Occupy Seattle

Tonight Athens burned. As I watched horrified by the images I saw I found it difficult to determine cause and effect, action and reaction, and the whole milieu of twitter and livestreams has turned into one digesting mess of violence.

I can't give you a better idea of what is happening than what #f12gr on Twitter can, so I'll leave writing that story to the Greeks. Instead I'll talk about where we are today here in the states and how this relates to our situation.

We spend a lot of time talking about what it means to be American, if someone is part of the "real" America, whether someone believes in American exceptionalism, etc. One thing we don't spend enough time talking about is the nature of America ("E pluribus unum").

Yesterday aproximately 100 protesters rallied at 23rd and Union in Seattle's central district against police brutality and then marched to the East Precinct.

(protesters lighting torches symbolizing those killed by police)

The full rally and march can be seen here and here.

There was some good talk at the Occupy Seattle GA tonight about consensus vs. voting.

All in all a great night, people really started hashing out why we're all working together and what it will take to keep things moving forward. I had some great discussions with people of incredibly varying views and we kept finding things that we all agree on.

Tonight I have to ask why.

Why were over 20 Seattle police officers required to arrest 3 homeless people squatting in a house that had been unoccupied for years? The police found no drugs, no weapons, just some people trying to stay warm in the winter.

Why was a firetruck and at least 5 firemen called in to board up one door with particle board?

Why did the police reply to questions about why they were there with answers like "because the owner called us in to kick out the people here, ugh! you can't refute that!".

What do you owe your fellow citizens? What do they owe you? Why should you care about suffering and misery? Why should those in misery think they deserve help? Why are so many so rich and so many so poor?

The answers to these questions largely don't need to be answered to determine what is in our self interest. Even if you have "fuck you money" most folks don't. Even those in the upper middle class benefit when more people have a chance to do great things rather than suffer in poverty.

Why you should vote for a dead cat instead of a Republican if you support OWS.

I had an interesting conversation on Twitter the other night and was asked why should they support Obama despite the fact that he's ordered drone strikes killing thousands, among them a US citizen. I had to go to bed, but in the morning promised to actually post something here to address their concerns.

Back in 1987 a movie called Wall Street was released in theaters, a crime thriller about money, greed, and what one man might do to overcome his upbringing to make it. It was supposed to be a rebuke of much of the excesses of the 80s. Gordon Gekko was supposed to be a bad guy, even if you could see the allure of his stance that greed was good.

I give a damn. I care about you. Yes, you personally. Really.

I saw a quote from BSG tweeted earlier and it's one that's annoyed me for a while:

"There's a reason you separate military and the police. One fights the enemies of the state, the other serves and protects the people. When the military becomes both, then the enemies of the state tend to become the people. " - Commander William Adama.

In a police state, typically you have the military, the intelligence community, the police and a paramilitary or two all vying for power. The country is the battleground, and generally they all work together to run the government and are the power base of the country. The military becoming the police isn't a police state as we know it. The police becoming like the military is.