Bit Bucket

I know you say you’re the 99%.

I know that means you’re seeking strength in numbers and strength in solidarity.  

But you don’t speak for me. That doesn’t make me a 1%-er.

I’m not fabulously wealthy. I don’t invest in hedge funds or investment banks. I’ve got a meager 401k, less than a year’s mortgage payments, and some inheritance left from my grandfather that I used to start a business and get a mortgage.

Chanting that you’re the 99% over, and over, and over, makes me less likely to be want to be part of you, because you seem hellbent on upsetting the applecart that is my day-to-day life. You want to take up our public space with tents and protest marches that don’t seem to have an endgame in sight, or even a good idea.

I know that everyone says this is more a process than a movement, but a process toward what, exactly? Ending corporate personhood doesn’t make sense because that’s what lets corporations do things like sign contracts, and employ people. There was a good piece on NPR on that over the weekend that talks more about why ending personhood for certain things - political speech for example - may make more sense. It makes for a lousy protest though: End parts of corporate personhood that we find objectionable in certain cases!

Student loan debt’s a non-starter for me. You are more valuable for the education you pursued, even if it’s in comparative tacky sack instead of engineering, and that’s money you have to pay back. I like the President’s plan from this morning that restructures a lot of that debt into more affordable repayment structures, and I think there should be more of that. But that’s a loan that you took out, knowing that you’d have to repay it after you graduated. I feel like there’s a lot of folks who never stopped to think about that part. 

I am, in fact, angry over the dispersal of the protest in Oakland last night, which involved flash-bangs and tear gas, when it probably didn’t need to. But that doesn’t mean I’m on your side. That also doesn’t make this the American Fall after the Arab Spring. Those people risked their lives to be down there, not their hearing for a few hours, and their comfort. They risked being mowed down by authoritarian governments for their freedom, not some cops’ batons so they might get a lower student loan payment. Comparing the two doesn’t win you any points with me.

It’s time that the Occupy movement built itself some goals, and some processes.

Just being there isn’t enough to make me want to join. 

As long as this is what the group looks like, count me out.