Friday, April 13, 2012

Thomas Roberts

Fight Back Bank of America March, March 15, 2012
Photo: Stacy Lanyon

What drew me to Occupy Wall Street was the fact that there are so many people suffering in this country and not enough awareness being brought to it. The situation that we’re facing is being completely undermined by our elected officials. They are not paying attention. Being an activist in regards to the middle class and poverty, especially the poverty class, I feel like I can play a big part in getting on board with Occupy to bring more awareness to these issues.

It’s so important because we’re living in the most technological age. We’re facing possible war with Iran among other countries. The world is pretty much self-destructing in a way. The economy has fallen, but the rich keep getting richer. Why don’t we have enough money to feed children that are dying, but we have enough money to fight wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and endorse all of these politicians? There’s not enough people contributing that are able to contribute, and I believe that it’s important that occupiers here, especially here in New York City, reach out to the masses because so many people come through this city, and I believe Occupy is important right now in this day and age because people need to be made aware of these issues.

I hope it will bring about mass awareness. I think that we need to implement new legislations, repeal certain legislations and basically change the political structure internationally. In order for that to happen, we need mass awareness. Everybody has to wake up and realize that there’s something wrong. I completely understand that there are parents that are taking care of their family and people going to work every day, and we’re just so bogged down right now. We’re so bogged down to where people don’t have enough time to actually get out here and protest because of the obligations that they have. It’s very imperative right now that the idea of Occupy exists, that the idea of actual change exists.


What I would like the world to look like is one world government, and if not one world government that is completely sustainable, each country has their own government, but they have similar legislations that everybody,for the most part, agrees to. If there has to be any kind of changes to these laws in regards to how we can better sustain ourselves as human beings, then we can work around that with less arguing, less b.s. with politicians running us around in circles, just everybody having a general sense of individualism, everybody feeling like their opinion is valued, everybody feeling like they’re not being ignored.

My vision for the world after all this is all over is for everybody to live in a sustainable environment. We’re living in the most technological age we've ever lived in, and we still don’t have enough resources, apparently. We have more than enough resources to sustain every single human being, every child in this world. It’s just coming down to greed, the absolute necessity for money, the fact that we believe in an ideology that we actually need to obtain this amount of wealth to be happy. The richer people get, the more money they get, and the more people like us are left to slave away. We've got to fix whatever issues we've accumulated over time. Something is wrong, so we have to try something more radical. I guess I should say more progressive change.We need to try something more progressive, and I like progressive thinkers and more innovative thinkers, and we need to be more green, and we need to be more self-sustainable in every single aspect of our human life. 

I’m not knocking technology because technology has advanced us, but we’re putting too much emphasis on technology to where we completely rely on it. We need to stop being so quick to consume. We need to cut back on our consuming. We need to stop spending so much. We need to be more responsible. We need to teach our children to be more responsible. We need to improve our education system. America, if you ask me, is one of the most uneducated countries in the world, and I dare to say that it probably is by design. It’s gotten to the point where people that know what we’re going through, that know that children are starving, even though their own children are starving, they’ll still go and buy those Jordans, or they’ll still go buy those rims, or they’ll still buy that new car, or they’ll get their hair done or what not. No, let’s invest more in our future. Let’s invest more in our future, and it’s not hard. It’s not hard, just cut back on spending. I’m not saying you gotta be out here occupying, you gotta be out here in tents or nothing like that. The idea of Occupy is nothing more than just an idea, an idea of hope and an idea of change, and I think it’s a very logical one. 

Interview by Stacy Lanyon
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