"Occupy D.C.", McPherson Square, Monday, Nov 7, 2011; Graeme Jennings/Examiner
Dear Occupiers:You've had your fun. You've suffered some pain. Some of you have even braved the cold. But you have also lost the rationale for what you're doing. Your protest is adrift.
You see, if your sleepover was ever about banks and corporations and economic injustice, it isn't anymore. It is now all about you. It's about your infighting over how much of the proceeds of your begging passers-by your movement's finance committee lets you keep.
It's about whether it's appropriate to clash with police and rescue workers when they show up to help after someone dies from a drug overdose. It's about how many people in the encampments are learning about sexual assault awareness the hard way.
It's time for you to go home and ... well, do whatever you were doing before this all began.
Your protest has not been a failure. It has successfully raised societal awareness. Society is now aware that some people steal from food carts and vandalize them with their bodily fluids.
Society is grateful that the black-clad anarchists among you in Oakland, Calif., liberated us all from the tyranny of Whole Foods with spray-paint and brickbats through windows.
Closer to home, here in D.C., you have taught me that old ladies don't belong at conservative political gatherings. (And I must say, you certainly showed them!)
Your movement has also raised interesting political questions about corporate greed that we will all have to grapple with. For example, the financial sector made $427 billion in profits last year -- that's billion with a "B." That's a lot of money.
A friend pointed out to me on Twitter that in 2010, that would have been enough money to keep our federal government running for 45 days and two hours. Which means. ... Wait, what?
Anyway, your movement also spawned the ingenious "I'm Getting Arrested" app. It allows Droid users to send pre-set text messages to the people of their choosing with a single touch of the screen.
From now on, I will load this app every time I start throwing bottles and rocks at police officers, so that I can easily notify my wife of my subsequent arrest without having to fumble with a virtual keypad.
And finally, you've taught us one other lesson: You don't need a diverse crowd to conduct a popular demonstration against economic injustice. Black unemployment stands above 15 percent, yet a study of Occupy Wall Street, your flagship protest, showed that 1.6 percent of the participants are black.
I will admit that I am sometimes irked by your behavior toward the news media. For example, that hobbyist photographer you beat up in Zuccotti Park this week -- there are much better ways to harm a person without leaving all that tell-tale blood on his face.
But that's still not the reason you should leave. You should leave because you're starting to give a bad name to anarcho-collectivism, drug use, and public urination, which would ultimately undermine your cause.
As Sen. George Aiken, R-Vt., once said of Vietnam, it is time to declare victory, and withdraw.
David Freddoso is The Examiner's online opinion editor. He can be reached at dfreddoso@washingtonexaminer.com.
http://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com/article/time-end-occupation?utm_source=%20Washington%20Examiner%20Political%20Digest%20-%2011/09/2011&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Washington%20Examiner:%20Political%20Digest
No comments:
Post a Comment