(A year ago, on the eve of the First Birthday of #Occupy Wall Street!, I fiddled and futzed with my old Dell Laptop; hooked up an $8 microphone; dusted off the guitar, harmonica and vocal chords and created a music video of a revised version of "The Flame of Liberty Park" as a birthday present to the courageous souls who put their hearts on the line at Zuccotti Park! It seems it's that time again! Happy Birthday #OWS! And now you are two!)
I wrote the first version of "The Flame of Liberty Park" the night that Mayor Bloomberg first drew a line in the sand, threatening to clear Zuccotti Park at daybreak. If you remember, MoveOn.org had then rapidly collected and delivered 250, 000 signatures to City Hall demanding that the Mayor back off and thousands of NYC union members had showed up to bolster the Occupiers. It was a tense time. (I was tuned that night from MA via Livestream) As dawn approached the word came in. Mayor Bloomberg had backed off. A whoop went up! Folks were ecstatic!
Well, as we all know, time rolled on and a couple of months later, under the cover of darkness, the mayor's militarized minions swept the park. Yet, as many of us know, the Occupy Spirit rolls on, alive and well, in many forms--in NYC (see Occupy Sandy) and throughout the world.
Although the Top Dogs of Canine Capitalism continue to beat the drums of war, violence, avarice, and greed, a whole bunch of us continue to march to the beat of a different drummer. In our heart of hearts we know a better world is possible. It's only a matter of time.
(CONTINUED)
