Well, the Occupy Wall Street protesters released their First Official Statement yesterday.
Before I go any further, let me just say that I am a big supporter of the protest. If the protesters are doing nothing else, they are at least yelling at the correct villains – the big banks and the financial industry that, as a whole, are most responsible for ushering in the Age of Agony.
And the OWS protesters are to be congratulated for realizing that in order to draw attention to a cause, to a protest, it is insufficient these days to simply organize a large march/rally and then go home. That is a one-day event, and is quickly forgotten in the 24/7 news cycle in which we now live. Occupy Wall Street is forcing the rest of the nation – gradually and unwillingly -- to pay attention to them because they do not intend to make a little noise and then go away, congratulating themselves on “having been heard.” They plan to stay and be a thorn in the side of those who want the country’s financial elite to continue “business as usual.”
Unfortunately, upon review of OWS’s First Official Statement – and it pains me to say this – I am, ah . . . underwhelmed. Your mileage, of course, may vary.
I’ve produced a copy of the Statement below the fold, and then a brief explication of what I find problematic about the Statement. I finish with an example of the kind of announcement for which I had been hoping and why I think that type of announcement would have better served OWS’s purposes.
