OCCUPY NEW ORLEANS

From NOLA.com:

Hundreds of people, young and old, black and white, marched with signs held high and slogans spewing. It was a disjointed group: upbeat, angry, courteous, displeased, but united in unhappiness with the current economic and political climate. If there was a singular message shared among the masses, it centered on a simple idea: The status quo has got to go.

The "Occupy NOLA" protest and march was one of dozens of social actions held recently across the country, offshoots of a larger ongoing demonstration on Wall Street in New York City.

The marchers at Lafayette Square

Images from Occupy NOLA on Facebook.

Looks great doesn't it? I wish we had been there. Grandpère and I went to New Orleans yesterday, but we did not arrive at Lafayette Square until 3:00PM. By then the gathering at Lafayette Square in front of the Federal Building was over, and the group had moved on to Duncan Plaza in front of City Hall...the story of my life. The rally at Lafayette Square was tentatively scheduled to begin between 3:00 and 4:00 in the afternoon when the marchers arrived. Alas, the march went faster than was expected, and the marchers arrived at the square at around 1:00PM.

Once we left home, we had no further access to the internet, what with being technologically old-timey and all. The details of the march were, no doubt, Tweeted and Facebooked, but we had no connection.

At Lafayette Square, we ran into a couple of stray marchers, and we decided to share a cab to Duncan Plaza, which was only about a mile away, but still.... When we arrived at Duncan Plaza, there were around 150 people left of the crowd, mostly spread out on the grass around the plaza.





A General Assembly of Occupy NOLA was held in Duncan Plaza later yesterday evening, and occupiers who were camping out spent the night in the plaza.



Below you see the signs which are homemade, not professional signs paid for by the Koch Brothers.



This nice guy in the red shirt was one of our taxi partners.



When GP saw TV cameras, he became antsy and wanted to leave. He did NOT want me on TV. I didn't particularly want to be on TV, but if the camera captured me, I would not have cared.

The visit to the scene of the protest was my thing, not his thing, and he was kind enough to accompany me. Being a democracy of two we had to negotiate our way through the process, as we each had our say, and then we arrived at consensus. I prevailed upon him to let me stay a while longer to talk to a few more people.

Below are some of the folks with whom I chatted as long as Grandpère would permit.





Some of the responses to my question, 'Why are you here?'

I've been waiting to do this for 10 years! There is so much that is wrong in this country, and no one is watching out for the 99%.

We want the 1% to pay their fair share of taxes.

One man wanted the police chief in New Orleans fired. He wanted me to know why there were so many criminals in NO. He said, 'Too many black people have no hope.'

We are the majority in the country, and no one is listening to us.

The big banks and the corporations run the country, and their executives get richer as the middle class and the poor get poorer.

The police accompanied the protestors during the march, and relations between the two groups were cordial. A few policemen were across the street from the plaza, but they apparently saw nothing to police. Today, Mayor Mitch Landrieu paid an impromptu visit to the people in the plaza and chatted with them. It was not a photo op. You can follow the latest updates on the Occupy NOLA Facebook page.

Photo update from Occupy Wall Street/Foley Square/NYC:

Thanks to Roger Bishop Alan. It takes one to know one. (I am a retired librarian.)

THE HORSE

An out-of-towner drove his car into a ditch in a desolated area.

Luckily, a local farmer came by with Buddy, his big strong horse. He hitched Buddy up to the car and yelled, "Pull, Nellie, pull!"

Buddy didn't move.

Then the farmer hollered, "Pull, Buster, pull!"

Buddy didn't respond.

Once more the farmer commanded, "Pull, Coco, pull!"

Nothing.

Then the farmer nonchalantly said, "Pull, Buddy, pull!" And the horse easily dragged the car out of the ditch.

The motorist was most appreciative but very curious. He asked the farmer why he called his horse by the wrong name three times.

"Well . . . Buddy is blind, and if he thought he was the only one pulling, he wouldn't even try!"


Cheers,

Paul (A.)

A little like life.

WEIRDEST LOL OF THE DAY

Jim Burroway at Box Turtle Bulletin notes the following quote from presidential candidate Rick Santorum:

“When you look at someone to determine whether they’d be the right person for public office, look at who they lay down with at night and what they believe,” Santorum said.

Rick's is a mind that blows mine. Rick's body may leave the bed and the bedroom, but seemingly his mind stays behind.

Picture from Wikipedia.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DESMOND TUTU!

"Forgiving is not forgetting; its actually remembering--remembering and not using your right to hit back. Its a second chance for a new beginning. And the remembering part is particularly important. Especially if you don't want to repeat what happened."
— Desmond Tutu

Image from Wikipedia.

MATTHEW SHEPARD - IN MEMORIAM

From Wikipedia:

Matthew Wayne Shepard (December 1, 1976 – October 12, 1998) was a student at the University of Wyoming who was tortured and murdered near Laramie, Wyoming, in October 1998. He was attacked on the night of October 6–7, and died at Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins, Colorado, on October 12 from severe head injuries.

During the trial, witnesses stated that Shepard was targeted because of his sexual orientation. Shepard's murder brought national and international attention to the contention of hate crime legislation at the state and federal levels.

In 2009, his mother Judy Shepard authored a book The Meaning of Matthew: My Son's Murder in Laramie, and a World Transformed. On October 22, 2009, the United States Congress passed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act (Matthew Shepard Act for short), and on October 28, 2009, President Obama signed the legislation into law.

Sadly, as Craigkg at Daily Kos points out:

I wish that were the end of the story, but unfortunately it is not. Some 709 days after becoming law, the law has yet to be used in any hate bias motivated crime where the bias motivation was the victim's actual or perceived gender identity or sexual orientation.

H/T to Ann Fontaine at The Lead.

May God give comfort, consolation, and the peace that passes understanding to all who love Matthew.

ABOUT THOSE DEMONSTRATIONS....

Occupy New Orleans

If you're in the neighborhood and want to be in that number tomorrow, check out their Facebook page for the details.

Rush Limbaugh called the demonstrators 'a parade of human debris'.

And for lagniappe...



'Baby, Please Make a Change' performed by Hugh Laurie with Tom Jones and Irma Thomas from the album 'Let Them Talk'.

THE CALLING OF MATTHEW

CARPACCIO, Vittore - 'The Calling of Matthew' - 1502
Scuola di San Giorgio degli Schiavoni, Venice

As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth; and he said to him, ‘Follow me.’ And he got up and followed him.

And as he sat at dinner in the house, many tax-collectors and sinners came and were sitting with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, ‘Why does your teacher eat with tax-collectors and sinners?’ But when he heard this, he said, ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.'

(Matthew 9:9-13)

Most merciful God, we confess that we have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done, and by what we have left undone. We have not loved you with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We are truly sorry and we humbly repent. For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ, have mercy on us and forgive us; that we may delight in your will, and walk in your ways, to the glory of your Name. Amen.

(Book of Common Prayer)

Image from the Web Gallery of Art.

THE USEFULNESS OF THE OXFORD COMMA

From Oxford Dictionaries:

What is the 'Oxford comma'?

The 'Oxford comma' is an optional comma before the word 'and' at the end of a list:

We sell books, videos, and magazines.

It's known as the Oxford comma because it was traditionally used by printers, readers, and editors at Oxford University Press. Not all writers and publishers use it, but it can clarify the meaning of a sentence when the items in a list are not single words:

These items are available in black and white, red and yellow, and blue and green.

The Oxford comma is also known as the 'serial comma'.

Rumors fly around and about on the demise of the Oxford comma, but it appears that the wee mark has life, yet.

From Linda Holmes on NPR:

For now, the Oxford comma lives on at Oxford. And it lives on in my heart. Life is nasty, brutish, and short (or, to introduce unnecessary ambiguity, "life is nasty, brutish and short"), and the least I can do for myself is to hold tight to the linguistic niceties about which I, for whatever reason, care. It's comforting. It's calming. And when it comes to taking a firm position about mostly unimportant debates, that's about all I can hope for.

The Oxford comma lives on in my heart, too, and I will continue to place the mark in a series. Even if the comma dies, I will flog the poor creature for my personal use, so long as I live.

MILITARY MASCULINITY

May, 1945. The titles of the stories are intriguing.

Don't blame me. Blame Lapin.

THE MESSAGE: WE ARE HERE, AND WE ARE SINGING OUR SONG

My blogger friends 'got it' before I did. it's margaret, Counterlight, and Rmj at Adventus understood Occupy Wall Street well before I did. My heart was with the demonstrators because I believe the big banks and the finance marketeers do real evil. They manipulate the economies of entire countries and virtually the entire world so they get theirs now and to hell with the consequences for anyone else. And Wall Street symbolizes not only the bankers and financiers, but also the greedy, global corporation giants, who put the bottom line before real people. But, to be honest, when I thought about whether I'd be out there with the demonstrators, I thought I'd have to be clearer about goals. There it rested. I still wondered what would get me there if I were nearer to a demonstration.

Occupy Wall Street has now released an official statement which is posted below.

From PlutocracyFiles at Daily Kos:

Declaration of the Occupation of New York City

As we gather together in solidarity to express a feeling of mass injustice, we must not lose sight of what brought us together. We write so that all people who feel wronged by the corporate forces of the world can know that we are your allies.

As one people, united, we acknowledge the reality: that the future of the human race requires the cooperation of its members; that our system must protect our rights, and upon corruption of that system, it is up to the individuals to protect their own rights, and those of their neighbors; that a democratic government derives its just power from the people, but corporations do not seek consent to extract wealth from the people and the Earth; and that no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power. We come to you at a time when corporations, which place profit over people, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality, run our governments. We have peaceably assembled here, as is our right, to let these facts be known.

They have taken our houses through an illegal foreclosure process, despite not having the original mortgage.

They have taken bailouts from taxpayers with impunity, and continue to give Executives exorbitant bonuses.

They have perpetuated inequality and discrimination in the workplace based on age, the color of one’s skin, sex, gender identity and sexual orientation.

They have poisoned the food supply through negligence, and undermined the farming system through monopolization.

They have profited off of the torture, confinement, and cruel treatment of countless nonhuman animals, and actively hide these practices.

They have continuously sought to strip employees of the right to negotiate for better pay and safer working conditions.

They have held students hostage with tens of thousands of dollars of debt on education, which is itself a human right.

They have consistently outsourced labor and used that outsourcing as leverage to cut workers’ healthcare and pay.

They have influenced the courts to achieve the same rights as people, with none of the culpability or responsibility.

They have spent millions of dollars on legal teams that look for ways to get them out of contracts in regards to health insurance.

They have sold our privacy as a commodity.

They have used the military and police force to prevent freedom of the press.

They have deliberately declined to recall faulty products endangering lives in pursuit of profit.

They determine economic policy, despite the catastrophic failures their policies have produced and continue to produce.

They have donated large sums of money to politicians supposed to be regulating them.

They continue to block alternate forms of energy to keep us dependent on oil.

They continue to block generic forms of medicine that could save people’s lives in order to protect investments that have already turned a substantive profit.

They have purposely covered up oil spills, accidents, faulty bookkeeping, and inactive ingredients in pursuit of profit.

They purposefully keep people misinformed and fearful through their control of the media.

They have accepted private contracts to murder prisoners even when presented with serious doubts about their guilt.

They have perpetuated colonialism at home and abroad.

They have participated in the torture and murder of innocent civilians overseas.

They continue to create weapons of mass destruction in order to receive government contracts.*

To the people of the world,

We, the New York City General Assembly occupying Wall Street in Liberty Square, urge you to assert your power.

Exercise your right to peaceably assemble; occupy public space; create a process to address the problems we face, and generate solutions accessible to everyone.

To all communities that take action and form groups in the spirit of direct democracy, we offer support, documentation, and all of the resources at our disposal.

Join us and make your voices heard!

*These grievances are not all-inclusive.

There it is, what I asked for, and I was not overly enthusiastic about the statement, even though it's based on the splendid 'Declaration of Independence'. It's so 18th century. It's long. The 21st century folks with their short attention spans won't get the message. The demands must be expressed in easy-to-understand language, briefly and punchily, to get the point across today.

Sadly, I still did not 'get it'.

And then I read the op-ed by Richard Eskow at The Huffington Post, and the scales fell from my eyes.

Even the sympathizers don't always get it. I'm sure I get a lot of things wrong too, but here's one thing I do understand: Change doesn't begin with policy. It begins with perception. And you don't change things by asking. You change them by acting.

But it begins with perception. "All money is a matter of belief," as someone once said.

In the New York Times, Nick Kristof shows that he understands the #OccupyWallStreet movement more than most of his peers. "The protesters are dazzling in their Internet skills," he writes, "and impressive in their organization."

But like many other sympathetic observers, he misses their most important point when he says "the movement falters in its demands" because "it doesn't really have any."

As movement participant Nelini Stamp told the Take Back the American Dream conference this morning, "We don't have demands. If we make demands of Wall Street, we're saying that Wall Street has the power."

But the fact that the movement doesn't make demands of Wall Street - or Washington, for that matter - doesn't mean it doesn't have demands. It does, but they're not directed at Wall Street, or K Street, or Pennsylvania Avenue. They're directed at you. And at me, and at every other citizen in this country.
....

But the "one demand" that matters most is directed at our society, not our policymakers, and it's much more fundamental than these excellent ideas. The demand is this: "Come back to sanity." That's the underlying demand that unifies all those items on the #OccupyWallSt website. Our culture is insane today, and they recognize that. Create a transactions tax, and they'll simply rob us another way - until we restore our society to sanity.
....

But the main point is: This is a song, not a policy platform, and there's no one composer. Everybody's making it up as they go along, and everyone else is welcome to join - as long as they don't lose the beat.

Please read the entire long, splendid op-ed.

The demand: 'Come back to sanity.' The main point: 'This is a song.'

Yes, I see. Or rather, I think I see, although I could still be getting it wrong. I hope not. What took me so long?