When the Occupy Wall Street movement began in September of 2011, I remember the pride the un-organizers took in saying there is no leader and the movement will seek its own meaning. That is a fine sentiment if you are looking to be called a rudderless ship. What happened…? Conservatives and old liberals like me labeled it a circling rowboat with only one oar in the water. I was and am a supporter of the OWS idea but you should give me a goal. You cannot just shoot, pass or kick the ball, if you do not intend to score. You must get in the game to win.
Liberals have a second chance with an instructional guide and a call to office, INDIVISIBLE https://www.indivisibleguide.com/.
The three most visible leaders are former congressional staffers Ezra Levin, Leah Greenberg and Angel Padilla, names I can attach to a cause. This is important, I am not trying to minimize the ideas of Occupy it is a fine and noble cause but nobility only gets you the ride on the white horse into the sunset. Indivisible is trying to scale the castle wall, get the crown, the scepter and the throne.
I am a product of inner city Washington DC born during the height of the Jim Crow south. I saw the ascent of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as a child and the deadly fall of Malcolm X as an adolescent. By the time, I was twelve Dr. King was felled by an assassins’ bullet in Memphis, Tennessee. He left behind a legacy that is still unfulfilled but I try every day to make this Union Perfect. We have an opportunity to deliver a healthy political baby this time and not miscarry. I have donated money, marched and sat in defiance until my old bones have ached with disappointment. I feel a renewed spirit to right an injustice once more and drive, racism, misogyny, anti-Semitism and Muslim bigotry out of the darkness that has cast a shadow over the White House.
Move forward with action not just words and platitudes. The Woodstock that Occupy became was partially the fault of those who were so anxious to destroy the system, they had nothing to replace it.
The day following the inauguration of President Trump four million people, organized by women, took to the streets around the world and declared in a loud and clear voice, WE RESIST! Young, old, black, and white stood for something important, the restoration of democracy. I am too old to, “give it a chance.” Giving White Nationalism a chance nearly destroyed the hope of America in the 1800s. I believe America has been the most successful experiment in the history of democratic governance. Despite the enslavement and lynchings of my ancestors, the incalculable damage to family lineages and the lingering effects of years of oppression I still believe in America.
We all have a chance to empower the change that was started by three young leaders who are telling us every day with the impetus of boisterous town halls, picketing at airports and weekly marches in the streets that something smells in the White House and it is time to vote the bums out. https://www.indivisibleguide.com/
’18 and Change’