Opinion : What members of Occupy Wall Street really want, in their own words

They are out to change history, those people who are filling Wall Street with their protests about Wall Street, and camping out on the most famous corner in New York City.

Now, their protests have come to Eastern Iowa, where several hundreds have begun protesting and camping. They have put out signs saying, "Donations Here" as they claim to oppose greed by corporations, which, they like to point out, are "not people."

"I protest; therefore I teach," reads one sign in Iowa City.

What do these people want to change? How do they want to change it? And what does this protest have to teach us?

I will tell you; it’s all in their newspaper, “The OCCUPIED Wall Street Journal.”

(By the way, TOWSJ is the first newspaper in America to be established for a particular political purpose since the mid-1800s, when many cities and even small towns had a newspaper for the Republican Party and one for the Democratic Party. It’s a historical irony that in the town where I grew up, the Democratic Party’s newspaper was called “The Conservative;” it’s also a historic lesson that virtually everyone overlooks.)

The paper is not dated, but the headline of the most recent TOWSJ mentions the Oct. 5 student walkouts and Union marches. You may not have seen this on the TV newscasts, but the protests in NYC are a combined effort to reform both Wall Street and the educational system of New York.

The headlines and other large-print phrases in TOWSJ include:

“The revolution begins at home”

“How many times in life do you get a chance to watch history unfold?”

“The message from Egypt, Syria, Tunisia, Spain and England is simple: Join in! Rise up! Our answer to them has to be Yes. And it has to be yes to each other.”

On Page 2, TOWSJ has quotes from the protestors under a headline, “We Occupy # BECAUSE” with the # symbolizing that the messages we are about to read come from the Twitter messages. Yes, the protestors who are complaining about poverty are sending these quotes from their smart phones, which probably cost them $100 per month. Those messages include:

“The world is on the cusp of great change and I plan to help tip the scales in favor of all that is good.”

“I trust people who sleep on the street more than I trust bankers, traders or politicians.”

“Democracy is built, not granted.”

“I’m sick of my faith being used to justify oppression, greed, and war.”

“It’s time they feel how fed up we are. We don’t buy your façade of democracy.”

“NYC schoolchildren deserve better than hedge-fund sponsored lotteries to get into a good school.”

“Every generation needs a new Revolution”(Thomas Jefferson)

"The $1 in my pocket is more than GE, BP and ExxonMobil paid in taxes last year.”

“The ‘American Dream’ is a slogan created to make people work themselves to death.”

Fighting Greed and standing up for Mom

Speaking of working oneself to death and fighting greed, writer David Kempa, who describes himself as a free-lance journalist, said in an article in TOWSJ that he had a paying job, but quit because he was not happy. So now he works for anyone who will publish his stories. This month, it’s TOWSJ. David Kempa, who says he is now broke, but happy, plans to return to New York; he said he had to go to Wisconsin to help his mother move out of her foreclosed home. Her foreclosure inspires David Kempa’s participation in the Occupation. He says he is almost moved to tears by the people who are camping on Wall Street:

“It’s astounding. The excitement. The empathy. The absolute fortitude of these folks. It almost moves me to tears to stand among them. They are there because bad things are happening to good people. They are there for my mother.”

The Declaration of the Occupation

The leaders of this Occupation met on Sept. 29, and in another nod to Thomas Jefferson, drafted the “Declaration of the Occupation.” In this document they allege that corporations, working with American political leaders, have (among other things):

* perpetuated inequality and discrimination in the workplace based on age, the color of one’s skin, sex, gender identity and sexual orientation.
* poisoned the food supply through negligence, and undermined the farming system through monopolization.
* profited off of the torture, confinement, and cruel treatment of countless animals, and actively hide these practices.
*held students hostage with tens of thousands of dollars of debt on education, which is itself a human right.
*used the military and police force to prevent freedom of the press.
*purposefully keep people misinformed and fearful through their control of the media.
* accepted private contracts to murder prisoners even when presented with serious doubts about their guilt.
*perpetuated colonialism at home and abroad. They have participated in the torture and murder of innocent civilians overseas.

Sure, there some factual and historical issues with the statements that the protestors and the writers of the TOWSJ have made. Thomas Jefferson did not actually say that every generation needs a revolution, according to the Monticello archivists. And the list of corporate crimes above seems a bit far-fetched.

And sure, BP and ExxonMobil actually pay tens of billions of dollars in income taxes (GE, too, depending on who is counting, and how). And yeah, maybe it's silly to say the U.S. military is using its force to prevent freedom of the press, especially when the police in NYC are just standing there, watching students pass out issues of TOWSJ.

But even if the members of the Occupation are factually wrong, they are sincere. And after all, being sincere is more important than being right, right?

Those who have read to the end of the first issue of TOWSJ are asked to help the Occupation achieve its mission of fighting greed and corporations who don’t pay taxes.

If you can’t join the Occupation in person, you can do this by sending them money, food (preferably Vegan items and gluten-free products so all protestors can have access), and sweatshirts, sweatpants and socks. All of your donations, by the way are tax deductible.