Thursday, November 17, 2011
[1869 - The Suez Canal opens to shipping]
[1878 - Grace Abbott, social worker, born
in Grand Island, Nebraska]
[1887 - Field Marshal Bernard (Law) 'Monty' Montgomery, WW-II British Army commander, born in Kennington, London]
[1901 - Lee Strasberg (Israel Strassberg), actor, director, acting teacher, born in Budzanow, Austro-Hungary (now Budaniv, Ukraine]
[1905 - Mischa Auer (Mikhail Semyonovich Unskovsky), actor, born in St. Petersburg, Russia]
[1925 - Rock Hudson (Roy Harold Scherer, Jr.), actor, born in Winnetka, Illinois]
[1930 - Bob Mathias, Olympic & National Track Hall of Fame athlete, born in Tulare, California]
[1937 - Peter Cook, actor, writer, comedian, born in Torquay, Devon, England]
Today marked the second anniversary of the 9/17/2011 establishment of the encampment in Zuccotti Park by the Occupy Wall Street movement. Those who speculated that the raid on the encampment a few days earlier (that cleared the park of the occupiers under the ruse of sanitation) would cripple the movement are discovering new ways to prepare crow. In fact the ranks of the protesters have swelled to the point that a peaceful march across the Brooklyn Bridge filled up the pedestrian walkway with over thirty thousand of the outraged citizenry. All this is classic democracy in action and reminds william of those who, fed up with racial injustice in the '60s, rode busses into the deep South to show their anger and demand change. The new battle centers not on skin color but on the color of money. In the last three decades we have seen a government increasingly under the influence of the wealthy oligarchs dismantle much of what was decent about our country so that the richest 400 Billionaires could own more of America than the poorest 150,000,000 of us. This has to change, and that is what the movement is about.
What got my attention even more than the size and peaceful nature of today's demonstrations was the show of force put on by the ruling class in opposition to the exercise of First Amendment rights. Make no mistake, the forces of the establishment are better armed, better trained, and better coordinated than those who call themselves the 99%. The attacks on the encampments across the country were carried out with military precision. The skimpy coverage by the corporate news sources does not tell the story, but when one follows it in the social media it looks like we are already living in a police state. Be careful, you brave souls on the front lines. For every one per center there are a dozen wannabees waiting to cut his throat and take his place, a dozen more well-paid mercenaries ready to do his bidding, and a large body of the duped and frightened who have bought the propaganda of the right and may never wake up. You are going to prevail but the number of casualties could be huge if you underestimate the strength of those who have already demonstrated that they can hijack the USA.
"Economic equality is the master key to non-violent independence...A non-violent system of government is impossible as long as the wide gulf between the rich and the hungry millions persists...."
Mahatma Gandhi
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