Occupy Wall Street: Mobs or Grassroots Discontent?

"I think it’s dangerous, this class warfare."

Mitt Romney, former Massachusetts governor --- October 4, 2011 remarks at Florida retirement community.

"... I happen to believe that these demonstrations are planned and orchestrated to distract from the failed policies of the Obama administration. Don't blame Wall Street, don't blame the big banks, if you don't have a job and you're not rich, blame yourself!”

Herman Cain, radio personality, businessman --- October 5, 2011 remarks to the press.

"What are these people for? To the degree that they're for anything, it's left-wing nuttiness."

Karl Rove, Bush administration senior advisor, Republican strategist --- October 10, 2011 remarks to Fox News anchor Sean Hannity.

"I see the president’s rhetoric of envy inflaming the public and saying, ‘Go get yours because rich people don’t deserve it.'

"I see it as inflaming this Paris mob that I hope doesn't result in a lawlessness where they say, 'Well, gosh, those nice iPads through the window should be mine and why don't I throw a brick through the window to get them because rich people don't deserve to have them when I can't have them.'"

Rand Paul, U.S. Senator from Kentucky --- October 7, 2011 remarks to Fox Business News.

"These are the same old folks who have been protesting since the Vietnam war ... they really don't curry much favor in my book."

Rick Santorum, former U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania --- October 7, 2011 remarks to CNBC.

"Well, if you look at what they’ve been telling in the media, they don’t know why they’re there, they’re just mad. And I see people angry in my district too, but this attack upon business, attack upon industry, attack upon freedom, and I think that’s what this is all about."

Paul Broun, Congressman from Georgia --- October 7, 2011 remarks to ABC News

*Above quotes from: About.com website

Do I need any better examples of the kind of partisan disconnect going on right now in America? These quotes from GOP movers and shakers pretty much fall in line with the sentiment expressed by my conservative Republican friends and co-workers. “They are all a bunch of nut-jobs that don’t have a message,” they complain.

To me, that’s the scary part. The Wall Street crowd and their Republican legislator friends and Tea Party supporters just don’t get it. They can’t understand where this anger and frustration is coming from and why it is spreading across America. They blame President Obama and his “failed policies.” They blame the poor and the out of work middle class for not having jobs in this economy. They see it as some sort of attack by the unwashed, lazy masses upon the hard working “job creators”… the wealthiest in America. It’s an “attack upon freedom” no less! “These are the same old folks that have been protesting since the Vietnam War,” as if protesting was somehow UN-American.

Failed policies? Certainly! We have had years and years of failed policies on both sides of the isle in Washington. There were policies that provided American businesses with tax incentives to move jobs to third world countries so they could exploit cheap labor and maximize corporate profits. Unions did not help as they sought more and more bloated benefits for workers without considering the cost of cheap foreign competition. Failed policies resulted in the loss of American jobs, the closing of American factories, and our whopping trade imbalance with China. Failed policies did not start and end with President Obama, despite what Republicans and Tea Party conservatives would have us believe.

So now we have conservative Washington politicians, lobbied by the big banks and wealthy corporations, bent on gridlock. Political compromise and tax reform have become dirty words. Their battle cry is…CUT! CUT! CUT! Their plan is to block everything Obama proposes from healthcare and jobs legislation to appointments in order to make him “a one term president,” even if this myopic view means the destruction of this nation and its economy. If nothing gets passed, nothing gets done and they can turn around and blame all of this on President Obama and his “failed policies.” These same politicians then scratch their heads as angry American citizens “Occupy Wall Street” and settle in for the long haul. They scramble to point fingers of blame everywhere, but at themselves. They just don’t GET IT! It is truly amazing that they don’t see any political fallout except for Obama and Democrats. They must really think voters are dopes.

History is full of tales about kings and queens who were so high in their “ivory towers” that they failed to hear their subject’s petitions far below. Imagine their shock when they realize their ivory towers are only houses of cards, when they realize that banks and corporations don’t vote…people do.

Food for THOUGHT…

Where Do We Go From Here?

The news is filled with the death of a dictator, gridlock in Washington, GOP contenders running for President, world economy on the brink of catastrophe, millions of people out of work, foreclosures and abducted children. Our lives are filled with worry, challenge and heartbreak. We are starved for good news, for hope that things will get better. So where do we go from here?

What’s next depends on each one of us. We just have not realized it yet. It is so easy to blame external forces, people or groups of people for trouble in the world. What we just don’t get…yet…is that each of us has the power to create our own reality. Each one of us has the power to change that reality. Each one of us is not only connected, but a part of the Whole of what Is. No more and no less than each microscopic cell is a part of our body as a whole.

So many of us live our lives as if there is no connection. We live our lives in isolation, in separation from our fellow human beings. We live in a world of “not enough.” We come to believe that there is only so much love out there. There is only so much money, so much food and water, etc. From the moment of birth, we perceive our lives as a race to get… enough. Our fellow humans are seen as competitors for those resources. Once we feel we have enough, we race to get more than enough. Having more seems to give us power over those that have less. “I have mine…now you go scramble for yours!”

Having and not having allows us to judge our fellow humans. We assign worth and value based on what we have or don’t have. It is so easy, if we see ourselves as separate, little islands in a sea of humanity. If I have more than you, then I must have worked harder than you, making you lazy, less valuable, less worthy. I must be more blessed by God than you because… I have more. Once I judge you as less than me, it becomes easy to treat you differently. We are no longer equals.

As we accumulate resources in this perceived “race,” we seek allies. We seek out those that have our similar values and levels of power, influence, status and ideology. We invent “Us” and “Them.” We label people as liberals, conservatives, Christians, Muslims, Jews, blacks, whites, gays, any one of a number of groups and sub groups. Labels come to define the group.

Once we have “Us and Them,” it becomes easier to value one group over another. It can ultimately allow for one group to enslave or oppress another. In its extreme, it can lead to humans torturing and killing their fellow human beings. It can lead to war between nations, murder and mayhem. It only requires one group, one nation or one person to see the other as…less than human, worthy of atrocities and death. The Holocaust is only one recent example of man’s continued inhumanity to man over human history played out on the world stage… time and time again.   

Mankind is at a crossroads, as I see it. We can stay with this ancient model that has not served man well at all, or we can choose a new path, a new vision, a new reality. Will that vision allow us to see ourselves as connected and a part of the whole of humanity? Will we see a world of plenty rather than not enough where cooperation and sharing is valued over having more than others? Will each of us reach a hand down to pull our fellow humans up? Man is so ready, so close to the next evolutionary leap that many of us can feel it. We must first understand our relationship to one another and our relation to the Whole of Existence.

Where oh where do we go from here?

Food for THOUGHT…