Tag Archives: Occupy Portland

Thankful 2011

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I am thankful for many gifts in my life this year:

  • My spouse and family most of all
  • My friends
  • ISME and my friends and colleagues there
  • My mind, health, spirit
  • My work, my research, my writing, my teaching
  • The ability to travel to conferences
  • My trip home this past summer
  • Marching with Occupy Portland and Occupy Philadelphia
  • All the Occupiers everywhere
  • Books
  • Music
  • God
  • Good students
  • Stories of vampires, space travel, aliens, magic, love and sacrifice, growth and redemption
  • My comrades on this blog
  • You
  • The Native Peoples who first walked this land we call America
  • Cold water to drink, hot showers, tea, mochas – especially iced mochas
  • Life

God bless

Evictions here, evictions there

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So we’ve all heard the news: cities throughout the US have evicted the Occupiers from their encampments.  In Portland, Mayor Sam Adams told the Occupiers days ahead of time that they had until 12:01 a.m. Sunday 13 November 2011 to leave the site.  Amazingly and hopefully, thousands descended on the Occupy Portland site and saved it from being razed Saturday night.  After police left the scene early Sunday morning, most people left, including some Occupiers to get some needed sleep.  In the interim, police returned and began tearing down structures and team-shoveling tents into trash heaps to be carted away.  Most everything remained “peaceful” except for the police beating of a Sing-Language Interpreter.

So the question: does this mean the Occupy Movement is over?

Better: all the news pundits want to know: Have the Occupiers lost?

The answer here is simple in both cases: only if the Occupiers say it is over; only if the Occupiers say they have lost.

I will give credit to Mayor Sam Adams.  He declared that the Occupy Movement brought national attention to the way corporations work to corrupt politics and this needed to continue.  He, however, said that the Occupy Movement was losing ground when people in the encampments used drugs or when violence occurred.  (I wonder, of course, whether those “drug users” and “violent actors” were part of the movement or sent there or just random people.)

He is right: the Occupy Movement should not and cannot give up now.  They need to keep the focus on the way corporations have corrupted politics.  They can do this through other actions, including more marches and more occupations, and by engaging in politics.

But I have said from the beginning, as well, that the Occupy movement cannot be about changing the way politics are done at the national and international level.  This movement has to lead to changes at the level of the local community — we must learn how to protect and sustain these communities from the bureaucrats and the corporations that serve to destroy human freedom, equality, and prevent self-realization.

The Occupy Movement is not over, but it is time to change focus.

Occupy Portland and Eviction

Quote

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Y’all know that ST is against Mayor Sam Adam’s eviction of Occupy Portland.  Here is a note from the Occupation about their plans.  Please continue to pray for them, and if at all possible, go to the Occupation and join in the demonstration.

God Bless!

Occupy Portland is responding to the Mayor’s threat of eviction on Saturday
night, November 12/13, by throwing a Potluck Dinner: a family-friendly
event with music and celebration for the entire city. Affinity groups will
lead neighborhoods in marches beginning around 2 p.m. converging on the
Occupation from about 5 PM.  At least one group is coming from Seattle.
There were announcements of support from local and regional groups. The
purpose of the Occupy potluck is to bring a significant mass of people
together in solidarity with the nonviolent, humanitarian goals of Occupy.

Action envisioned include:

-a mass of people, singing and chanting, circling the encampment Saturday
night on foot and bicycle;
-food: empanadas, pizza, cake, locally-grown fruits and vegetables;
-music: guitars, drums, shakers, singalongs;
-more signs: creative signs, funny signs, home-made signs with memorable
slogans;
-playful costumes (warm and fuzzy ones, bunny suits, Portland at its weird
and wonderful best);
-dancing all night long.

Preparing for Saturday Night

Before Saturday night, those who have valuables in the Occupied parks are
urged to secure them and to move them off-site. Coalitions of local labor
groups and some local churches are offering transportation and storage.
Friday is a day for clean-up for the potluck. Some voices recommend “leave
no trace.”

There were also many ideas concerning actions during and after the planned
eviction. Some will sit in wait to be arrested. A training for those who
are willing to risk being arrested is offered by the National Lawyer’s
Guild at 2 PM on Saturday. Others will provide support for those being
arrested. Ideas for after the eviction include the following: outreach to
unions, homeless organizations and faith organizations, plans to keep the
occupation visible, plans for community events occurring on a regular
basis, plans to return to the park and clean it, re-seed the grass, care
for the trees, and make the two parks that have been so important to us,
more beautiful than they were before the Occupation.

http://occupyportland.org/2011/11/11/open-invitation-occu-fest/

Big Money, Big Deal – what should we make of Soros

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The news is out!  Occupy Wall Street was a scheme financed by George Soros to bring down American capitalism and make himself more powerful and reward all of his rich friends.  It’s an attack on freedom so that government and taxes can get bigger.  The 1% is funding the 99% to bring about a new world order beneficial to them and duping the 99% in the process.

Well, first, the 1% have been lying for decades to the 99%.  We’ve been sold the trickle down economics line time and time again.  But it’s not a simple lie that we are told — it’s part of a bigger view of the world that feeds into the worldview of many Americans — the American dream, the if you work hard you can make it better for yourself, the I go it alone mentality.  So if it is a means of duping the 99%, well nothing new.

Second, so what if Soros funded OWS?  Just because he funds it does not mean that he owns what people do with it.  He cannot control the hundreds and thousands of people who have gathered in various cities across the country trying to articulate a vision of democracy and live it out.

The Koch brothers, we know, funded the Tea Party in various guises and certainly got their monies worth.  But they tapped into a mindset that already bought into their ideas and were easily convinced to provide the very means by which the Koch brothers could make millions.  It’s not clear that Soros has done the same thing.  He may want bigger government or more taxes on the middle class or some weird thing.

But does he want the kind of democracy we’ve seen on every street in the occupied cities?  Does he want belief in equality and a consensus government like what has formed with Occupy Portland?  If he does, he could not bring about anything that would benefit Soros or any other rich person.  At best, it will make them equals in a more just society.  At worst, it will lead to civil war and a totalitarian state.  And we know what happens to the forces behind totalitarian states.

What does democracy look like?

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Marching with Occupy Portland was powerful and peaceful.  But I had a weird experience.  Different people chanted different things as we marched through the streets.  “What does democracy look like?” “This is what democracy looks like.”  “We are the 99%”  Signs everywhere declared different things.

Yes, they shared some themes — primarily the idea that the elites have lorded it over everyone else for too long, including infiltrating the government that was supposed to be by and for the people.

As I said in an earlier post, I have faith in democracy working for Occupy Portland.  But as I’ve written over and over in my blog (which posts no one can see any more because I’ve switched to WordPress — I’ll try to fix that) — a community that thrives must be based on a common good.   A thriving, democratic community consists of a people united in the effort to define their vision of the good of the community together, each person listening and being heard by each other person.

As I’ve watched on FB, people with Occupy Portland are beginning to realize that they need to send out a consistent message, but they are unsure yet how to define it.  That’s fine.  No one should worry now that the hard work of democracy begins.  In fact, those of us who are not down on the streets for whatever reason, should be inspired that this group of wonderful, beautiful people are in fact engaging in direct democracy.  We should be inspired to do the same things in our own lives — where we work and pray, where we live, and in our own communities.

The common good is not some dastardly attempt to impose an opinion on anyone else.  It represents the collective engagement of each member in the community defining what their end or purpose is.  Good luck, Occupy Portland!

Occupy Portland

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I just came from Occupy Portland!  Occupy Portland is a movement in Solidarity with Occupy Wall Street.  We marched from the waterfront to Pioneer Square then down to 3rd and Main. At 3rd and Main, dedicated and brave persons will OCCUPY to represent against Wall Street, against Wall Street Bailouts, Against Corporate governments.

They will OCCUPY for many reasons.

They will OCCUPY for the 99%.

We are the 99%!