"your hair's on fire, you must've lost your wits, yeah"
I read an article that raised the question of who will be the Bob Dylan of Occupy Wall Street? To me it's no contest, the hands down winner is Foster the People, those trendy motherfuckers have captured the hearts and minds of Americans. That catchy little ditty about an outcast taking a gun and shooting everyone in sight, proves once and for all that Columbine and school shootings are now a marketable commodity.
That sound you just heard was me flicking my Bic in tribute to Foster the People. I see the irony in this song, as a protest song this will do just fine, however the next round of classroom shootings will be on Mark Foster. The real question should be, why would we need a new Bob Dylan anyway? Bob is still around "Blowin' in Wind" still applies today, "Mr. Tambourine Man" is still relevant. Robert Zimmerman raged against the capitalist machine long before most Wall St. protesters were even born.
People are calling Occupy Wall Street our Arab Spring, although a lot more blood will have to flow to match those "peaceful" uprisings. If 1968 taught us anything about America, it's the fact that if you push law enforcement they will push back. Do not kid yourself, the police of today are not that different from the bone breakers of Mayor Daley's Chicago. The good new is that Americans (since after WWII anyway) have maintained order without bloodshed. (four dead in Ohio not withstanding)
At my age I can't pretend to outrun bullets or guns, so I'll just have to return fire.
New Mexico has been under occupation since 1848, Native New Mexico since 1598. That whole concept conjures up painful imagery. We know the legacy of the Spanish, the U.S. occupation of New Mexico resulted in mass hangings following the failed uprising in Taos (that left newly appointed Gov. Bent dead) Confederate forces occupied New Mexico, hanging a few Hispanic residents on the way in and a few more on the way out.
Ghastly memories best left undisturbed... Let's call it something else, "Positively Fuck Wall St." or "Take Back Our America" (too Tea Party-ish?) Maybe, we should just call it what it is "Fix the Fucking economy or we'll burn it down to the ground, Motherfuckers!' Over the course of the last four years my stock portfolio has shrunk by more than most people make in a year. My stock broker just smiles and talks football whenever I go in to see him. He's yet to explain where that money went... screw Wells Fargo or Bank of America, let's put the heat to Edward Jones.
This entire movement can best be put in perspective by those of us who get up at 5:30 a.m. to get ready for work and see two young children off to school. Only to reverse the process and return home for the evening twelve hours later. It's a routine for the ages, one that never ceases regardless of stalled economies or recessions (unless you lose your job) For most people the complaints boil down to this... everything we buy is more expensive, yet our take home pay remains unchanged.
For conglomerates meeting the bottom line means bleeding the consumer dry, and that's just bad for business. When the working class of this nation, (meaning the majority) stops going to work and starts protesting, then they'll feel the fire burning. A prophet once walked amongst us, preaching that come 2012 we would all live poor. Judging by his album sales nobody was listening, now is the time to listen. Think carefully... is disrupting the process and stalling out what little forward progress the economy has going, worth it?... Better the devil we know than the one we don't.
