OCCUPY!

FABULOUS OPPORTUNITY FOR OWS:
OCCUPY GLOBAL WARMING - CLIMATE CHANGE

Our corporately owned media has repeatedly reported that the Occupy Movement is nothing more than a bunch of ragtag, homeless commies, socialists, and disenfranchised, angry anarchists – hell-bent on a violent overthrow of our government.  Sure, these elements exist to the tune of about five per cent or less, which is mostly positive, because any activist movement needs some tough hombres with an edge.  Even Dr. King said you’ve got to challenge and incite people if you ever hope to bring about radical, fundamental changes that are so very necessary.

     Let’s face it, our media monopoly has done an excellent job of dividing and dismissing the Occupy movement as powerless and irrelevant.  And eighteen mayors, led by the richest 1% of them all, “mendacious Mike” in NYC, conspired together to delete eighteen occupied parks in eighteen major cities.  Not having a physically tangible, visible, place to call home and a viable location for millions of people to visit and volunteer, has severely hurt our movement, — as intended. Their pernicious “occupy-cleansing” has been effective and has especially hurt our ability to raise funds. Round two to the 1%!

     Our media’s response to Occupy is pretty much their stereo-typical reaction to anything outside their accepted “status quo” – a locked-up, highly dysfunctional and unhealthy status quo, which quite frankly, is precisely why our country has “gone-to-hell-in-a- nasty-hand-basket” while our Earth continues to cook 24/7.  Our college-trained media knows full well that large-scale corporate capitalism is unsustainable [based on infinite debt and infinite growth to pay off that debt] and that it is systematically poisoning and destroying our only environment and resource base. Someone ought to ask the 1% what our other options are besides planet Earth?

     Occupy has also been accused of being too non-descript, as well as too generic, carefree, and uncommitted – to nothing save a few idyllic goals.  Most of this staid media pabulum is by intentional design called “framing”, but nevertheless, it is much more difficult for these “truth spinners” to utilize their “yellow journalism” to destroy our movement when they can’t clearly define and control it.  Kudos to Occupy!

     In truth, Occupy stands for the most important human and American values of all, which is precisely why the 1% must “rally around Americana, infinite jobs and growth, and large-scale corporate capitalism” to defeat us.  As more and more Americans become well-informed, stop being hoodwinked, and begin to awaken en masse, our Occupy Movement will suddenly flourish and explode. This is the “American Spring” that we must have in order to win our war against the evil 1%. Wealthy, powerful people who don’t care about our Earth or its people are horrendously evil. Anyone in Occupy who doesn’t understand that this is clearly a war against evil wealth and power, truly doesn’t realize what we’re up against!

     Our cutting edge ideals are true freedom, equality, justice, a sustainable world economy, and real participatory democracy, — basic human rights which the 1% have guaranteed for them- selves only!  By the way sports fans, our “founding fathers” never intended for America to be a true democracy, only a nefariously representative Republic that they, the white wealthy men, could control and dominate. And they have done a marvelous job of implementing that insidious intention, because a horrific lack of an independent President, Congress, and Supreme Court is incessantly wrecking our planet and destroying our once great country.  Do you realize that labor wages have been flat since 1980 while executive/white collar salaries have increased by several hundred per cent? Do you realize that over 30 million Americans are unemployed, another 30 million are under-employed, over 7 million have lost their homes, and over five million are homeless or in prison. And how many of our college students have $50,000-$100,000 or more debts? But don’t worry, “all boats will be rising soon” with big capitalism.

     Global-Warming-Burning/Climate-Change presents the Occupy Movement with a fabulous opportunity to move into perfect alignment with the most critical issue in the history of human civilization.  More and more Americans are now waking up fast today to the realization that our Earth is in a severe crisis that threatens all life on Earth and that “business as usual” is making things much worse every day.  The vast majority of climate scientists now firmly believe that  we are definitely headed for a double crash, ecological and economic, of cosmic proportions!

     Our atmosphere is being continuously poisoned and heated with toxic greenhouse gases, our oceans are being trashed with toxic waste, plastic bags, oil spills, and pernicious carbonic acid, while our tropical forests and farmlands are clear-cut and fracked.  And it’s all being committed in the holy, untouchable name of infinite economic growth and jobs.  If our corporately bought politicians would transfer $300 billion from their sacred cow, the Military-Industrial-Congressional-Complex, to a 100 percent Renewable Energy Revolution and a Green Jobs Program, we could create ten million new jobs over the next decade and stop Global Warming in its charcoal burnt tracks!

     Last January, the General Assembly of QWS in NYC, passed a monumental resolution expressing their deep concern and veracious commitment to Earth’s environment, our only resource base: “We are now at a very dangerous tipping-point in history!  The destruction of our planet and climate change is almost at a point of no return.”  OWS’s [NYC] resolution links climate destruction to the shift in political power that lies at the heart of Occupy. ‘We must reclaim our democracy to protect our planet!’”  OWS’s Direct Action operating group is targeting all toxic fossil and non-renewable fuels and is being spearheaded by a group called ’99 for Earth’.  The OWS’s resolution also calls for “connecting the dots between the 1% and the destruction of our planet.  At one end of the chain are specific depredations on specific environments: ‘Our mountains in Appalachia are blasted; our drinking water in the Northeast is threatened by fracking; our American heartland is charted for an oil pipeline [with the dirtiest possible tar-sands oil in Alberta, Canada, that will be shipped to South Korea and China], and our forests in the Northwest are targeted for further deforestation [while the Obama administration continues to approve more and more oil drilling leases in the Gulf of Mexico, even after the recent BP disaster that spewed over 200 million gallons of toxic oil into the water].  Connect the dots and you’ll find that the corporate destruction of the Earth’s [biosphere] and climate have been ‘financed by the 1%’ and that a ‘ small group of polluting businesses’ have hijacked our political system for their own benefit,” says Jeremy Brecher, a founder for the Labor Network For Sustainability and author of more than a dozen books on labor and social history. 1

     It’s of absolute importance that the Occupy Movement get seriously involved with the Global-Warming-Burning/Climate-Change movement right because many top climate scientists believe we have already gone past the “tipping-point” and are now running on toxic fumes only.  Dr. Jim Hansen, Bill McKibben, and others have made the seminal point that this very moment in history, 2012, is arguably the most significant juncture in Earth’s evolution!

     “ ‘Sometimes facing up to the truth is just too hard!  When the facts are distressing it is easier to reframe or ignore them [and stay in one’s comfort zone while doing nothing]. Around the world only a few have truly faced up to the facts about global warming.  Apart from the climate skeptics, most people do not disbelieve what the climate scientists have been saying about the calamities expected to befall us.  But accepting intellectually [too easily dismissed ethereal thoughts] is not the same as accepting emotionally [in one’s heart and gut], the possibility that the world as we know it is heading for a horrible end.  It’s the same with our own deaths; we all accept that we will die, but it is only when death is imminent that we confront the true meaning of our mortality.’

     ‘Over the last five years, almost every advance in climate science has painted a more disturbing picture of the future.  The reluctant conclusion of the most eminent climate scientists is that the world is now on a path to a very unpleasant future and it is too late to stop it.  No one is willing to say publicly what the climate science is telling us:  that we can no longer prevent Global Warming that will this century [or even by 2050] bring about a radically transformed world…a world that is much more hostile to the survival and flourishing of life.  As I will show [in this book], this is no longer an expectation of what might happen if we do not act soon; this will happen even if the most optimistic assessment of how the world might respond to the climate disruption is validated,” says Clive Hamilton, author of “Requiem For A Species.”2

     Anyone with half a dinosaur’s brain who’s done the intense research, knows the draconian truth and is not about to be put-off by climate change naysayers and deniers.  Our “goose is  cooked” – literally!  Americans must wake-up now, vacate their Pollyanna comfort zones, and join an “Occupy” group some place in America to participate in Direct, Non-Violent, Civil Disobedience Action.  The honest challenge before us today is to see how well we can pull together in unity and solidarity to be effective and impactful agents for significant change.  How much of this Global-Warming-Burning/Climate-Change crisis can we successfully mitigate, and really fast?  This is the omnipotent challenge now raging and burning before us all right now.

     “As the Occupy Movement evolves from a wave of encampments to new forms of a densely networked, virtual and face-to-face political community, its concern with Climate Change and environmental devastation is growing and converging with activism aimed more directly at the economic depredations of the 1 per cent. That convergence may be crucial for the future of the Occupy story.  The Occupy Movement is about reclaiming the  future for people who have had their chances rubbished by three decades of global neo-liberalism and austerity. But it’s not just about paycheck economics. The destruction of the climate [the air our children breathe] and the environment [our only true home] are an integral part of the neoliberal world order.  [Perhaps it is true that ‘the new world order desires to eradicate 80% of the world’s population’?]. The same corporations, banks, and financial institutions that destroyed the economy are destroying our global environment, — for pure greed! The struggle to preserve the Earth and its atmosphere [biosphere] is, by necessity, a struggle against those forces,” Brecher says.

     Occupy would be wise and mature to adapt a new mantra: “The police are not the enemy – the 1% are!”  Anyone who fails to get the reality that we are engaged in a death knoll battle against the darkest, most forbidding, and most penurious forces of evil, is a badly deceived fool.  The police are the mercenary tools and lackeys of the 1%, but are mostly slaves and serfs as we are.  Occupy must make every intentional effort to constantly convince the police that they are being co-opted, controlled, and psychologically manipulated into doing “the master’s dirty work”. Eons of history tell us that kings, dictators, tyrants, and the wealthy, privileged few, have always acted in precisely this fashion.  Therefore, if we are truly committed to winning this war against the evil 1%, we must absolutely win over the police to our side.  Nice challenge, eh!

     The notion that “violence only creates more violence and only encourages the police to react more violently, and never works, is mostly true,– but not totally!  The Black Panthers held the police to a standoff. There may come a point in this revolution of great ideas and great potential solutions when violence will become our only option. There certainly are limits to how far we can allow the 1 % to decimate our only planet and wreck total havoc on our economic lives too.  No one in their right mind wishes for such a terrible confrontation because all wars mostly kill everyone. Remember, one million Americans died in our Civil War and it was incredibly bloody! Nevertheless, it may become necessary at some point to pick up a gun and fight. About five per cent of our Colonists decided they had to fight against Great Britain to regain their freedom from the yoke of economic, political, and military oppression.  Today, We the People are being severely oppressed and threatened with Global-Warming-Burning/Climate Change, as well as economic, political, and the military oppression of two more atrocious, unnecessary wars that will end up costing us five trillion dollars.  Is the future wellbeing of your children and grandchildren worth fighting for?  I suggest you ask yourself that salient question.

     If you haven’t read “The First American Revolution by Ray Raphael, buy it ASAP!  I can give you a 1,001 prime examples where violence was used to stop violence, — our Revolutionary War and World War II being just two excellent examples.  A third example was when the people of Western Europe grew furious at the Vikings annual rampages of raping, killing, and plundering, and decided to lie in hiding and attack.  Guess what?  After two more seasons of attacks, all Viking raids ceased.

     Sooner or later, all bullies, despots, and 1 % exploiters need to be faced down and fought, to the death if necessary.  Anyone who thinks we will be able to negotiate with the tyrant rich are operating in “la la land”.  They have most of the money and power and will never condescend to negotiate with a mere “rabble-in-arms”.  We’re nothing except slaves and trash to them.  All bullies and the vast majority of the wealthy 1 per cent are into power-dominance to control, and all bullies like most of the 1 per cent are evil doers.  They are evil because they are taking so much more than they need, leaving billions of others starving, thirsting, and destitute, and even worse, they are intentionally and systematically raping our Earth for pure greed.  If money and greed are the roots of all evil, then the 1 per cent are the perfect personification!

     Again, anyone who fails to realize that Occupy represents a colossal world battle against the worst imaginable forces of evil, has his or her head totally in the sand.  The most dangerous disease is not cancer, it’s a terminable case of cranial-rectimitis.  Edmund Burke said it best: “All good men need do for evil to succeed, — is NOTHING!”

     Once again, while I remain in favor of every conceivable form of courageous non-violent civil disobedience/direct action, as well as many creative, impactful forms of social change action, — I also realize that “there are definite limits” to how much more We the People can take. While our Earth’s only environment is incessantly laid waste for greed, and for oil, water, food, land,  gold and power, — how long do We the People dare wait before we pick up a gun and declare:  “NO MASSE!”

     At some point we must insist on a new national election and elect an independent President, Congress, and Supreme Court, or, at the very least, a majority of Independents to Congress.  We fought The Revolutionary War to become independent, but we’ve now allowed ourselves to become prisoners of a very rotten, two-party oligarchy that no longer represents us effectively.  We the People can also demand that a new peoples’ empowerment law be passed:  The National Citizens’ Initiative For Democracy which would allow us to pass two or three laws of our own choosing each year by majority vote, the first time in 236 years that we wound actually have any real participatory democracy. This would allow us to complement our Congress, not replace it. To register and sign up in favor of this great new opportunity, go to www.nci4d.org.  Our “founding fathers” – all white males who were wealthy merchants or wealthy land holders or both, specifically wrote our Constitution so they could power-dominate to control, and they have, quite successfully and ruthlessly. I say this bad shit needs to end NOW!

     In   “The First Revolution” – the good, courageous people of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts finally said “no masse” after Great Britain passed the Massachusetts Government Act in which the Colonists forfeited control of their own parliament and courts among other dear freedoms, and began to act with intentional violence to protect themselves.  And their violence was totally understandable and justified.  Killing other people isn’t the worst crime:  Lacking the courage necessary to rise-up and overcome evil is!

     Guess what happened to those Colonists who had the courage to use violence to overcome the violence that was being perpetuated against them?  Because they had the backing of many people who were totally fed up and disgusted with the oppressive acts, writs, laws, provisions, regulations, and oppressions of the British Empire, their violence was incredibly effective and impactful.  We the People kicked these evil, oppressive tyrants out of Massachusetts – and eventually out of our America – forever!  So Thomas Jefferson is right:  Every so often We the common People need to conduct a revolution, like a good thunderstorm, and cleanse the land of its putrid stench.  Today the stench of greed and power is pretty damn stultifying on Wall Street, in our big banks, brokerages, hedge funds, large corporations, national governments, and even in many colleges, universities, and other major institutions. Truthfully, today our America is way out of economic, environmental, ethical, and spiritual alignment.

     Right now, Occupy is only a revolution of accusations, grievances, and bold new ideas, along with a lot of courageous/creative direct actions. We must greatly expand these endeavors and “Occupy America” physically wherever and whenever we possibly can.  My new not-for-profit, an educational/activist organization, the National Alliance Of Concerned Americans For The Wellbeing Of All People And Earth (www.ethicalwarrioractivists.org) is committed and dedicated to creating and implementing 5,000 new activist organizations in every city, town, and neighborhood in America.  You can support this most worthy and necessary endeavor by going on-line and taking a $25 annual supporting membership.  I believe it is only through massive American citizen protests that We the People will be able to elect an independent Congress and get really strong, significant Climate Change legislation passed.  Since we have already moved beyond a perilous ecological “tipping-point”, the fate of our planet and our civilization are truly in the hands of her people–and the sand in the hour glass is running out!

     Although it’s encouraging and necessary for our Occupy movement to increase, expand, and accelerate its network, both virtually and through face-to-face political/social interactions, we must also continue to occupy as many parks, streets, and other public/private areas as possible. After spending 7 weeks camped out in Zoucotti Park, I grew to realize how important a physical, tangible place actually is.  Why?  Because our body, mind, heart, soul, and spirit all need a physical place to call home and because mainstream America needs a physical – heart and guts place – to visit, encourage, and celebrate.  I will never forget the beautiful fall day at Zoucotti Park in 2011 when tens of thousands of ordinary Americans stopped by to thank “We the Occupiers” and to make a sweet donation.  That day was truly heart-felt and inspiring!

     As the Occupy movement evolves from a wave of encampments to new forms of a densely networked, virtual and face-to-face political community, its concern with Climate Change and environmental devastation is growing and converging with activism aimed more directly at the economic depredations of the 1%.  That convergence may be crucial for the future of the Occupy movement, and for the planet.  Climate and environmental concerns fit naturally into the Occupy story,” Brecher says.

     Occupy has emphatically signaled that the second American Revolution is definitely underway!  The battle lines in the sand have been clearly drawn and the 1%, including President Obama and his minions, know this truth.  Starting right now, today, — we must employ every conceivable form of non-violent civil disobedience first, before we are compelled to fight in order to eviscerate the evil 1% who are destroying our Earth and oppressing 3.5 billion people living on less than $2 per day. Approximately 50 million people are dying from thirst, bad water diseases, and starvation every year.  The 1% do not care about these people or the millions and millions of plant and animal species that are systematically becoming extinct every year.

      If tens of millions of American citizens can find the courage to step-up and step-out, — into our streets, — to protest loud and long while occupying, –I do believe we can bring about the necessary transformation of our severely dysfunctional, two-party oligarchy and the large-scale corporate capitalist system that owns it. And it is this evil, large-scale corporate cancer which is systematically ravaging our only environment for unprecedented greed. Small-business capitalism together with profit making cooperatives, not-for-profit cooperatives, and barter and trade options, could be molded into a mixed-bag economy that is healthy, sustainable, and much more equitable.  A sustainable economy equals survival, but as long as the 1% are allowed to power-dominate and rule, a sustainable world economy is simply not possible.  We must remind the 1% every day at every opportunity, that Mars is not an option!

 Our Occupy movement itself must wake-up ASAP to fully and clearly understand the colossal evil monster that it faces and what it will take to win.  With the fate of our Earth and civilization at stake, failure is simply not an affordable option.  We the People must win and we will!

     Obviously, We the 99% have a very formidable challenge facing us!  Our “founding fathers” and Colonists also had a very grave and formidable challenge facing them and they prevailed.  Here are some memorable quotes of encouragement to help see us through this most difficult struggle which absolutely must be won by 2020 or all life on Earth is totally doomed!

     George Washington reminds us that all political parties are a very bad idea [and aren’t mentioned in our Constitution].  Why?  Because they seek power for themselves – first, last, and always.  Total power corrupts – totally!”

Ben Franklin reminds us that: “The government you get is the government you deserve!”

John Adams reminds us that: “Sometimes the yoke of oppression can only be lifted by fighting to overcome it!”

Noam Chomsky reminds us that: “Freedom without opportunity is a devil’s gift, and the refusal to provide such opportunities is criminal!”

Marcus Arruda reminds us that: “Global capitalism, with its single-minded desire to consume, fails to fulfill the deepest aspirations of humanity as a whole and of each individual!”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer reminds us that: “Action springs not from thought, but from a readiness for responsibility!”

Thomas Paine reminds us that: “The sun never shined on a cause of greater worth!”

Gandhi reminds us that: “Recall the face of the poorest and weakest [person] whom you may have seen, and ask yourself if the step you contemplate will be of any use to him or her.  Will he gain anything by it?  Will it restore him to a control over his or her own life and destiny?”

George Orwell reminds us that: “In times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act!”

Sam Adams reminds us that: “If you love wealth [or your comfort zone] better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace.  We ask not your counsel or arms.  Crouch down [you tyrant lackey] and lick the hands that feed you.  May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were once our countryman!”

Thomas Jefferson reminds us that: “Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of (its) ends, it is the right of the People to alter or abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to affect their own Safety and Happiness!”

Captain Dougars reminds us that: “There may come a time when one realizes – in his or her deepest ‘heart of hearts’ – that evil must be faced and fought – even unto death.  In that moment of universal truth, may Providence grant me the courage to risk my own life for freedom, justice, and equality, — and the protection and wellbeing of our Earth!”

1        “Jeremy Brecher: Occupying Climate Change,” The Nation, April 2, 2012, pp. 21-22.

2        Hamilton, Clive, “Requiem For A Species,” Earthscan, New York, 2010, pp. x-xi.