Why Do I Occupy?

Why do I Occupy?

I occupy for the four million New Yorkers that have been stopped and frisked

in New York City since 2004.

I occupy for Jatiek Reed, Amadou Diallo, Sean Bell, Ramarley Graham, and others

whom the NYPD have beaten and/or murdered and for all the victims of police brutality.

I Occupy for the 2.4 million incarcerated as a result of the prison industrial complex.

I Occupy for the millions that have been murdered domestically and abroad

in the name of democracy and the spread of U.S. Imperialism, our so-called Manifest Destiny.

I Occupy for the children that learn from a broken education system about Martin Luther King, Jr. and Harriet Tubman,

but not Malcolm X, the Black Panther Party, Angela Davis, or the countless other

unsung heroes that white nationalists deem unworthy and attempt to make disappear from history.

I Occupy for students that will be indentured servants for life

trying to repay loans for an education that should be a right, while banks get bailed out for failing.

I Occupy for the artists and slaves of the 9-5 that cringe when the alarm goes off in the morning

because all they want is to make a living doing what they love.

I Occupy for retirees that worked and saved for their entire lives for their golden years,

but now patiently await the fate of their Medicare and Social Security

as politicians squabble about not raising taxes on the rich

and fail to even mention cutting the defense budget as the nation neared the debt ceiling.

I Occupy for the soldiers that return from war with PTSD and other traumatic symptoms

and are neglected and dismissed after serving their country.

I Occupy for those soldiers and the millions that become homeless

while homes are being foreclosed upon due to predatory lending practices

and many are subject to gentrification.

I Occupy for the millions nationwide that walk through life like a lemming,

falling in line, consuming, being obedient and submissive to the “rules,” even unto death.

I Occupy so my future children and grandchildren won't have to.

I Occupy for a better world.

If not us, who? If not now, when?

"It is not what a lawyer tells me I may do;

but what humanity, reason, and justice tell me I ought to do." ~Edmund Burke, Second Speech on Conciliation, 1775