Why are we Occupying Vancouver?

The conversation is going on about the whole occupy movement and it’s important that it goes on. I’m afraid though that many young people are getting wrapped up in the emotion of it all without understanding the “why” of it all.

It’s important, first, to understand the purpose and the intention of the movement and see where the organizers come from.

Occupy Wall Street is leaderless resistance movement with people of many colors, genders and political persuasions. The one thing we all have in common is that We Are The 99% that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1%. We are using the revolutionary Arab Spring tactic to achieve our ends and encourage the use of nonviolence to maximize the safety of all participants. (OccupyWallSt.org)

The vagueness of the mission is disconcerting to me. I understand the aims of the Wall Street protest. The government of the United States of America put the American people on the hook for the dishonesty, greed and irresponsibility of the banks. I agree that it is unjust to have executives of the banks get golden parachutes while the majority of the American feel the load of debt on their shoulders.

In Canada, though, we don’t have the same problem that our brothers and sisters down south do. We didn’t bail out our banks–which leads me to the point I’m trying to make. Why are we occupying Vancouver?

What!? - 1

I acknowledge that people have different reasons: First Nations’ rights, corruption of government, poverty, womens’ rights, cost of living, ad infinitum. My fear is that attendees of the movement in Vancouver are getting caught up in the sensational, viral nature of the protests and want a “great profile picture” out of the whole thing. Get educated, people. Know what you are standing up for. And, know, too, ways to make your voice heard apart from sleeping in a tent downtown for a couple of weeks. A good chunk of you, after everything’s wrapped up downtown, will come home and sleep in your bed. We need creative minds (your creative minds) to effect change in our world. We need to change the way our economy runs. We need to find solutions for the people of the Downtown East Side, and the single mothers and fathers who are living paycheque to paycheque feeding their family and keeping a roof over their heads, and the kids who fall through the cracks in our education system because classrooms are full, and the graduate that has student debt and has difficulty finding a job, and the drug addict downtown who is controlled by a substance that is chipping away at their life, and the child living halfway around the world who can’t eat anything because an oppressive regime is blocking aid from getting in their village.

What am I trying to say here?

Our discussion is ongoing. Let’s find out what kind of change we want to see in this world and put our hand to the plow.

Why do you occupy Vancouver? Let us know in the comments.

Links:
Vantage Point – Volunteer in Vancouver
Red Cross
Action for Happiness
Union Gospel Mission
Big Brothers and Big Sisters

99 percent don’t really want to fix inequality – article

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