I have taken part in it.
In 1964 I sat at a lunch counter with a group of "occupiers" who were members of a minority seeking to help overcome almost 200 years of their oppression.
As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. led, I marched with hundreds of those same minority members as they made their way down the streets of St. Augustine.
The protest was peaceful and all the protesters did was to sing songs like, "We Shall Overcome."
These protesters did not try to prevent anyone from carrying on their daily routines nor did they interrupt the normal flow of business.
Anyone who wanted to join them at the "all-white" lunch counter was welcomed, and although only whites were offered lunch service, no fights broke out and the place was kept clean.
At the end of the day, Dr. King had been arrested and subsequently released, the marchers had made their point, and everybody went home for a night's rest.
Spotty protests continued throughout the week, but no violence occurred, at least none that was known by us or reported by the infallible Walter Cronkite.
This was satisfying and effective protest.
Over the years, things DID get better for that minority group and today they have as much opportunity as any American to make it in life.
Examples of some who have are: former Godfather's Pizza CEO and presidential candidate, Herman Cain; Supreme Court justice, Clarence Thomas; Amsale Aberra, president & creative director, Amsale Aberra, Inc.; Robert Andrews, senior vice president, organization HR consultant, Dallas, TX; Nelvia M. Brady, Ph.D., ageless, author and columnist, president and owner of This Mother's Daughter, Inc., Chicago, IL; Jesse B. Brown, president of Krystal Investment Management, a financial advisory firm in Chicago, IL and author of the best selling book, Investing in the Dream-Wealth Building Strategies for African Americans Seeking Financial Freedom; Monique Caradine, radio talk show host, WVON 1450 AM - Chicago, IL; David E. Ellington, NetNoir, Inc., co-founder and former president and CEO, San Francisco, CA; Debrena Jackson Gandy, author of All the Joy You Can Stand and Sacred Pampering Principles, owner: Masterminds, Seattle, WA.; Indigo D. Johnson, CEO of Careers In Transition, a training and development firm, Decatur, GA.; Terry Preston, detective, Cleveland Police Department, Cleveland, OH. and tens of thousands of others.
What this all illustrates is that progress can be made through peaceful protests, and proper civil disobedience without requiring the protesters to instigate violence, behave uncivilly, and otherwise commit mayhem.
While the Civil Rights protests DID encounter violence in some places, they were not the perpetrators of that violence.
To be sure, there are greedy CEOs of some large corporations. There are greedy CEOs of small corporations. There are greedy protesters in OWS.
Greed is a vice common to humanity, and OWS is not going to overcome it.
Civil protest, coupled with civil disobedience is one thing.
This OWS crowd is something else altogether.
And it is disobedient without being civil.
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The Senate will vote on a bill that allows the US military to imprison civilians with no formal charges and hold them with NO trial.
This bill was drafted behind closed doors.
The Democratic-led Armed Services Committee approved the revised legislation over objections from Obama administration officials and opposition from several senior Democratic senators who argue the bill would tie the president’s hands in the war on terror.
The ACLU reports even US citizens wouldn't be immune as the legislation aims to declare national territory part of the "battlefield" in the War on Terror.
Welcome to the Peoples Republic of Amerika
The OWS crowd are hypocrits of the highest order. They welcome those they claim to oppose if their politics are left. They point out greed and civility issues of those who lean right while encouraging the same acts by those who lean left.
The 18% who claim to represent the 99% are getting there butts kicked out by the 63% who see the hypocracy.
ablur what is the hierarchy of hypocrites?
"I have my own army in the NYPD, which is the seventh biggest army in the world. I have my own State Department, much to Foggy Bottom's annoyance. We have the United Nations in New York, and so we have an entree into the diplomatic world that Washington does not have," Mayor Bloomberg said.
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Well with participation in the job market continuing to drop, unemployment benefits terminating for many and the median income continuing to fall we may get to see how this schmuck deploys his forces.
My guess is that the evangelicals, always getting a thrill at the thought of punishment, will support him right along the way.
Since laissez-faire is proceeding according to its internal logic I imagine the Libertarians are going to have an identity crisis.
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