ONLINE CHATTER:
Today's comment of the day comes from blogger Alan Oldstudent in response to Paul Schrag's cover story "Occupy Tacoma: Where are they now?" Oldstudent is one of Occupy Tacoma's online editors.
Alan Oldstudent writes,
Paul Schrag's interesting article of April 5 titled "Occupy Tacoma, Where Are They Now?" poses a question that many of us in OT (Occupy Tacoma) have. What have we accomplished? Where are we going? What's next?
I am one of OT's web-masters editors. Fair disclosure: This response is my personal point of view and is not an official statement from OT.
The people you cited, Dennis Lucas, Sarah Morken, and Francesca Belez, are but a few of the many dedicated and serious people for whom OT and related movements have become a passion.
Today, April 7th, it has only been 6 months and 21 days since Occupy Wall Street (OWS) began, and it's been 5 months and 22 days since Occupy Tacoma seized the park. That's a very short time, and in that short time, we changed the public's discussion of politics
Debates about how fast to cut the middle class standard of living were practically all that the media, politicians, and pundits discussed before September 17, 2011, the first day of Occupy Wall Street. Few, if any, of the wise men or pillars of the political establishment, liberal or conservative, questioned the wisdom of these cuts. Their debate was mainly about how fast they dare make them, not whether they were needed or whether we 99% should pay.
Now, the public dares to question the legitimacy of those cuts. In fact, the 99% are beginning to question the legitimacy of crony capitalism and the 1%'s monopoly of political power. In short, we Americans are becoming class conscious for the first time in nearly a century. That's why we OWS supporters are corporate America's worst nightmare.
Not everyone is happy about that. Hackers took down our website for almost 2 weeks, and we've only just gotten back on line. Between 03/08/2012 04:49 am UTC and 04/07/2012 at 4:48 am UTC, 8891 unique visitors from around the world have visited www.occupytacoma.org, despite it having been down for a good part of that time.
I spoke about these matters in the last speech anyone ever gave at Tacoma's Occupation Park, a day before we left. You can view that speech on YouTube here:
http://youtu.be/2gnxy3w_qesI also wrote an open letter to the Mayor of Tacoma concerning our tactics and why we did not resist Washington State's illegitimate eviction notice. That letter has also been videotaped and is available on YouTube:
http://youtu.be/b21q2Yo1sCURegards,
Alan OldStudent
www.occupytacoma.org
www.alanoldstudent.com