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IN PRAISE OF OCCUPY WALL STREET
In 2007 the richest 1 percent of the American
population owned 34.6 percent of the country’s total
wealth, and the next 19 percent owned 50.5 percent.
Thus, the top 20 percent of Americans owned 85
percent of the country’s wealth and the bottom 80
percent of the population owned 15 percent. However,
after the Great Recession which started in 2007,
the share of total wealth owned by the top 1 percent
of the population grew from 34.6 percent ta37.1
percent, and that owned by the top 20 percent of
Americans grew from 85 percent to 87.7 percent.
—Wikipedia, “Wealth Inequality in the United States”
O ccupy Wall Street deserves the praise
and thanks of all Americans not of
the fascist or plutocratic persuasion.
OWS has reawakened pur social consciences.
OWS has reaffirmed our strong belief in social
justice. OWS has reminded us what the teach
ings of Christ are all about—in particular, that
Jesus Christ was not a capitalist, a banker, a
stockbroker, a corporation, a coupon clipper or
a rich man.
OWS has reminded us of our duty to take
up the cause of the poor, the evicted, the
weak, the homeless, the politically powerless
and all the victims of our heartless, relentless
system of predatory and greedy capitalism,
which favors the rich and the powerful and the
strong, and cares nothing for everybody else.
Thank you, OWS, for reminding us that Ayn
Rand's defense of selfishness and greed, her
sick notion of capitalism iiber alles and her
hostile indifference to the plight of the lower
socioeconomic classes is not the American
way.
Thank you, OWS, for
reminding us that there is a
big difference between Jesus
Christ and John Galt.
Thank you, OWS, for being a truly grass
roots movement, not a front financed by the
wealthy and the powerful*.
Thank you, OWS, for reminding us that the
establishment—that is, the 1 percent and
their zombified defenders and mouthpieces—
have been bringing, are bringing, and intend
to continue bringing ruin and suffering to the
99 percent.
Thank you, OWS, for reminding us that it
was the capitalist establishment that wrecked
our economy and produced the terrible
unemployment and the foreclosures and the
bankruptcies and the miseries that bedevil
us today. It wasn't poor people, it wasn't
labor unions, it wasn't blue collar workers, it
wasn't students, it wasn't educators, who are
responsible for the recent disastrous failure
of capitalism. It was the affluent upper class
that caused this catastrophe—the banksters,
the stockbrokers, the big corporations and
Wall Street itself.
Thank you, OWS, for reminding us ihat
of course corporations are not people and of
course they deserve fewer rights than citizens.
In the language of one of the most popular
OWS protest signs, TU believe corporations
are people when they execute one in Texas."
Thank you, OWS, for showing us something
we had forgotten—the importance of free
speech, free press and the right of the people
to assemble peaceably and to petition the
government for redress of grievances.
Thank you, OWS, for your courage in the
face of police hostility and brutality. You
have flourished despite mass arrests, ket-
tling,.pepper-spraying, fiashbang explosive
devices, tasers, rubber bullets, clubbing and
phony criminal charges. You have braved
The silence of the
pulpits speaks loudly.
our increasingly aggressive, militarized,
out-of-control police. Armed only with the
cause of truth and justice, you have bravely
confronted Darth Vader look-alike police
officers dressed up frighteningly in riot gear.
Your bravery demonstrates that the American
police establishment is more committed to
rule by the rich than the rule of law. When
the Tea Partiers—and they are only the same
old right-wing extremists, except they dress
like Paul Revere—publicly demonstrate with
menacing words and while carrying loaded
firearms, they are treated with kid gloves by
police. On the other hand, when peaceful OWS
protesters do nothing but exercise their First
Amendment rights they are beaten and other
wise mistreated by police. They are also spied
upon and infiltrated with police undercover
agents. Shame on the American police! They
are exposed as the bootlickers, the lickspit
tles, the sycophants of the 1 percent.
Thank you, OWS, for showing the feeble
ness of our Christian religious establishment.
The silence of the pulpits speaks loudly. Why
are the Christian clergy and the Christian
churches not vocally supportive of OWS and
the causes it represents? Do they, too, like
Paul Ryan and other right-wing politicians,
think Jesus was on the side of the wealthy
and the powerful?
Let me also say that the Athens OWS pro
testers are among my heroes. I admire all of
you'for what you did. feu were treated shame
fully by local police, especially the UGA police.
The UGA police chief in particular deserves
a few biting words. In defi
ance of the Bill of Rights he
personally and unilaterally
criminalized the act of sim
ply standing peacefully on
the steps of the Arch while holding a protest
sign. I hope you have seen the memorable
video of him turning on the flashing lights of
his parked police car, swaggering over with
another armed policeman to the OWS protest
ers at the Arch, and threatening to anrest any
protester who stood on the steps of the Arch.
Finally, thank you, OWS all over America,
for giving us hope—hope that the power of
the ruling plutocracy can be broken, hope
that government and politicians will return to
serve the interests of ordinary citizens rather
than big corporations and the rich, hope that
we will stop the endless wars and curb the
military-industrial complex, hope that we will
get serious about protecting the environment
and the Earth, hope that we will assure every
one a decent job, adequate housing, proper
medical care and a modem infrastructure and
hope that we will again have judges who are
not slanted in favor of government and who
do not usually side with corporations, the mil
itary, prosecutors, police and prison officials
instead of with the American citizen.
When the great French writer and humani
tarian Emile Zola stood up for Alfred Dreyfus
and insisted that this innocent man, who had
been falsely convicted of treason and was
imprisoned on Devil's Island, be freed, Zola
became for a while the conscience of human
ity. Right now—certainly not forever, but at
least for now—Occupy Wall Street is the con
science of humanity.
Let us all heed that conscience.
Donald E. Wilkes, Jr.
This is a slightly reworked version of the speech Prof.
Wilkes delivered at the recent Human Rights Festival.
26 FLAGPOLE.COM MAY 16,2012