Is OWS fading away?

The news about OWS seems to be cropping up less in the media this holiday season. Is it getting too cold out there on the streets for protesters to show their faces? Are there fewer incidents of drama and histrionics for media to create a buzz about? Are the participants to the movement dwindling in numbers? Are we just getting anesthetized to the phenomenon? Have the participants become so docile and passive in their behavior that there is no charge to showcase for the newscasters? Or maybe this just a place of evolution for the movement on the “Bell shaped curve” where it is moving toward its nadir? Well for the sake of this country and most of our citizens I surely hope that the momentum of OWS is not fizzling out. Unfortunately the financial and political influence of our major corporations, specifically the major financial institutions and the Military Industrial Complex have over taken our country’s body politic like a fast growing cancerous cyst. For example Lockeed-Martin who receives $45 billion in annual revenues, or $260 for every tax payer creates jobs and profits by manufacturing weapons of mass destruction. Their financial tentacles have direct influence over every major political candidate in our country. A major New York bank conveniently donated approximately $4 million to NYPD foundation right around the time of the OWS protests. Politicians are in the hip pocket of every corporation and union in this country who has a vested interest in keeping the government cash cow taken hay from the public and funneling milk to the special interests. So what’s that all have to do with OWS? For a moment I will digress into a “Critical Thinking” teachable moment that not only directly relates to OWS, but more importantly how we react to and process information from the mass media or what we read on the internet. This morning while I was in the process of constructing this article, a coffee shop friend of mine sent me an email, not authored by himself, comparing the well behaved Tea Party to the allegedly ill behaved OWS protesters. Digesting the data presented on its face, I would have come to the conclusion that most OWS folks need to take a course in manners and civility. Fortunately I stopped myself and starting asking some important questions such as who originated this information, what is their political agenda, how objective is the data, what type of control group did they use for the data, and how does this information relate to the behavior of the general population? Some of the highlights of table of data alleged 4,149 arrests, 7 deaths, 12 rapes, 25 American flags desecrated, a total of 3 American and Israeli and flags burned, cost to the tax payers $19,327,487, and “yes” to public masturbation, drunkenness, support for Hugo Chavez, Pelosi, Obama, Nazi, Socialist parties, 911Truther,etc. In contrast the Tea Party had a spotless record of behavior. First off very few large gatherings of any group rarely evolve without some behavioral idiosyncrasies. Secondly all the references to Socialism, Democratic politicians, and any group as not seen as the establishment who is “Clean, neat, and in their seats” is inferred to be negative. Well is it true that purpose and goals of the establishment being whoring politicians, “Crony Capitalists”, Wall Street, secretive Federal Reserve cabal, the military Industrial Complex, and minions of inside the beltway lobbyists is what has created much of the problem facing this country today? Let’s start with the alleged 4,149 arrests! Who are the police working for, is it primarily those wanting to preserve the dysfunctional status quo that primarily benefits the 1%. Could a contribution of millions dollars by a major bank to the NYPD foundation have any bearing on the police wanting to make wholesale arrests of totally innocent people who happen to be protesting, not obstructing traffic or causing bodily or property damage? What is the percent of the arrests of people actually committing felonies or misdemeanors compared to the total population of protesters? Next how does that percentage of arrests compare to the percentage of arrests in the non-protesting population. Where the deaths at the hand of murder, assault and battery, or from heart attacks, old age, heat exhaustion, or other maladies that have no relation to any criminal activity. Where the rapes committed by actual protesters or insane criminal elements that just happen to be in an occupying park. Again are the amount of rapes relative to this type of occurrence in the general population. On the “Yes” statement to the above referenced items, does that mean one incident or a hundred? On the issue of the cost to the taxpayers these are “pennies “ to each taxpayer compared to trillions of dollars we spend on the wasteful Military Industrial Complex that kills, injures, and oppresses people. Who said that the process of democracy was a free lunch? Maybe we should eliminate the voting process, some Fascist types would consider this yearly cost of hundreds of millions of dollars wasteful. I will gladly put in my share of seven cents in taxes to clean up after OWS protesters in order to attempt to further the messy process of democracy, rather than spending thousands to support the already “fat cat” untouchable establishment criminals who are the ones who really should be arrested for mega crimes against society. So now that we have cleared up some misconceptions about OWS that have been spuriously been spread on the internet and through the mass media let us get down to “What is the vitality of OWS”? You can follow what is happening with the OWS movement by going to their official website: http://occupywallst.org/ On January 3, 2012 there was a spontaneous show of solidarity starting in downtown NY against Obama’s signing of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Not only does this act violate our first, third, fourth, fifth and sixth amendments, as well as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, but this Act was signed quietly this past New Years Eve violating what little trust remained between the people and their established government. The OWS wbsite says, “This upcoming Wednesday, January 11th is the 10 year anniversary of the opening of Guantanamo Bay Prison. This day is a somber recognition of previous repressive state measures that violate not only people on individual levels, but our international agreements on Universal Human Rights. We will be protesting in solidarity with others all over the world.” Relating to a vigil at the Nigerian Consulate, OWS says, “As we know in the United States, repression is on the rise. Between the continued use of inhumane prisons like Guantanamo Bay and the recently passed National Defense Authorization Act of Fiscal Year 2012, people in the US are becoming more and more aware of the injustices of this globalized corporate system. We stand in solidarity with the Nigerian people and all victims of this system. We also see the inconsistency of the US government's support of pro-democracy movements when it is actively derailing the very democracy it claims to protect.” On January 15th there will be a global observance of Martin Luther King Jr’s birthday. Dr. King said "A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. With righteous indignation, it will look across the seas and say: 'This is not just.' Anyone who is trying to defame the OWS movement by vacuously claiming that they have no message or that they are purposeless, obviously has not objectively done their homework.