Occupy and the birth of a movement

Today is the two month mark of Occupy Wall Street in Liberty Square. The rest of the country soon followed. I am unable to get an official tally of the permanent camps across the country, but at least 850 in the U.S. and over 2100 worldwide.

I have been watching almost every day since the beginning on live streams, blogs, AlterNet, the nation, Current TV among many other sources. It has been tireing for me, but exhausting for the Occupy facilitators. This movement has grown in direct relation to the commitment put into it. Who of the original 56 knew it would grow so large? Who among them was prepared for success? I don't believe a one of them expected anything quite like this. They empowered themselves and each other in the hopes of getting a few others to recognize the terrible state of the country, the world and our planet.

The individual empowerment they embraced as they held each other in that space in Liberty Park and the extended presence across the country has become a conduit of pent up anger and love.

It could have burnt them up, exploded or simply vented and died after the first push back from the local govt. They fell in love and like any love affair it raged with all the passion and beauty and mystery that love is.  Gaining trust, learning each other, showing up, welcoming the creation of change.

As I have watched from afar, a virtual fly on the wall. I see a concentrated discipline of non-hierarchy, inclusion and a mantra of peace. This mantra has truly expressed itself in action. Not peace signs, not logos real peace in action.

The lack of violence on part of protesters borders on miracle, but is a testament to the intelligence and heart of the people of this country. Real consciousness is being born one long general assembly birth contraction at a time.

I do not think those who committed to and midwifed this movement  comprehend what has happened yet. They are busy doing it, in the middle of it, catching this baby as it comes out.

Like any new baby of the collective soul it needs full attention. They are not in the space to think about how this baby will grow and change.

On Wednesday night, 36 hours after the raid on Zucotti/liberty I watched as an action committee tried to have a gathering. It broke down in an argument, nerves were raw. I saw very tired folks. The ebb and flow, the tides of love are starting to roll. The grief from losing the space as it was, the clearing by force that happened hurt them a great deal. The ones who helped create the space were in grief. The loss of the carefully gathered books lovingly catalogued was the most devastating. The loss of tents, medical and media equipment. The nursery was destroyed. At first I think they thought perhaps the baby might be dead. That baby had already started running. The parents weren't ready to leave the nursery but that baby has taken to the streets.
I say "leave" because even the police and Bloomberg had a part in making this baby strong. The slap on the butt by the city is part of the assertiveness of life. The opposition to the will to life is the shadow that creates the light of awareness.

The clearing of the parks in New York, Oakland, Portland, and Denver was the mess of birth from the womb of liberty now gives birth to Occupy fully gestated in two months.

I have watched now as the parents rush to keep up. Do any of these midwives of change realize the historic never to be forgotten energy they unleashed?

Not yet. Older activists relate some of their experiences but like knowing grandma and pa's they smile and feel a pride not felt in decades.

I marvel at the lack of violence in Occupy. Less crime than the general population per capita. Perhaps it was all the eyes watching out for each other. Very little if any of the things the elite and right wing feared would happen.

The way the communities have dealt with serious societal issues, racism, sexism, religious clashes, and political clashes is a testament to their heart, intelligence and love of country on a scale that should put the elite to shame.

The Occupy hasn't created a new model, the model has been there. We have everything they need right inside each of us, they had all they needed.

I have been involved in therapy groups, theatre productions. The groups that came together for as long as 14 days or 4 to 6 weeks were committed to either healing, ego growth, drama, art and creative process very hard work.

Invariably there are clashes, dust ups, differences in direction, but the focus of the process is the beacon. The people of Occupy were able to do what they have done because the model was always here. All the way back to the first tribe. We are social animals that instinct was being suppressed by one tribe over the other. The tribe of humanity is rising up. We are not inferior as we have been told; "the great unwashed masses", the "mob", "hippies", liberals. Commies. And all the divisive language of the master over the slave. 

Did they create the GA process from classes, from mental health groups? Did the hand signals come from Ameslan? Native culture? Little of everything from the collective soul, one voice, and one heart the evolution of humanity.

They have fed us fear of being outsiders, fear of being ostracized, of being different, and fear of loss to create a consumer society. Our leaders are murdered beaten out things taken but we thrive on deprivation, they make the slave stronger with every beating.

Just things, just our bodies but they can't control or destroy conscience/consciousness. The seeds that have sprouted from reason and enlightenment.

We Tak We Asne    (apoligies to my Native friends for the phonetics)
We are all related.
Keeps whispering in my ear. As reality unfolds on my little laptop.
All evolution/rEvolution is a birth, death rebirth, midwives and care takers.

The illusion of control by the elite is fracturing.

Even a child can understand when things aren't right.

When I was 16 I wrote a letter to the local CBS station. Clayton Vaughn was the reporter in Tulsa and every Friday night he would read a letter from the community or do his own editorial. In  the days preceding my letter the city of Tulsa had been discussing reviving downtown. I was very angered by this. I grew up near downtown in a lovely home, surrounded by others like it. The city had been implementing “urban renewal” which in the 60’s and 70’s became a code phrase (the first of many such codes for taking over our lives and ripping us off I would come to learn) for tear it down, kick out whomever and make money by building something no one wants. Downtown Tulsa had the largest art deco architecture in the country. It was the oil capital because of all the companies that were located there. During the boom days the buildings built by these rich oil barons rivaled New York in beauty and craftsmanship. It also had a viable and growing black business district which came to be known as the black Wall Street. During the 70’s there was an almost delicious desire to tear down all of the old buildings and put up big new buildings. I watched as business was driven out and the Williams Center run by the Williams brothers, our own Koch brothers of Tulsa. They took over block after block of art deco buildings and tore them down. I remember hearing many complaints about their heavy handedness in the city.  They focused their attention it seemed on political rivals and almost entirely destroyed the Black Wall Street. Archer and Greenwood barely survived due to a cry from the black community. They managed to designate the region historic. As did the Maple Ridge neighborhood. I was in Jr. Achievement in 9^th grade and our group did a good job and as a reward got to have lunch with the Pres. Of First National Bank of Tulsa. The sky line of Tulsa is recognizable to the world because of this art deco building and its brightly lit green pyramid pinnacle. I asked the Pres. If they would tear down the bank and the Pres. responded “over my dead body!”.  The art deco architecture was chronicled by a woman who saw what was happening and photographed and published a book. We owned one of these photo coffee table books. Tulsa now has a heritage and preservation organization because of what was happening when I was a teen.

 The City also loved highways. They planned to run a large overhead highway down riverside along the Arkansas which was ultimately killed. When other cities like El Paso were turning their riversides into green parks Tulsa’s was left to go wild with pot growing, dead gar and pollution from upstream sewage and refinery run off. This too was pushed back and eventually the Riverside Park was born thanks to community effort. I went to Tulsa Central High. Central was the first high school in the city. It was a hundred years old when I graduated in 1976.\; the last class to do so. The school was shut down over much protest. This was after the city destroyed an entire neighborhood of middle class homes. There used to many famous folks who graduated from Central, Loretta Young, Jack Lemmon and many of leaders of the town. It was naturally integrated due to its location. It was a wonderful building and school. I still have dreams about it. They put in a mile and half bit of highway through the old neighborhood. I walked to school through an area that looked like a war zone of abandoned  homes snatched by the city to give some good old boy a sweet heart contract. They created a hangman’s noose of highway around downtown, destroyed buildings, closed schools, business left the area for the burbs and NOW they wanted to rejuvenate downtown. Clayton Vaughn read my letter.

I learned at 16 about corruption in politics. I thought erroneously that it was only hick town Tulsa with its small mindedness. I was very excited about voting at 18. I was a member of the first generation to get to do so at that age.  Went to college the fall of 76 in theatre so to say the least I can be as dramatic as they come. I got into terrible fights regarding Reagan. My mother said if you want to know how a person would be as Pres. see how they were as Gov.’s . Reagan was a John Bircher, a bigot. He didn’t start out with his free market views he was paid to acquire his views. He was an actor that is all. He went with the character that was required of him. 

We who knew then what this man had wrought in California would be brought to the national stage as it were. I couldn’t understand then and still don’t ,why people like my mother thought God talked to Reagan.

I have been writing letters, signing petitions, pissing people off all around me for decades now. I helped stop Black Fox by running a summer long garage sale till my marriage fell apart. (not related). I have joined till I am blue in the face, Sierra club was a coffee klatch. All the independent parties only care about single issues. The dems are Blue dog, scratch the surface find red underneath. You know how I feel about the Repubs. I am no doubt on some black list among the elite, or at least a one page dossier with the FBI. Haven’t had them come to the door yet, so probably not, just my ego there.

What I resent at the age of 54 is the way I am viewed as an old white woman. Given the characterization of the media of old women it is assumed I am a conservative tea bag lady who hasn’t any education or voted any way other than what my church or husband tells me. I am not a conservative nor am I church goer. I resent the idea that my 54 year old ass had anything to do with the state of corporate take-over. That the minute I learned anything I did caused harm I have changed my ways, after all I am subject to the same brain washing all my life as the rest of you. There is nothing worse than finding out that things you believed in are not true. It hurts like hell, but reality is far more desirable.  The truth will set you free has new meaning these days of media propaganda that makes the former USSR and Nazi Germany look progressive. Free your mind with the truth. Don’t make assumptions about anyone whether they are with you or against you. You don’t know. Ask first.

As I was writing this late last night, the fascist corporate state raided OWS in the middle of the night. Thieves of democracy think they are stopping Occupy and the 99%. I am so angered and feel helpless in the face of repeated injustice here and worldwide. Corporations are killing democracy and our planet. This feudalist corporate empire will collapse on its own weight. We must recognize this and hunker down, prepare to help each other. I suggest an Occupy currency. One we use in community just like the kind used in markets and towns all over the world.

Open letter to Rep. Lamborn

Rep. Lamborn;
In child rearing it is always a good idea to try and encourage a child for doing something well before you criticize them. To that end I carefully went over your voting record to see if there was anything I could agree with. Your votes to support veterans have been for the most part commendable and I assume you will approve of any bill that President Obama promulgates to support jobs for veterans. Unemployement among veterans is twice the national average. Your position of imminent domain and water are not entirely clear, but I assume you are against the XL pipeline and the plans for imminent domain. Also water is very prescious and fracking takes water in horrible unheard of quantities and destroys it forever. We must get off our addiction to oil or the consequences will be biblical.
There is little else you vote down or up that I can agree with. The "tar baby" comment aside, (that could have just been a slip of the tongue due to the culture you were raised in; see wikipedia for the history.) your votes are so far right and if followed through to logical conclusions have been and are destroying the very fabric of this country.
You consistently vote against women, immigrants, environment. You are pro war all the way. War is against Gods commandments and I see no one who claims to be Christian in office calling for peace. This goes beyond outragious. You vote for the rich over and over. Free market has failed. And to concede a point, even if it isn't an overall failure there are some pretty big criminal banks and corporations who are destroying capitalism. Only criminals don't want any regulations or laws.
The long erroneous list of votes and views on your part are so long I cannot go into each and every one. It would take a book. Needless to say you have done nothing to make peoples lives better. Fremont county has not grown in 10 years according to census. I have watched business after business come and go, established business die one after the other. Meth is a huge problem with a small district attorney office to deal with it and sex crimes. Poverty is running rampant in the county. Toxic extraction industries are running roughshod trying to take profit and poison the beauty around us. Rural america is the first hurt by draconian free market and the last to recover. This town struggles to maintain simple services. The people here believe as you do. They hate our library, our kids, their teachers, our firefighters. They hate art, parks, and don't support any business or they wouldn't have put in such high commercial  property taxes. The counties problems go all the way back to the days of the KKK and we cannot grow with an attitude of exclusion. Most of the people here are over the age of 45. If you take away social security and medicade/medicare they will have nothing. We have a large per capita of disabled and mentally ill that would be left in the streets. If you do means testing of social security for those who are wealthy, who collect and don't pay in. If you change the amount people pay in, raise the ceiling SS could do the job it has done forever. Provide a stimulous to boost the economy with good jobs. Give us the health care you enjoy as a representative with costs controls and bidding with the power of the government. One other thing, women will have those babies you so want to see them have if they feel economic parity, if they feel they will be able to keep their family together and their children will be educated in a public system, and will not go hungry. Safety and security start at home not in a far away country with a war for corporate greed. Free trade is killing jobs in America. You say you make around 67,000.00 a year according to your site. I don't believe you. Sorry. I think you make a great deal of money and that is why you went into office. Your religious beliefs are clouding your judgement, Christianity was never meant to be used as a bludgeon to oppress people. It was meant to lift inspire and free us from tyranny of all kinds. I don't agree with the Pres. in all things, but the disrespect by the white far right has made me feel ashamed of my race and my country. I don't see how you were ever qualified to lay judgment upon women, the poor, this planet of ours, or any of the positions you have taken that lord it over all of us. Your so called pledges are transparently hypocritical. 
I am not anonymous. I am somebody. I think leadership should always listen more and talk less. You are required to keep an open mind, a balanced view and think things through. If you were a thinking person "tar baby" would have never come out of your mouth. I see our President as Briar Rabbit. And the republican party and the tea movement as the Fox. The more you try to stick it to this President the worse off it will be for you and your kind. You will be faced with the horrors of you poor judgment and hatred for "other". The poverty, pollution, crime you fear so much will come to pass. Is coming to pass. People are fed up with the ideology of "blame yourself". Americans are hard working forgiving people. We have given the Christian right and Free market every chance to prove it could produce a heaven on Earth. Pride goeth before a fall is on steriods right now. Christians have become unforgiving, unrelenting, militant and prideful. I say it is a fake faith based upon fear. True Christians everywhere are taking their religion back from the "money lenders" the greedy lying mega church leaders. They are taking their faith back in the streets of Occupy. True Christians come from love not hate.
I have been a voter since I was 18. The first generation to be able to do so at that age. I was very excited about being a fully engaged citizen. I am now 53 and am so discouraged by the take over of our country by the privileged who have cheated and stolen for decades. This country has become increasingly imperialist and our once proud nation is feared by the rest of the world. There will be a reckoning for the harm we do and the harm our leaders have done. Empire eats its own. You are only a lowly rep. I understand the force of peer pressure especially with the money that is thrown around. If you look around you, you will see you can get the support you need to stop the greedy, wars undending, give our kids a chance at a peacefull and just world. If Jesus hadn't been a rebel, there would have been no Jesus. Be a rebel for love and peace.

I wrote this letter to Keith Olberman asking him to read Ogden Nash. Keith read James Thurber to his audience on Fridays on MSNBC and Current tv. His father had suggested he do so because Keith read Thurber to him while he was dying. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogden_Nash Odgen Nash could take a simple word and change its meaning with a small emphasis on a syllable, inflection or use it where you wouldn't normally see it. He coined the phrase; Candy is Dandy, but liquor is quicker. Keith is a word wizard just like Ogden Nash. Keith has a simliar humour and I hope he reads Ogden Nash who was a contemporary of Thurber.
Dear Keith Olberman

This is an open letter to you. I was going to do a video reading Ogden Nash. I realized after a video rehearsal, that my oral interpretation skills have so deteriorated since I took class with Dr. Ruth Arrington (Northeastern State University, Tahleqauh) that i better not. Dr. Arrington was a marvelous oral interp teacher. She was the first Cherokee woman to recieve a doctorate. She did not ring that bell and so I will for her now. James Thurber wasn't cutting it for me so I was going to read from "I am a Stranger here myself" two verses published in 1935. Both of these popped out at me as I opened the book. I hope you with your dulcet tones, perfect diction and inflection will do us the honor of reading Ogden Nash on your show. They are as follows:

BANKERS ARE JUST LIKE ANYBODY ELSE.
This is a  song to celebrate banks.
Because they are full of money and you go into them and all you hear are clinks and clanks,
Or maybe a sound like the wind in the trees on the hills,
Which is the rustling of the thousand dollar bills.
Most bankers dwell in marble halls,
Which they get to dwell in because they encourage deposits and discourage withdralls,
And particularly because they all observe one rule which woe betides the banker who fails to heed it,
Which is you must never lend money to anybody unless they don't need it.
I know you, you cautious conservative banks!
If people are worred about their rent it is your duty to
 deny them the loan of one nickel, yes, even one copper engraving of the martyred son of the late
 Nancy Hanks;
Yes, if they request fifty dollars to pay for a baby you must look at them like Tarzan looking
at an uppity ape in the jungle.
And tell them what do they think a bank is, anyhow,
they had better go get the omeny from their wife's aunt or ungle.
But suppose people come in and they have a million and they want another million to pile on top of it,
Why, you brim with the milk of human kindness and you urge them to accept every drop of it.
And you lend them the million so then they have two million
 and this gives them the idea that they would be better off with four,
So they already have two million as security so you have no hesitation in lending them two more,
And all the vice-presidents nod their heads in rhythm,
And the only question asked is do the borrowers want
 the money sent or do they want to take it withm,
But please do not think I am not fond of banks,
Because I think they deserve our appreciation and thanks,
Because they perform a valuable public service in eliminating the jackasses
 who go around saying that health and happiness are everything and money isn't essential,
Because as soon as they have to borrow some unimportant money to maintain their health and happiness
 they starve to death so they can't go around any more sneering at good old money, which is nothing short of
Provdential.
The next, which I thought timeless given the Madoff mea culpa routine being throw out on the msm.
A CLEAN CONSCIENCE NEVER RELAXES
There is an emotion to which we are most of us adduced,
But it is one which I refuse to boost.
It is harrowing, browbeating, and brutal,
Besides which it is futile.
Because of it sleepy men go sleepless,
Because of it, for all I know lyrical canaries and nightingales go peepless;
Hungry men lose their appetites;
Warm acrobats perspire coldly in their dapper tights;
Eligible bachelors enter ballrooms less eligibly,
And stoics talk to themselves loudly but fortunately also unintelligibly.
Land of Goshen,
What an easily dispensable emotion!
I am referring of course,
To remorse.
Remorse is a violent dyspepsia of the mind,
But it is very difficult to treat because it cannot even be defined,
Because everything is not gold that glisters and everything is not a tear that glistens,
And one man's remorse is another man's reminiscence,
So the truth is that as far as improving the world is concerned, remorse is a duffer,
Because the wrong people suffer,
Because the very fact that they suffer from remorse proves they are innocuous,
Yes indeed, it is the man remorse passes over completely who is the virulent streptococcuous.
Do you think that when Nero threw a martyr to the lions remorse enveloped him like an affinity?
Why, the only remorse in the whole Colosseum was felt by the martyr
 who was reproaching himself for having dozed through the sermon
 on the second Sunday after Trinity.
So I think remorse ought to stop biting the consciences that feed it,
And I think the Communist Party ought to work out
 some plan for taking it away from those who have it
 and giving it to those who need it.

Our White Women are Better than your White Women

This is in response to Ann Coulter claiming that the left hates all the conservative blacks because "our blacks are better than their blacks"

Our white women are better than your white women. If Ann coulter wants to play that game of my team, your team. Who owns who? I say
just off the top of my head that Amy Goodman, Wasserman-Schult, Gabrielle Giffords, Nancy Pelosi, Katrina VandenHeuvel, Phyllis Bennis, whom I just saw on Democracy Now. How about any white woman who does an interview on Current's Countdown? How about every white woman at every Occupy across the world. HOw about the head of Planned Parenthood? I can't think of anymore off the top of my head They belong to US! Progressive types.
. But you conservatives own, Ann Coulter, Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachman, all those Tea Party Reps. in Congress. How about all the white wives of Republican candidates? How about all those white women who hate women of all colors who are pro-choice (which by the way IS Pro Family!) Help me out here, all you white women and all you wannabe white women and all you sisters of transgender and all our cream, brown, black, yellow and red white and blue sisters.BE proud to be a progressive white woman!!! Cause Ann Coulter has claimed all the conservative Blacks for her side and I say let her claim all the white woman who follow her.