 percent to 1 percent” frame succeeded because it resonated deeply with the experiences of hard working people everywhere and touched off an emotional tsunami for fairness, justice and decency.
Occupy now accompanies the news shows, and gives voice to endless costly wars, illegal bank foreclosures, ransacked 401Ks, high unemployment, extreme wealth inequality, the disappearance of the middle class, corporate greed, polluter profiteering, a bought political system, and increasing homelessness, hunger, union busting, voter suppression, student loan debt and much more.
Because of OWS our public discourse has been altered forever. To occupy this new discourse is to claim cultural space and political empowerment: honest debate and discussion give birth to action and true solutions. People everywhere, in all communities, are — and can be — participants in some form.
In Maine, occupy is alive and well and residing in your community. From the Blue Hill Peninsula to Mount Desert Island, from Belfast to Bangor, from Augusta to Portland, Maine citizens have come together to reclaim our Democracy. We have focus, purpose and direction.
In our Blue Hill OWS group, where I participate, we hold a weekly public vigil. We highlight the unfairness that shortfalls in federal, state and local budgets should now be paid for by the public through austerity programs, while Wall Street gets bonuses and bailouts. We protest that our democracy has been bought by corporate interests, our politicians corrupted by their money and our government is unresponsive to the people.
The Blue Hill OWS includes the unemployed and underemployed, carpenters, masons, teachers, nurses, doctors, middle-aged business people, an elderly man working two jobs, a single mother working three jobs, several postal workers, students, retirees, grandmothers and grandfathers.
We call for reinstating laws that level the playing field for everyone, and strengthen policies that have kept our economy stable for decades following the change to tax laws. Tax the rich, the banks and the corporations fairly instead of cutting Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid. And tax Wall Street transactions. We all pay sales taxes: why shouldn’t they?
Regulate the financial sector. The Glass-Steagall Act, which for years separated investment banking from commercial banking and outlawed too- big-to-fail banks, should be reinstated.
Get money out of politics. The Supreme Court decision, Citizens United, making corporations people (able to spend unlimited amounts of money anonymously to support or oppose candidates for elected office), should be overturned. Amend the Constitution so that only natural persons — not artificial ones — have Constitutional rights.
Today, OWS groups everywhere are speaking out against economic injustice and acting locally to prevent foreclosures and evictions. Individually we are moving our money to community banks and credit unions. From our homes, we are linked through the Internet, in thousands of online “MeetUps.” And like many others in the state, OWS in Down East Maine — in Blue Hill, Ellsworth, Bar Harbor, Southwest Harbor and Cherryfield — are conducting vigils, educational teach-ins, poetry slams and public events.
In Bangor, Belfast, Brunswick, Augusta, Rockland and Portland, OWS have gathered at the Bank of America offices to protest illegal home foreclosures, and to urge citizens to move their funds. Similarly, at U.S. Federal buildings, symbols of our national government, we highlight the need to get money out of politics.
On Jan. 20, the second anniversary of the Citizens United Supreme Court decision, Maine OWS will gather in Bangor outside the Margaret Chase Smith Federal building to protest this ruling. Part of a nationwide “Occupy the Courts” action, we will rally at the courthouse to support a U.S. Constitutional amendment barring personhood to corporations.
Like other groups across America, our Blue Hill OWS group shows up each week to vigil, to keep the public discourse open, and the future hopeful for people everywhere. We invite you to occupy that future with us.
Marta Daniels is a businesswoman who lives on Little Deer Isle and is a member of the Blue Hill Occupy group.
ROFLMAO!
I’m sorry to say but what a bunch of misguided losers; nothing that hardwork, discipline and dedication couldn’t solve.
Those “losers” are a cross section of every type of American. The ones who are losers are those who hold unfair stereotypes without fully educating themselves on a topic.
Many Maine people, including the elderly, have had their heating assistance from the federal government cut by two thirds from last year. Blame Congress and President Obama. If the rich were taxed at the same levels as the rest of us, there would be money for heating assistance and people would not shivering in their homes.
The rich are carrying the tax burden. The US has the most progressive tax structure in the world.
While it is important to respect different political viewpoints, it’s difficult to listen to spokespersons for the Occupy movement without thinking of the “The Other Sister” movie and the character played by Giovanni Rabisi.
I find it ROFLY to read comments that attempt to minimize the impact of Occupy. From Person of the Year to Word of the Year Occupy has had an impact on the hearts and minds of all Americans and beyond. Otherwise you would not see comments like those below. It is only when an idea gains traction that detractors appear.
I know you think your movement is important but let’s wait and see what history has to say about it before we decide that the hearts and minds of all Americans support it. It is not uncommon at all for detractors to comment when an idea may be irrelevant.
Nah, I ridicule all kinds of stupid ideas. It’s just my nature.
I stick the Occupy movement in the same category as the woman that spoke in a public meeting opposing a construction project. Her problem? She didn’t want a particular tree cut down because it was home to wood pixies and elves.
“In less than three months, the Occupy Wall Street movement has gone from
inhabiting hundreds of physical spaces in large cities, to occupying
public discussion and action in thousands of small communities
everywhere, including here in Maine.” Really? 99% of the 99% don’t give this movement a single thought………………simply spoiled dysfunctionals putting on a show for the press which is more than pleased to give them a platform (whatever it’s supposed to be this week).
I guess you aren’t part of that 99 percent of the 99 percent, since you went to the trouble of responding and calling them dysfunctionals. Calling them dsyfunctionals is a thought, though not an accurate one.
“debate once taboo subjects”
“Taboo subjects?” Are you kidding? This whole tedious piece is just a regurgitation of boilerplate lefty dogma.
I guess the author fancies herself living in the caves of Blue Hill, drinking her own urine to survive, as she gallantly fights off the savage conservative forces hell bent on her destruction.
I guess the author fancies herself living in the caves of Blue Hill, drinking her own urine to survive. There is no need of this kind of remark. Talk about what she says, don’t make up some fantasy behavior for her.
BTW my 401k was not ransacked. I am doing fine thank you. The market moves up… good, the market moves down, buy more…. common sense.
Darn it! You mean you actually get it? These capitalist
wall st types sure have made me pretty comfortable.
Along with earning what I have and working for it and
not worrying about what someone else makes or better
yet, trying to have others give me something. The only
ones I worry about stealing from me, are the ones who
make the laws allowing the stealing.
And right now my investments have grown in the past three months so perhaps Obama isn’t doing such a bad job after all?
Naaah!! The market is a forward looking indicator. Personally I think optimism is up because the market is anticipating him losing.
Sorry couldn’t help myself. :)
You only know what you have, not what you could have had without the theft and deception. If you are really a free markets opportunist, thats great. I do think it worth mentioning that since 2000, the market has been stagnant. That means for the first time since the 1930s, over the span of a decade, the market was unable to gain more than 1 or 2%. In my estimation, that is because our economy has become pear shaped and this has hurt consumption. Until we get better wage growth for the middle class, the market is deadheaded. The wealthy can only trade their money back and forth so much. It great that you manage to make money and use tried and true techniques like dollar cost averaging, etc. The problem is that for entirely too many, there is no available money for savings and investment. Stuck with the same wages they had a decade ago, with a weaker dollar and soaring energy prices, your neighbors are growing poorer by the day. Not just a few or just the lazy ones, but nearly all.
When we invest in our citizens and our society, we all benefit, not just a few. Occupy is a movement seeking to restore fairness to our lop-sided economics. When a millionaire who invests is sheltered to pay no more than 15% on their earnings and a hard working laborer can pay nearly twice that rate, we have an equality problem. The millionaire is not creating jobs. That is obvious enough. job creation has nothing to do with capital gains rates. Occupy simply wants fair treatment for those that work hard. No more coddling the rich.
You might want to consider the risk of another bank failure and bailout. Each time that happens, wealth is transferred from people who work hard to people who make bad business decisions. A banker must be bear the consequences of his failures too. This is at the heart of what Occupy considers wrong in America. If you invest your entire portfolio in a company that bankrupts, you lose. Shouldn’t Bank of America lose when they buy a billion dollars worth of bad loans? You are not earning what you should on your investments. If you earn wages, you are subsidizing the miscreant financial engineers as well.
The thing you may not realize is the “not knowing” is something called “risk” which I freely and willingly accept. An account grows in fits and starts and if you pay too much attention to the idea that the market must go up and never go down you are going to miss some real good opportunities.
My “not knowing” and what “might have bee,” is really not relevant. I deal with what’s here now and react to it. I have done really well in tax protected retirement accounts over the last dozen years and am well ahead of where I was at the end of 2008.
The only account I have problems with is my kids college account which has performed poorly because of the rules that quasi-governmental operation puts on it.
Of course business will recover when the middle class rejoins the upward trend. That only makes sense. Why you believe business doesn’t want that to happen is beyond me. Business depends on a strong middle class. It is a two way street.
I have said this many times here but I’ll say it again. Many conservatives opposed the bailout of the banks and of GM for that matter. Those things along with the healthcare bill is what gave rise to the TEA PARTY to begin with. The bailouts cost McCain the election as many conservatives stayed home. I personally opposed the bailouts in this forum many times. The notion that somehow the Occupy folks gave rise to that sentiment is misplaced.
While you folks went camping The TEA Party elected Congresspeople. If tomorrow there is a bank default you can bet those leading the charge against a bailout would be those freshman Congresspeople.
I don’t have the time right now to answer completely your opposition to capital gains rates. But just quickly any change would effect my retirement as the government will take a larger percentage of what I have worked my entire life for when I sell my property and business. I would like to retire in comfort able to pay my own way and maybe help the kids get their feet on the ground. The idea that the government can change the rules in order to give my earnings to someone else who has not worked for them possibly leaving me more dependent on the government in my dotage is a bit frightening. Legalized thievery.
Later have duties now.
If you thought you knew Occupy and didn’t get any clear message this sums it up. Occupy is not lazy hippies looking for a handout. Occupy is members across the entire spectrum in our communities who have a clear and cogent message and set of goals.
The TV news, brought to you by Proctor and Gamble, Ford and whoever else; never showed you the truth. They distorted the picture and obscured the message. They acted in their own best interest which happens to be against the best interests of most of us.
Moving forward, you will see Occupy return to the fore in many forms. They will be activists fighting for changing laws. They will be advocates, protecting the poor and displaced. They will be politicians, rejecting the status quo. They will be concerned citizens, formulating policies that will bridge the ever increasing divide between those who were able to make their fortune and those who seek to achieve their own through hard work.
Occupy cannot go away. It is the part of America that still lives inside many of us who believed in something great and watched it become corrupted and cease to provide opportunity for all. As the voice of the hard working citizen is muted by the power and money of the elite, the persistence of our nations ideals continues on. Occupy is hope. Hope for equality. Hope for a return to civility. Hope for a future society in which we care for and about each other. Hope that our children will be able to talk freely about the American Dream and how they were able to achieve it. Occupy is a continuation of the centuries old struggle for working people to be able to have safety and security and something to be proud of, something to bestow on their children.
Occupy is the spirit that made America great, rising from the ashes, to bring hope and possibility to the next generation.
I have friends who depend on heating assistance from the federal government to help keep warm in winter. President Obama and the Congress have cut LIHEAP heating assistance in half. I say, rich people should pay more than 17 percent of their income in taxes so that poor Maine people can stop shivering in their homes .