deepthunk
Justadude with a keyboard
- Feb 19, 2011
- 313
- 48
- 66
Since I live in Tucson Arizona and since the issue of wealth (especially corporate wealth) corrupting Washington has been a high priority for me for years, Ive visited the Occupy Tucson protest several times this week, and in fact just spent the day there. Frankly Ive been growing more and more frustrated and disheartened, this protest just isnt what it appears to be from watching it on the news.
As it turns out this protest is neither as spontaneous nor as open and democratic as the protesters lead us to believe.
The protest was sponsored by a handful of ranking members of the local democratic party, that in itself is not a bad thing of course, but in reality most of the protesters are just homeless people who would be camping outside anyway but stay in the park now because the protests organizers feed them right there (and they couldnt care less about the same citations they get all the time anyway).
Those four or five ranking local democrats paid for everything and control everything, even in the so called general assembly; they immediately silence anyone who opposes anything on their agenda including issues they have which have nothing to do with corporate corruption, disagrees with them with regards to their approach to the protest, or even disagrees with their handling of any logistical issues.
The fact is, while I remain steadfast in my opposition to corporate control of Washington, extremists from the far left have taken total control of the protest and as a moderate I feel completely out of place, and even a little ostracized by the extremists.
Suffice to say Im a little disappointed as I would like to support the protesters because the issue of corporate power and control of Washington is critical and needs to be addressed, however I dont support the banning of raising animals for food because I like steak, and I dont belong at that protest any more than I belong at a tea party convention. That leaves me wondering, if I dont belong at their event, and cant support all, or even the majority of the issues their protesting, how can I support them? Obviously I cannot.
As it turns out this protest is neither as spontaneous nor as open and democratic as the protesters lead us to believe.
The protest was sponsored by a handful of ranking members of the local democratic party, that in itself is not a bad thing of course, but in reality most of the protesters are just homeless people who would be camping outside anyway but stay in the park now because the protests organizers feed them right there (and they couldnt care less about the same citations they get all the time anyway).
Those four or five ranking local democrats paid for everything and control everything, even in the so called general assembly; they immediately silence anyone who opposes anything on their agenda including issues they have which have nothing to do with corporate corruption, disagrees with them with regards to their approach to the protest, or even disagrees with their handling of any logistical issues.
The fact is, while I remain steadfast in my opposition to corporate control of Washington, extremists from the far left have taken total control of the protest and as a moderate I feel completely out of place, and even a little ostracized by the extremists.
Suffice to say Im a little disappointed as I would like to support the protesters because the issue of corporate power and control of Washington is critical and needs to be addressed, however I dont support the banning of raising animals for food because I like steak, and I dont belong at that protest any more than I belong at a tea party convention. That leaves me wondering, if I dont belong at their event, and cant support all, or even the majority of the issues their protesting, how can I support them? Obviously I cannot.