• • Happy Lucky 7th Birthday #Occupy Wall Street! • •

IT'S SO NOT OVER!

September 17th marked the 7th anniversary of the day that protesters descended on 
Zuccotti Park in New York City, re-naming it Liberty Park and launching 
#Occupy Wall Street! 
On November 6th, 2018
we will see whether the Spirit that inspired the nationwide uprising seven years ago
will prevail in the midterm elections. 
 We the People,
 those of us who believe that we are truly created equal 
with an unalienable right to freely pursue our happiness,
must wrest back at least a semblance of political power on November 6th.
I'm hoping that 7 is our lucky number on the 6th!

(Click for lyrics)

As I Sit Here Today

As I sit here today with only 49 days until the midterm elections, I'm admittedly a bit scared at times.

Yet, I remain hopeful.  

At old coot now, at age 72, I still believe that there is an essential Goodness and Decency that resides in the heart of We the People.  I'm praying that our collective aspiration to create a land where all human beings are deemed of equal worth will propel us to wrest back at least a modicum of governmental power from the current Retrograd Republicans.   

It's crucial that we do so.

Without a victory that returns the House and/or the Senate to the Democrats, Trumposaurus Rex and his Wrecking Crew will continue their unfettered campaign to destroy enlightened public policy.  Without a victory, The New Deal and Social Security, the Great Society, the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts, and the Affordable Care Act, and the regulations that put them into action, will continue to be in the crosshairs  of these Kleptocrats, Privateers, Banksters and Gangsters.

Although I've got a bone to pick with the Democratic Party, and will continue to rant and rave about the Corporate takeover during the Clinton era, this is a no-brainer.  The reality isn't a choice between two evils.  It's the choice about whether we put the brakes on, or race off the cliff full speed ahead.  

Each of us must roll up our sleeves and do everything we can in the next few weeks.  

It's SO not over!

(READ MORE on the background of the song, first written in the wee hours of the morning that Mayor Bloomberg backed off on his first plan to clear the park "for maintenance." I was glued to a LiveStream as the victory was announced.  A roar surged through the crowd. I broke into tears.  The song wrote itself.)

The Flame of Liberty

I put this video together on Occupy's First Birthday.  

The song had first emerged in the pre-dawn air a year earlier as Mayor Bloomberg -- well aware that MoveOn.org had put together a petition with a quarter of a million signatures in two days, and that New York labor unions had sent thousands more people to Zuccotti Park -- backed down.  He recinded his order to clear the park that day "for maintenance."  

Here in Western Massachusetts, I had stayed up all night, riveted to a Livestream from the park on my laptop.  I didn't sleep.  At dawn, a roar surged through the crowd as the announcement was made.  Mayor Bloomberg had caved.  "By dawn's early light, what a sight, oh say can you see?" 

The song wrote itself.

Of course, time moved on, and I had to rewrite a few lines of "The Flame of Liberty Park." Following the guidance of federal authorities, the Mayor's Militarized Minions ultimately swept the park into dumpsters in November.  This happened to other large scale #Occupy encampments as well.  I realized we had won the battle, not the war.

So what else is new?  

The struggle against the domination of this planet by the greedy and powerful has been going on for a long, long time in the West.  Yet, it's continuation of our struggle can be viewed as a a sign of victory, not of defeat.  The Indomitable nature of the Human Spirit lives.  We the People, will ultimately prevail.  We will  create a world of enlightened human beings, guided by Love, not Hate.  It ain't over, 'til it's over.  

And it's SO not over.

So, the Flame of Liberty Park remains a Song of Triumph.   As the song now sez, "you can trash a camp, but you can't sweep away the Spirit!"

That Spirit re-emerged during the candidacy of Bernie Sanders and surged to victory with the election of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in New York and others advocating Democratic Socialism.  On the streets, it lived on in the Women's March of 2018 , in the outpouring of people that surged to airports to protest the Muslim Ban, in the surge of activism that first prevented the gutting of the ACA.  That Spirit energized the creation of Indivisible, to join MoveOn.org and other on-line efforts to spawn and support local efforts to actualize a progressive agenda on all levels of government.  (Each of these provide excellent opportunities to get involved and even reach into "red states" to make your voice heard.) 

Trumposaurus Wrecks and his Crazed Capitalist Cronies are clinging to the reins of power by the skin of their teeth.  I feel it in my bones. 

It's SO not over!