.JPG)
Photo: Stacy Lanyon
What first drew me to Occupy Wall Street was a lot of things -- the fact that there’s something seriously wrong with our economic system, the fact that millions of Americans lost their homes through foreclosure. I took out all of these loans to go to school and get a degree that ended up being worthless. While I was in the U.S. Marine Corps, I became aware of the military industrial complex. We were not in those countries to spread any type of democracy. The Pentagon gives financial support to a bunch of corporations who already make excessive profits from the wars. They’re out there invading nations for control of natural resources and establishing more bases in preparation for more wars because it’s profitable. The homeless are all over the place. I started thinking, “Why is it like this? Why can’t so many people find work? Oh! Turns out the corporations are sending jobs overseas." They hire foreigners and pay them cents on the dollars they would be spending on a U.S. citizens. On top of that they don’t like giving their employees benefits. Corporations also lobby government to bust unions, and the list goes on and on. One day I heard a call from Anonymous online saying that they were going to occupy Wall Street. I was so ready to protest that I went down there early on the 17th. As soon as the number of people grew into the thousands, I got really hooked.
I think the main reason that Occupy is important is because our politics aren’t really working. I’ve come to realize that the reason why a lot of the people’s grievances keep growing is because the government is not listening to the people. The government is listening to money interests. With the help of lobbyists, corporations and banks have managed to successfully usurp our republic. It’s not a government for the people anymore. Politicians say good things to win campaigns, but at the end of the day, they only serve the businesses that stuff their pockets.
Community is the most important thing. I never knew my neighbors before. I never knew much about community. When I was camping at Occupy, I knew my tent mates and all my neighbors. We all talked to each other and had open conversations about everything. There was a lot of love, a lot of care. Everyone wanted to help one another out and wanted to be aware and share information about what was going on. It turns out that's the definition of democracy. It’s a community that is working together, that is knowledgeable, that shares equal power and equal respect amongst each other. It was a different world inside of a little park in a big city that’s blind to what community is about. I feel that a lot of people in the United States live pretty selfishly. Community is so important. It is the main thing that has freed so many nations. Gandhi could not have done anything if it was not for the community that followed him. The same with Martin Luther King, Jr. He couldn’t have accomplished anything in the United States or bring any real change if it wasn’t for the millions of people who backed him and followed in his footsteps.
We are trying to spark that life back into society, to get people to be concerned about what’s really important. It doesn't matter who caught that ball. It doesn’t matter what celebrities are doing. It’s about the starving children in the Bronx. It’s about the 14 million Americans who cannot find work to save their lives. It’s about love. Love is very important. There’s too much hate and fear in this country, and we’re just trying to reach out to people to inspire them to care about each other. We have to stand up as a nation, as a community to say that money should not be the main influence on everything.
I hope that this movement could help bring about a better world that has healthy food. We raised a lot of different issues at occupy, especially health issues because we care about people. There is a lot of food out there that’s tampered with genetically. Genetic modifications were meant to benefit people. It was meant to make crops that could grow in different terrains with less water. Instead, corporations are using it to give them suicide genes, so farmers have to keep buying more seeds. They genetically modify them to withstand chemicals from pesticides, and it all causes cancer. Cancer just so happens to have many different cures. There’s been cures since the 1940’s. Dr. Max Gerson wrote about 50 different cases that he cured, and it was all thanks to organic, natural foods.
I hope there’s a better food system where local food is more supported than corporate food that has been tampered with, which really is claiming the lives of so many thousands of Americans. I want us to start looking at these statistics realistically. The food we eat has claimed more lives than any terrorist ever has, yet the military spends billions and billions of dollars to track down these boogie-men from foreign lands when most all of the threats have been domestically created. The facts are out there, to be found, to be shared. The World Wide Web is such a great hub of communication. Instead of using it to share your cat videos and to follow who’s catching the ball, throwing the ball or winning the game, we could be using it to bring real change in society.
I hope that the conversation in the United States changes. Anyone can be a leader. They can start by talking more about politics and economics with their friends and family; lets get past all the arguments and find consensus. We are supposed to enjoy life and love life, but we are also supposed to love and care for one another.
I think the main reason that Occupy is important is because our politics aren’t really working. I’ve come to realize that the reason why a lot of the people’s grievances keep growing is because the government is not listening to the people. The government is listening to money interests. With the help of lobbyists, corporations and banks have managed to successfully usurp our republic. It’s not a government for the people anymore. Politicians say good things to win campaigns, but at the end of the day, they only serve the businesses that stuff their pockets.
Community is the most important thing. I never knew my neighbors before. I never knew much about community. When I was camping at Occupy, I knew my tent mates and all my neighbors. We all talked to each other and had open conversations about everything. There was a lot of love, a lot of care. Everyone wanted to help one another out and wanted to be aware and share information about what was going on. It turns out that's the definition of democracy. It’s a community that is working together, that is knowledgeable, that shares equal power and equal respect amongst each other. It was a different world inside of a little park in a big city that’s blind to what community is about. I feel that a lot of people in the United States live pretty selfishly. Community is so important. It is the main thing that has freed so many nations. Gandhi could not have done anything if it was not for the community that followed him. The same with Martin Luther King, Jr. He couldn’t have accomplished anything in the United States or bring any real change if it wasn’t for the millions of people who backed him and followed in his footsteps.
We are trying to spark that life back into society, to get people to be concerned about what’s really important. It doesn't matter who caught that ball. It doesn’t matter what celebrities are doing. It’s about the starving children in the Bronx. It’s about the 14 million Americans who cannot find work to save their lives. It’s about love. Love is very important. There’s too much hate and fear in this country, and we’re just trying to reach out to people to inspire them to care about each other. We have to stand up as a nation, as a community to say that money should not be the main influence on everything.
I hope that this movement could help bring about a better world that has healthy food. We raised a lot of different issues at occupy, especially health issues because we care about people. There is a lot of food out there that’s tampered with genetically. Genetic modifications were meant to benefit people. It was meant to make crops that could grow in different terrains with less water. Instead, corporations are using it to give them suicide genes, so farmers have to keep buying more seeds. They genetically modify them to withstand chemicals from pesticides, and it all causes cancer. Cancer just so happens to have many different cures. There’s been cures since the 1940’s. Dr. Max Gerson wrote about 50 different cases that he cured, and it was all thanks to organic, natural foods.
I hope there’s a better food system where local food is more supported than corporate food that has been tampered with, which really is claiming the lives of so many thousands of Americans. I want us to start looking at these statistics realistically. The food we eat has claimed more lives than any terrorist ever has, yet the military spends billions and billions of dollars to track down these boogie-men from foreign lands when most all of the threats have been domestically created. The facts are out there, to be found, to be shared. The World Wide Web is such a great hub of communication. Instead of using it to share your cat videos and to follow who’s catching the ball, throwing the ball or winning the game, we could be using it to bring real change in society.
I hope that the conversation in the United States changes. Anyone can be a leader. They can start by talking more about politics and economics with their friends and family; lets get past all the arguments and find consensus. We are supposed to enjoy life and love life, but we are also supposed to love and care for one another.
Interview by Stacy Lanyon