Occupy Wall Street

I have to be honest here, I just don't get Occupy Wall Street. When it started up, I was geeked.  I was ready to join up and finally get something done about the dysfunction in DC. Occupy Wall Street seemed like the perfect laxative to end the constipation that is American government.

An alternative to the Democratic Party....dare I dream?

I jumped downtown on public transportation and into Piatt Park...and … it didn't feel like a protest....felt like a bunch of kids who got together and were now sitting around asking each other...”well...what do you want to do?....I don't know...What do you want to do?”

I went home.....They mean well...but they don't know what to do. A few weeks in...Jessie came to town and did the “I am somebody shuffle” for them. Made em happy...many more Black people showed up....but left when Jessie did......OWS still on their butts, camped out in Piatt Park.

Several weeks into these so called protests, I'm sitting on the sidelines watching and waiting....and watching and waiting...and watching and waiting..

What am I waiting for....well, I guess I'm waiting for something to happen...like...protest maybe...like civil disobedience maybe....like mass arrests for, well protesting instead of sitting on your ass in a public park, playing drums.

Protesting to me is not pitching a tent in a public park and waiting for someone in power to take notice.

This time around... I don't have the luxury of youth on my side....If I take to the streets now and risk getting smacked upside the head or jailed...It's going to have to be worth it....real change....for everybody.....I don't see that with OWS...not yet...

Protesting for change, to me is pitching your tent on someone's desk...in someone's hallway.... or on someone's front steps...demanding they talk to you...or...call the cops to arrest your ass for interrupting their day.

You post bail...you go to the hospital and get your wounds treated...and you come back..You don't take time off to celebrate holidays with your parents in the burbs.

Sitting in a public park under a tent, under the watchful eyes of cops....seems more like a temper tantrum...something to do...until your parents give into your demands.

You need to earn your tear gas and pepper spray...sitting there reacting to over reacting pigs is not protest...ghandi-esque....picturesque...useless..

It's safe....it's “look at me, world...I'm taking a stand to change the world...sorta”

Safe....but not effective.

OWS is on the tongues of nearly everyone nationwide. It has seized the opportunity...but it doesn't know how to harness the power....and it is not reaching out to those who do know how to make it work..

Like I said, Jessie showed up in Cincinnati. Angela Davis made an appearance in Oakland.

MlK's peaceful protestors needed the counterpoint of the Black Panther Party, the SDS (students for a democratic society), CORE and SNCC to make it's point.

OWS just has OWS...no leaders...no one apparently willing to take the heat and lead..OWS is not reaching out to form coalitions....

It is complaining because Congress won't do the bipartisan thing...well....OWS is not being very bipartisan either...instead of waiting for the church to come to you...why not go to the church?

Folks are watchin...but OWS...just sits there and drums..

I LOVE THE SMELL OF TEAR GAS IN THE MORNING!

The pigs are back! Not that they ever went away in the first place. Their masters simply put them on a leash following the fall of Saigon, when the Vietnam conflict ended back in the day.

Oh yeah, they killed a few protestors too, around that time. Ya'll remember Kent State, don't cha? Or maybe you folks heard about it from the Jimi Hendrix song “Machine Gun,” or CSN & Y, “Four Dead in O HI O.” Some of you, like me, may have even been gassed while protesting between classes at UC...so you know what I'm talkin' about.

Blacks like me were protesting for our civil rights. Many white kids joined the protests under the guise of solidarity but were in fact acting out against their well off fathers, and the government that was “grinding” them down (can ya'll say SDS?).

Kid protestors died in other places around the US of A back then too, shocking their rich, mothers and fathers back to the reality that it was their own kids being shot at, kicked, beaten, gassed and killed, not foreign little gooks from a faraway land or big and black panther terrorist/criminals bent on destroying America. It's always open season on black and brown people, even today....Except the glitterati who have morphed into the Tea Bag Party, don't talk about it much, and besides, they've allowed black upward mobility to happen so the folks calling the shots these days, look just like the ones they are beating up.

Internal class struggle? Nah. The Committees of 50 are still in business around the country. For those of you new to Cincinnati or born after 1979, The Committee of 50 was/is a group of the richest local business men (one black, with a female spokesperson from Ky) who call the shots in Cincinnati...regardless of who is mayor or police chief or prosecutor or city manager...regardless of their various ethnic persuasions. If the Committee likes it...okay...But if it doesn't...then it becomes “LET THE DOGS OUT!” Regardless of who is actually holding the leash. They quietly employ what I used to call the “Lindner method.” The late Mr. Lindner, rest his soul, used his money to pollinate all sides in Cincinnati ( we have three, GOP, Dem and Charter) thereby guaranteeing that he would win the argument, no matter what it was, because what politician is going to bite the hand that feeds him or her. And as we all know, Mr. Lindner went to his grave revered and relatively bite-free last week.

Enter Occupy Cincinnati, recently de-trenched from Piatt Park( The Bortz said you had to go. Resistance is futile...you're messing up HIS park. Hello, Arn, long time). Did you know that OWSC is two groups in Cincinnati...one white and one black? OWSCW is the group getting all the media attention. OWSCB is, well black and ignored as always. Politics, politics...

I sympathize with OWSWC or B, whatever. The movement speaks to the inner anarchist in me. It speaks to the me who is tired of politicians....all of em. It speaks to the me who truly believes that the only way to clean up DC is to drop a bomb on Capitol Hill and start over with more women reflecting our numbers in the electorate, term limits, and rules that prevent them from opting out of the laws that affect me, thereby killing the mantra “do as I say..not as I do.” State Capitols and city governments are not exempt. I am in favor of a big fat fireman's hose turned on full blast at the doorway into City Hall... like Hercules did to the Aegean Stables....that would go a long way in washing away the stench of corrupt government that permeates America at all levels.

30 years younger and I would be camped down in Pie-ett Park with OWS. But I'm not. I've buzzed by and honestly, I see the same sitcom playing out that happened back in the day when I was less jaded about change. White kids taking a break from classes. Black people invisible. Out of work folks looking to stay relevant. Activists seeking face time. The homeless looking for a meal and way to re connect with a society that obviously doesn't want their participation. Opportunists looking for a way to capitalize on the misery, but staying out of the real line of fire. No sign of pimpin' ministers, yet either.

Missing in action, those who grew up...sympathize with the protestors(so they say)...except they have a J-O-B and a F-A-M-I-L-Y to support, so they watch it unfold on the T-V waiting for the call that the revolution has begun.

Trouble is as long as we wait for somebody else or our kids to start the revolution...it won't happen... It will take the whole city marching to OWSCWB's tune to get the city to lay off and act for the people. Otherwise, committee of 50 rules....still.

The kids in Oakland expressed surprise at the police onslaught a couple of nights ago. They were saying they didn't believe it could happen like that. Guess their parents never talked about the civil rights days or the war days. Guess they never cracked a history book or two or three. The American Spring happened years ago, long before the Arab Springs of this past summer. These young protestors protest like they play video games...can't tell imaginary from reality with none of them understanding the concept that every action draws an equal and opposite reaction. When the going gets rough many of them will retreat to the safety of Dad's home in the burbs. Trouble is...the way it is today...Dad's home won't be there much longer.....unless Daddy has millions to begin with.

So get ready...you ain't seen nothin' yet if the protests continue...you still have no idea what your country is capable of....really...