Why I think Occupy Wall Street is not going to fade away.

[OffWithTheirHeads]

I have been fighting social injustice in this country since before Bobby Kennedy and I continue today. As time passed, I noticed with increasing alarm, the same thing. Everywhere I went, every demonstration, voter registration drives, Move on meetings, drinking liberally get togethers, everywhere it was the same. A bunch of us old boomer aging Hippies and not much else, until now! For the first time since Vietnam, I am seeing the kids, in great numbers, engaged.

The kids are beginning to realize that our corporate overlords have stolen their future. They've seen the jobs they hoped for shipped overseas, commodities gamed to the point where food, fuel and energy are becoming un-affordable. Unions that insured that you could actually get a job that paid enough to live are being crushed, the public education system is being systematically dismantled the media has been co-opted, the safety nets are being cut to ribbons, and the list goes on and on.

These kids are coming into a world where the top 400 are pulling out all the stops to return us to a feudal society. Those lucky enough to go to college exit saddled with debt and college or not, "would you like fries with that?" is not a viable career path. They look at the future and what they see is bleak at best.

Sun Tzu said something to the effect that you should always leave your enemy with an escape route. If you leave them no choice but to fight to the death, they will and you will not like it. The kids now have their backs to the wall. They are literally fighting for their survival and they are not going to peaceably lie down and get rolled over. They are fighting for their future and so am I.

We are the 99%. We will no longer remain silent!

[shanti]

1. k&r

yes, it's time for the kids to stand up and fight for their rights! solidarity!

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

2. "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win." Gandhi

[no_hypocrisy]

3. Agreed!

I'm enthused as "kids" up til now have been portrayed as apathetic, Generations X and Y, hedonists, destined to grow up more shallow than their parents, etc.

These "kids" are leading the crowd at OWS.

[postulater]

4. Congratulations to you!

You and thousands like you are the reason that there still is hope. You are the carriers of the message from one generation to the next. What you have done and continue to do is the momentum that creates progress.

:toast:

[OffWithTheirHeads]

5. Thanks but I have no choice. It's just who I am.

[AnotherDreamWeaver]

6. From time to time, I feel I could use a "Drinking Liberally Get Together"

Gee, maybe I need to host???

[OffWithTheirHeads]

8. Have you checked their website? There may already be a group near you.

If not, like my sig line says, go out and make your own but I bet you could get lots of help from existing groups.

[AnotherDreamWeaver]

9. No, I didn't know there was one. I used to attend Progressive Democrats

Pizza nights, but it is an hour and a half to get there, then an hour and a half to get home. That's just too much time and gas expense for me to do any longer.

[AnotherDreamWeaver]

10. Now I have, nearest is San Francisco, 2+ hours away,,,,

edit to add link:
http://livingliberally.org/drinking/chapters/CA

[OffWithTheirHeads]

12. I can't believe you can't find something closer . You must live in Modesto or something

Good God, I just moved from San Jose to Tucson a year ago. It took all of two minutes to find one here, hell, I even found one in Memphis. If you are in California, you can find a drinking Liberally and if not, you can certainly find liberals to drink with.

When we met up with the drinking liberally crowd in Tucson, they asked if we had belonged to drinking liberally in San Jose. We just laughed and told them that in San Jose, if you went out drinking at all, you were drinking liberally.

[AnotherDreamWeaver]

14. the nearest bar is over 30 minutes away but @ 4 mi as the crow flies.

This place:
http://www.timbercoveinn.com/
Which I have been known to visit when they have a band I like, in by the fireplace or out on a lawn.
But I think I would get more company with a BYO picnic affair.

[OffWithTheirHeads]

15. Oh cry me a fucking river!

I suggest you meander on down to the Rivers End about an hour before sunset, order a Werstiener, sit in their Solarium and drown your sorrows. Lucky bastard! I'd give my left nut to live up there. As for drinking liberally, I know the Jenner Inn has wifi so go sit on their porch, pour yourself a tall one (the gas station down the street sells booze) and light up DU. Welcome to Drinking Liberally!

[Voice for Peace]

7. and the kids are smart and cool, to boot

[Mira]

11. Great post - and right on about why now that we took to the streets, finally,

we have a fighting chance for it to take hold. K&R
Love your signature line!!!

[OffWithTheirHeads]

13. Thanks Mira. Yeah, it was time for a sig line change

I stole it from the signoff line of one of the newscasters from one of the underground FM stations during the Haight Ashbury days. I figured the copyright has probably run out by now.