Photo: Stacy Lanyon
I knew that eventually I would come to New York to live, so I started going to things when I was here during summer and meeting people. It just became so important for me to actually join the movement and be a part of this revolution that Occupy has become. The first action I went to was in March of last spring in Union Square. It was something to do with Con Edison. I did that little bit of walk, and I was like, “This is good.” I kept on hearing people saying that it was going to die off soon, and it kept on getting stronger and stronger. I’m a big environmentalist. Now, there is Occupy the Pipeline, and that is what I’m mainly involved with. It has just been a great surprise that things have escalated to this point where I think New York City is becoming a better place because of Occupy.
In Scotland, there was Occupy Edinburgh. I’m a photographer, so I wanted to report about them, and I went to speak to them, but unfortunately the people who were involved in the movement there were nowhere as organized as the people here. I went to a couple of meetings, lots of talking, but very little action, and very little participation from the community as well because things are different there. I haven’t been back in Italy to live there in a long time. One of the things that inspires me very much about Occupy is that my parents raised me with very strong values of equality and fairness and doing the right thing no matter what. When I was a kid, I always had this thing where I wanted to have superpowers. I wanted to be a superhero, and I wanted to protect the world and the ones that are weaker from the ones who abuse them and take advantage of them. In a certain sense, Occupy has given me the opportunity to do that. Occupy is like my set of superpowers.
It is so important because people need to realize that
change is possible. We all have dreams. We all have hopes for a different
future, and a lot of people don’t do anything because they think they’re too
little to make any kind of difference. Occupy has shown that if you talk and express what you’re feeling, people will
eventually have to listen to you. It’s important not to give up if
you don’t see immediate results. Nothing in life comes to you on a silver
platter. If you don’t work hard, you are not going to go anywhere.
Occupy Wall Street started from a very little group of committed individuals that believed in a possible better future for everybody and not just for them. What is great is that they were able to inspire and cultivate more and more people. They know that even if things don’t come immediately, eventually they will. Through human history, if people had given up when they didn’t see immediate results, we wouldn’t have won great battles like slavery and the right for females to vote, freedom of speech, all of these things that are essential. It’s Occupy Wall Street, but really it’s Occupy the world. It starts here, but it expands everywhere. I have a strong feeling that because of what we are doing here that people in China and Russia and Africa and in every other place will get benefits, someway, somehow. We may never see that personally, but the future generations will, and they will grow up with this as part of their reality. That’s why it’s important because it has to be the norm to stand up for what is right rather than cower away.
Occupy Wall Street started from a very little group of committed individuals that believed in a possible better future for everybody and not just for them. What is great is that they were able to inspire and cultivate more and more people. They know that even if things don’t come immediately, eventually they will. Through human history, if people had given up when they didn’t see immediate results, we wouldn’t have won great battles like slavery and the right for females to vote, freedom of speech, all of these things that are essential. It’s Occupy Wall Street, but really it’s Occupy the world. It starts here, but it expands everywhere. I have a strong feeling that because of what we are doing here that people in China and Russia and Africa and in every other place will get benefits, someway, somehow. We may never see that personally, but the future generations will, and they will grow up with this as part of their reality. That’s why it’s important because it has to be the norm to stand up for what is right rather than cower away.
What’s wrong with the world? Plenty. At the same time, there
is so much good around, and we have to preserve that. I believe that people see
a lot of what’s wrong because we take for granted a lot of the things that
are right, and you get tired and frustrated, and you get depressed,
and you forget. Instead, you have to stand up because there is so much of
the good, and if you don’t do something, you’re going to lose that too. People
know about corruption, about things not being fair, about unequal distribution
of resources, stupid unequal distribution of resources. The rich keep getting
richer, and the poor people keep struggling to barely keep their head above the
water. That is not right. People are dying in Africa, and people up here are gorging on meat fed on the grains that we’ve taken away from Africa. There is
so much that is wrong, but there is also so much that is really, really good,
and I think one good thing that Occupy has is that it feeds out of the good of
the people to fight what is wrong.
I definitely want a world where people will wake up in the
morning and feel like they’re free to go out and do what makes them happy, a
world where there’s equality for everybody, a world where education is all free
to everybody, where you can say what you want to without being judged, where
freedom is respected, where resources are equally split, and where people are
cared for. Some people call it Utopia. I’m
absolutely fine with that word. We have to keep in mind that Utopia is not
impossible to achieve. It has been so far, but many things throughout our
history seemed impossible until they were achieved, so I'd like to see a world where
people are really, truly happy with who they are and what they have that
surrounds them.
We have so much. Our earth is an incredible
well of resources, good resources, not all fossil fuels, not that rubbish,
like plants. People have incredible potential. Look at where
we were thousands of years ago and where we are now. Having a world where
everybody is free, where resources are available, we have the potential of
building so much. I think this might be a little bit difficult to achieve, but we could build a world with no money. People will work because they’re happy to work. People will work because
it’s good, because it’s what they want to do, because it will be normal to
actually provide food, to actually contribute to society, and there will be
healthcare for everybody, and there will be education for everybody. Imagine if
people were educated, all of the people out there. What kind of world would we
have? That’s exactly the world that we’re trying to achieve.
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/