Monday, April 30, 2012

Al Burgo

Occupy Town Square, February 26, 2012, Tompkin's Square Park
Photo : Stacy Lanyon

What drew me to Occupy Wall Street was change. I knew deep down inside that this world needed change, and I figured if I could get with the people who were trying to make a change, I could be part of that change. There are a lot of artists here, musicians, writers, retired firefighters, just a wide variety of the mainstream society, so I figured that’s the place that I belong.

It’s important because it involves people’s lives, including my own. Me, I’m up there a little bit in the age, but it’s very important to me personally. First of all, I have a brand new great niece who is one year old. I’m fighting for her personally. I’m fighting for everybody else’s nieces and nephews. I’m fighting for your nephews and nieces and your parent and your aunts and uncles and yourself. It’s important that we speak up and exercise our rights as Americans and as people. Our rights are being disheveled, stampted on, taken away from us. It is very, very important for me to be part of Occupy Wall Street. This involves saving lives. It’s not about any particular thing by itself. It’s many, many issues, and I want to be part of many, many issues of righteousness, of making things right.

I hope it’s going to be a peaceful world, peace on earth. We don’t need any more war. We fought enough fuckin’ wars. I’ve seen quite a few growing up myself, wars overseas, wars locally. We don’t have to fight. There’s no reason to be fighting. We can sit down. We can discuss things and work things out one way or the other. We could agree. We could compromise. We could negotiate. There’s so many ways to avoid war. I don’t want to see war. That’s the number one thing. People want to take over the land because they know there’s oil under the rock. They want to take the land over because they know there are rubies and diamonds. It’s about power. You can gain power in a lot of other ways. I’m getting a little angry now because this is not the way it’s supposed to be. I feel it in my heart. We don’t have to lose our fuckin’ limbs and our families because the scientists or the engineers or the war machine people that build these fuckin’ instruments that kill want to make more money. There are so many other ways they can find to make money, and you know what, money ain’t that fuckin’ important anyway. It’s about love and health and respect.

We need to learn how to take care of ourselves health wise, protect ourselves, use condoms, go to see the doctor once a year, see the dentist. We’ve got to take care of ourselves properly, and we could avoid a lot of problems. We can avoid root canal work if you want to keep it simple. See the frickin’ dentist. Get an x-ray. See what’s underneath there. A lot of things are avoidable. We’re so frickin’ advanced now in education and knowledge. We’ve got to learn to take care of ourselves. We’ve got to learn to self-teach ourselves and one another. Eat plenty of fruits and vegetables and a lot of fresh water. I’m looking for fresh water on earth. There’s a lot of dirtiness and a lot of poison and a lot of bullshit going on. Why? Because the corporations are doing it to the people. We could shake those corporations up, and we could make them fall into line.

We’re a group of people speaking up for what’s right. When you’re right, you’re right. You can’t deny that. People may turn their backs to us. They might say, “Oh, he’s crazy, or she’s nuts.” Yeah, call us what you want, but you know what, we are on the right track, and we’re fighting, and we’re winning. We’re not going away. Even if they decide to close up shop tomorrow, I ain't going away. Me personally, I’m always going to be fighting because what’s right is right. I’m not going to be the silent majority. I’m not going to be the silent this or that. I’m going to speak up. If someone doesn’t like it, that’s too fuckin’ bad. I don’t need people to agree with me. We can disagree with each other on any subject. That doesn’t mean we have to disrespect each other. This is where a lot of people make that mistake. They are highly intelligent in a lot of areas, graduates of different degrees, but the minute someone doesn’t agree with them, they think they can disrespect you. You’re not going to disrespect people because people are speaking up now. They’re finally speaking up.

Interview by Stacy Lanyon
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