War Child - Part 4
I should not have read the paper today
Cause a child, child he was taken away
There's a place for the baby that died
And there's a time for the mother who cried
Slain teen's friends say he never picked a fight - http://news.yahoo.com/slain-teens-friends-never-picked-fight-175228816.html
In your head
Zombie zombie zombie ei ei
What's in your head
In your head?
George Zimmerman, Trayvon Martin’s killer, had prior brushes with the law - http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/george-zimmerman-trayvon-martin-killer-had-brushes-prior-153033731.html
Bigger Than Trayvon: America’s Culture of Suspicion - http://ontd-political.livejournal.com/9478052.html
A comment of mine in a dif ONTD-p post:
I think the march needed to be a time to honour the fallen victim, and point out the continuing danger of white racism. I think it was perfectly fine if individuals involved in OCCUPY also lent their support to the march, but certainly not to disrupt or sidetrack it. The OCCUPY movement is a poor amalgamation of many views and people, many of whom are also anti-racists. Those individuals have the right to add their support. And I do see reasons why the actual NYC OCCUPY movement itself saw a connection between this killing and their own loose campaign against economic inequality, corporate imperialism, and whatnot. Many scholars, including the late MLK, saw a deep link between economic exploitation and racism.
Like many "liberal" causes, the symbolic fight often can take priority over "conservative" values, like the honoring of the dead, or just plain keeping your mouth shut and placing trust in people who have different wisdom, capacities, needs, etc. Individual, or movement, those "OCCUPYers" who wanted to show support should have graciously deferred to the intentions and feelings of the "hoodies". But I don't know, personally, whether (the very diverse) OCCUPY movement literally co-opted the Million-Hoodie-March. That is a judgement call that I can't accept until I am personally able to look at much of the evidence. If this is what indeed happened, then I heartilly disapprove.
OCCUPY has many lessons to learn. It seems to be splitting into three or four directions regarding tactics. No surprise. Since when have 99% of a population conspired in any kind of agreement. Of course, the protesters themselves may only BE 1% of our population - but their intention is to represent the views of the wider population. And that's impossible.
It's impossible unless the wider population agrees to see that the process of economic inequality is one of classism or imperialism, and it is EVERYWHERE - in the prices we pay for goods, in the collusion of corporate media, in trade and war policies, and in the structuring of overall society along lines and mechanisms of exploitative, privileged classism, which of course is directly related to racism.
Just as many define "racism" as an overwhelming process and history of subjugation of a disenfranchised race or people by an enfranchised race in POWER, including every MAN, WOMAN and CHILD of that genetic race, inevitably, so does the OCCUPY movement generalise, rightly or wrongly, that virtually everyone and every issue of the 99% belongs to it's purview of the INCOME INEQUALITY issue.
We can spend a lot of time debating whether or not, or should or should not, one grassroots movement co-opt the issues of another. It could be debated that the gusto of response to this racial homicide in Floriday would never have been so strong had it not been for the energy and empowerment introduced by the OCCUPY and Madison movements over the past year or so. There was not a huge outcry in Sanford, after all, until the issue gained permission to go national. AND HURRAY FOR THAT. But some OCCUPYer could argue that anything from the Hoodie marching in NYC, to using a hash-tag for the hoodie march name, may be an infringement on its own territory.
Frankly, I am tired of this kind of nonsense. My guess is that it is likely that OCCUPY DID co-opt the march, wrongfully, hoping to keep its own energy alive. And even if not, OCCUPY deserves a good swift kick in its pants every now and then, because it needs to LEARN in order to change and to effect change. As do we all. So, if you would like to repost this over at o_c_c_u_p_y, I think that would be great.
I, personally, am very wary of being drawn into fractionalism, which is so easilly exploitable by the elites, or by those who profit from institutionalised racism. I am not so much interested in being RIGHT as I am in seeing all of us work together to make some really fun, useful, decent changes in this really screwed up and imperilled world. It is fine, and everybody's right, to debate such things as are being discussed in this comment thread. I just hope everyone keeps looking at the bigger picture, and try to defeat what needs to be defeated, and not each other. Progressives unite, please.
I heard a caller to Thom Hartmann mention a book today which seems very relevant - but I don't know... It was a multi-author book called something like "BEYOND PRIVILEGE." If anyone can clarify/ascertain, cool. I found this possible link: http://layla.miltsov.org/anarchy-for-all-expanding-the-horizons-of-practice-beyond-privilege/
http://occupychi.org - also at 5:pm and on Monday in Federal Plaza.