We Are The People And We Occupy

Corporations are entities which are comprised of two things: money and people. Without people, corporations don't exist.

Look around you and what do you see? A city.

There are those who would tell you that this city with all its buildings and roads and bridges were all brought to you by banks and corporations.

But banks and corporations don't build things. People build things.

Corporations don't provide jobs. People provide jobs.

When we work for a corporation, they need us.

Because Its people who lay bricks.
It's people who pave roads.
It's people who pull levers and push buttons.
It's people who mop floors and clean toilets.
It's people who are designers and engineers.
It's people who do accounting.
It's people who make decisions.
It's people behind a desk who hire other people.

If you ask me if we are slaves to corporations, I say "no!"
So why do they think they can treat us like slaves?
Why do they think we cannot survive without them?

If you ask me, it is they who need us.
It is they who cannot survive without us.
It is the corporations who are the slaves and we are the masters.

When I read our constitution, the first three words I see are "we the people."

It is we who control our destiny.
It is we who work and provide for ourselves and our families.
It is we who participate in commerce and trade.
It is we who should be governing and making laws.
It is we who can bring the system down when the system threatens our way of life.
It is we who have drawn a line in the sand.
It is we who have occupied public spaces in the name of justice.
It is we who say "we won't put up with this anymore!"
It is we who want to put things right again.
It is we who want to reclaim the power of our vote.

Without people performing work, there would be no corporations.
So stop telling me to apologize for financial criminals and irresponsible corporations just because they need people to work for them.
They are not entitled to break the law.
They are not entitled to destroy lives.
They are not entitled to bring a nation's economy to its knees.
They are not entitled to escape justice.

It is we who want the law applied to everyone equally.
It is we who want a level playing field where no one cheats their way to the top.
It is we who want a representational government where no one can pay to have a law written in their favor or bribe politicians.

Look around me and what do you see? A city.
A city build by people.

Who's city is it? It's our city.
Who's city? Our city.
Who's streets are these? They're our streets.
Who's streets? Our streets.

We Occupy. And we're staying.

Important Article Shared By Occupy Philadelphia

Now's a good time to get off topic.

This article posted on the Occupy Philadelphia Facebook page has some interesting charts showing the inequalities in our economy. Its all stuff we've heard over and over again, but somehow gets overlooked or scoffed at by Joe Average struggling to pay his mortgage. I liked what it said but I couldn't overlook the disconnect that it highlighted.

Here are the comments i left on the thread on the Occupy Phila FB page:

"My comments regarding this: while I personally agree that these charts show how unfair things are, most Americans consider it a right in this country to be as rich as you can be. However, what the average person is not understanding is that this kind of inequality and the financial crisis of 2008 and beyond was the result of crimes committed by the very rich…"

"…heinous crimes against the people which go unpunished, plus complete control and corruption of the political system. These things need to be explained to people in a simple way or they will dismiss the occupy movement as just a bunch of liberal socialist freaks behaving badly."

"This is why you get complaints such as "why don't you go out and start a business if you don't like how things are." Kind of amazing how average Americans don't realize how badly victimized they really are and how the transgressions of the rich and greedy have affected them directly."


Then I shared it on the news feed and here are the comments I added:

"Let me make one thing clear: These charts make perfect sense to me but I'm not against capitalism or banks or people getting rich. The issue is not who is making money and who is not. The issue is that banks like JPM and Goldman Sachs are STEALING from the people and the government REFUSES to do anything about it. The banks steered the risk of derivatives trading into the public domain while keeping the rewards for themselves, then asked the taxpayers for bailouts when it blew up in their faces."

The connection somehow needs to be made otherwise the mainstream media will succeed in mocking the movement and nothing will change. People are so blind that they can't feel the bankers hands stealing right out of their pockets. They allow this to go on as part of the American Dream. When they wake up, they'll be living in a tent city and will still consider it all to be fair game. Sad. Really sad.