Photo: Stacy Lanyon
What drew me to Occupy? Obvious things like the fact that money is ruling the country and destroying the planet. It’s been about a class war for me for years. When I first discovered this, everything happening in the world made sense. You turn on the TV, and you see Afghanistan and Iraq and all this total bullshit. It’s not about that. It’s about a class war. All of the other wars fit into place once you realize this, and all of the policies fit into place. You realize why Haiti doesn’t have a government. Everything just makes sense when you view it in terms of a worldwide class war. America is at the forefront fighting that war against the poor, and it’s really, really disgusting to witness. Only now it is coming back to America. Only now are we getting squeezed as American people, and that’s where Occupy came from. We haven’t even gotten it that bad compared to the people, and the damage we do, overseas.
One thing that helped boost my awareness is that I’m part Lebanese, and I got bombed in Lebanon by the Israelis in 2006. I got evacuated. It was really, really upsetting, an experience that radicalized me. You could just imagine what American foreign policy is doing to people who don’t have the luxury of American Marines evacuating you from a war torn country. Imagine what all of these other people are feeling out there that are getting bombed by American airplanes. A lot of countries are getting bombed! If it worked to radicalize me, and I'm a U.S. citizen, then it’s a very radicalizing foreign policy, which needs to stop.
I first heard of Occupy through an Adbusters email. I’m a big fan of Adbusters magazine. I saw the email, and it just made sense. I didn’t know it was going to grow legs like it has, but it really, really made sense to me. I protested wars before. Wars aren’t the issue. I even went to DC and protested. DC is not the issue. The issue is right here. I live in New York. It’s right down the block practically. That (Wall Street) is the center of worldwide destruction. So when I heard about this protest, it was just perfect.
I love to think that there’s more justice in this world. You look around, and there just isn't. There’s not a semblance of justice. The only thing I can be thankful for right now is that we’re not being shot in the streets, but, as protesters, we’re getting everything but shot in the streets. We’re getting killed with debt. People are starving. We’re getting our rights taken away in every possible way. At the rate we’re going, getting shot in the streets is five years away. I’m glad we (OWS) are here to put some kind of pressure because what goes on in this world is just not just. Ironically it’s American lit, bought and paid for by American taxpayers who mostly have no idea how their money is destroying the world. The land of the free is destroying freedoms worldwide. It’s ironic and disgusting.
I would like a more just world. I’m looking for a cultural revolution, which is much better than a violent revolution. I hope we can bring about a re-visioning of values, so that we turn away from money and turn toward conserving planetary resources. There are few on this planet that are gathering all the resources and hoarding them for themselves. That’s why there’s class war. This very, very top class wants all the resources, and they want to give us paper money, which just constantly goes down in value every year. While the average greedy person is out there gathering money as fast as they can, the top of the class is out there gathering real resources. They’re buying up oil and water supplies, and soon it'll be air.
What we need to do is not only break their strangle hold on the system, which is what Occupy is trying to do, by either dismantling it or hopefully just creating something new where we revalue things. So (we need to) not only break their strangle hold but also change our values as a people, because without the 99% re-envisioning their value system, we’ll just create a new top tier of that fraction of 1% that will go after all of our resources. We need to just, basically, learn to share. Wouldn’t that be amazing if people just shared a little bit? Instead, you get people getting thrown out of their homes, kicked out because Bank of America, who already got trillions from tax payer money, wants your home too. That’s just flat out greed. Leave the home alone Bank of America! Let’s all learn to share a little bit. Hopefully, we can re-envision what is valuable to us and end greed.
Interview by Stacy Lanyon