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As OWS protests grow around the US, there are more and more calls for those who are involved to issue demands so that 'progress' can be measured. On DU and from many sides, there seems to be a building fretting and fear that this movement will amount to nothing. Basically, it's a yearning for rules so we know when we have won.
IMHO OWS has already won in many ways. More and more people are shaking off their apathy and thinking about basic ideas about how we are and have been governed. There is a coherent message at the core of these protests. ATTENTION MUST BE PAID TO THE 99%! WE ARE HERE . WE ARE ENORMOUS. WE ARE PISSED. WE WANT BASIC FAIRNESS FROM THOSE WHO LEAD AND THE PTB! WE ARE NOT GOING AWAY!
If nothing else, both the 99% and the 1% are beginning to realize the sheer number of people in each group and who has squirreled their fortunes away. The best structure for this on the national levels the amorphous one that is in place now. IMHO, people need to eventually convert this energy on the local level to more concrete action. For years, we have done everything in our power to change the system from the top down. That has played right into the hands of those in power now. They channel this energy where they want it to go. Building from the ground up is much harder, but there is a greater probability of more concrete change.
Working on the local level doesn't minimize the basic demands seen at OWS. People can begin to work together for change that is specific to their areas. The OWS movement has awakened and is awakening the people needed to work for this change. It can and will affect the power on a national level by changing local, state, and the people sent to DC. If people begin to feel there can be change and they own part of it, they are more likely to take part.
Everybody needs to realize that Glenda the Good Witch is not coming down in her bubble to guide us. We are more likely to see PACS and Parties swooping in to once again bend the will and energy of OWS to their own ends. That is why it is necessary to change the paradigm. Buy into their rules about structure and making 'progress' and once again become trapped by their agendas. As we have seen, their agendas and what needs to be done are two different things many times. Even my suggestions on how to use the energy are just that. Suggestions. Others my have better ideas.
We have been waiting for a new MLK, RFK, OR FDR to seize the bully pulpit or us. Nobody has taken over that post. The promise and the peril is that the bully pulpit has always been there waiting for a message. OWS is finally using that method and people are listening. There is the old slogan, 'We are the ones we have been waiting or.' Those words are not just a familiar phrase. They define who who must lead now. WE have to fill that void. Quit lookin around for somebody else unless it is to try to work with them.
When do we win? When we realize that winning is not a static point we reach. It is an ongoing process for change that we never abandon to anybody else to do. We are beginning to win and learning more about that idea. Will WE have the will to keep pushing?
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