Zuccotti Park III - The Firing Line
The night after my subway trip to Zuccotti Park it rained, and I thought about those kids, not allowed to have tents, huddled under tarps in their sleeping bags. But the next day, NY One television showed them still there, some under umbrellas, some wearing plastic rain coats, some just wet and bedraggled. But there.
Early this morning on local radio I heard interviews with Occupy St. Louis and Occupy Los Angeles, and on line, “Occupy.org” brought up: Columbus, Topeka, Bend, Germany, and Australia. Nobody can quite define “Occupy,” but whatever it is, it is spreading.
I’m surprised, also surprised that I was surprised. What made me think that the outrage I felt at the rampant greed eating this nation, was felt by me alone? What made me think that the flagrant primitivism of the Tea Party, the supine pandering of their presidential candidates, the ominous threat they are to American traditions and to the American way of life, was recognized by me alone?
Having had my “turn” on the firing line, I’m okay with being a has-been in today’s world. All I can do is throw up this blog. But all those whose world this is, ready, willing, and able to hurl themselves into the fine frenzied fray of their lives but barred from doing so, are the ones now on the firing line.
In the 1940s, the threat was Hitler’s Germany and Tojo’s Japan. The firing line was Europe and the Pacific. Today the threat is scattered and dispersed among those who hide from the light, out of sight, and until now, out of mind, stealthily amassing wealth, evading taxes, buying influence, gnawing at regulations like rats at food containers, now grabbing for raw power, luring the innocent into their so- called Tea Party, co-opting Congress, and waging class war—rich against middle class—the class war they perfidiously accuse the middle class of waging against them.
The firing line for this generation is in New York, St. Louis, Denver, Bend, Topeka, Columbus, and also Germany, Australia, and— you name it. Valiant young warriors are out there on the firing line and they are not going away.
The night after my subway trip to Zuccotti Park it rained, and I thought about those kids, not allowed to have tents, huddled under tarps in their sleeping bags. But the next day, NY One television showed them still there, some under umbrellas, some wearing plastic rain coats, some just wet and bedraggled. But there.
Early this morning on local radio I heard interviews with Occupy St. Louis and Occupy Los Angeles, and on line, “Occupy.org” brought up: Columbus, Topeka, Bend, Germany, and Australia. Nobody can quite define “Occupy,” but whatever it is, it is spreading.
I’m surprised, also surprised that I was surprised. What made me think that the outrage I felt at the rampant greed eating this nation, was felt by me alone? What made me think that the flagrant primitivism of the Tea Party, the supine pandering of their presidential candidates, the ominous threat they are to American traditions and to the American way of life, was recognized by me alone?
Having had my “turn” on the firing line, I’m okay with being a has-been in today’s world. All I can do is throw up this blog. But all those whose world this is, ready, willing, and able to hurl themselves into the fine frenzied fray of their lives but barred from doing so, are the ones now on the firing line.
In the 1940s, the threat was Hitler’s Germany and Tojo’s Japan. The firing line was Europe and the Pacific. Today the threat is scattered and dispersed among those who hide from the light, out of sight, and until now, out of mind, stealthily amassing wealth, evading taxes, buying influence, gnawing at regulations like rats at food containers, now grabbing for raw power, luring the innocent into their so- called Tea Party, co-opting Congress, and waging class war—rich against middle class—the class war they perfidiously accuse the middle class of waging against them.
The firing line for this generation is in New York, St. Louis, Denver, Bend, Topeka, Columbus, and also Germany, Australia, and— you name it. Valiant young warriors are out there on the firing line and they are not going away.
RSS Feed