[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
My new sounds:
So pepper spray is in the news again—this time because two police officers, whose M.O. can only be described as “overreacting,” took it upon themselves to squirt streams of the fiery stuff straight at a group of students seated on the U.C. Davis quad.
Watch the video on YouTube. It’s a…
This is a really hard topic for me. What I’ve struggled with for a long time is that I went to grad school, sat next to, performed the same or better than the ones who went into finance and ultimately move numbers around on paper for a living. I went to try to work in real businesses and create real things and be part of real disruption….the good kind.
These were among my very closest friends. But they’ve changed. They complain against entitlements but at the same time truly believe that “bonuses” are guaranteed. (Sounds like an entitlement to me)
We’ve landed in totally different places and don’t have much to talk about. It’s just too upsetting. Not because I’m upset at where I am — I’m cool with who we are and we are really very lucky people. I invested years in these friendships so it’s been very sad to watch it devolved in the last three from mildly uncomfortable to intolerable.
We cannot afford to live in NYC and educate our kids there. Fine, whatever. We moved to different towns vs. these friends because of different affordability levels. So we have the longer commute, which means less time with our kids. Over time, our kids — who were born the same year — don’t relate to each other very well, as they live a completely different lifestyle. Their kids are even rude to my kids. (e.g. asking why we have ‘such a small house’, they criticize our trips, etc.). Um, WTF?
Years ago we went on trips together, dinner together. We gave it up, it’s just not fun anymore. Several families each complain to us that they have no friends. They offer to pay for us to go on trips with them. My hub and I look at each other an are like, “OK, it’s ‘rent out the fun friends week”. On one hand it’s a nice gesture, on the other we’re like — wow, how degrading. And I can’t imagine a less relaxing vacation — e.g. listening to people who *fly private jets* (no joke), complaining about their ‘exorbitant’ tax levels, particularly since my husband and I pay A HIGHER RATE THAN THEY DO. And listen to them smugly talk about how awful public school is…for a whole week? Thanks but no thanks. Not in the mood. All the business discussions are about size. Not about quality. What I do is “quaint”, at best.
So we finally decided to decline these get-togethers. Gonna mosey over to our lane and swim in it. We like who we are.
That’s polarized wealth in action, coming from my front-row seat. Sad, but happening in neighborhoods near you.
And, no, I haven’t been down to OWS yet. Too busy trying to create jobs.
I don’t even like putting these sentiments of mine to print as I think jealousy is unbecoming and frankly destructive. I’m an incredibly fortunate person. But I don’t like the arrogance one bit and if I feel it, then I’m pretty sure that millions of Americans feel it too. I do wish they’d define their issues more tightly.
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| — | Tereza N in a really insightful comment on discovering the American class system (I agree w/ everything except the “I’ve been too busy trying to create jobs” sentiment. Jobs are so 20th century. OWS is busy trying to create alternatives to jobs.) |
Just a few months ago, I wrote a piece for Adbusters that started with a conversation I’d had with an Egyptian activist friend named Dina:
All these years,” she said, “we’ve been organizing marches, rallies… And if only 45 people show up, you’re depressed, if you get 300, you’re happy. Then one day, 200,000 people show up. And you’re incredulous: on some level, even though you didn’t realize it, you’d given up thinking that you could actually win.
As the Occupy Wall Street movement spreads across America, and even the world, I am suddenly beginning to understand a little of how she felt.
Police Arrest Occupy Wall Street Protesters on the Brooklyn Bridge - October 1, 2011 (by darylpsu)
I mean—look at this. especially around the 57-1 min mark, those white shirt officers looked *stressed* like a mofo. yelling at eachother, just randomly running and grabbing people….in their little herd and charging in one at a time with seemingly no method—there’s not even a sense of “it’s ur turn mofo—it’s just like…well…what do we do now? *scream scream scream*…ARREST people! how about YOU.
and while it looks like blue shirt folks are helping out—it’s like they’re standing back *watching* until the white shirt guys grab somebody and cuff them.
they look so confused and harried, it’s not something Im used to seeing at protests like this…
Whooooooooa.
I’m curious as to what’s going to happen to the footage that the NYPD observer is shooting of the arrests.
The disparity in the reactions by the cops seems….I dunno, it seems almost a foreshadowing of things to come, in terms of Ray Kelly’s reign. I mean, usually, blue-shirts are the ones who react without thinking, their commanders tell them to jump, they say how high.
But…. I dunno, if the rank-and-file are starting to react against their commands, or have second thoughts….Ray Kelly could have his days numbered. The rank of Commissioner is, after all, a rank where you have to be appointed and vetted.
I have my reservations about how the reports of violence focus on white folks, but it does leave an opening for having Kelly ousted at least as soon as the end of Bloomberg’s final term. Hopefully it’ll be sooner, seeing as so much shit has gone down under his watch.
Point being, this shit is horrendous, and I can only hope that somewhere someone’s head is gonna roll. And hopefully that the head belongs to someone who deserves to have their career ended.
and u no—at this point, I’m just so astonished by the white shirt officers—the video of the white shirt guy punching the protestor in the face, the earlier one of the guy macing the women—this video—when I saw the one of the guy punching the protestor in the face, I didn’t even *see* the guy who was hit. usully that’s the *first* thing I see is the person who is being brutalized. i saw that—and I was literally so astonished that I only saw that startchy white shirt.
I mean, to be clear, I’m not astonished at the brutality—I’m astonished that they’re being so goddamn blatant about it. Doing it in front of cameras, in front of literally hundreds of people. while I don’t *think* I’ve seen any of the blue shirt officers doing *anything*!!!! I’m like—is there some sort of political thing going on where the white shirt guys were ordered out on the front lines by some “donator” (i.e. jp morgan)? are the blue shirt guys doing passive agressive sort of “we’re not going public, but we’re not helping you” sort of thing? wtf is going on????
