Democracy Now Response

Occupy Wall Street

After watching the Democracy Now video shown in class, I was really shocked by all the important issues that aren’t being shown in class. The majority of the issues in this video covered pressing international topics including armed conflicts in Africa, Alabama immigration law, rioting caused by bank and corporate greed, the dedication of the new Martin Luther King Jr. memorial, and continued problems in the Middle east. These topics seemed to all share a common interest: global populations uniting and speaking out against the minority that holds most of the power. Global populations believe that the top 1% of their countries are risking the well being of the lower 99% with their corporate greed.

         The majority of this video discusses protests due to this issue. Though I’d heard about the Occupy Wall Street movements, I hardly knew anything about them until watching this. I learned why so many were protesting and about the different occupies going on across the world. Occupy spread quickly across the globe. Each country has their own personal reasons for protesting and are uniting with the people of New York for a global call to action. Over 1,500 cities and 8 countries have been involved.

Occupy Wall Street has gained popularity citizens everywhere, including celebrities. Wikileaks founder Julian Assange in London, Danny Glover in Oakland, Michael Moore in New York and Princeton professor Cornell West in D.C. are among the thousands involved in this movement. While occupiers were well aware of the unrest their protests would cause, I don’t think many were prepared for extreme measures police forces would take to diffuse protests. This video sheds a light on the arrests made in the past month. One woman in New York was forced against her will into a bank and quickly arrested by an undercover cop for doing nothing wrong…she was only there to withdraw money. Princeton professor Cornell West was protesting with his students on the supreme court steps and was arrested by guards in the area. Though it was under poor circumstances, West risked his job by standing up for something he was truly passionate about, and I think this is admirable.

Many people have spoken out against the Occupy movement saying that it is a useless cause and that protesters are wasting the governments time and money. Republican candidate Herman Cain is quoted in a shocking statement by saying “The protesters shouldn’t blame Wall Street, it is their own fault if they don’t have jobs and they’re not rich.” While a select few in the 1% may side with Cain, I’m pretty sure the 99% disagrees. Even Obama gave a speech in support of the protests during the Martin Luther King memorial in Washington, D.C.