World Muse Wednesday SOME SIGNS OF THE TIMES

World Muse

Occupy Wall Street
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupy_Wall_Street

Last Sunday Afternoon I traveled downtown
to the encampment at Liberty Park
(renamed Zucatti Park for the lease holder).
I've been paying attention,
gathering material on responses to 'OWS'
and other 'Occupy' demonstrations
in sympathy globally-
from newspapers, magazine,
and blogs I follow.
There may not be as much dancing
as at Woodstock,
and no skinny dipping so far,
but It sure is a happening,
spreading further every hour.
fifty worldwide photographs here
http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2011/10/occupy-wall-street-spreads-worldwide/100171/   

The struggle for Freedom and Justice

is like a Sisyphus stone,

and the response to it can be,

and still is, an unpredictable variable.

World news,
and some newsreels I can barely watch, 
make those facts evident.

Maybe I never recovered from the whiplash,

as our 'Make-Love-Not-War' revolution

exploded into assassinations-

a long splatter trail of eliminations,

or the tedious years that followed

while the daily televised
Warren commission
compiled it's weighty report
here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_Commission 

or images of our scapegoat, Nixon,

golfing,in luxurious disgrace,

or the Winter Soldiers Investigation

that still makes me weep
here 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_Soldier_Investigation

or that iconic photograph of a Vietnamese

girl child, naked, running toward the camera, away from the Mai Lia massacre.

Maybe I'm harboring some of the residual fear and pain those images and events evoked.

Might be I'm still a little heart broken.

Hope and caution walk hand in hand

as I approach issues of global change now.

Our cultural, political and economic systems

are deeply entrenched and intertwined

in every aspect of our lives,

and a great deal of their inner workings-

despite Wiki leaks, leaks less spectacular,

cadres of ardent reporters, and millions

of brave, peaceful-warriors of the word-

 still, remain out of sight, and inaccessible.

Everything is more complex than it's surface.

The 'devil' is always in the details.

Silence still kills.

Meanwhile, our reptilian brain is not

just an appendage of evolution.

It may be the final anatomical glitch

that limits our ability to survive

our decisions so far

--unless--

that moon size meteor slated to sweep by

in early November, shifts,

bumps us off-course,

to the great relief of the planet,

and the benefit of the universe at large

here

http://earthsky.org/space/2005-yu55-asteroid-will-sweep-near-earth-november-8-2011  

 

I talked to a wide variety of folks-

all suffering some degree of the

ripple effect of current events-

Grandmothers for economic fairness,

Indigenous Americans who know occupation better than most,

union members from the not so distant

days of hired goons and baseball bats,

tourists conversing in a variety of languages,

the press, one painter,

here

Paul-www.coroflot.com
under Portfolio

a moonlighting librarian, and some of those activists who've been living there for weeks.

 This movement has raised a hefty sum

to keep on going-on indefinitely.

Many have been arrested,

and pro-bono legal aid is available.

There's even a new Android app called

“I’m Getting Arrested”

which alerts family, friends, and lawyers

here

http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/103902#ixzz1b9HQUELT

Writers

here

http://therumpus.net/2011/10/writers-in-support-of-the-occupy-movement/ 

artists, politicians, lawyers, journalists,

unions, even some members of the police,

and armed forces have shown support.  
 Everyone has something to say about it,
both in mainline rags and on the net.
Tweeting is constant and off the charts.
 
There's a top ten list of 'unlikely supporters'
here
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/johncassidy/2011/10/top-ten-unlikely-occupy-wall-street-supporters.html 
It's the real deal, genuine,
and not to be ignored.

One girl, about 12 years old, there with her father, carried a sign that said "I have never been prouder of my country."  I thought about her all the way home, and for quite awhile after
as I compiled my notes,downloaded
photographs, and sipped tea-
She is the next high school class, the future.     

I still feel the movement needs sharper focus.

It's a magnate for side issues,

not that they are unimportant or unrelated

and, more public relations expertise,

and a song of it's own,

not an old song rehashed for the purpose,

but a new song, written to the purpose.

I'll betcha a dollar to a dime some one,

or many some ones

are working on that right this minute.

Grace Lee Boggs

Born1915
Author, lifelong social activist and feminist.
The Next American Revolution

"Sustainable Activism for the Twenty-First Century"
written with Scott Kurashige
available at
University of California Press
A Conversation
"Out of the Margins: Asian American Movement Building Conference"
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
March 25, 2011

In a more recent talk she addressed

participants of Occupy Wall Street

with a note of encouragement,

embracing the movement,  challenging protesters to examine their minds and hearts, urging deep introspection and intellectual rigor as part of their effort.
Watch Here

http://blog.onbeing.org/post/11447954606/grace-lee-boggs-on-the-

 one related post

http://mscomfortzone.blogspot.com/2011/10/world-muse-wednesday-democracy-current.html