OWS Coming to Raleigh

Today is the day that the Wall Street protesters come to Raleigh.  Certainly not the original group, but rather, a related organization that is taking the movement in New York as their inspiration.

They call themselves Occupy Raleigh.

We are a group of concerned citizens who wish to raise awareness and demonstrate before the Capitol in support of economic justice and against corporate influence over our elections and political process. Our purpose is to engage the public in this dialogue and make the voices of the people heard. We want local and national legislators to hear our concerns about ways to remedy economic injustice and the unfair influence the wealthy have over the political system.

We are a peaceful, non-violent resistance movement that aims to encourage people to participate in democracy and use their voices to influence positive change.

We are not a Democratic party movement nor are we anarchists trying to overthrow government. Rather, we are a populist uprising that seeks to place the political power back in the People’s hands where it belongs. We are willing to extend our protest indefinitely to effect change.

Better.

A clear and succinct statement.  Much better than the nonsense spewing from NYC.

But still a ways to go.  For example:

We want local and national legislators to hear our concerns about ways to remedy economic injustice and the unfair influence the wealthy have over the political system.

What are those concerns?  And what are the remedies?  What influence?

This is certainly nice, and, in the same way that the Tea Party is non-affiliated, these guys are non-affiliated:

We are not a Democratic party movement nor are we anarchists trying to overthrow government.

I’m sure the protest will be non-violent.  There’s too much at stake for them to remain positive.  Further, they aren’t here to “occupy”.  As far as I know, they come in today and go home today.  And THAT is a reasonable thing that reasonable citizens do.

7 responses to “OWS Coming to Raleigh

  1. This is a nice piece. I agree that with so many different cities across the country the participants are voicing various concerns they want addressed and not voicing the exact same complaints, and observers shouldn’t expect that. With tens of thousands being involved in over a thousand different cities, it would simply be impossible (unless they handed out list of talking points at every rally…smile).

    There are 2 things I wanted to add my opinion on.

    — Much better than the nonsense spewing from NYC.

    There are very clear grievances but I don’t think it should be a negative that everyone is not stating the exact same reason they are there.

    — in the same way that the Tea Party is non-affiliated

    I must disagree—TP not affiliated ?!?!. The Tea Party within a very short time of their first rallies/protests were taken over by Dick Army, Karl Rove, Koch brothers (just to name a few )and all of their individual PACs (they provided the funding for all those across country bus tours, some like Dick Army/Sarah Palin/many GOP representatives spoke at event after event after event). The original founders of the Tea Party movement have been all over the news in the last 24 months disavowing the TP for that very reason.

    • There are very clear grievances but I don’t think it should be a negative that everyone is not stating the exact same reason they are there.

      I don’t think so. They are bumper sticker slogans.

      When folks who work for me come up and tell me, “such and such a thing is broken”, I tell ’em that I know that. But what I NEED them to tell me is how, exactly, are you going to fix it.

      THAT is what I’m looking for here.

      I must disagree—TP not affiliated ?!?!.

      With out a doubt the Tea Party was co-opted by the Republicans and yes, almost all Tea Party folks vote Republican. However, the Democrats have already done the same thing. Even Obama is speaking for the OWS crowd. And I’ll betcha they vote Democrat.

    • Your Comment:
      I don’t think it should be a negative that everyone is not stating the exact same reason they are there.

      My Comment:
      A million people playing a million different tunes will not be as pleasing a sound as 100 people playing the same tune.

  2. Pino found fault with one Occupy Raleigh talking point:
    … legislators to hear our concerns … unfair influence the wealthy have over the political system.

    Here is my take on the way money influences or elected officials. I try to give elected officials the benefit of the doubt, but how can our political leaders make the right choice when only one group has the resources to be “in their face” all day long? The same problem exists with doctors and pharmaceutical companies. Doctors REALLY want to prescribe the right medicine, but they may not know about a better medicine because the manufacture of the alternative medication did not send the doctor to a product seminar in Hawaii.

    • Doctors REALLY want to prescribe the right medicine, but they may not know about a better medicine because the manufacture of the alternative medication did not send the doctor to a product seminar in Hawaii.

      Yes. It is definitely the “pay to play” aspect that I don’t like. I want to create a system that removes as much as possible, the whole, “I will contribute to you if you create a law that benefits me”.

      However, this is different than, say, a candidate who represents that she is a small government candidate and will work to remove regulations that hamper business and then gets Chamber of Commerce donations. Supporting someone financially for a mutual position is much different than a quid pro quo arrangement.

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