Friday, May 4, 2012

Recent Affairs

     Lately I have been rather busy with local issues, watching what's happening nation wide, and dealing with college work. I've been learning how hard it is to maintain a blog on a regular basis as well. Since life is a learning experience, I thought I would share a few things with those of you who stumble across this blog by accident or on purpose.

    First thing, is that I was asked the following in a private message from a friend (we will call her Alice)

Alice asked,

   "Hey nikki can i ask y u always portray protests as being innocent, peaceful protesters? im very upset with this occupy business. it seems that this organization doesn't realize they could make our economic situation more worse than what it is already.... and seeing how these innocent protesters violently rampaged through new york and vandalized it makes me more disgusted with the matter. what is ur take on it?"

     Now this deserves a little explanation before I tell you my response to this. I have a facebook account, like many do. I post and share things there concerning the Occupy Movement rather frequently there. Anyone who knows me, knows I am very passionate about the movement, and how important it is to me to point out where our country has gone wrong, as well as some possible solutions to fix current issues without spending large quantities of money the country doesn't have (Thank you Wall St and the Big Bankers). I post how the Majority of Occupiers are peaceful, and DO NOT instigate a majority of the attacks that police do to them.

       Here's an article for you all to read in your free time.

       So to get back to the point, here's my response to her question:

  "The vandalizing and the rapes, etc....do not portray the actual movement since it's founding is on Non-Violence which is constantly re-emphasized. However, with every movement there is a military based force (Ex: Martin Luther king- Non-violent and Malcom X/Black Panthers- Violent and military like) It happens all the time. The other thing is that when there are encampments, police forces where moving the criminals towards the encampments because they were trying to get rid of the encampments. Occupy has made the economic situation in our country more apparent, and has more people who want to change the economic policies than there ever was. The organization isn't making the economy worse, it's fighting to make it better by getting rid of the bought and paid for government officials. They want to remove money from politics and take away the power to sell assessets we don't have to countries to make money (wall street) which is part of the reason our economy has tanked in the first place. To add to this the banks got bail outs and the people who really needed them, didn't. In a capitalistic society which is what our economic system is based on, the banks should not have been bailed out. These "too big to fail" companies should have been allowed to fail under pure capitalism, which isn't the case now because it's been obvious that's not what we practice here. The banks made faulty/junk loans to people they knew couldn't pay them, just to trade them off to make more money on them, which has led to the huge housing crisis we are now under and a constantly rising homeless problem.


     The other thing the group is trying to show to people is that if we all work together for the betterment of all, which can be done, is that we don't need tons of money to fix the problems we are having in this country. The Protesters do not get violent unless provoked by the police showing up in riot gear, which is un-necessary. They are using rubber bullets, tazers, and flash grenades, pepper spray, and tear gas. These are unarmed protesters trying to make their voices heard. Mind you not all protesters turn violent, they are only pushed to that when innocent bystanders are brought into the mix, ex: A lady who was not part of the occupy group was pulled off her bike, beaten and then arrested by 5 police officers, just because she "rode past the officers". She didn't say anything or do anything, to provoke the police but yet they turned violent on her. NYPD has a reputation of being the most violent of all police groups for that state. Also, The protesters did not rampage through NY either, they marched peacefully through the streets. when there is 50,000 people all going in the same direction, it's hard to stay on the side walks. The state was notified and that's why they shut streets down. Do not listen to the news concerning Occupy because all they show are the few bad apples. 


   You keep telling me not to make the police look bad, but when they are bad they need to be called on it. That's what I'm doing. I do it to the occupiers who have moved away from the groups non-violent actions as well, such as the 5 guys who were arrested by the FBI because they were planning to blow up a bridge. That is not condoned and they deserve what they get. Police across the nation have already caused miscarriages and severe injuries to unarmed protesters who have not done anything to provoke the violence other than not leave a specific premise. Violence begets violence, and it's not productive to the cause, on either side of the spectrum. You may not support Occupy, but I do, and I stand with the 80,000+ people world wide who are tired of governments screwing their people, taking away their rights, and leaving them poor and working dead end jobs. I'm going for a Bachelors degree in Elementary Education and to the looks of it, I won't have a union to protect me, and I will be lucky to find a job. I have friends who have PHD's and Master Degrees who were promised jobs in their fields but are doing odd jobs, freelance jobs, and dead end min wage jobs because they can't find work with their degrees, and are in debt up to their eye balls.


       This takes me into another thing the movement is trying to address is the student loans and tution hikes. Did you know people in China go to college up to a 4yr degree for free? There is NO tuition and their books are paid for. They then go into the work force afterwards and work that job for the rest of their lives. Healthcare is also another issue in this country and is an issue Occupy is addressing. Before they evicted Occupy Wall St from Zuccoti park they had a tent speccifically for rape victims and several medical tents and medical trained staff to tend to minor injuries and even a few doctors to tend to more severe injuries, at NO cost to the injured. I don't see how this is making the economy worse. It's making more people aware so they are more informed when they vote and more aware of how they are being anally raped by the government they are being blinded by."


   Now to put this out there, on May 1st in New York alone there was an estimated 50,000-135,000 people present for the General Strike.

Her response back.

   " its not that i dont support this group, its a simple factory examination that it could make the situation worse(theres always that 50-50 statistic) and I dont agree with police brutality, but these bad apples, and how many protesters before your Occupy organization its caused law enforcement to fear the worse and take precautions to protect themselves. they have families to go home too as well. All i'm saying is point out the obvious. the occupy organization is allowing (what I call is children), but not condoning, is these people to be influenced and to destructive. I would be more impressed that if a bunch of protesters was together, u saw this one guys throw a stick into a window-- before the police came withe the club-- yall already be ontop of him, clubbing the shit out of him-- or more organization and screening of these individuals before organizing pickets. Allot of these individuals are using your organization(which makes your organization look EXTREMELY BAD) to be destructive and violent-- many are just taking their anger out on the police alone. Its why police are brutal. They got families and I know there life is hard. So, I just wnted to bring this to light. Those protesters that have gone and acted like that, I now call them occupy terrorists. thats what they are. they are indirectly terrorizing your group, as well as their own country. its like your guys black plague... u need to nip it in the bud before things get a hell of a lot worse. This country is so fragile right now, it just might turn communism...."

   I would like to point out first, the blatant misuse of the word Communism. Pure Communism, Socialism, and Capitalism are not practiced anywhere in the world for starters, and there is nothing wrong with any of these forms of government in and of themselves, but people in general are easily corruptible. These forms of government are being mixed with variances of their pure form. An example is when the banks were bailed out. In Pure Capitalism Banks would not be bailed out, they would have been left to fail. By what we know, they were bailed out with tax payer dollars, and by what capitalism states, we do not practice actual capitalism.

So MY response back:

   "What you don't hear and see is that occupiers will call the police and even police their own. They are not terrorists anymore than the tea party or the constitutioinalists are. You know, communism in it's pure form isn't a bad thing, everyone is equal, everyone has the same things, and has the same amount of money, there is nothing wrong with pure communism, however, like capitalism and socialism no pure forms are practiced."


I have a tendency to get rather defensive of the Occupy Movement when people who watch Fox News think they know all there is to know about it and attack it without really knowing anything at all. Everything I said in my responses though, I believe and said from my heart. Just as I sit and type this blog for you to read, I am speaking from heart and from sound knowledge of what I have researched and witnessed for myself. There is something very wrong with this country right now, and with many other countries around the world. If there wasn't do you honestly believe that Spain's economy is about to collapse?  Or that Greece's economy has already collapsed? Or how about 135,000 pissed off people were marching in lower Manhattan, New York, in protest of Wall St selling out the USA and a Government who doesn't listen to it's people who are struggling? I can only hope that as time progresses, things don't get worse, and more people wake up to the true reality of the world around them.


IN OTHER NEWS!
Occupy Minnesota: Drugs & the DRE Program at Peavey Plaza:





       

Maryland Bans Arsenic in Chicken Feed

Leaked Documents: US Army Plan for Re-Education of Political Activists

Judge Threatens Sanctions


Human genes engineered into experimental GMO rice being grown in Kansas


Right-Wing Refuses To Believe Cleveland Bombers Are NOT Part Of Occupy Movement


Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Words from an Occupier


The occupy movement started with a big bang in Zuccotti Park, in New York. It was interesting to see it start and grow with such speed it would make your head spin. When it started I personally thought “Well what the hell is this now?”  I had no idea as to how involved I would become in it. When the movement started getting negative press I was wondering what I was doing even thinking about joining the movement, to me protests were something that you read about in History books and watched taking place overseas. I quickly learned that protests can happen anytime, anywhere where there is civil unrest and people had complaints against their government.  Being raised in America, and always being told the same rhetoric that “If you try hard enough you can become anything you want”. These lies have filled my head for years. When this protest started I saw through the lies and knew that no matter how hard I try to succeed in this economy I would always get knocked back down.
My husband and I have been involved with the Wilmington, DE occupy group in our state since early October. After several long and grueling GA’s (General Assemblies) we camped for the first time on November 5th at Fletcher Brown Park in Wilmington. It was a great experience, we even got a pink warning citation from the park rangers/ DNRC.  It was only a warning citation under the name Occupy Delaware for trespassing beyond the park hours. At the moment though, I felt I had committed myself for the long haul. 
The 6th of November was an interesting day as well, we branched off with a few others for an emergency GA to assemble in Dover, De; which is where we live. It was a quick GA and we got everything assembled within about a week and half.  Our Emergency GA was only about 6 people strong but we got things done, a very large welcomed reprieve from what we had experienced with the very large GA in Wilmington. Our GA’s have never exceeded an hour and thirty minutes, where our happily large counterparts had 3 hour long GA’s. With as small as our little Dover group is and has been remaining we didn’t see the point in a 3 hour GA unless it’s something extremely important. We really use a very good process to keep our agendas on point.

The biggest thing I find funny about the movement is the general stereotypes that are thrown out there. Some of those include but are not limited to : Hippies, young white kids bitching, homeless, druggies/junkies, Don’t have a job, Dirty, etc…
Why I find this funny is because in just our little group we disprove all of these stereotypes. No one in our group is homeless, majority have jobs, we all go home to take showers, though most of us are young white people, we do have a variety of ages from 18 people in their 50’s and 60’s. We have this one older gentlemen named Mr. Trexeler who actually marched with Fidel Castro to overthrow the government in Cuba who comes out, and he’s in his 70’s or 80’s (I’ve never been real sure as to his actual age, but he’s old). We have dogs that come out with their owners to show us support, we have “professional” activists who hang out off and on with us. We have such a variety of walks of life, it’s surprising to see so many in just the little city of Dover.
Occupy Dover itself is located on Legislative Mall directly across from Legislative Hall. We are also across the street from the Towsend building which is where the big fortune 500 companies have to file their paperwork to become incorporated in Delaware.  We are in front of the Kent County Court House as well. The reason I’m telling you this, is because one of the other stereotypes is that there is no unified message and people are just camping in random locations. This is not true of our little movement.  Legislative Hall is where our Representatives, Senators, Mayors, Governors etc… meet to write the laws of Delaware and to write bills that need to be pushed in Washington.  The Court House is a great representation of a failed justice system that would rather harm than help the people it’s supposed to be unbiased against.
We’ve had a lot of great times though camping out there. Our tents symbolize that we are not going anywhere anytime soon, that we are assembling peacefully, and it’s our right to speak against the government that so eagerly shuts down the people it’s supposed to speak for. We’ve had a few homeless wander through, and we’ve helped them as much as we could by giving them clothes, food, a temporary shelter, and gave them information on local shelters they could go to that would be more suited to their needs.
The stories I can tell would never fit in a simple article, unless they were merely abbreviated, such as one of the homeless who hadn’t taken their shoes off for 8 months. We had a 3 hour discussion and jokes about it. We also had a self-proclaimed Christian Prophet who swore up and down that Selyndra stole his idea on a working water and solar powered generator. He had to leave us after a few weeks though because he was being over bearing on the women in the group and constantly scared off potential supporters.
Just about every day we stand on the street corner with our signs. Honk if you’re a 99%r; Honk if you’re in debt; The government lies; The government has you, Free your mind 99%; Error 404: Democracy Not Found;  (and one of my personal favorite) Show Us Your Tents.  The people we camp with are great, many of them are jokers and pranksters, and they keep things lively and upbeat. We keep security 54/7 and police our own which is a huge help to the local police department, because they don’t have to work extra hours and such. We’ve been on good standing with them thankfully and are really hoping to stay that way
As I type this though, I’m currently sitting on a train heading to Missouri to see my in-laws. We haven’t seen them in about 4 years. There’s really no specific reason I’m telling you this other than I’m excited to be heading into Saint Lewis, Missouri where one of the branches of Occupy Resides.  We are hoping to stop in if we can, as well as stop during our 3 hour layover in Chicago, to see the Occupy group there as well.
The future of the Occupy movement is still unknown. Will we make a difference? I think we already have. What will become of the groups? Who knows, all I can hope is that the ties and friendships that we’ve made during this movement remain and only grow stronger, and the relationships we’ve created that don’t survive, well, I guess it would just be interesting to know what they would be up to about 10 years from now. 

Saturday, November 5, 2011

Occupation Begins!

Occupy Delaware began today at 10am in H. Fletcher Brown Park in Wilmington Delaware. The General Assembly will meet at 3pm.

To get things started, volunteers and committee members joined together to clean up the park of irresponsible dog owners who don't comprehend the use of a doggy bag to clean up after their animal, and those who just don't care.

MORE TO COME AS THE DAY PROGRESSES!

Denied Permit

On 11-3 Occupy Delaware was denied a permit to use H. Fletcher Brown Park as a permanent Occupation location. Here's the denial letter (click the underlined to view).

The response to this?-  


After some outrage from the group, the ACLU stepping in to help and with a state government who is trying to avoid any standoffs, we were granted a temporary permit to use H. Fletcher Brown for the weekend. The Governor, Jack Markell, has offered us a different location which has more amenities, but is also a little more isolated than many in the group would like. The alternate location, Brandywine Park is 1 block away, and offers firmer, flatter grounds, grills, porta-johns and a few other things that could be utilized by the group. Decision to stay or more will be decided today at 3pm by the General Assembly in H. Fletcher Brown Park.


News Articles:

Delaware Online
Delaware Online Nov 4th 
News Journal Nov 5th

GA Meeting 11-2-11

The General Assembly meeting took place in it's usual spot in Newark. We discussed a few concerns regarding the location site of where the group is Occupying. We were originally denied our permit by DNREC who is more than willing to cooperate with us.

Video and pictures coming soon

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Occupy Delaware Begins!!!

Tonight was a VERY productive night at the 5th G.A. Occupy Delaware will be kicking off on November the 5th starting at 10am at Fletcher Brown Park in Wilmington, Delaware. It's approx. 3 blocks from Rodney Square and all are welcome to come out and support the occupation.



GA Videos



Pictures from the GA Meeting on October 26, 2011





Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Occupy Oakland

The occupiers at Occupy Oakland were Evicted early this morning. Word "slipped" to some of the Media in the area that at 4:30am (wst) that the Occupiers of Oakland California were going to be evicted. The Media was out in force with cameras at the ready as the police from multiple different counties came in with special force vehicles as well as full riot gear. There was use of non-harmful weapons such as rubber bullets, tear gas, and flash bang grenades. There is already video up and many blogs about this. This is wrong. These people were non-violent, and just utilizing their First Amendment. For those who don't know what the First Amendment is, let me tell you.


Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.


These people, your family, your friends, and even people you don't know are standing as one group, one VOICE among many, to speak out for our rights, for our government to actually listen to the plight of the people. Then you have these mayors and governors who are sending in legions of cops to evict peaceful protesters. 


I have also heard reports that supposedly the protesters were the ones who released the tear gas. This blogger knows better. It's only a matter of time before either Martial Law is en-stated or one cop is going to go too far and it will be an all out war within our country. You don't think it effects you? You are very seriously mistaken. These are YOUR RIGHTS TOO, that are being infringed upon, YOUR money the banks are taking and spending on frivolous and useless things that most of us never even see. Stand TOGETHER in SOLIDARITY! STAND AND HAVE YOUR VOICE HEARD! TELL THE GOVERNMENT THAT THE AMERICAN PEOPLE WILL NOT BE PUSHED AROUND AT THE EXPENSE OF THE WORKING CLASS HEALTH AND MONEY WE PUMP INTO THE ECONOMY! TELL THE GOVERNMENT WE ARE SICK OF THE LIES THEY TELL US ABOUT ACTING ON OUR BEHALF! 


At this point, no matter if you vote or not, there will be a new elected official that will not be elected by the American people. The electoral college is bought and sold the same as the government so many desperately cling to. The System IS BROKEN, scrap it and rebuild it. 


THE GOVERNMENT SHOULD FEAR THE PEOPLE, THE PEOPLE SHOULD NOT FEAR THEIR GOVERNMENT!!! WE ARE THE 99%, WE ARE TIRED OF BEING PUSHED AROUND AND BULLIED BY THE CORPORATIONS AND CRONY GOVERNMENT! STAND UP, AND BE HEARD!!!!!!!!!










A few resources for those who would like to see the footage discussed above:
Occupy Oakland Raid
Pictures of Occupy Oakland early morning
Occupy Oakland from Thinkprogress.org
MercuryNews on Occupy Oakland
Youtube video from moxnews.com
Russia Today Video of Occupy Oakland Raid








Update: Sunday, Occupy Maine in Portland was also attacked  by use of a chemical bomb. 
"Portland police Sgt. Glen McGary said the bomb was thrown into the camp’s kitchen, a tarped area where food is cooked and served. Protest organizers said the explosion lifted a large table about a foot off the ground."