Since September 17th, a group of protesters have taken residence at Zuccotti Park in Lower Manhattan, just a block or so from the New York Stock Exchange and Wall Street.
From the beginning and into the first several weeks, the mainstream media basically ignored the protest. But once there were mass arrests and noise was being made, then people began to take notice and even the networks had to start covering the story.
A lot is made about the disorganized or muddled message that is being offered by the Occupy Wall Street crowd. And, I get that…people love a tight narrative just like they love a story of overnight success.
I also get why the Occupy Wall Street protesters are giving a mix of comments and aims, because they are diverse, like our country and one message doesn’t fit every person.
Having said that, I’m going to give a short and not complete list of why I have supported these protests with time, money and donations:
* While the unemployment rate is stated at 9.1% as of Friday, the real unemployment number is quite different and signals that there are a lot of people that are out of work, or just barely hanging on at the fringes of the employment line. I’m not cynical enough to believe that all of these people that are unemployed are underemployed are just lazy.
* Real wages have been dropping for years. The obvious answer is less opportunity and that would be right on the surface, but the larger explanation is that our government hasn’t done a good job of promoting investments in infrastructure, education, and health care that would provide the basic components for a world leading economy.
* Its the inequality stupid! If our nation’s motto says that we are many into one, if only 1% of the population is seeing growth and stability, we are doing something wrong as a country.
* We are falling behind in education. I think its this focus on teaching kids towards tests and moving away from teaching kids how to think for one, but no matter what the reasons are that we are falling to ‘average’ or below against the rest of the world, it has to stop. America should be an educational leader.
* Health care! Health care! Health care! We spend more money than any other industrialized country in the world and yet we have millions of people that don’t have health care. And, I will argue because we along with Turkey and Mexico are the only highly developed countries without universal health care, it hurts our ability to compete with other businesses throughout the world. In 2005, GM estimated that there was almost $1600 in health care costs per car they made. I doubt the answer is that people shouldn’t have health care coverage, no the answer is to fix it so that we are competing on even footing with the rest of the world.
* There is a wide opportunity gap in America. In too many instances the people that are covering these protests and the protesters come from points of privilege and are out of touch or lost touch with people that have had to work their way up from absolutely nothing to try and realize the American Dream.
I could go on. There are a ton of stats and stories that are heartbreaking. And, I’ve always felt that the greatness of America lies in the idea that each day you have the chance to wake up and better yourself and I look at this movement as an outgrowing of America’s long history or fighting for civil rights and labor rights and I’ve been proud to be a part of it.