Occupy (Insertplacehere)

(WARNING: POLITICS AHEAD.)

Iraq Vet Critically Wounded

^^ There are no words to describe how incredibly wrong this is. None. A Marine - a discharged United States Marine, but a Marine none the less - gets shot in the head by Oakland police while at a peaceful demonstration of his rights. Olsen spent two tours overseas, and then comes home - to this?! What the hell is wrong with this, people?! They say that the Oakland police opened an investigation into the case, including what munitions were used in the quelling of these protestors. Um, sorry, but that's BULLSHIT. There is no way the police should have even been firing off anything, period. There are no words to describe just how furious this makes me. Unfortunately, this is only one of many articles that I have seen involving the Occupy (insertplacehere). One Marine managed to get away with facing thirty police officers and didn't get taken down - a lucky move, I'm thinking, although I doubt even thirty cops could have taken him down - but he is one of the few who didn't get hurt in the process. Others have been beaten, arrested, and just in general had physical harm brought on them because they were using their constitutional rights to try and change what is a truly fucked up and broken system. (I'm not even going to bother posting all the youtube videos I've seen.)

I saw a picture the other day of a sign, and it said "The four branches of government". Underneath, it had $ CORPORATE $ and then lines going to the JUDICIAL, EXECUTIVE, and LEGISLATIVE branches, each equal underneath the corporate marking. Unfortunately, it's what the truth is anymore. Our system, our way of life, is completely fucked up. It is being run by a bunch of corporate overlords, who are playing us all just to make more money for themselves. That's what this entire Occupy (insertplacehere) is about! The top couple percent - mainly the corporate overlords - and the bottom ninety eight - those of us who have to WORK for a living, and those of us who can't even do that because those corporates decided that our jobs weren't worth enough to make it possible for us to keep working. Even those of us who can manage to work for a living are barely scraping by, because we are at minimum wage and barely make enough to pay the rent, get food, pay utilities, maybe have a car, et cetera!

How is this right?

It isn't. There's nothing right about any of this. At all. Something needs to change, and it needs to change soon. This country has more problems right now than solutions - two separate wars overseas, our own unarmed citizens protesting and getting beaten by their own domestic police forces because the police can't contain themselves, all on top of a financial crisis and all the big-wigs not caring enough to do anything about it. Because, you know, they're that top couple percent that doesn't give a shit about the knaves and plebians that are so far below them.

My roommate and I occasionally joke with each other - "UNHAND ME, KNAVE!" as if we were rulers and the other were a plebian. Unfortunately, there's too much of a parallel there for me between the rest of this country and here at home...

Fortunately, Scott Olsen is doing okay now - stable and in fair condition. Even so, he can't speak, because the "police projectile" hit him near his speech centre. He can't talk. The sons of bitches made him at least temporarily mute, if not permanently. I'm sorry, but there is nothing to excuse that behaviour. At all. A peaceful protestor, maimed because he was just there? No excuse.

What has this fucked up excuse for a country come to?

The other day, my girlfriend and I got into a discussion. One of my former (female) teachers was getting married the next day to her girlfriend, which threw me, because we live in Kentucky - one of the most back water states in the entire US, right behind Texas and maybe a couple others - and right now, gay marriage is not legal here. My girlfriend says that a bunch of states are legalizing it, which isn't as true as I wish it was. With all of the research I've done, all the news I read, I'd have noticed if the number has increased. It hasn't. It still stands at six, and then D.C. She then said we needed a tolerant president - one who would pass a law granting federal same-gender marriage rights. This upset me in the extreme. Obama is a supporter of same-gender marriage, and I believe that he would do something about it if it were at all within his power. Unfortunately, it's not.

Between the corporate-backed Republican/Conservatives in the House and Senate, and too many idiots in our maybe-formerly-great country, it's extremely implausible for the President to try to pass a law such as that, declaring same-gender marriage legal. Of all the recent Presidents, our current one is the most likely to be able to do something about it, but without the backing of at least a sizable portion of the rest of our idiots-in-charge, there isn't really anything he can do.

Welcome to reality. It sucks. It's time to change it. I wish I could be out there with the other protestors, because it's time to do something about it - and they are. I applaud them, and they have the support of more of us than I think anybody realises. For this, I am glad.

Until next time.

Peace.