Photo: Stacy Lanyon
I am the program director of a radio station. It was a news
story. I went to cover the story. There were no real emotional ties in the
beginning. I simply was there to cover a news story. I didn’t really know what
the occupation was all about. I had seen the Adbusters call but didn’t think it
would turn into what it turned into. Immediately, when I heard the
conversation, I found it to be revolutionary. I was amazed at what I was
hearing. I was amazed at how brilliant everyone was. From my perspective, being
in media, the conversation was so different. I work in political media
particularly. The conversation was so different than the conversation that I
had heard around me for years. I had heard nothing like it. It was truly
revolutionary in many senses of the word. I thought that something new and
exciting was really happening on the political scene and in this country.
Occupy is so important because it has served the purpose of
really bringing the angst and anger of this entire nation and putting it into a
concept that people could relate to. There had been other attempts to do this,
other organizing attempts, but with their focus on Wall Street and everyone having recently
seen the bailout of the banks, America
was ready for this, just ready, because everyone was angry with Wall Street.
Their focus on Wall Street brought the masses together but allowed a platform
to talk about other political issues, which fell under the umbrella of Wall Street but weren’t the initial focus of Occupy. It’s changed the
conversation. The president was speaking in Occupy. The republicans were
speaking in Occupy. The entire political conversation has changed. That was one of the
first things that occupiers understood, that we had to change the conversation.
There was no talk about class. Occupy put class back into the conversation. It
was hugely important because it was being ignored by every media outlet and by
every politician.
I hope it will bring about the kind of world where we see
more economic equality. I also hope that it will lead, like it led
me, Americans particularly and the west in general to the understanding
that our standards of living are truly affecting workers around the world. What
we do in this country, the luxuries that we have, really affect everyone, and
it’s shaken me loose from some beliefs I held about this country and about the
world. I was just talking to one of the hosts of our Occupy Wall Street radio
show, which airs Monday through Friday from 6:30 to 7:30PM on WBAI 99.5FM. He
lived in Africa , and he was pointing out that
when you live in the village, the first thought in your head is, "How am I going
to eat today? What am I going to do to get food?" When you hear this argument
about people pulling themselves up by their bootstraps, for instance, you don’t
understand privilege until you understand that there are people on this planet
who have to get up and be consumed with finding a meal. When we get up, we’re
consumed with television or consumed with video games or whatever it is that we
have. People don’t have access to the luxury that we have access to here, and
that needs to be brought home to every person in the west, that we
really do have an impact on the rest of the world.
Interview by Stacy Lanyon
http://buildingcompassionthroughaction.blogspot.com/
https://www.facebook.com/stacylanyon
https://instagram.com/stacylanyon/
https://twitter.com/StacyLanyon
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/