Fight Back Bank of America, March 15, 2012, Liberty Square
Photo: Stacy Lanyon
In high school, I was an activist working with groups like Amnesty International and a local group called Montgomery County Student Environmental Activists, but I went through a rough period right when I began college and effectively burned out. I went on to study Computer Science and found myself being recruited to work on Wall Street. What began as an internship led to a seven-year career working first as a programmer and then as a business analyst. I finally got the courage to quit my job in the summer of 2010, but I didn't find my way back to activism until Occupy Wall Street appeared.
I was drawn to Occupy Wall Street because I knew about the ethical abuses that happen inside Wall Street first hand. While many are remiss to do anything illegal (although even that is not always the case), there is very much a culture of, "If I screw you, it's your fault because you're stupid." It's a toxic place. If anything, working on Wall Street makes you even more angry about the abuses going on inside the firms than an outsider.
Originally, I went to Zuccotti Park to show support after the police brutality that occurred at Union Square. Then, I realized I could be useful by conducting teach-ins about finance. Soon after, I realized Occupy had far more to teach me. I completely fell in love with the movement and what was going on. It felt like coming home.
I think there are two things crucial about our movement. One is about critiquing an industry that has become an oligopoly with entirely too much influence over the lives of the general public.The second is about creating a new world together, and through that, lessening our collective fear.
The amount of power Wall Street has been able to amass through lobbying, campaign contributions, and sheer intimidation of Members of Congress is astounding. It is critical that we not only apply pressure to Wall Street but that we shine a big spotlight on their myriad abuses. Even in the wake of the bailouts or the secret Fed Lending program that Bloomberg media exposed, there is so much the general public doesn't know about the corruption on Wall Street. Occupy has shown that the public did not forget about the bailouts and is watching closely and carefully to continue to hold Wall Street accountable.
The corporate elite have managed to reshape the law of the land to make bankruptcy an easy thing for corporations to do but an exceedingly difficult thing for people to do. This creates fear. The police state creates fear. The legal discrimination levied on those with felony convictions and how they are treated as second-class citizens, creates fear. Occupy Wall Street makes people brave. It makes us brave because we form communities when we come together. We get to know each other. We do jail support for one another. We laugh together. We fight together, and we learn together. Community is the best antidote to fear I know, and Occupy creates community.
I hope for a more financially literate world: it is only because people don't understand much of what Wall Street does that they are able to get away with what they do. I hope for more accountable politicians. I hope to see money get out of politics, but most of all, I hope Occupy is able to make people more brave, by watching the example of others. I hope to see a world with less fear because we've learned to work with one another instead of forming the insular little islands that consumerism drives us into. Community breeds compassion. I hope Occupy is able to form new communities everywhere it reaches.
Interview by Stacy Lanyon
http://buildingcompassionthroughaction.blogspot.com/
https://www.facebook.com/stacylanyon
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http://stacylanyon.com/
Interview by Stacy Lanyon
http://buildingcompassionthroughaction.blogspot.com/
https://www.facebook.com/stacylanyon
https://instagram.com/stacylanyon/
https://twitter.com/StacyLanyon
http://stacylanyon.com/