Revolutions are taking place all over the world, from Africa to the United States, and even in Corban’s backyard.
A local protest is occurring here in Salem as part of a larger national political outcry started on the streets of New York. Called “Occupy Wall Street,” this nationwide movement is nearing its one-month anniversary.
Here in Salem, about 60 people met at Riverfront Park on Oct. 4, as reported in the Statesman Journal. This group met to form an action plan for a peaceful protest, and the resulting rally is being called Occupy Salem. The protest officially began at noon on Oct. 10, on the steps of the Capitol Building.
The Occupy Wall Street blog states, “The one thing we all have in common is that we are the 99 percent that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1 percent.”
More than 700 protesters have been arrested during the peaceful protest, and civilians have been sprayed with mace while picketing, said CBS News.
One hundred and forty cities are protesting to encourage the protesters on Wall Street and to push for change.
Locally, the individuals standing together in unity are all fighting for a variety of causes. Some wish to legalize marijuana, while others want to see gas prices decrease, according to the Statesman Journal. However, the common thread is their demand to see a change in our system. They all hope to see the power of the people prevail.
These protests in United States are occurring just as rebel fighters in Libya have toppled and killed Dictator Muammar Gaddafi and rebels fight on in Syria and Yemen. Reporters and educators have begun referring to the mass uprisings in the Middle East that started in Egypt last year as the “Arab Spring.”
Don says
Has anyone looked at the change these OWS “protesters” want? When I heard one of the OWS “leaders” in an interview when this all started, he said they didn’t want anything but the end of the current system because there were too many problems and they weren’t interested in trying to fix anything, they just wanted to get away from them. I also hear that the whole movement is being organized by a group in Vancouver, Canada.
Does anyone recogize the strategy being employed and where these tactics come from and where they have been used in the past? Unlike other places in the world, the America Constitutional Republic includes political mechanisms available to all citizens to bring about change, it’s called representative government–of the People, by the People, for the People–and the vote. Camping out in public places and advocating the demise of societal structure is not responsible, productive, nor helpful for those interested in building anything, let alone a better society.
I found these stages of the “self-destructive cycle of democratic behavior” a while back (attributed to Alexander Tytler), and what is currently happening in the US brings them to mind:
“From bondage to spiritual faith;
From spiritual faith to great courage;
From courage to liberty;
From liberty to abundance;
From abundance to complacency;
From complacency to apathy;
From apathy to dependence;
From dependence back into bondage.”
You can find a very good article–definitely worth reading–which expands on these ideas at: http://www.canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/2181
This country needs to return to its roots of faith and trust in God to regain the great courage that brought about the liberty of the American system, unknown in all the world.
Don Sparks