Mainstream Media Joins The 1%

In a time when momentum for the working class has peaked, it's interesting to note just how many non-relevant issues have risen to the top in mainstream media. No surprise, the right will always try to confuse and distract from the glaring truths; But when it comes from our very own left, that's when I put my foot down.

Take John Hlinko, for instance. Normally a left-leaning, whistle-blowing, support group for liberal democrats, today's email newsletter, emboldened, reads: "Don't Robo Call My Cell Phone". The newsletter attempts to appeal to my interests by telling me they are championing for my cell phone rights. It is silly to think that an inanimate object could possess more legal rights than myself...

Or is it?

Following one day after the boldest move yet, Occupy Foreclosed Homes should have sparked controversy, reciprocal communication and bridges between classes of Americans of whom it had never occurred - that we are all cut from the same stock.

Take, for instance, the discharged servicemen who served our country and who's tour of duty resulted in permanent disability, or the writer who made clear that we should not have had to treat disabled war veterans because they were not suppose to live long enough to make it home.

Where is the heart and soul of fellow man?

It's not hard to recognise your brethren. They are never the ones that you frown upon, because those very people who live their life in such reckless shame make understanding them impossible. There has to be a conscience correlation to circumstance that permits one to see through the eyes of another.

When I joined the Portland Occupy protest in downtown Portland, Oregon, my response to my friends and family was typical; "Those are my people. I have to be there". The reaction from my new girlfriend was horrifying: "Your not worried about catching something"?

Actually, I was not worried at all. In fact, I was praying I would catch something. I was hoping to catch a whiff of freedom, a sense of camaraderie among brothers and sisters who feel the same way I do about an unjust political and economic system. What we all caught was fire.

Despite the fact that the mainstream media has painted a portrait of a loose movement with no clear agenda, #OWS has garnered well over 50% support of the average American, a number that is still considered to be squelched. It's rather easy to conclude that, even though 99% would never fully commit, the inequities are there. Those other 49% are suppressed, and it's not hard to understand why.

Take, for instance, every person who has both a paying job and a home mortgage. What responsible person in their right mind would sacrifice all their hard work when, if you lose it, you'll likely never have another opportunity to earn it back. Our country was born on the ax ion that if you work hard, you will get everything you want. But on the other hand, popular opinion  today professes that if you lose your job and home by doing something unintelligent, it's a dog-eat-dog world, sorry about your
luck.

Standing up for your rights and freedoms in unison, in unity, in solidarity, is the only way Americans are going to take their freedom back. Everyone sacrifices; everyone wins.