riverrat
03-26-2012, 09:08 PM
Let just first start by saying I am an independent, leaning towards conservatism more than liberalism, just so you understand where I am coming from. I don't care about political lines, I just care about what I perceive as right. Now, I also want anyone joining this thread to please keep it civil, as debating politics and sensitive issues in a forum is quirky at best. It is often hard to express all thoughts through the written word, and it is easy to be mis-understood.
On to OWS. I want to say, that I was posting comments in other forums like scootertrash, and dcreel did in my "turn this thing around thread" until I learned the truth. I was taught really by my cousin who lives in Brooklyn about it. It was him and a few other friends that really convinced me. That and reading what they actually stand for. After reading it, I had to change my opinion about it, and after hearing first hand accounts of what was going on, I had to change my mind. I can totally understand why the media is doing what it is doing. I live in NY, and listen to all types of media, CBS, NBC, FOX, WABC radio(conservative), and none of these media outlets are portraying anything good about OWS as far as I know. So I have to come to the conclusion that the media hates OWS.
Let me post the official statement of what they stand for from their facebook page http://www.facebook.com/OccupyWallSt?sk=info&fb_source=message :
Declaration of the Occupation of New York City
THIS DOCUMENT WAS ACCEPTED BY THE NYC GENERAL ASSEMBLY ON SEPTEMBER 29, 2011
As we gather together in solidarity to express a feeling of mass injustice, we must not lose sight of what brought us together. We write so that all people who feel wronged by the corporate forces of the world can know that we are your allies.
As one people, united, we acknowledge the reality: that the future of the human race requires the cooperation of its members; that our system must protect our rights, and upon corruption of that system, it is up to the individuals to protect their own rights, and those of their neighbors; that a democratic government derives its just power from the people, but corporations do not seek consent to extract wealth from the people and the Earth; and that no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power. We come to you at a time when corporations, which place profit over people, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality, run our governments. We have peaceably assembled here, as is our right, to let these facts be known.
They have taken our houses through an illegal foreclosure process, despite not having the original mortgage.
They have taken bailouts from taxpayers with impunity, and continue to give Executives exorbitant bonuses.
They have perpetuated inequality and discrimination in the workplace based on age, the color of one’s skin, sex, gender identity and sexual orientation.
They have poisoned the food supply through negligence, and undermined the farming system through monopolization.
They have profited off of the torture, confinement, and cruel treatment of countless animals, and actively hide these practices.
They have continuously sought to strip employees of the right to negotiate for better pay and safer working conditions.
They have held students hostage with tens of thousands of dollars of debt on education, which is itself a human right.
They have consistently outsourced labor and used that outsourcing as leverage to cut workers’ healthcare and pay.
They have influenced the courts to achieve the same rights as people, with none of the culpability or responsibility.
They have spent millions of dollars on legal teams that look for ways to get them out of contracts in regards to health insurance.
They have sold our privacy as a commodity.
They have used the military and police force to prevent freedom of the press. They have deliberately declined to recall faulty products endangering lives in pursuit of profit.
They determine economic policy, despite the catastrophic failures their policies have produced and continue to produce.
They have donated large sums of money to politicians, who are responsible for regulating them.
They continue to block alternate forms of energy to keep us dependent on oil.
They continue to block generic forms of medicine that could save people’s lives or provide relief in order to protect investments that have already turned a substantial profit.
They have purposely covered up oil spills, accidents, faulty bookkeeping, and inactive ingredients in pursuit of profit.
They purposefully keep people misinformed and fearful through their control of the media.
They have accepted private contracts to murder prisoners even when presented with serious doubts about their guilt.
They have perpetuated colonialism at home and abroad. They have participated in the torture and murder of innocent civilians overseas.
They continue to create weapons of mass destruction in order to receive government contracts. *
To the people of the world,
We, the New York City General Assembly occupying Wall Street in Liberty Square, urge you to assert your power.
Exercise your right to peaceably assemble; occupy public space; create a process to address the problems we face, and generate solutions accessible to everyone.
To all communities that take action and form groups in the spirit of direct democracy, we offer support, documentation, and all of the resources at our disposal.
Join us and make your voices heard!
*These grievances are not all-inclusive.
Now there is a lot said there, and I agree with about 80% of it. The things I see that we as trike riders have in common with them is our portrayal in the media being all wrong, and "
They have influenced the courts to achieve the same rights as people, with none of the culpability or responsibility" and "They have donated large sums of money to politicians, who are responsible for regulating them." Those statements seem to tie in with what I believe is going on with the trike ban, hence my comparison to OWS in that thread.
Now if you want to go through any of these statements and tell me you think they are wrong, I will, one at a time. Let me just say that these people there are not a bunch of homeless lazy people who are looking for a free ticket. They are professional people, most of them employed with their own homes. Some of them are unable to get a job due to the circumstances that they are protesting, that is why they are protesting. It's our right to protest, and while a few of them are not conducting themselves in a good manor, 99% of them are. You won't hear about them though, only the bad ones. Sound like trikes?
Everyone knows our current economic situation. The job market sucks, and it was brought on by the things that these people are protesting. Believe it or not, they are protesting in favor of us, the working people of America. If you think anything different, then you are a victim of the media. If you think they are not organized, think again, they actually have a brilliant organizational structure that was designed purposly so that no one can attack the "head" of the snake. They have random meetings, with random leaders. actual no-one officially leads them.
Sick of high gas prices? They are against that as well. It's all artificial the high gas prices. These OWS people are AMericans standing up for their rights.
"Occupy Wall Street is a leaderless resistance movement with people of many colors (http://pococcupywallstreet.tumblr.com/), genders and political persuasions. The one thing we all have in common is that We Are The 99% (http://wearethe99percent.tumblr.com/) that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1%. We are using the revolutionary Arab Spring (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_Spring) tactic to achieve our ends and encourage the use of nonviolence to maximize the safety of all participants."
Veterans, working people, blue collar, white collar, Americans, are the people of OWS, not lazy hippies who have no job and looking for a free ticket. You want to see lazy people trying to get free rides? Go to the municipal hospitals, and the welfare line, there are plenty of perfectly capable people there who are making getting a free ride a full time job (of course there are people who genuinely need help) but it's not all of them. I know because I worked there and spoke to those people and was told first hand of how they manipulate the system to get free stuff. This is no OWS. We are not talking about attacking "joe the plumber" I am joe the plumber. We are talking about attacking much bigger things, things that aren't right, people that manipulate us, and take our money, our homes, and our jobs born from their greed. Gas prices, housing collapse, dissolving pensions, etc.
If you are the 99%, then you should study this a little on your own before coming to conclusions that the media draws for you.
On to OWS. I want to say, that I was posting comments in other forums like scootertrash, and dcreel did in my "turn this thing around thread" until I learned the truth. I was taught really by my cousin who lives in Brooklyn about it. It was him and a few other friends that really convinced me. That and reading what they actually stand for. After reading it, I had to change my opinion about it, and after hearing first hand accounts of what was going on, I had to change my mind. I can totally understand why the media is doing what it is doing. I live in NY, and listen to all types of media, CBS, NBC, FOX, WABC radio(conservative), and none of these media outlets are portraying anything good about OWS as far as I know. So I have to come to the conclusion that the media hates OWS.
Let me post the official statement of what they stand for from their facebook page http://www.facebook.com/OccupyWallSt?sk=info&fb_source=message :
Declaration of the Occupation of New York City
THIS DOCUMENT WAS ACCEPTED BY THE NYC GENERAL ASSEMBLY ON SEPTEMBER 29, 2011
As we gather together in solidarity to express a feeling of mass injustice, we must not lose sight of what brought us together. We write so that all people who feel wronged by the corporate forces of the world can know that we are your allies.
As one people, united, we acknowledge the reality: that the future of the human race requires the cooperation of its members; that our system must protect our rights, and upon corruption of that system, it is up to the individuals to protect their own rights, and those of their neighbors; that a democratic government derives its just power from the people, but corporations do not seek consent to extract wealth from the people and the Earth; and that no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power. We come to you at a time when corporations, which place profit over people, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality, run our governments. We have peaceably assembled here, as is our right, to let these facts be known.
They have taken our houses through an illegal foreclosure process, despite not having the original mortgage.
They have taken bailouts from taxpayers with impunity, and continue to give Executives exorbitant bonuses.
They have perpetuated inequality and discrimination in the workplace based on age, the color of one’s skin, sex, gender identity and sexual orientation.
They have poisoned the food supply through negligence, and undermined the farming system through monopolization.
They have profited off of the torture, confinement, and cruel treatment of countless animals, and actively hide these practices.
They have continuously sought to strip employees of the right to negotiate for better pay and safer working conditions.
They have held students hostage with tens of thousands of dollars of debt on education, which is itself a human right.
They have consistently outsourced labor and used that outsourcing as leverage to cut workers’ healthcare and pay.
They have influenced the courts to achieve the same rights as people, with none of the culpability or responsibility.
They have spent millions of dollars on legal teams that look for ways to get them out of contracts in regards to health insurance.
They have sold our privacy as a commodity.
They have used the military and police force to prevent freedom of the press. They have deliberately declined to recall faulty products endangering lives in pursuit of profit.
They determine economic policy, despite the catastrophic failures their policies have produced and continue to produce.
They have donated large sums of money to politicians, who are responsible for regulating them.
They continue to block alternate forms of energy to keep us dependent on oil.
They continue to block generic forms of medicine that could save people’s lives or provide relief in order to protect investments that have already turned a substantial profit.
They have purposely covered up oil spills, accidents, faulty bookkeeping, and inactive ingredients in pursuit of profit.
They purposefully keep people misinformed and fearful through their control of the media.
They have accepted private contracts to murder prisoners even when presented with serious doubts about their guilt.
They have perpetuated colonialism at home and abroad. They have participated in the torture and murder of innocent civilians overseas.
They continue to create weapons of mass destruction in order to receive government contracts. *
To the people of the world,
We, the New York City General Assembly occupying Wall Street in Liberty Square, urge you to assert your power.
Exercise your right to peaceably assemble; occupy public space; create a process to address the problems we face, and generate solutions accessible to everyone.
To all communities that take action and form groups in the spirit of direct democracy, we offer support, documentation, and all of the resources at our disposal.
Join us and make your voices heard!
*These grievances are not all-inclusive.
Now there is a lot said there, and I agree with about 80% of it. The things I see that we as trike riders have in common with them is our portrayal in the media being all wrong, and "
They have influenced the courts to achieve the same rights as people, with none of the culpability or responsibility" and "They have donated large sums of money to politicians, who are responsible for regulating them." Those statements seem to tie in with what I believe is going on with the trike ban, hence my comparison to OWS in that thread.
Now if you want to go through any of these statements and tell me you think they are wrong, I will, one at a time. Let me just say that these people there are not a bunch of homeless lazy people who are looking for a free ticket. They are professional people, most of them employed with their own homes. Some of them are unable to get a job due to the circumstances that they are protesting, that is why they are protesting. It's our right to protest, and while a few of them are not conducting themselves in a good manor, 99% of them are. You won't hear about them though, only the bad ones. Sound like trikes?
Everyone knows our current economic situation. The job market sucks, and it was brought on by the things that these people are protesting. Believe it or not, they are protesting in favor of us, the working people of America. If you think anything different, then you are a victim of the media. If you think they are not organized, think again, they actually have a brilliant organizational structure that was designed purposly so that no one can attack the "head" of the snake. They have random meetings, with random leaders. actual no-one officially leads them.
Sick of high gas prices? They are against that as well. It's all artificial the high gas prices. These OWS people are AMericans standing up for their rights.
"Occupy Wall Street is a leaderless resistance movement with people of many colors (http://pococcupywallstreet.tumblr.com/), genders and political persuasions. The one thing we all have in common is that We Are The 99% (http://wearethe99percent.tumblr.com/) that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1%. We are using the revolutionary Arab Spring (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_Spring) tactic to achieve our ends and encourage the use of nonviolence to maximize the safety of all participants."
Veterans, working people, blue collar, white collar, Americans, are the people of OWS, not lazy hippies who have no job and looking for a free ticket. You want to see lazy people trying to get free rides? Go to the municipal hospitals, and the welfare line, there are plenty of perfectly capable people there who are making getting a free ride a full time job (of course there are people who genuinely need help) but it's not all of them. I know because I worked there and spoke to those people and was told first hand of how they manipulate the system to get free stuff. This is no OWS. We are not talking about attacking "joe the plumber" I am joe the plumber. We are talking about attacking much bigger things, things that aren't right, people that manipulate us, and take our money, our homes, and our jobs born from their greed. Gas prices, housing collapse, dissolving pensions, etc.
If you are the 99%, then you should study this a little on your own before coming to conclusions that the media draws for you.