logic is bogus

today i listened to an interview on npr that featured portland's mayor sam adams speaking about the occupy wall street protesters. mayor adams had set a deadline for the occupiers to clear out and noted that while he supports the protests as a citizen he also respects the fact that as a mayor he has a responsibility to keep the balance in the city. adams said that things were getting a little out of hand and pointed out a number of recent issues within the camps including drug overdoses and a bit of violence.

the interview got me thinking about the protests and what they represent. while i was walking my dog it kind of hit me that while big banks/organizations, wall street and even our stubborn politicians are truly in need of an awakening, the protests have a huge opportunity to represent real change if they rethink the way they are raising awareness.

now don't get me wrong, i am a firm believer in what the protests stand for, and i think that occupying wall street has proven to have grabbed the nation's attention, but i can't help but wonder how much attention the occupiers would get if they started working towards fixing the problems rather than pointing fingers and slowly letting things get out of hand. now when i say problems i'm not talking about politics, or business models, those issues will take a huge shift to fix, but what i am talking about are the issues that protesters are representing.

the real problems are poverty, hunger, homelessness, lack of access to a good education, lack of job skills training, lack of "relevant job experience", no jobs, etc.

occupy wall street began on september 17, 2011 - just short of two months ago. imagine how much better off each and every occupy city would be if every protester spent the past two months volunteering, i.e. either teaching, counseling, growing a garden to provide people with food, helping the homeless, teaching underserved youth valuable jobs skills, and on and on. for the college students that have led the charge in many of the protests throughout the world, you don't need a degree to teach someone what you know. add two months of volunteer teaching to your resume and see what happens. for people that have been in the workforce for a while and are now being pushed out of your jobs, you hold a huge amount of knowledge pertaining to the workforce and what it means to work hard day in and day out to support a family. help a struggling student find their way and who knows, maybe they will start the next business that needs employees like you that are willing to do whatever it takes to get our country back on track. for all of the occupiers. imagine how much of a difference could be made if hundreds of thousands of people all over the world lived in tents in the poorest areas of the each city. imagine what would happen if everyone occupied homelessness. cities would have to react, and there would be sure to be a lot of media attention. what a better way to draw attention to the real problem.

we all know people are tired of waiting for change. and we can all agree that politics have become more about glamour shots and propaganda than pounding the pavement and representing the public. real change comes from small actions. to be super cliche, you have to be the change you want to see in the world. let's stop waiting and be the change.

and on that i'll wrap up the first of my blog posts. more to come.

logic is bogus

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Saturday, November 12, 2011

snow in november

songs for the week

Portland vs. Seattle - raise your hand if you like to bike

Occupying the Problems