The irresponsible spending of Wall Street and financial crisis lead to a protest in New York called Occupy Wall Street.
Hundreds of people in the millennial generation gathered in New York to protest the monetary issues of our generation — mountains of school debt, high unemployment rates and an overall grim financial outlook.
Although we understand why the protestors are there, we’re unclear as to what their goal is. They have a list of demands in the works that can be found at OccupyWallSt.Org:
1. Congress shall pass HR 1489, reinstating many provisions of the Glass-Steagall Act.
2. Congress shall ensure appropriate federal agencies fully investigate and prosecute and criminals of Wall Street.
3. Re-establish the public airwaves in the United States, so politicians are given equal time in daily programming during campaign season, and limit how much corporations can spend on campaigns.
4. Pass the “Buffet Rule” on fair taxation so the über-wealthy and corporations are paying equal shares as less wealthy Americans.
5. Congress shall revamp the securities and exchange commission to give it proper funding, staffing and rid it of issues such as Wall Street insiders leaving the commission to work at corporations that are being regulated by the commission.
6. Congress shall work to limit the effects of lobbyists and practices that result in lobbyist written legislation passing through congress.
7. Congress shall pass laws restricting conflict of interest such as regulating a business for five years, approving high bonuses and then leaving to work for that corporation. Same for judges who may have interest in making laws in favor of the top 1 percent of the population.
8. Congress shall retract the law allowing corporations to have “personhood” status.
While all of these goals could be considered valid, or perhaps not, a good protest has a clear-cut goal. Issues as big as our broken economy may not be fixed in one protest, or have one solution, but to get the message across, one specific message should be clearly defined. After all, isn’t the point of a protest in part to get media attention? The media addressing Occupy Wall Street, if it’s being covered at all, isn’t quite sure what to say.
It’s clear people are there because the college-age generation is being highly affected by the economy and there’s plenty to be angry about. The most concise message is that we are the 99 percent and the wealthiest 1 percent is in charge of everything. However, a large, evolving document for change isn’t sending a clear message.
On that note, the protest is spreading. Many cities throughout America are being “occupied” by Wall Street protestors.
Columbia is among them, but we haven’t yet seen a movement we can get behind. With three college campuses, a highly educated town and all of the possible media coverage, it’s unfortunate that our personal experiences with the Occupy COMO protest have spanned from a Free Hug to looking at a Facebook group.
These issues affect college students and we urge them to become informed on these issues and take a stance.
Columbia is known as a college town, and many of the Occupy COMO protests have been lead by a small number of residents, some of which have been high school students. Free Hugs isn’t going to cut it anymore. We want to see real action on behalf of Columbia’s students.
Especially at a local level, Occupy Together is a way for the protests to go national, to reach the streets that Wall Street touches with its national reach. Since the average person passing by may not be informed or know what’s happening on Wall Street, it’s important for local protestors to have a good enough grasp to inform them. Yet again, having a clearer goal could aid this process.
It’s easy to dismiss an act such as this. The protestors are predominantly young, unemployed and bitching at the employed. But they’re not bitching because they have to go to work, they’re making a fuss because going to work has become a luxury for our generation.
Our generation is often attacked for neglecting to care about things. The extent of our protests can sometimes mean a Facebook group, but this is big. We’re definitely doing something and getting a fairly negative response. Hundreds of people are being arrested, news organizations such as NPR neglected to cover the protests and many older generations dismiss the movement as whiny, just as they did to protestors in the 1960s.
Overall, this movement is big. It is important, and as the generation that has the most to lose, we should be more informed. Protestors can only help their cause by making it more easily definable. A set of goals is one thing, but there should be one overarching call to action.
Give us something we can stand behind.
