We, the people, are speaking again

Today is the 10th anniversary of the longest war the U.S. has ever fought, the war in Afghanistan, and yet a new breeze of hope is ever so slightly wafting through the nation's atmosphere.  

Until recently, Americans grasping for economic renewal have been tursting with antiquated systemic windmills, lunging blindly at old systems, not realizing the dire need for - or maybe realizing it but not knowing how to effect it - a complete and total change in American economics, a change that just might overhaul the system from the roots up.

Maybe this time, the vision for a new America won't be created by a wealthy religious-right selfish class of white men who felt entitled to their wealth made on the backs of those they deemed less worthy.

Initially, after the near collapse of the U.S. economy, which sent rippling effects throughout the world, "progressives" were silent.  Perhaps we couldn't yet imagine what kind of response was best.  We were in diaspora, silent and scattered, throughout the U.S. workplace and found the best way to keep whatever meager jobs we might have was to remain silent. 

Maybe it was a lack of organization, or vision, that kept change, real change, at bay.  But, our silence was finally broken on Sept. 17 when a smart group of courageous people made camp outside the New York Stock Exchange, demanding change and with a bright, outspoken, well regarded leadership.

Now, the "Occupy Wall Street" movement has extended to 778 U.S. cities with an agenda which focuses on ending our wars, investing in jobs, regulating and taxing Wall Street, and protecting the future.

In an interview by "Between The Lines" news radio magazine (http://www.btlonline.org/2011),  Chris Hedges, a pultizer Prize-winning reporter, told BTL reporter Scott Harris,

"People are doing something, they're rising up against this corrupt financial system that seized control not only of our economy and our political process, but our judiciary and our systems of information. And are dismantling everything that we have in place to create neo-feudalistic society. Looting the U.S. Treasury, trashing the ecosystem. In theological terms, these are systems of death because they know no limit. Karl Marx was right, unfettered capitalism is a revolutionary force which turns everything into a commodity. Human beings become commodities, the natural world becomes a commodity that you exploit until exhaustion or collapse. And because are there no impediments within the formal structures of power, unless we begin to engage in acts of civil disobedience we will not thwart the destruction that is being unleashed by corporate power."

Again, we, the people, are speaking out. It seems the initial constitutional vision for our country may be working, allowing us, as a people, to peacefully correct the course we've been on. The occupation of Wall Street, which is now spreading to most of the major cities in the country, is calling for a complete renovation of the U.S. economic system, one that has the potential to have a strong empowering effect on the larger global economic atmosphere. 

If it succeeds, it may end the pernicious evil of capitalism while maintaining the American dream of free enterprise.  Could it end this nation's fraudulent practices that have ripped off everyone?  Is it possible, just possible, for once and for all, we may end greed, the exploitation of the working class, the demoralization of the youth, the starvation of rising number of poor, hungry and homeless, and those who do not have the money, skills or sophistication to excel in this quickly narrowing over-the-top-competitive, elitist, wealthy class?

In the next few weeks, I hope to run a few pieces by people who are involved actively and far more knowledgable than I on what is happening in the Occupy Wall Street movement.  For more information,  please see:

"Occupy Wall Street Activists Inspire Non-Violent Resistance Across the U.S."
http://www.btlonline.org/2011/seg/111014af-btl-hill.html
Photo courtesy of:
(Minnpost.com)