So, I haven't really had time to blog as of late. Between the ridiculous load of papers and project this semester is bringing, to keeping on Emily to not act like a stupid teenager and actually DO the load of homework she has, to volunteering with the fogies in the hopes of a job in December, then I added a new "job"...Occupying.
I went to a Rally on Columbus day during my lunch break from classes. Emily was with me because she didn't have school and I did, so I thought bringing her to school to see what Mom did might get her to start caring and want to go to college. We went down to the Bank Of America at noon, where a group of people called The Band Of Rebels were protesting. I figured I would go, show my support, bring my kid to show her what it was all about. I had no idea what I would learn.
I went home that night and became a member of Occupy Rochester. I have met so many people, learned so much more about the movement than I ever expected. I would love to say I could express what the movement is, and what it all is about but instead I will quote a local writer from The Democrat and Chronicle, Mark Hare.
"You've seen the numbers. Middle-income wages have been flat for decades. The Congressional Budget Office just reported that between 1979 and 2007, the "average real after-tax household income" for the top 1 percent grew by 275 percent. For the 60 percent of the population in the middle, incomes grew by just 40 percent. The richest 400 Americans have total wealth equal to the bottom 150 million.
The numbers tell the story of democracy compromised and opportunity lost. That's why people are in the streets.There's no simple explanation for how we got where we are. There are many factors: regulatory failures, outsourced jobs, massive tax loopholes, widespread layoffs, lost benefits, exploding costs of college, a political system fueled by money and increasingly responsive only to the corporate interests who pay for the campaigns.
Americans don't hate rich people; most Americans hope to be rich someday. But when a handful of people make all the critical economic decisions, control most of the wealth, derive huge tax benefits and bailouts at the expense of the former middle class — the vast majority at the bottom have no chance to advance. That's what these protests are all about."
So, I have jumped feet first into activism for something I am so passionate about. I have endured friends and families criticisms of my choices. I have been yelled at and threatened by passerby's and fellow students. I have seen people turn a blind eye, not bothering to educate themselves before they open their mouths to scream I am a "socialist". But, I have also seen friends who were set against the movement turn and change their minds, and former classmates have seen me in the street in front of school protesting, and then come down because they want to see what it is all about and join. I have met some of the most amazing, passionate, intelligent people with so much to give. And most of all, my proudest accomplishment, I have seen my daughter take an interest in it and want to be a part of it.
She had a school trip to Washington DC a few weeks ago and she wanted to go see the protesters there. She did a current events project in social studies on the Occupy movement, and I hear her telling her friends about what it means. She even explained taxation to some of them! She will jump at a chance to come to a rally, or take donations to the park. That is why I am doing this, because of her. Because I want her to have a fair chance at the 'American Dream" Because someday, she will be able to tell my grand-kids what I did. And because I want her to be as proud of me as I am of her for standing up for myself and others the same way I am always telling her to do.
