Category: network television

“Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.” Abolitionist Frederick Douglass

When members of Occupy Oakland set a U.S. flag on fire at City Hall last week-end, I had a Yogi Berra moment: “Déjà vu all over again.”

This ritual intrinsic to late opposition to the war in Vietnam appears to have divided Northern California Occupiers. The San Francisco Chronicle called it a “wrestling match for the soul of the Occupy movement in the Bay Area.” I’m disappointed, of course, but I also think it serves a little too well the narrative of these protests offered by corporate media. Perhaps that's why it got so much coverage. It would be a misfortune if this ill-conceived action overshadowed attention to the hundreds of actions in protest of the corporatization of our country as personified by Wall Street.

What delighted me from the first about the Occupy movement is its imagination and ingenuity and, just as importantly, its focus on education rather than militancy and scorn. While there have been confrontations brought about by over-vigilant, militaristic policing, most Occupiers recognize that police are often tools of a tiny but powerful minority shaken to its roots by any challenge. In Roanoke, Virginia, there was an Occupy New Year’s Eve feast in which food was brought to firefighters, police, EMS workers and others in the public sector in thanks for their service. Other Occupiers have reached out to law enforcement as well. In Buffalo, Occupiers held a Police Appreciation Day and fed carrots to police horses.

Over at Firedoglake.com, there’s a contest until midnight Wednesday to recognize the myriad actions of the Occupy movement. You can pick ten actions from a long list, and there’ll be a final polling at the end to award one of five command post tents worth $5,000 each or media laptops equipped with webcams.

Among my favorite entries to the Firedoglake contest were such thought-provoking actions as a Nashville “funeral” for the Bill of Rights, a Louisville “wedding” for the U.S. Government and Corporate America, and Occupella caroling by the Organized Women of Occupy San Diego. Other actions demonstrated impressive tenacity. In Fairbanks, they still holding down a tent encampment in minus 42 degree F Alaskan weather---in their underwear! And in Cleveland, blocks from Lake Erie, they’re still tenting 24/7 despite being forced by police to leave one side open to the elements all the time.

While most of the action is targeted at Wall Street, Congress, the Supreme Court and corporations, President Obama hasn’t gotten off free. Occupy DC just protested outside the exclusive Alfalfa Club dinner that he attended. In Allentown, Pennsylvania, Occupiers protested his “heavy involvement with the Wall Street system” at the opening of his campaign headquarters. And more obscure individuals have been the focus of other actions. James Bopp, the attorney driving the Citizens United suit, found protestors at his office in Terre Haute. In Tampa, the accounting firm Watkins and Co. was “occupied” for its involvement with Florida politics. Occupiers demanded that the Fresno, California, school superintendent take a pay cut, too, if teachers were forced to.

How this will all turn out isn’t clear, but it’s not going away. Too many people have found common bonds in protesting favoritism and corruption in government and business. Cold weather may have driven many inside, but the points they raise have traction.

What seemed sad to me about the Oakland flag burning was that it seemed a gesture of cynical and nihilistic protestors in a movement that has by no means exhausted its energy and, yes, hope that things can change. I concur with Frederick Douglass that “power never concedes anything without a demand.” And the Occupy movement has for the most part voiced its demands in ways that command respect.

The question is whether we as a nation have the courage to engage them.

The California cognitive scientist George Lakoff http://berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2004/08/25_lakoff.shtml has urged Democrats to resist Republican attempts to influence policy by “framing” it in language that obscures its true nature—death tax rather than inheritance tax, entitlement programs rather than veterans’ benefits and social security, and, of course, “pro-life” to cover a whole lot of issues that are less than life-enhancing to many sentient beings.

Democrats attempted this with some success, but most of the time, the Democratic problem has been a lack of imagination and courage. As Team Obama gears up for a new beginning, here are some of my ideas for them:

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It’s been a long time since I’ve rested as well as I did last night.

Thank you, Bill Clinton, for delivering a ringing, unequivocal endorsement of Barack Obama. Thank you, Barack Obama, for choosing a running mate who is not afraid to speak truth to power. Joe Biden finally confronted the debacle that Republicans have visited upon the American people. And he addressed directly the “issue” of Barack Obama’s patriotism by introducing his great uncle who helped liberate Buchenwald. Nice touch.

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