THE "OCCUPY WALL STREET" MOVEMENT IS BECOMING A FRIGHTENING PROTEST...GOOD!

The Occupy Wall Street protesters´ declaration of Wall Street as a destructive force, economically, politically & ecologically is completely correct.

...FOX´s Geraldo Rivera being shouted down with, "Fox News Lies, Fox News Lies" in Liberty Park, NYC.

This "OWS (Occupy Wall Street)" phenomena is now taking on a position that is scaring the hell out of the top 1% of those Americans that are currently running the nation.

As an example of the right wing´s fear and confusion, those yoyo´s on the FOX TV Network are constantly showing just how contradictory and totally baffled they really are.

First, one pundit comes on FOX and talks about how dirty and smelly those demonstrators are when sitting-in, in front of "Wall Street" buildings all over the country.

Then some time later, another FOX pundit talks about how well dressed they are and one individual on FOX even said he "loved a man´s suit he saw in the crowd and wanted to know who the man´s tailor was".

Then on the next day, as one FOX talker says that the demonstrators were "fowling the streets of the business leaders" on Wall Street, another FOX talker mentions how supporters of the protestors were stopping by Target stores and pizza parlors to buy food, trash bags and hygiene products for the demonstrators.

Over and over, again and again. FOX continues to issue conflicting statements that the demonstrators are pot-smoking, dirty hippies, while others on FOX say the demonstrators are smart, cunning, well organized and that they are funded by unions and corporations.

OK now, which is it folks?

One commentator has even stated how nice and polite the demonstrators were and that other than the violence by the local police with the use of their batons, mace and pepper spray, the demonstrations were quiet and peaceful.

Most people are not aware that as it was with many of the marches and demonstrations of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. during the Civil Rights marches, the Occupy Wall Street movement in New York City has also banned using any loud-speaker amplification for speeches. Everything that is said as a possible protestor speech has to be continually passed on and repeated by hundreds of people so others can hear (a k a "the human microphone"), what is actually said in Liberty Park in New York City.

It´s interesting that when Occupy Wall Street protests began three weeks ago, most news organizations were nowhere to be seen, if they even mentioned the event at all. For example, nine days into the protests, even National Public Radio (NPR) had provided no coverage whatsoever.

But this week it was shown just how aware these protestors are as to the "less than honest" commentary that is offered on the FOX network.

When the FOX network sent Geraldo Rivera and their news cameras to interview the protestors in Liberty Park near Wall Street, the protestors sent Rivera running for home as the crowd continued yelling, "Fox News lies, Fox News lies, Fox News lies" until the FOX crew finally headed for home.

It is, therefore, a testament to the passion of those involved that the protests have not only continued, they have now grown way too big to ignore. And with the unions and a growing number of Democrats now expressing levels of qualified support for the protesters, OWS is starting to look like an important event that might eventually become the nation´s turning point to political and economic sanity.

As of today, there are OWS demonstrations in NYC, Boston, Washington DC, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, St Louis, Kansas City, Denver, San Diego, Buffalo, Indianapolis, Casper, Idaho Falls, Grand Rapids, Des Moines, and other OWS demonstrations are occurring or are planned abroad in Canada, UK, Germany and Sweden.

But what can we seriously say about the protests?

First things first: The protesters´ declaration of Wall Street as a destructive force, economically, politically and ecologically is completely correct.

But what exactly did Wall Street and the bankers do to cause this major uprising across the county and around the world?

Well, first, Wall Street was bailed out with Bush´s TARP funds that had virtually no stipulations for how the funds were supposed to be used. Wall Street and the bankers then took advantage of the GOP´s deregulation by running wild with the bail-out funds and "paying themselves princely sums". They had also previously inflated huge and risky bubbles through their reckless lending. But when that bubble burst, the ordinary American workers were the only ones to suffer the consequences of the bankers´ sins.

And the bankers then showed their wonderful gratitude by turning on the people who had saved their butts, throwing their support and their wealth (due to the taxpayer bailouts), behind the Republican politicians who promised to keep their taxes low. These so called conservative politicians also agreed to dismantle the somewhat weak financial regulations that were developed during the aftermath of the original 2008 crisis.

Based on this history, it´s amazing that it´s taken this long for the general American public to finally begin taking a positive stand!

The issue today is, everyone can see that the current system is deeply unjust and it has been careening out of control.

Unfettered greed on Wall Street has virtually trashed the global economy. And this greed is also trashing our natural world as well. The major energy corporations are polluting our well-water with "fracking" the earth for natural gas while also asking for more deepwater drilling permits. And our atmosphere cannot absorb the amount of carbon we are putting into it, creating dangerous global warming while the conservatives continue to say that "climate change is a hoax". The new normal is serial disasters, both economic and ecological.

These are the facts on the ground. They are so blatant, so obvious, that it has become a lot easier to connect with the public today than it ever has been. And this has caused the OWS movement to build so quickly and completely.

We all know, or we at least have the sense, that the world is currently upside down. But up to now, the public had acted as if there were strict and immovable limits to what is in truth, actually quite bountiful. That being, the financial resources necessary for building the kind of society we want and need.

But the average American has decided that to get what is need, the 99% er´s have finally decided to pick their fight with the most powerful economic and political forces on the planet. And that is very frightening. But as this movement grows from strength to strength, it will get even more frightening. The protestors must always be aware that there will be a temptation to shift to smaller, more immediate targets. But as MLK Jr. had said during the Civil Rights protests, "always keep your focus on the long-term goal, not the fight of the moment" .

Mr. Rich Yeselson, a veteran organizer and historian of social movements has recently suggested that debt relief for working Americans will become a central plank of the OWS protests. And this approach would do a lot to help the economy recover. The protestors should also demand infrastructure investment to help create jobs. But neither proposal will become law in the current political climate. However, one of the points of the OWS protest is to change that political climate.

The Republicans are claiming that the protests are examples of, "Class Warfare". Well, if it´s 99% of the nation against the wealthiest 1% and their major corporations, I guess the Republicans are correct. But that doesn´t mean that in this particular case that "Class Warfare" is wrong!

Finally, the OWS protest has given the Democrats a possible second chance. It is now obvious that the Obama administration squandered a lot of potential good will by adopting banker-friendly policies that failed to deliver economic recovery. And the president is finding that out, as the bankers have repaid his favors by turning on the president. Now however, Mr. Obama´s party has that rare opportunity of a "do-over". And all the party apparently has to do is to join in the support of the protestors and to take these protests as seriously as they deserve to be taken.

And if the protests succeed in pushing some politicians into doing what they should have been doing all along, Occupy Wall Street will become a long-term smashing success.

But those driving the protest must keep their focus on the goal and continue to keep it peaceful as it spreads across the nation.

Copyright G.Ater 2011

Follow me on Twitter: gater01