Audri Swisher's Blog

I must confess that, in coming to college, I have fallen woefully behind on current events. I knew only the very bare bones information about the Occupy movement until I started browsing through news sites for this week’s blog post.

However, it seems that I’m not alone in my ignorance. In a Gallup poll released on October 18, 2011, 61% of Americans stated that they didn’t know enough about the movement to agree or disagree with its goals. Without any kind of discernible, unified demand, how do all of the protestors know when “as long as it takes” is? As long as what takes?

According to Lihle Z. Mtshali on the Times LIVE website,

“The occupiers basically want redistribution of income from top earners, or the 1% of the population, to the 99% through a wealth tax; they are asking for bailouts for people who have home and student loans; they are demanding the creation of 25 million new public sector jobs with union wages, less influence by corporates on politics, and trade barriers to keep jobs in the US. They also want guaranteed quality healthcare, university education and pensions for everyone.”

Uh-huh.

Frankly, I don’t agree at all with the OWS protestors. But, in this economy, no one is happy with his lot. If they draw attention to and start conversations about an admittedly shoddy status quo in the United States, well, bully for them.

A good illustration:

http://mommylife.net/archives/2011/11/13/problem%20with%20american%20culture.jpg

My apologies for the short post this week. I demand that parts of other posts be appended to mine, since I deserve to benefit from the work that other people did. As an added bonus, they should also be decried for their success. Oh, and don’t forget to forgive me when I fail to post. It was the system’s fault.