Last week I texted my dad to ask who he votes for; I know he doesn’t vote Democrat or Republican, a source of much dinner table controversy. The rest of us pretty much vote Democrat, even though a some of us don’t want to, we feel obligated because the alternative is too horrific to imagine: Palin, Cain, Perry. But my dad won’t budge. He votes for whomever he believes is the best person for the job. Period. It’s admirable.
We ping-pong’d political texts back and forth for a while before he asked if I wanted to go Occupy Wall Street for my birthday. I turn 29 next Tuesday and yes, I would love to go Occupy Wall Sreet.
My life is privileged, I know that. I don't pay rent and have made it so that my overhead is super low so that I can travel. Two weeks ago I went to Seattle from Austin Texas with my half-sister and niece for my full sisters 30th birthday. We were supposed to be in town for four days, but on the third day I bumped into someone on the street with a tattoo of the original NA symbol. It seemed like a sign from the Universe that I should just stay in Seattle. So hours before I was to board my plane I decided not to. This is pretty much how I life these days bouncing around looking for signs- connecting the dots- and trying be as present as possible in any given moment. I figured I could go to my grandma’s sister’s house, write for a few days and go to meetings. My Great Aunt and Uncle live on a beautiful 1920’s houseboat in a community of other beautiful houseboats on Lake Union in Seattle, where they’ve lived there for over 50 years. It’s a haven of calmness.
The text from my dad offering to fly me to New York to go Occupy Wall Street seemed like the next logical dot. I am super excited and grateful for the opportunity to be in the middle of it, though I want to stress that all of the Occupies- Austin, Stockholm, small town America and everywhere else are just as important, if not more important, than Wall Street. It started on in New York but it is truly a global movement.
In the 1960’s my grandparents packed up their four kids and hit the streets to protest. There was segregation, inequality, and a needless war. The 1960’s opened the door for my generation and we are opening the door for the next.
Advertisers refer to my generation as “The Echo Boomers”- the children of the Baby Boomers. We far out number previous generations. The change that we can create is huge. Together with the Baby Boomers, with the Granny Peace Brigade and Veterans for Peace, we are making it happen.
My friend Jessica texted me the other night worrying about the 2012 Doomsday prophecies. I told her not to panic- it is just like the 1960’s when everyone was in a panic about the Atomic Bomb. Fear keeps us captive. Left wing folks who don’t have family members fighting in the war are less fearful of terrorists. 2012 supplies the same level of fear for the middle class liberals as war does for the middle class conservatives. It keeps us in line, ticking hours on a clock so that we can have some money to spend on our days off so that we can forget our fears through shopping or drinking or traveling. However, that is not to entirely discount 2012. We are 14 months away from what many Indigenous tribes refer to as a global spiritual rebirth. The fact that the 2012 prediction is smack in between the American presidential election and the inauguration does seem mildly poignant. Either way, it's clear that we are in transition. Think of it like forest fires- the burning has to happen to create nutrients for new growth. It’s a part of the process. It's always darkest before the dawn.
These Occupy protests are coming up because of twitter, facebook and the ability to pass information rapidly. We are The New Media. We can change the world. Occupy Everything is happening largely in part because of Egypt and Syria rising up against their governments. It's big shit. We are in control. Like my friend David posted the other day “If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito.”
― Dalai Lama XIV
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