writes: "We are but ten weeks old, yet we have already changed the national conversation. This is our moment, the one we've been hoping for, waiting for. If it's going to happen it has to happen now. Don't sit this one out. This is the real deal. This is it."
Michael Moore visited Occupy Oakland three days after the crackdown, 10/28/11. (photo: KQED News)
Where Does Occupy Wall Street Go From Here?
22 November 11
his past weekend I participated in a four-hour meeting of Occupy Wall Street activists whose job it is to come up with the vision and goals of the movement. It was attended by 40+ people and the discussion was both inspiring and invigorating. Here is what we ended up proposing as the movement's "vision statement" to the General Assembly of Occupy Wall Street:We Envision: [1] a truly free, democratic, and just society; [2] where we, the people, come together and solve our problems by consensus; [3] where people are encouraged to take personal and collective responsibility and participate in decision making; [4] where we learn to live in harmony and embrace principles of toleration and respect for diversity and the differing views of others; [5] where we secure the civil and human rights of all from violation by tyrannical forces and unjust governments; [6] where political and economic institutions work to benefit all, not just the privileged few; [7] where we provide full and free education to everyone, not merely to get jobs but to grow and flourish as human beings; [8] where we value human needs over monetary gain, to ensure decent standards of living without which effective democracy is impossible; [9] where we work together to protect the global environment to ensure that future generations will have safe and clean air, water and food supplies, and will be able to enjoy the beauty and bounty of nature that past generations have enjoyed.
The next step will be to develop a specific list of goals and demands. As one of the millions of people who are participating in the Occupy Wall Street movement, I would like to respectfully offer my suggestions of what we can all get behind now to wrestle the control of our country out of the hands of the 1% and place it squarely with the 99% majority.
Here is what I will propose to the General Assembly of Occupy Wall Street:
10 Things We Want
A Proposal for Occupy Wall Street
Submitted by Michael Moore
1. Eradicate the Bush tax cuts for the rich and institute new taxes on the wealthiest Americans and on corporations, including a tax on all trading on Wall Street (where they currently pay 0%).
2. Assess a penalty tax on any corporation that moves American jobs to other countries when that company is already making profits in America. Our jobs are the most important national treasure and they cannot be removed from the country simply because someone wants to make more money.
3. Require that all Americans pay the same Social Security tax on all of their earnings (normally, the middle class pays about 6% of their income to Social Security; someone making $1 million a year pays about 0.6% (or 90% less than the average person). This law would simply make the rich pay what everyone else pays.
4. Reinstate the Glass-Steagall Act, placing serious regulations on how business is conducted by Wall Street and the banks.
5. Investigate the Crash of 2008, and bring to justice those who committed any crimes.
6. Reorder our nation's spending priorities (including the ending of all foreign wars and their cost of over $2 billion a week). This will re-open libraries, reinstate band and art and civics classes in our schools, fix our roads and bridges and infrastructure, wire the entire country for 21st century internet, and support scientific research that improves our lives.
7. Join the rest of the free world and create a single-payer, free and universal health care system that covers all Americans all of the time.
8. Immediately reduce carbon emissions that are destroying the planet and discover ways to live without the oil that will be depleted and gone by the end of this century.
9. Require corporations with more than 10,000 employees to restructure their board of directors so that 50% of its members are elected by the company’s workers. We can never have a real democracy as long as most people have no say in what happens at the place they spend most of their time: their job. (For any U.S. businesspeople freaking out at this idea because you think workers can't run a successful company: Germany has a law like this and it has helped to make Germany the world’s leading manufacturing exporter.)
10. We, the people, must pass three constitutional amendments that will go a long way toward fixing the core problems we now have. These include:
a) A constitutional amendment that fixes our broken electoral system by 1) completely removing campaign contributions from the political process; 2) requiring all elections to be publicly financed; 3) moving election day to the weekend to increase voter turnout; 4) making all Americans registered voters at the moment of their birth; 5) banning computerized voting and requiring that all elections take place on paper ballots.
b) A constitutional amendment declaring that corporations are not people and do not have the constitutional rights of citizens. This amendment should also state that the interests of the general public and society must always come before the interests of corporations.
c) A constitutional amendment that will act as a "second bill of rights" as proposed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt: that every American has a human right to employment, to health care, to a free and full education, to breathe clean air, drink clean water and eat safe food, and to be cared for with dignity and respect in their old age.
Let me know what you think. Occupy Wall Street enjoys the support of millions. It is a movement that cannot be stopped. Become part of it by sharing your thoughts with me or online (at OccupyWallSt.org). Get involved in (or start!) your own local Occupy movement. Make some noise. You don't have to pitch a tent in lower Manhattan to be an Occupier. You are one just by saying you are. This movement has no singular leader or spokesperson; every participant is a leader in their neighborhood, their school, their place of work. Each of you is a spokesperson to those whom you encounter. There are no dues to pay, no permission to seek in order to create an action.
We are but ten weeks old, yet we have already changed the national conversation. This is our moment, the one we've been hoping for, waiting for. If it's going to happen it has to happen now. Don't sit this one out. This is the real deal. This is it.
Have a happy Thanksgiving!
Comments
OWS wouldn't be there if it wasn't for the fact that the mortgage-backed securities were the prime focus of the Wall Street Ponzi scheme. Now, we have foreclosures and lost pensions for almost every state and federal government worker, union and corporate 401k beneficiary - the retirement funds are gone. Acknowledge these people - this is their plight, not carbon emissions or universal healthcare. Save the American family - the core is their home. The rest is worthless without stability.
Please spread the word, far and wide. Time to be givers and then some to the OWSers. For example, no big suprise, the cops in Colorado Springs, without proper notice, shut our OWSers down this past Sunday night, destroying tents, taking survival clothing, etc. evil etc..
The following afternoon, I heard of what had happened the night before as I stopped at the OWS park. I immediately invited any and all in need of a place to stay to escape the bitter cold and going hungry, to ride with me and others, and come up to the ranch I own. Let's open our doors and hearts, and give our sooooo brave brother and sister OWSers all the help and support we can.
Many thanks this Thanksgiving to all who are so strongly determined to win.....
liberty and justice and peace for all.
Happy Thanksgiving to you to, Kayjay! I am in total agreement with you and Michael Moore. I'll even go as far to suggest amending these (all ten of them) to our U.S. Constitution. BTW; HAPPY THANKSGIVING MICHAEL MOORE!
Happy Thanksgiving to you too Michael!
I am for OWS and I agree with all written here. Its finally happening, they went to far, and its finally happening!
GO OWS GO!!!
There's lots of great items on it; but there's a bucket full of other good ideas from a thousand and one points of view; and the general population is overwhelmed by words, statistics, etc.
We need something really, really simple; something the vast majority of Americans can hear ONE time and go, "yeah, I agree with that."
Micheal mentioned them. Here are the two points I suggest:
1) Prosecute the bailout banksters, (name names).
2) Eliminate Corporate Campaign contributions
That's a beginning, nothing more. It gets the negotiation started.
Remember: such demands will not be met until there's a revolution. They merely serve as a mechanism of negotiation.
Others may choose to negotiate/ advocate for other Movement proposals.
Frankly, for a democracy to work, it needs to have some layers like this. It's not overly-complex, nor overly-simple to start. It needs to be embraceable by most people and hard to argue with by opponents who for whatever reason refuse to join it at first. It needs to be modifiable as well when necessary.
A great starting list, to be sure!
We MUST get away from the system that we all use now. The "Fed" is nothing to do with the Federal Govt. it is just a private company that charges interest for the priviledge of creating US money from 'nothing' (i.e. on a computer). The IMF is the same, and the B of E is based on the same debt-system. Read the damn book!!
The drive to unify around ANY set of demands will split the movement along fault lines of people's disagreements about those demands.
The unity we need is the agreement that citizens can shape our nation and our future. The innovations we need are innovations that help citizens who share policy goals to act powerfully together to achieve those goals.
It is not the job of Occupy to tell citizens what they should advocate together.
It is the job of Occupy to push the national conversation and expand citizens' capacity to take effective action on WHATEVER they are passionate about.
We must not forget that the 99% is not homogenous. It is diverse. We must must must honor and empower that diversity - in practice - or it will tear apart our efforts to generate unity.
You've done a wonderful job of beginning to name the country's -- and our -- most pressing concerns and needs.
We need a constitutional amendment for women's full equality that addresses the many forms of discrimination women and their families still face in employment, pay equity, reproductive rights, and the enormous disparity in both costs and benefits for women for insurance, pensions and social security.
Nearly 75% of the nation's 4 million elderly poor are women. Older women have just over half the income of older men, and women of color have significantly less income than older white women. The disproportionat e poverty of older women is created by a lifetime of low wages intensified by sex discrimination in pensions, retirement insurance, and social security.
Occupy is already pushing the national conversation and beginning to expand citizens' capacity to take action. If any of the proposals can be advocated by the majority of the 99% and effectively enacted, this will be the beginning of success.
As a student of the I Ching, I agree that the beginning is important. My point is that this is a beginning to more talk, which just keeps repeating itself.
Or, perhaps we could have two lists: a comprehensive one; and a list of one or two demands on which to act.
My letter to Santa.
Dear Santa, Please bring Michael's proposals to fruition.To save the country i love.
Do you think it will happen?
I live in hope..
All company profits/losses shared EQUALLY among it's workers -all of them.
All un-occupied housing used to house the homeless.
Prisons changed into hospitals where criminals are treated as patients who are ill or addicted, and drug offenders are treated and released.
All drugs legalized.
Like Denmark, (which boasts the highest human development index in the world) we need a floor on how poor we let folks get and a ceiling on how rich we let them get.
Citizens use consensus to decide local issues where everyone votes online and cut out the politician/middleman.
Dissolve the federal government and Federal Reserve. Give power back to individuals who can come together in Bioregional Affiliations based on sustainable practices for preserving, trading in and renewing native flora and fauna.
Thank you for all you do Michael.
AND - WARNING analysts from Morgan Stanley were recently quoted as saying the "Rentership society is upon us". Wall street is actually trying to get the Federal Housing Finance Administration to let Freddie Mac and Mannie Mae sell them their foreclosed properties and make Wall Street the new landlords. AND they are asking for additional tax incentives in order to rob us of our most important tool for building equity and wealth!
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac hold more than 50% of American Mortgages - whatever they do, others will likely follow - AND they are semi-public entities and accountable to US citizens who bailed them out.
It's time to Bail Out America - NOT Sell out America. PLEASE ADD Automatic Principal Reduction for Underwater Homes to the list of demands.
Forward together!
The people are.
They create jobs by their demand for goods and services.
Corporations are attracted to that demand like moths to a flame, not out of altruism or benevolence, but for profit.
As the peoples' representative government should be in the business of protecting our core values not creating "business friendly" environments; that is corruptions.
Businesses must operate within the confines of our values.
Those that can, survived.
Those that cannot, die and are replaced by those that can.
The notion that corporations are job creators is a scam to secure our deference to them as putative masters of the universe.
Bill
AND, that we make reparations to the other beings that we share this planet with, who we are wiping out at an unprecedented rate. We owe it to them.. they are our brothers and sisters too.
5. Investigate the Crash of 2008, bring to justice those who committed any crimes, and enact appropriate legislation to ensure that it never happens again.
This should be our top demand, the one we can all agree on. Can you imagine anyone saying the crash was a good thing? That it should not be investigated? That those who have committed crimes should not be prosecuted (provided there is sufficient evidence and due process)?
Some of the other demands may not be received well by others in the 99%, even if you are totally right. Let's not push hard for something that will tear us apart. Let's speak with a voice that is as unified as possible.
I don't care if this constitutes totally free trade or not. We must make decisions that preserve American jobs and improve the standard of living at home first.
We want the government and country to represent the people and not the money powers!
What an inspiring idea!
Now if we could end our insane military occupations, we might be able to do even better.
Use the money from #1,2, and 6 to pay-off ALL mortgages in default due to corporate culpability in the housing meltdown and to refinance ALL student loan at the lowest current rate OR have them totally forgiven forgiven for four years of public service.
Reinstate a mandatory universal draft. The all-volunteer army has given Presidents and the military freedom to wage a series of useless, expensive wars. We, the people, have to assume responsibility and this is the way to do it.
for a good clear voicing
of our desires, demands
and current search
for ways and means
with love
d
I would add one point. Number 11.
The United States of America formally and publicly apologizes for every wrong and horror perpetrated upon the original inhabitants of this continent, and set aside a new kind of Thanksgiving or Columbus day to honor those who died in the seizing of the richest lands on earth. Further, we, present day Americans, try to make amends for the crime by stewardship of the continent to be the envy of the world. That is the highest respect for nature and our environment.
A capitalist fat cat getting rich off of stupid communist who buy his stuff - gotta love that free market.
What "stuff" am I buying? I must have missed that part...
Got any shining alternatives instead of y'r usual spiteful, fantasy-based crap? C'mon facts for a change or shut the Hell up! (I'd love to meet you in a pub sometime).
Why - would you beat me up?
Is that your intellectual prowess?
Michael Moore has made millions selling various films, Fahrenheit 9/11 - last I read he was in additional law suit to get another $29 million for that, Bowling for Combine,Capital ism a love Story, Sicko, Stupid White men and others - and that is fine with me.
That is how freedom and a free market work. People choose to buy or rent his movies and he gets rich - and other people like me ignore him and do other things.
The irony of getting rich by pitching collectivism and anti-individual anti-freedom anti-capitalism to communist who are ignorant of economics is amusing.
He does not 'pitch' some 'collectivist' committee determining what is an appropriate use of his profits. Michael freely and individually has determined how he wants to invest his largess - apparently in support of universal education, health care and citizen participation. While you may interpret those egalitarian goals as communist or socialist, they are also Christ-ish, Muhammed-ish and Buddha-ish.
If Michael Moore has invested his efforts to expose what he feels is the hypocrisy of capitalism's justification of job-shifting to slave labor resources OR environmental destruction requiring public cleanups, OR nuclear power constructs with citizen responsibility to solve and pay for waste disposal, so be it. His freedom to express his opinion may offend what you believe is freedom and the American Way, but it is his right.
No I wouldn't beat you up; I'm gettin' too old for that stuff and I hope, a bit more sane with it.
And don't even get me stared on intellectual prowess; yours appears to be atrophied and blinkered -and that's puttin' it nicely as I can manage in print.
A good pub is a fine, relaxed, neutral ground for a healthy debate for those of us who don't have public platforms. I find that people like you often turn tail if asked or challenged to engage me in a fact-based discussion face-to-face in public after making snide or spiteful remarks from the shadows without making any constructive alternatives, or "declaimers" rather than debaters -and you seem to fit that profile nicely from your classic reactionary babble!
So, Moore -having been poor- made money HONORABLY, helps GOOD causes with it as an open, truly altruistic philanthropist -and had to hire a navy seal security squad after release of F- 9-11 as COWARDS of many stripes were TRULY challenged by it; sound familiar??? Can't stand that can you?
"
We can always depend on this duck to come up with some air-headed cliche. Thanks again Martintfre. I think its capitalists that have been buying a bill of goods. You old teabagger you.
Martintfre, do you have something against the common man?
Real human beings care about other human beings and have empathy for those in need and believe in equality for men and women and all races and religions. Because a person is a humanitarian does not mean he or she is a communist or a member or advocate of any particular party or political idealogy. It simply means that person is an authentic human being in the highest sense of the word.
What I see in all your ideas and proposals is an unspoken, implicit sense of what human beings may be moving toward: a general enlightenment of the race that enables a transpersonal sense of identity. I am no pollyanna, Mike; I know that what I'm talking about is a long time distant, if it happens at all.
However, a society that embraces the kind of ideas and principles you're discussing would create a social environment that would begin to enable such an enlightenment. We have to begin somewhere, and you and the Occupy folks seem to have the right sense of where and how to begin. May it happen, in peace, in justice and in compassion.
We are moving toward a state of general enlightenment. It often does not seem that way because some are moving so much slower than others who have an innate sense that spirituality and compassion is more important than material goods and real power comes from internal empowerment, evolving as a person and transpersonal consciousness.
You're right; "Lone Wolf" is something of a misnomer. I picked that as a user name because I am a published writer--mosty poetry some cultural analysys--and writing tends to be a lonely craft. I have thought better of it since I chose that name. I would like to be known as "Travlin' Light," since that is part of the book title of my published volume of verse. However, I can't find a way to change my user name on this site. If you know how to do it,let me know.
A capitalist fat cat getting rich off of stupid communist who buy his stuff - gotta love that free market.'
---------------------------------------
Okay, but after the name calling, what is it that you agree or disagree with.
Also we don't have a free market, the 1% have made sure of that.
The prerequisite to accomplishing any of the demands is this:
Get corporate influence (esp.money) out of electoral politics. Put more simply: One person, one vote.
Corporations need not apply.
Obviously, what Michael Moore has written is a proposal, not a final draft. It gives the movement something substantial to work with as we move from bringing attention to the injustice to crafting a just world.
DON'T FORGET THE GOAL OF ESTABLISHING UNIVERSAL SINGLE PAYER HEALTH-CARE. HOW COULD U FORGET?!
But he didn't forget! Note his 7th proposition:
7. Join the rest of the free world and create a single-payer, free and universal health care system that covers all Americans all of the time.
Ref: Michaels point #7
Hey didn't you read it all, thats in there...next time read it all before you accuse him...
When corporations are small there is some economy of scale. But the only benefits of being huge are the gauranteed bailout, and being able to change our laws to suit the corporation.
S
-----------------------------------
Yes, there always going to be rich and poor. But we used to live in country where rich owned factory and make 30 times what factory worker make. Now we live in country where rich make money by lying about value of derivative bonds and make 3000 times what factory worker would make if factories hadn’t all moved to China.
It not about rich people having more money. It about how they got money. It about how they take opportunity away from rest of us, for sake of having more money. It how they willing to take risks that destroy economy — knowing full well what could and would happen — putting millions out of work, while creating nothing of value, and all the while crowing that they John Galt, creating wealth for everyone.
"Cookie Monster"
How about we prioritize it and go after "the American Democratic List" a few demands at a time.
Too much usually results in chaos and inactivity for many reasons.
I vote for #1 repeal the Supremes' "person hood" for Corporations to BUY our elections. That decision does not comport with "my" U.S. constitution in any way, shape, or etc.
Go Wisconsin, OWS and NEVER vote Republican. I believe those who sign with Guber Norquist belong to some sort of cult whose aim is to move the $$ to the top 1%
Register early, get mail in ballots and help minorities, etc to do the same. The GOP are rigging our elections against our privilege to vote as Democrats
The movement needs desperately to come together with a specific mission statement and goals. The question is, How can this best be achieved by vote of all supporters?
Despite what many say we do need a singularly recognized OWS website (be that OccupyWallStree t.org or not) where voting can take place on line. Where mass rallies can be organised with marches on Washington etc. Someone needs to set this up. (maybe Dr. Shelksohn will offer up OWS.com ?)
I vote for you Michael to offer to set this up and bring ALL together.
One little island, so many big players. They drink, relax, spend their spare change on $10+ million dollar homes they spend a summer week in. Getting away from it all... the stress of being so rich and so powerful. What fun to have a Mr. Moore show pop over. Say "hello," and shed some light on the life style of the .01%.
Just a thought...
Ultimately, two things need to happen. We need to vote, Not just for the guy or gal whose sound bites sound good at the moment – but whose track record is consistent with the ideals we would like to see come to fruition. 30% voter turnout is indicative that most folks are indifferent or feel they have no say. How many Occupiers voted in the last election? How many occupiers are registered to vote?
And even more important, we need to vote with our wallets, do you know when you go shopping whether you are buying a Koch product? Do you buy gas from the closest or cheapest station without consideration as to what that company has done to the environment? We have tremendous power is a buying power. If your dollars were channeled into companies that supported the causes you believed in how would that impact the discussion?
The genius of OWS is its horizontal hierarchy. That is what a real Democratic-Republic looks like. If a problem arises someone steps forward, assists in the solution and then steps back. The original system of the Founding Fathers was, representatives came to Washington with questions and seeking answers. When the round was finished and solutions were reached the House and Senate went home and went back to WORK to bring in their crops or mill their cotton or whatever actual WORK that they did for a living. The recess for the Federal Legislature provided no public trough from which to feed.
That is where we need to be again. The list of demands already exist and is called the Declaration of Independence and the answer to the declaration is the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
Stopping asking for your America back! It's yours! Just take it. Demand that those who do not protect and defend the Constitution of the US and The BIll of RIghts be held accountable. Simple stuff really.
Lets not play out this OWS on a battleground of our enemies making. We the People can bring them down in ways that are legal and Constitutionall y guaranteed.
When they General Strike and the Tax Payers Strike happens, we will win the day.
You write of a sane society. We are, at present, an insane society, one based on a very old human impulse, that of hoarding food for the winter. That is the origin of greed. Ninety thousand years ago, when we came out of Africa, it made sense. It does not now. Now our motto is to lie, cheat and steal until you get caught. One reads about this every day, without fail, in our daily newspaper. When it comes to survival, all bets are off.
I can offer, on top of a free education, the right of all men to learn how to read. And the sacred obligation to help children learn how to read by using the instant sight words from the fry word list. All fifth graders must know these words. If not, they must not advance but instead go to a special school where all you learn are these words. only six hundred words and you are literate. I did it with 25 out of 25 students who were in the fourth grade, and on free lunch.
Also, along with single payer, single buyer of drugs and single seller of medicines other than over the counter products. Drug stores, not drug companies, are the ones that fix prices in this country. They are an enemy of the state.
What a Country of awe if this could come to be?
Now let' find a Presidential Candidate (other than Obama)who will not compromise these principals...
What if instead of picking a specific list of demands, OWS created forums where people who have favorite demands (which I call "policy options") can find people who agree with them, and help them build alliances with others who have similar agendas and generate grassroots lobbying power. In other words, democratic forms that empower citizens to take action together on what they believe in.
Pushing a specific "united" agenda will, paradoxically, divide us. Our most powerful (and sustainable) unity lies in our ability to connect up with each other around issues and solutions and visions that matter to us. Out of such a generative process, the issues, solutions, and visions we ACTUALLY most share in common will EMERGE. No one has to sort them out and nail them down into an agenda.
OWS divided into forumns to discuss and implement actions from the time they began to occupy Zuccotti Park.
People connecting up around policy options they share in common, taking action together, and generating lobbying power sounds like the way to achieve positive change in the issue(s) they believe are most important.
I think I understand your point that considering everything in the OWS agenda at once can be overwhelming. Have you expressed these ideas to Michael Moore?
Is a very good start but....
is very much just that, a "facelift" that won't last long, and won't go too far...
What We need is a Complete Regime Change...
Including the drafting of a new Constitution !!!
(e.g. ICELAND...)
Also is important to send to prison and to punish, all the Traitors, CEO's, Banksters, Mining and Oil Barons Destroying our environment, Politicians on a pay-roll of Corporate entities. and all their accomplices, etc etc, to show next leaders and elected officials, that crime won't pay...
Is simply not enough to do a "band-aid fix", on our Nation...
This is a Revolution, not a "protest" for some ten only, changes...
Obama did those same Promises around 2008 and Look were we are now...
All Congres, all Senate, All Supreme Court, Ministeries, and ill elected Public Servants, should be fired, investigated for treason and replaced by new elected by General Assembly CITIZENS Choices.
Anything less is just like an "eye-filler", and it won't do the job...
P.S. We need to move Obama to the LEFT and we need to get rid of ALL Conservatives... no matter whether they are DEMS OR REPUGS...
How about some actions?
Modest proposal--30 large, profitable corporations paid not taxes. How about boycotting them this xmas? Ahem, one of them was Mattel.
I'd also like more ecological goals such as protecting natural forests from "harvesting". protecting soil and water from destruction from bad ag. practices, labeling all GM organisms so that consumers have a choice and humanity's 10,000 year heritage of biodiversity is not diminished.
"The State has no interest in or jurisdiction over the unborn."
Now cut it down to about 3 things we can focus on...
You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down.
You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.
You cannot build character and courage by taking away people's initiative and independence.
You cannot help people permanently by doing for them, what they could and should do for themselves.
... Abraham Lincoln
Read on;
"These words are often attributed to Abraham Lincoln, but according to the book "THEY NEVER SAID IT: A Book of Fake Quotes, Misquotes, & Misleading Attributions", they are not from Lincoln.
The quotes were published in 1942 by William J. H. Boetcker, a Presbyterian minister. He released a pamphlet entitled "Lincoln On Limitations", which did include a Lincoln quote, but also added 10 statements (including the ones you quote so tritely) written by Boetcker himself.
You must work or be a shill for the FOX fact-benders pal!
WRONG AGAIN!
"An outspoken political conservative, Rev. Boetcker is perhaps best remembered for his authorship of a pamphlet entitled The Ten Cannots that emphasizes freedom and responsibility of the individual on himself. Originally published in 1916, it is often misattributed to Abraham Lincoln."
Some conservatives use it because they have no interest in verifying things they want to believe. Ronald Reagan used it.
It is too late
For revolution
So rise up not simply
To justice but to radical
Clemency:
Even those
Who have impoverished
And betrayed us
Gently
Take their hands
Walk them
From their towers
From their banks
Call them
From their yachts
Their second homes
Interrupt them
As they celebrate
Hanging from diamonds
To allow a forest
Where boulevards
Had been
To allow the tears
Of strangled rage
To allow the fear
Of the powerless
Allowing a heart
Too big to fail
ON GOAL 2: Why can't a company do what it wants with its assets? Isn't there private property? The idea that jobs are "the most important national treasure" seems to say that money is what gives life meaning. That is questionable. Seems to me that what you should be driving at here is the practice of placing corporate assets earned in America into off-shore accounts.
On 6: Glad that the wars have been mentioned. However, this is framed as a one-time fix. The structural problems leading to this situation include the failure of the President to gain permission from Congress before going the war, the corporate/military revolving door, lack of adequate auditing of the military, etc. Focus on the underlying structural problems. This one needs serious work.
COMMENT: As others have noted, you haven't addressed the manipulation of debt or the foreclosure mess--just as significant as the deregulation of the banks in the current crisis. Read Ellen Brown. Consider abolishing the Fed and creating both a National Band and/or State Banks. Consider specific relief for those whose homes are in foreclosure.
OWS must concentrate on actualizing the civil rights present in the constitution towards real democracy. It must expand world wide and its banner could be: "For a human world"
Every individual is responsible for being more human and having "humaneness" actualized in practical life where ever his or her life develops. The responsibility must not be left to a few leaders, everyone must know themselves responsible for "life".
It is important to not be naive about protecting people from the unconsciousness in power which is why the movement must organize and real work be assigned.