250 participate in peaceful Occupy Reno march

How many of these people do you think will do anything about changing their personal life - way of life?:

How many will stop being consumers except for basic needs?

Its one thing to get out - march and go Rah! Rah! - - - but tomorrow or next week - - what does it really change?

How many will read labels and only buy what is manufactured in the US (or their own country)?

Did you know there is a "Made In America" online store? Do you shop there? www.saveourcountryfirst.com...

How many will stop eating at McDonald's? Do you support your local independent butcher? Do you know if you even have one? Or contact local ranches/farms/4-H to see if you can buy meat and produce direct from a local grower?

What do you really do to take people power back?

Hello All.
Just so you are aware, I am one of those "kids who had their parents pay their college tuition."
Except they do not. My father is a 100% Disabled Vet, and my remarried mother is a cancer patient. The First video that someone posted above has a person instructing the General Assembly on the way that things go during one of our meetings - hand Gestures and the minutia of the consensus based approach that we use to make decisions as a body. That person is me.

I suppose I wanted to make my self available to you all to answer any questions. I am not a leader in this movement (we have none by choice) and I do not speak for the movement, except on matters that our Reno General Assembly have reached consensus on.

Among these items reached by consensus were our Values of Occupation:
* Our attitude will be one of openness and respect toward all we encounter in our actions;
* We will use no violence, verbal or physical, toward any person;
* We will harbor no anger but suffer the anger of an opponent;
* We will refuse to return the assaults of an opponent;
* We will refrain from insults and swearing;
* We will not destroy or damage any property;
* We will carry no weapons;
* We will not use any drugs or alcohol;
* We will not run or resist arrest;
* We will behave in an exemplary manner if arrested;
* We will remain accountable for our actions as a means of furthering our witness to the injustices of our society and government.

Also, a general consent was expressed towards educating our community in sustainable living, supporting local business and energy independence.

Personally, I worked in mining for 3 years, and then decided to pursue my dream of being an independent journalist by taking a job for a NPO to do a documentary in Israel. After that job, I went to work in Idaho as a Production Assistant for a TV station.

I moved to Reno in August after my position was eliminated in a downsizing effort. I have not been able to find a job here yet. I do not want someone to just hand me a job. The world owes me nothing. I work hard at my studies (I am a full time student) and would be glad to show you the letter of reference from my previous employer.

As I was marching (I carried a sign that said, "Everything is under control") a man yelled a question at me.

"Do you even know what you are doing!?"
After a moment I replied "Yes!"

He turned away in disgust before I could finish.

Unfortunately, this has been typical in my conversations with those who have predetermined Ideas about what we are doing. A friend of mine was ridiculed for carrying a "Don't Tread On Me" flag on another forum. They claimed he obviously didn't know what he represented.

I bring up these moments because they highlight a problem in our culture that I believe occupation serves to mend. In our everyday lives, we function from a set of values, which is fine. Over the course of the past few decades though, our public discourse with one another has turned away from conversation, to confrontation-to ridicule without evaluation. For the most part, people from leftist ideology and rightist ideology spend more time fighting than discussing and listening.

What I love about this movement is its willingness to give everyone a voice. The General Assembly is a place to set aside ideologies and trade them for ideas. We recognize that a just government derives its legitimacy and power from the Will of the people-Not just the one percent and not just the 99 percent either.

At this juncture in history though, social inequality is skyrocketing in America, participation in democracy is down. The president is unpopular, the Congress is unpopular, and government in general is unpopular.

In cities across the nation, people are awakening to the realization that the problem may not be with one party or the other, but rather with the system. I'm not necessarily talking about the system as a whole, but rather the ways that our political class have developed to game it in their favor. Politicians have made a career out of being a politician! What a travesty it is when those who we elect to represent us spend millions and millions on their own job security and then have the audacity to cut their state, federal, and local employees hours.

People accuse us of being puppets of the labor movement and all that jazz. Sure, we will accept the support of anyone trying to stand up for social and economic justice. Simply put though, the labor movement has failed. In the eyes of some, it has become what it once regarded as evil: an entity that does more harm than good. We are the post-labor movement.

Yes, its hard to narrow our focus down with our decentralized approach to democracy. Yes, we represent a huge cross section of beliefs and ideals. No one asked us if we wanted to be the generation charged with doing this. After all, if the people in power were doing their jobs, we wouldn't have to. I apologize. None of us have changed the world before.Ask.

OP, I see your point and that's your decision to make, so all you pro-OWSers who are hating on him for having an opinion... you're doing it wrong. This is not groupthink boys and girls - folks are entitled to their opinion even if you don't agree with it.

I had the same problem with my own area's Occupation. Hippies and ferals mixed with commies - an unsavoury looking bunch to say the least and to be honest, I didn't want to be seen with them because that would seriously hurt my career if my competitors got hold of it. I went anyway, but that's just me.

My advice to you is to keep learning about the movement, what it stands for and who's involved. I predict there will come a time very soon when mainstream folks are standing side by side with the aforementioned commies, hippies and ferals. That time will be the big trigger/decision-point for a lot of folks out there and maybe even for you.

reply to post by ElementalCrash


Sorry, but my insomniac body currently has the attentionspan of a gnat. That post is too long.

Originally posted by ElementalCrash
Yes, its hard to narrow our focus down with our decentralized approach to democracy. Yes, we represent a huge cross section of beliefs and ideals. No one asked us if we wanted to be the generation charged with doing this. After all, if the people in power were doing their jobs, we wouldn't have to.

Well I'm just an Old Hippie. Where are they now.

And before anyone starts on the drugs etc - - - the origin of the movement was political - started by 4 college students (not dropouts). The drug movement was a separate movement that unfortunately coincided in the same area. Yes - eventually they crashed into each other.

The original movement was anti-war and anti-government - - - not loser drop outs. Opportunists - hanger ons - lost kids - thrill seekers - etc - - - came with their own agenda.

There were many changes for people's rights because of this movement. And a strong influence on people taking charge of their own lives.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

How is the Occupy movement different. How will it be sustained. Without any leaders or organized focused - - what do you expect to change?

Originally posted by Annee


How is the Occupy movement different. How will it be sustained. Without any leaders or organized focused - - what do you expect to change?

The view that many of us take is that at the moment, we have elected national leaders....and they don't do a very good job, so why muck things up while we are still trying to educate ourselves and our communities? The government derives its legitimacy and power from the will of the people, not the strength of its leaders. We have become a society obsessed with figurehead, polarizing leaders, and forget that each of us is a leader in our own right.

I think that we are different because we look at your generation for inspiration, but also recognize that our generation has had some pretty great spins on your approach. The Anti-War movement was great, and had massive events. We have looked at the past and said "events are fine, but cannot be the basis of our approach."

Someone said, "Occupation is about winning the hearts and minds of the silent majority in this country" and I tend to agree. Yes we are angry, and yes we march and do traditional protests, but so much of our movement is not centered around making those things go. Those things spring naturally out of the deep well of despair that we all feel. The real work in occupation is creating a community and a forum where people can learn from each other. Its about raising the awareness of our communities, and modeling a new way of sustainable living.

Sustainability is the lifeblood of the movement, if civil disobedience is the heart. We are committed to being a force throughout the winter, and a legal one at that. We are working closely with the City of Reno to establish a legal occupation somewhere in the City, and use that place to impact our community with teach ins, workshops, and information. We recently had over 100 books donated to us to begin a Peoples Library, with a take and give as you need policy.

Many of us, just since becoming involved have been changing our lifestyles radically. I walk nearly everywhere or take the city bus. We encourage people to carpool or use public transportation. The fantastic thing about occupation sustainability is its not established with an endgame in mind. We want to establish a way of living in our communities that is infinitely sustainable. Our Infrastructure committee is in the process of dreaming up ways to do that- and there have been some awesome developments in those respects.

Without leaders we become a platform for many viewpoints, which is somehow a bad thing in our bullet point addicted society. America, if anything, is a nation whose narrative has always been one about giving a platform to many viewpoints. We cherish the diversity among us. We believe that it gives us strength.

I guess as a movement we are not so much enamored with the idea of a leader who can be enshrined in a national monument, but rather we are enamored with the idea set forth by a bunch of people that we feel were not so much unlike us in pioneering a new way to live.

The idea that a group of ordinary people could make a nation shaping decision without a king to lead us was truly a revolutionary moment in time. It took thinkers and writers colluding and trading ideas with whispers in town halls and shouts in town squares to formulate a movement that took years to produce the men that we now know as the founders of our nation. It was a sense of injustice and moral certainty that carried these men through.

It is my hope that this movement, or one born of its seed, will produce those types of men and women. They may yet walk among us, or they may not yet be born. Neither is our focus. We want to change the way the world works, but first we want to change the way the world thinks. We need to get over right versus left; we need to get over ideology based thinking, and move to a morality based lifestyle that values the things that bind us together as far more powerful than the things that separate us, and learn to invite the changes that come with the cross pollution of ideas that happens when people get out of their own little worlds and begin to live together again.

So yes, I expect the movement to change, and evolve, and I think leaders will emerge, but that is not our focus. Whether we still march and chant six months from now, i don't know. What i do know is that you can shut down a gathering of people a lot easier than you can shut down a gathering of ideas- and we want to become fertile soil for new ideas that lead to 21st Century Solutions to 21st century problems.

reply to post by ElementalCrash


Very idealistic.

Rarely transfers to reality - - beyond the first Hoorah!

Majority will go right back into living as they always do. They'll yell at the TV - complain to their neighbors and friends - - chomp down on the McD - - and drive their SUVs because they think they are entitled.

Originally posted by Annee
reply to post by ElementalCrash

 

Very idealistic.

Rarely transfers to reality - - beyond the first Hoorah!

Majority will go right back into living as they always do. They'll yell at the TV - complain to their neighbors and friends - - chomp down on the McD - - and drive their SUVs because they think they are entitled.

Yeah, just look at how long boycotts last. Or how many former vegitarians do you know?

Perhaps here in America. And perhaps in the past.

Is there a possibility that this movement fails? Absolutely. There is hope though, that this movement builds a unifying sense of community that protects unity, rather than engenders chaos, in the event of a Greek-Style debt crisis. One thing that is certain about our current system, is that it is not designed to deal with the issue of wage reduction and increase of corporate profits and the effects those two driving forces have on demand.

Since the creation of a credit based global economic model, all the current system has been able to do is move these crises around geographically. Unrest is coming to America, but there is hope that we can constructively focus efforts now, so that the poor don't actually start eating the rich.

Originally posted by GmoS719

Originally posted by spw184

Originally posted by GmoS719

Originally posted by spw184


Occupy reno? Really? We are a small-ish town that has no goverment power what so ever. I saw these people when I was going to a UNR football game and literally faceplamed myself. Really? This is getting WAY out of hand.

Now dont get me wrong, I would totally march with these people, if 75% of them were not stuck up college kids, crackpots, and seniors that want a discount on everything.

www.rgj.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

You aren't understanding me.
You "assumed" that 75% of them were "stuck up college kids, crackpots, and seniors that want a discount on everything".
I hardly believe you figured all this out by driving by.

Oh, ok so that was an assumption, but from what I saw, many of them were old, many looked druggie-old ( you know the look im talking about) and many where young douchebags with beardstubble and aviators.

So you are judging them off of their appearance?
I see.
I could say that you like to sing Justin Bieber songs, because of your hair. I wont though.

edit on 15-10-2011 by GmoS719 because: (no reason given)

Dude give it a rest. My god... ok good we get it, your message is don't judge people off of appearances.

Who cares? When you do judge people based on appearance 9/10 your judgement is accurate, that other 1/10 is not significant enough to give a crap about.

You see a man in tattered clothes sitting on a curb and he looks like he has never taken a shower in his life. Without saying a word to him I will say he is a homeless man. Sure that man COULD be doctor and just likes curbs and doesn't care if he smells like a dumpster, but I wouldn't give him the benefit of the doubt.

You sir need to stfu.