Protestors are not just occupying Wall Street to protest corporate greed; they are occupying Philly as well. It’s been going on for weeks now and through the rain and piles of criticism, the protestors don’t seem to be going anywhere, anytime soon.
These protestors have been criticized for having no clear goals and hence no end in sight for their increasingly costly occupation. Though, to a certain degree, I do agree with the criticism above I do sympathize with their underlining cause. There are many things to protest about our country’s current situation from our foreign involvement to the lack of accountability that our “representatives” display.
As a person who has done her share of protesting, I believe that there should always be different components to a protest. The visible component (occupying Philly) is always useful but other steps need to also be taken in conjunction to this occupation in order to make the occupation effective. Where are the law suits? Where are the civil pressures on the elected officials in the form of votes, letters, and phone calls? Where is the proposed legislation that might improve the situation that protestors are protesting? Though, some of these “added” components to the protest might be happening as I write, there has not been any press about them. What should people like me do in order to support? Etc. Not much outside of the actual occupation seems to be happening… It seems to be going nowhere…
Nonetheless, though this protest highlights a lot of negative aspects about our country, it does highlight one key aspect of it: our democracy. This peaceful public display of discontent with our country’s current situation shows off the strength of our democracy. Think about it, in how many countries around the world are people able to do this without being beaten/killed or in some other way silenced? Though there have been arrests, there are no deaths. Aren’t we in some way blessed?
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