QueerFM Opinion (sort of): OCCUPY Movement (not enough FACTS for ACTUAL opinion))

First off...I'm saddened by the death of 'Ashley'. the second protester in less than a week to present with overdose symptoms.  Despite saving the overdose victim earlier in the week, best efforts of onsite medics and Vancouver City Paramedics to save the second - failed. I don't have words to express how sad it is to lose someone so young to overdose.  As for former firefighter/paramedic from a metro system MUCH larger than Vancouver, you'd think I'd be a bit hardened having seen overdose deaths so many times.  I'm not.  It still tears me apart to hear about this.  If only I or someone else had been there sooner...

There are SO many issues in play here...so rather than re-tread the ground being covered by the Vancouver SUN, CBC and other Canadian media (check @QueerFMVan on Twitter for articles posted)...I REALLY tried to find out the OCCUPY Movement's goals and the WHY of it all.  I wanted this young woman's death to *mean* something.

The BEST definition I could find:

OCCUPY MOVEMENT

Q: What is the goal? Why are we protesting?

A: "This protest cannot be boiled down to a simple soundbite because this protest is ambitiously seeking a complex, fundamental, philosophical change in the social, political, and economic infrastructure of our country... The strength of Occupy... lies in the ambiguity of its mission. There is no laundry list of specific, unreasonable, and untenable demands. There is only the demand for change. Change of, by, and for the people, enacted by our elected officials. If the powers-that-be respond with absolutely nothing, then it is clear that they will never, ever be interested in effecting substantial change of our financial system, no matter how strong public support may be."
(from www.occupyvancouver.com)

Is this enough...or effective?  Occupy Vancouver's website also talks of thousands of people across 100 cities and uses the words...

"Too Big To Fail"

REALLY?!?  Wait...didn't they say THAT about the banks and companies they BAILED OUT to the tune of billions? Might I suggest your marketing on this could have used a little help - or perhaps even reading the newspaper before using THOSE words?

Regardless of marketing FAIL...and NOT insisting that your emcampment be DRUG & ALCOHOL FREE from day one - and *enforcing* that (yes...even smoking green), isn't it time to either HAVE a three point set of prinicples you *stand* for?  Perhaps some set of political/financial 'demands', for lack of a better term, to present to government officials, media and the REST of us 99%?

I AM one of the 99% and I agree...government MUST respresent the people it governs.  However, with the problems in Oakland and other cities (as well as ridiculous 'leaders' from OCCUPY Wall Street talking on Stephen Colbert and making public perception WORSE), has this gone too far, too long...and more importantly - is it REALLY *doing* anything??  Is this just 'urban camping' or do you REALLY have something concrete to say while 'occupying' not Wall Street, not the banking district of Vancouver...but the Vancouver Art Gallery grounds?

After all this reading, watching clips on YouTube and other video sources and reading scores of articles...

I still have no idea.

I do have this one thought, however:

If the suposition is that 1% (the rich) have rigged the game to their own benefit, do you REALLY think they care about the 99% (the rest of us) other than using us as a money and labor engine to line their own pockets?  Do you think CAMPING will really SOLVE the issue with no concrete leaders, no stated goals or really NOTHING in mind other than 'raising awareness'?

Oakland just lost patience and unleashed 'Shock & Awe' leading to the first general strike in the city since 1946. Did it change anything? Have the 1% really had a change of heart over any of this?

As I said...I have no idea.

 

But I seriously DOUBT it.

 

That's my (sort of) opinion...and I'm STILL not sorry.

-Aedan Saint
Politics & News (& BASEBALL)
QueerFM Vancouver

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