Restore the Fourth 1984 Day, August 4th, 2013
Photo: Stacy Lanyon
I initially didn’t hang out that much at the park. I remember at that time I was really busy. I remember hearing about it and thinking, “Wow, that sounds so cool.” I did stop by a couple of times. I really got more involved once the whole movement started being suppressed. That’s when I realized how threatening the ideas were, and how these ideas that were finally being voiced were being actively crushed. I first came to the park pretty near the beginning. I thought it was great.
There was a big action on November 17th to block the stock exchange. I showed up to that event, and I was arrested. The whole thing was so crazy the way that people who did participate in this action were somehow the bad guys, whereas, there had been this huge financial collapse, and no one was being held accountable. It was like an Alice in Wonderland world where the people who were the aggressors were painting themselves as victims, and I just found that whole thing strange and depressing. I started having more conversations with people. There is a whole network of activists that is growing out of the occupation that sprung up in the park. It's still so exciting to me. There is now a network of hundreds and hundreds of activists that are talking about these things. People are talking about the gaping problems of unregulated capitalism.
There is obscene income inequality in this country, and there is obscene inequality in the power that people have in their everyday lives and in relation to the government. I saw that being battled at the park, and I also saw it being talked about. Poverty in this country is treated as something that’s a natural thing, like seeing fish in the sea and birds in the sky, like crushing poverty is just the way it is. There were finally a lot of people saying, “No, this is a problem to which there are solutions. I felt that was really exciting about the park. It was a relief and felt important that people were drawing connections between all of these different things that were usually painted as separate—the environment, education, health care, being able to buy a home and what that means. People were saying, “No, there is actually a common thread here, and the common thread is that corporate influence has gotten so huge, and their power has become so unchecked.
There was a big action on November 17th to block the stock exchange. I showed up to that event, and I was arrested. The whole thing was so crazy the way that people who did participate in this action were somehow the bad guys, whereas, there had been this huge financial collapse, and no one was being held accountable. It was like an Alice in Wonderland world where the people who were the aggressors were painting themselves as victims, and I just found that whole thing strange and depressing. I started having more conversations with people. There is a whole network of activists that is growing out of the occupation that sprung up in the park. It's still so exciting to me. There is now a network of hundreds and hundreds of activists that are talking about these things. People are talking about the gaping problems of unregulated capitalism.
There is obscene income inequality in this country, and there is obscene inequality in the power that people have in their everyday lives and in relation to the government. I saw that being battled at the park, and I also saw it being talked about. Poverty in this country is treated as something that’s a natural thing, like seeing fish in the sea and birds in the sky, like crushing poverty is just the way it is. There were finally a lot of people saying, “No, this is a problem to which there are solutions. I felt that was really exciting about the park. It was a relief and felt important that people were drawing connections between all of these different things that were usually painted as separate—the environment, education, health care, being able to buy a home and what that means. People were saying, “No, there is actually a common thread here, and the common thread is that corporate influence has gotten so huge, and their power has become so unchecked.
I actually grew up in quite a wealthy family from the Washington DC area. I went to private school, but the school I went to was a Quaker school, so I think that made me think about social justice in a different way. I grew up in a republican family. The other thing I like about the movement is that it’s saying that it’s not just about the left or the right. It's saying that that the whole system is corrupt, and we've got the corporate owned media reinforcing that system. I got involved with trying to battle Citizen’s United around the time that the elections were getting started. It just seemed so glaringly wrong that corporations and individuals could buy politicians through campaign elections. The money out of politics piece seemed really key, so I went to a bunch of events and met a bunch of activists who were working on that.
The big issue is that ordinary people’s voices aren’t being heard anymore. It’s because wealthy people and corporations have too much power in this country. I think that we can evolve beyond a system where we have crushing poverty and all of the problems that come along with that. I think that for people to have a billion dollars is obscene. I think that should be illegal when people are struggling to get by. I feel that the movement for all of its problems in its infancy has created a space where it’s okay to talk about these things. It's okay to talk about man-made inequality. It’s not a natural thing. It’s a choice that we’ve made by allowing a small amount of people to have too much money and power and influence.
I think it’s important because I feel that mobilizing in huge numbers is necessary if we want to fix these problems that we face.The powers, the corporations, the very wealthy individuals in this country don’t want things to change, and they aren’t going to willingly start paying higher taxes to help the people who are struggling under crushing poverty. Many of them are quite open about not wanting to do that. People need to mobilize in numbers in order to fight back against this unfair system. I think that people sometimes don’t fight for themselves because they don’t think it will make a difference. I understand why people would feel that way, but to give up to me seems so sad. I think with this whole surveillance state thing and people being so accepting of it and feeling that it’s just inevitable just shows how badly people have been beaten down. They aren’t even thinking about how they can change the system. They just want to get through their day. Crushing poverty, income inequality, and student debt is out of control. It’s only going to get worse if we don't do something to change it.
I hope it will help bring about a world where people will look back at this time and think, “Wow, that’s so barbaric that there were people who were struggling to feed themselves or people who would go bankrupt for getting Cancer, while there were those with so much wealth." In the future. this will be seen as something really barbaric, like how we see cannibalism now. I believe the means are there to change the distribution of resources and wealth in the world. It’s just a question of making our minds up to do it, to make it a priority. I hope a day will come when resources will be more equitably distributed, and that’s not to say that there won’t be people who have more than others, but just that it won’t be to the same oppressive extent.
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/