Why I Support the Occupy Movement

People have asked me what is going on with the Occupy Wall St. movement and what it is all about. I can only tell you what it means to me.

I turned 60 this year, I have had a job continues since I am 16. I have never been laid off, never collected a dime of public assistance and never been fired. From the time I entered college in 1969 the American Middle class has shrunk and wages have been on a steady decline. This decade the middle class lost 7% of wealth. The middle class who had 401k saving plans have lost substantial value. The middle class home owners have lost value in their biggest investment and some are upside-down and owe more than the house is worth. It cost more today to raise a family than ever before and wages have been stagnant for 40 years.

Over that time from 1970-2011 the wealth of the top 1% of the country has gone up over 300%. The disparity between the rich and the middle class is now at the greatest disparity it has been since 1929.

Middle class families cannot afford to send their children to college. It will be the first generation where the children of college educated parents will have less representation in college than their parents.

The American middle class is at a cross road. Will we be sheep and let the rich fleece this country or will we step up and say no? I am marching in the Occupy Knoxville demonstration against the state of the country. 

We are in two endless wars which is feeding the American war machine to the tune of $6 billion a week. The Department of Defense budget is 52% of the country’s GDP. The rest of the world is at 25%. 

Our politicians from both parties are allowed to accept uncontrolled amounts of money from corporations. The money trading hands in Washington has rendered our Government ungovernable. Political gridlock is the norm and ideology and social engineering by the right wing is a cause for alarm. Republicans have attacked women, education, civil rights, and labor all for their right wing conservative religious based ideology.

15 million people are unemployed. 56 million people are living in poverty. We have more black men in prison than in college. The unemployment rate in the black community is over 20%. The unemployment rate in Hispanic neighborhoods is pushing 18%. Minorities lost more than any group under the weight of the recession.

Corporations have been told by a corrupt Supreme Court that they can throw as much money into elections as they want. We have Supreme Court Justices who are accepted gifts from people who have cases before the court, openly taking trips and money from special interest.

I do believe the number one reason the country is in this mess is because of the debacle of the last decade. From the moment George Bush took office the Republicans had total control over the Government. It was the Bush Administration who blundered into Iraq, leaving the only legitimate reason to go to war in the first place as an after thought. Top the unfunded expense of the wars with the largest tax reduction for the wealthy in the history of the republic and a unfunded prescription drug plan and we were drawn into a perfect storm of economic ruin. If that was not enough the Republicans push through the repeal of the Glass - Steagall Act. Bill Clinton says he made a mistake on signing off on the repeal. Glass - Steagall was enacted as a result of the Great Depression. This was done under the disguise of "modernization".  The Bush Administration left the country in $9 Trillion dollars in debt spending money and reducing taxes.

All of these things plus some other issues are the reasons why I am marching. Pick a reason to take to the streets, there are many. This is the only way this government will change its behavior. Wall Street is the heart of our countries financial institutions and in 68 when we marched to end Viet Nam we took the march there. Nothing has changed. Take to the streets; show your dissatisfaction with our government and plan a march on Washington. Lets put the 15 million people without jobs on the streets of protest.

If you love America and are afraid of the future come out to a demonstration near you. The fate of our economy and our country is in your hands.