Occupy This Blog

So, yeah. If I paid a few grand a month for an apartment on Wall Street and a broke-down tent slum popped up on my doorstep, I’d be annoyed. And I imagine that once a few people set up camp,  it wasn’t long before some unshowered hippie started strumming his acoustic guitar and singing “Michael, Row the Boat Ashore” at 4 a.m. That would piss me off. And if one of those people wanted to come into my house to use the bathroom, I’d probably be terrified. But with all its inconveniences and annoyances,  I’d still have to support the Occupy Movement. In fact, the future of our country may well depend on it.

The media has grossly misinterpreted—and underestimated—the greater forces behind the Occupy Movement. It’s not that Occupy has been perfect. Far from it. But the greater issues that originally spawned its existence are legitimate. And those issues continue to rage out of control, hurtling an increasingly contentious country closer and closer toward permanent disaster.

Contrary to popular belief, Occupy isn’t about laziness. It isn’t about socialism or undeserved handouts. It’s about a government that is supposed to be of, by and for the people that has been hijacked. American government is now of, by and for corporate interests. And yes, those corporate interests include big banks. But they aren’t by any means limited to them.

Take the food industry, for example. If you saw Food, Inc. you know that in recent years, the federal government has allowed corporate interests to place patents on seeds. And I’m not just talking about the genetically modified seeds they produce. They’ve patented the original, natural seeds for wheat, corn, soybeans. The very essence of life, owned by Monsanto. This week, Congress is pushing to allow public schools to consider french fries and the tomato paste on pizza as vegetables. That recommendation isn’t based on nutritional guidelines for children, but on the powerful lobbying of the potato and frozen food industries. This is to say nothing of oil subsidies, tax breaks for companies that operate off-shore, or the bull-headed resistance to clean and renewable energy sources.

The Occupy Movement lost its footing by focusing on bank bailouts and the high unemployment rate. They should’ve been pointing to the current culture of government that puts the well-being of the profit-makers ahead of the interests of the people. Do corporations create jobs? Sure they do. But that’s not a free pass to poison our children, destroy our environment or rob the people blind. And that’s what they’re currently being allowed to do by the powers that be. Government is broken. The people want it fixed. That’s the point of Occupy.

The media has been working overtime trying to force Occupy to create a list of demands; to offer a list of permanent and workable suggestions for solutions. But isn’t that why we elect officials? Why are reporters shoving microphones into the faces of unkempt 19-year-olds and demanding that they do the jobs our elder statesmen should be doing? Instead of focusing on workable solutions, politicians are spending all of their time trying to make money, look powerful and be right about everything. And reporters are too busy loving the drama of it all to call them on it.

Here’s the thing that makes Occupy relevant and distinct from other recent movements: it recognizes that both Democrats and Republicans are in the wrong. It also recognizes that both sides have legitimate points of view that should be heard and considered. And most of all, it recognizes that there isn’t supposed to be  an “us” and  a “them.” There’s supposed to be a chorus of disparate voices that combine to sing one song. Lately, that song has been hella off-key. We need a movement like Occupy to force it back into a lovely tune. I wish the media would stop trash-talking the movement and address the real issues at hand.