Letters To The Oppressors

Here is a letter sent today to Joe L. Price, Bank of America Executive, via Occupy the Board Room, which allows you to let corporate executives know what you think:

Hello. Kindly abdicate your position immediately and relinquish your misappropriated wealth to the hungry and homeless.

I like you. I want you to be able to support your family and do cool things with your friends. I think that your hard work should be rewarded. But at present, you are supporting an enterprise that (contrary to the propaganda about creating wealth for the economy) dilutes the economy's wealth and skims it off the top for your benefit, all for the sake pushing around electronic “money” that does nobody a whit of good except you and your conspirators. There is nothing being created here.

Except for you and your conspirators, who have purchased the suppression of laws that should be enforced against a possible plethora of criminal acts committed by your cronies (and your employees who get enough crumbs to keep them in your servitude), these activities do not feed anybody. They do not house anybody who needs housing. They do not clothe anybody who has trouble clothing themselves and their families. They do not provide medical care for people who need it. They do not provide college educations for those who cannot afford them. All they do is unconscionably enrich a group of executives and provide them with so much of an excess of luxury goods and property that the rest of us (the 99%) are struggling harder and harder every day to make ends meet.

I do like you, as I said before. I want to offer you advice to help you avoid a fate such as that which befell Marie Antoinette, or Nicolae Ceaucescu, or any of those other misguided souls who allowed their hubris to blind them, and who did things that made others' lives horrible and promoted suffering. People thought they were evil. I want them to think better of you. I don't think anything bad should happen to you at all. I hope that some day we can sit across a table with each other, sip tea, and know that our work contributes equally to the benefit of society, and that both of our families are doing well. Don't you want that, too? I hope so.

Dressing for Success at the Occupation?

There have been a number of people talking about how people should dress nice to participate in the occupation. Playing dress-up is fine for those who want to do it and feel they have to put up some kind of appearance for someone else (the media, the authorities, etc.). But an important part of what many participants are doing here is a rebellion against those whose only competency is in their manicuring skills. That is part of what many of us are doing with our participation. How many of us have been passed over for jobs, promotions or other perks in society, despite skills we might have that would absolutely qualify us for that perk, only to have it go to someone else who is willing to conform their appearance to what the authorities require of a good lapdog?

Those who will tell you that it is not them that require any certain mode of appearance or clothing will always say that it is for the benefit of the OTHERS who require it...it is just what is expected in society. That glosses over deep-seated prejudices that they themselves have, however benevolent they think their advice might be. We love them anyway...they mean well.

There is absolutely no reason why a male should have to wear a false representation of a flaccid penis around his neck in many social circumstances (Thank the stars that this is not required of females!). It's actually pretty darn ridiculous. However, it is a requirement, and a deep-seated expectation, in many situations.

How many news anchors have you seen with obvious piercings? How many contestants on game shows have you encountered with short sleeves showing multiple tattooes? Where are the transvestite police? The political system "looks like America?" I don't think so.

Please, please, please...dress how you like...if it involves a business suit, that is fine for you. If you feel like somebody won't take us seriously if we don't look a certain way, then take it upon yourself to look that way. Just please don't impose it on the rest of us who have lived our whole lives in the shadow of this often unacknowledged and commonly unredressable form of discrimination.

Remembrances for the Occupation

To the 1%: You have looted everything we need to thrive. You have mined people as if they were veins of resources running through the earth. You have raised your champagne glasses in contempt of us. Please make your beds somewhere else, like Qaddafi suddenly did at the request of the people. Maybe you will have a good time trading anecdotes with fallen dictators. We will chase you out peacefully.

We will remember the trolls. We will remember the naysayers. We will remember the people who kept harping that it couldn't be done. We will remember the police who beat the innocent. We will remember the politicians who ordered the arrests. Because we need to show them kindness when the occupation is over, no matter what the ultimate outcome is.

Mr. Obama, Tear Down This Wall (Street)

There have been news sources popping up that have been talking about how the Democrats are trying to co-opt the Occupy Wall Street movement. It may be inevitable that sources of money and power will eventually try to infiltrate a movement and try to influence its direction.

But one form of infiltration would be infinitely useful to the occupation. Mr. Obama, come lead the protests into the buildings on Wall Street. Be there to protect the protesters from the police. Walk them into the institutions that they have been battered away from by the New York Police. Do you think the NYPD would stop POTUS? Then we will know that your sympathetic comments are not just lip service.

But there is almost no chance of that, since the President has been purchased by those interests. Maybe if they keep contributing to Romney for the 2012 election cycle...

Power to the...Umm...

Why is everybody who runs for president a power-hungry freak? Oh, yeah, because they want to be even more intense power-hungry freaks.