Occupy Elsewhere

My hands are trembling from a combination of nervousness and cold. I rub the fingers of one hand, trying to warm them with the other as I stare at the small glowing screen on my ancient laptop. My shoulders are still tense from the strain of arching over the keyboard clicking 278 little grey X’s on the Group Members screen in my local Occupy movement’s Facebook group.Each little click was a person who had used their Facebook profile to find out about an Occupy movement in their area. Of the nearly 300 people who were still in the group at that point maybe 50 were active regularly online and a few factions numbering a total of maybe 30 attended General Assemblies weekly, live and in person. It saddens me to think, as I’m cutting each dangling thread that could have been a member and asset, that the majority of these people never got involved.

They joined a Facebook group that seemed initially legit, as far as being part of the petition of government for a redress of our grievances, concerning the influence of corporate interests on our system of government, and the funding of our electoral process by these same corporate interests. Isn’t that fairly close to what we all want right now?

Some of us undoubtedly want far more than that, when all is said and done. That is understandable -but the journey of 1,000 steps begins with just one. Ultimately, we must all agree to recognize that the current atmosphere in America is overcast. You are either faced with the harsh reality of life as a citizen who cannot earn what is necessary to support a modest living or you are just comfortable enough to distract yourself from these problems by blaming them on their victims.

The forum was created to give Facebook users a group where they could discuss the ideas and events surrounding the Occupy Wall Street movement in NYC. Groups were just beginning to spring up back then, with the intent of planning direct real-time actions. In October of 2011 I created, invited people to and tended the group, adding other admins who volunteered at the General Assembly on the 17th. Over time it grew and changed and went from ugly to beautiful and back again. Names were called, words were flung back and forth and ears seemed more and more often to simply nail themselves shut. I myself was removed as admin and added back in time.

The curious onlookers, silent in their majority, had come for something that they didn’t find. They wanted to see hope for the future, a banner to rally under… they wanted to know what they could do to make this right. I mistakenly thought that those who were passionate enough to look for contact with like minded others would also be passionate enough to put the cause before the drama. This has not proven to be the case.

Energy is hemorrhaging from this petty infighting and posturing, and it is energy that could be so much better spent that it breaks my heart to see it. Almost as heartbreaking as deleting more than 200 people I hadn’t even had a chance to talk with about the notion of Occupation. These were strangers and friends alike.

A professor from a college course I took 8 years ago, a friend I haven’t seen in years, someone I went to high school with… all of them clicked away for everyone’s best interest. They are now free of the self-stoking of other people’s egos or the contentiousness of so many who post as if they are the best of us all, and the most qualified to respond to everything. They are free from the endless threads, stretching on for 70, 80 or even 100 comments with the same 3 to 5 people snarking each other and flaming anyone who happens to bring common sense to bear.

I have been having real-life conversations with people around me for weeks now about how they really are intrigued by what’s happening in our country, and they’d consider being a part of it if it wasn’t for the ridiculous antics they’ve been watching on the Facebook forum. They are almost a captive audience -waiting in the wings we have had an army watching us and shaking their heads at how silly it was to have hoped for a direction to march in.

That’s what the forum ended up doing, in the long run. It wrecked our hope. When I created it, I wanted there to be an actual group (not a PAGE) that would allow everyone to speak as themselves in a forum. Something they could JOIN rather than “like”. As the group populated rapidly, I saw so many others who had been waiting for something to be a part of. I had wanted to take part in the change for years, seeing the way our country condones and participates in the channeling of money into one very small bracket of the American populace. The 99% movement is very real and very close to my heart, because I have felt the humiliation of being a stereotype and having little hope for the future. Even now, as I begin to lift myself up to take part in something, I feel better and see options where there were none before.

Real or imagined, the Occupation of Wall Street in New York City has started a change in the whole world’s consciousness. We can NO LONGER allow ourselves to be pitted against one another while the men behind the velvet curtains shuffle off to the vaults. We are the vast global majority and we MUST locate and take advantage of our strengths as a whole. We are consumers, we can each make changes in our lifestyles and activities to help further these goals as well.

Many of us are also voters, and as hopeless as it may seem to change the mind of a representative who’s been bought and sold -we have to continue to make our voices heard. Eventually we could create a wall of sound that would drown out the ch-ching of their cash registers and force them to recognize they are outnumbered. This is a challenge that we CAN meet head-on, but only if we are together in the charge.

My local General Assembly voted to remove the forum and fall back on actual involvement at the official website or in person. As the Dr. Frankenstein of this particular Facebook creation, I was relieved to put this monster to rest.

I sincerely hope that many or more of those who were freed from membership in that social networking nightmare will come back together elsewhere and continue the discussions that need to be had all over this country. Whatever happens online just please, please, please… don’t forget that we are all part of the 99% here, regardless of how savvy we may be with words on a screen. In the real world, we are all on the same barge and it’s been sinking for years -this may be our last chance to get off.

Let’s all do something to change the world, whether we’re in a group or all alone. If you feel that you’ve lost something in the deletion of this group -I’m sorry for that. But I can guarantee you that commenting on Facebook posts is one thing that will NOT help you accomplish that dream.