OccupyMyWeekend

Ed Hale at Occupy Seattle

Well there goes another weekend.
Yes. Adventures indeed. "Occupy" is spreading like a wildfire, with over 1500 different cities around the world presently being "occupied." Future generations are going to have a blast trying to figure this one out... Just this odd word. "occupy," cropping up out of nowhere... Like Sovereign or Suferegete or Abolitionist or Segregation (sorry to throw off the aliteration there) in times past. Strange foreign sounding words. But eventually we all had to learn what these words meant as we grew up and studied our history. So too will future generations; and they\\\'ll have "occupy" to add to that list. Of course that depends on what we actually accomplish with the Occupy Movement.

The Tea Party Movement will be learned and studied because it\\\'s here to stay for better or worse. And the reason it\\\'s here to stay is because it sold out to big corporate interests very quickly (see Koch Brothers, et al...) and is now less a grassroots peoples\\\' movement as it started out as and much more a sub-group or branch of a political party, the Republican political party. Strictly right wing. Strictly radical and extreme, which is what the word "Conservative" has turned into when it\\\'s used in political contexts. Strictly organized and corporate funded. As in strictly American.

There\\\'s not a chance of this happening to the Occupy Movement. And as good as that is for the movement itself and for the world, it\\\'s also one of the problems. In order to make it through Winter or just even this Fall the Occupy Movement is going to need money. Or so we assume. And without turning into something organized and corporate it may not last very long. But let\\\'s see what happens.

Right now it\\\'s a wild phenom. I\\\'ve not marched in crowds this big since the WTO, NAFTA, and Iraq protests years ago. So theres hope there. Just in size alone. There is also something happening with the Occupy Movement that we\\\'ve not seen since the anti-BushCheney Wars in \\\'03 where the whole world came together to march in solidarity against those wicked invasions of sovereign nations. Millions of human beings from all walks of life in countries all over the planet marched to protest a few men and their mission to break international laws. It was an amazing thing to witness. The worrisome issue is that the entire human population could not stop these mad men from doing exactly what they wanted to. And ten years later America is still fighting those wars.

They\\\'ve bankrupted the country AND killed hundreds of thousands of people, these wars. But we can\\\'t see we didn\\\'t try. Because we did. We just weren\\\'t successful "enough."

We\\\'re in the same situation again now. And no one can be sure if it will head anywhere... Or lead to anything. But it\\\'s good to see it happening. Wicked crimes against ordinary people have been commited all over America by large financial institutions and it\\\'s affected the entire world economy. Record profits, and requisite salaries and bonues, are being reported during a time that the entire world is calling "bad economic times," It just doesn\\\'t smell right. Smells even worse when we recognize that Wall Street occupies half the White House administration and appears to completely control the US Congress and the Senate.

The question is "how far will we the people have to go in order to initiate real change and reform that will stop these schemes cons and deceptions? Will we have to take up arms to defend ourselves and our rights not to be lied to used and consistantly deceived? Are we willing to die in our revolution the same way others have throughout history? Or will something miraculous happen and change will just begin to occur from within as more and more of the 99% begin to recognize that almost all of us are at war with a very very small group of greedy selfish heartless people?

My preference would be for the latter option. No doubt. But I\\\'d be perfectly ok with dying for the cause if it meant we had a chance of taking America back from this small cadre of greedy war mongers and bankers. It\\\'s a cause worth fighting. Therefore we OCCUPY. it\'s a cause worth getting beaten hosed pepper-sprayed shot at arrested and even dying for. That\\\'s why we KEEP OCCUPYING no matter what the governent says or does to us until the make the changes we ask them to. It\\\'s really that simple.

At the cigar store this morning and I'm sitting next to this guy and he overhears me talking to Dasher about the show. And I'm screaming “dude you know what? you don't have to break this shit down anymore. Everyday it’s the same fucking thing. I know it doesn’t seem cohesive yet. that's because we haven't filmed enough yet. period. Once we have more footage, we’ll know what we have. It is inherently interesting. Real people ARE interesting! The Bishop? Al Sharpton? That's interesting!” “Yeah but how does that all fit together? what is the point of this?” he screams back at me. “Dude that's life. Life isn't cohesive. But somehow it all ties in together. The lesbian interview? Look man, what guy hasn’t thought about why a girl would one day decide she is gay?! Or do lesbians miss penises?! I mean how satisfying is just two girls having sex with each other? Don't you want to know about that? I do. That shit is interesting man!”

This guy sitting next to me at the store is looking at me like I'm crazy. after I get off the phone we start talking and sharing what we do with one another. He tells me that he's a retired investor. He is only 44 years old. I look at him a few minutes later, and I'm like, ‘so you're retired huh? Like, you're home free?’ And he's like ‘economically yes.’ so I was fascinated. I told him about my plan to settle with 3.8 million and asked him if that were enough. He asked me how much I wanted to live on per year. I told him I would be comfortable with 180,000. He said ‘no way.’ said that ‘a good rule of thumb is six times what you want to draw a year. you want to pull a hundred and eighty thousand a year comfortably and not worry about running out, you're going to need about six mill.” Wow. Good info.

Tells me that the guys on Wall Street live by the 10 by 40 rule. I ask him what that is. he tells me its simple. They want to have ten mill in the bank by the time they hit 40 to retire on. Wow. Tells me that half the guys I'm sitting in the store with today are billionaires. That he knows most of them. says that five mill was ‘one deal’ if you know what you're doing. That's one deal. Its nothing once you get started. He then asks me if I plan to have a wife and children. ‘yep,’ I answer. ‘well then you better raise that figure if that hundred and eighty is just for you alone.’ Tells me that I should count on $240,000 per child just for education from k through 12 without putting any food in their mouths if I want them in good schools like his kids had. and what about the wife? If you're living on a hundred and eighty a year what's she living on? You thought about that?”

Again, wow. I have a lot to learn. Good stuff.