A buddy of mine who is involved with Occupy Chicago sent me this video. A bunch of folks with Occupy Chicago and Stand Up Chicago bought tickets to an event at which Gov. Scott Walker was speaking and really did quite a sound job of interrupting the event and getting their points across:
And, just to provide a little more context about “Where is this all going?”, here is Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn bringing up what I think are some interesting points regarding the movement, money quote:
“Last week, we had the biggest consumer battle in a generation in Illinois,” Quinn said. “It’s important if you’re doing an ‘Occupy’ movement, maybe to get down to the state capitol, help with the program y’know?” Quinn said to laughter. “We’re trying to win for the 99 percent of consumers who aren’t very happy about Commonwealth Edison’s big increase. You’ve got to be an organizer, figure out where the people are. I know the people are on our side. Consumers did not get a fair shake. We’ve got to come back and win in the days ahead. Maybe the folks outside could beat the drums for that.”
Here’s the link: http://www.suntimes.com/news/8529324-418/quinn-on-occupy-chicago-protesters-organize-for-a-cause.html
As always, I find TNC super instructive on the issue:
The funny thing is even while these more human portraits attract me, they actually point out why I am ill-suited to radical activism or activism. In re-reading Douglass’s denunciations of Lincoln last week, I couldn’t help but feel that sometimes, they were really unfair. And yet, leaving aside the fact that I have never lived as a slave, I don’t know that it’s the job of any activist to be “fair.” It almost seems “unfair” to ask radicals to function in a moral universe where no other humans, especially those with power, tend to live. I strongly suspect that any serious history on Mandella’s ANC will find the exact sort of behavior, if not behavior that’s even more complicated.
And yet, while being convinced by Kennedy’s defense, there is not a single African-American in the world who I feel comfortable disparaging as a sell-out or a Tom. Indeed, I’ve never liked Malcolm’s “house slave/field slave” comparison. I couldn’t see myself physically threaten someone for riding the bus, if only because, I’m very much an individualist. I understand why these tactics existed, but I recoiled while reading about them. I think about gay rights activist outing conservatives who support anti-gay policies. I recoil at that too. But I’m not an activist. Nor is it really my fight.
I’ve been listening to a lot of lectures on Napoleon and the French Revolution. I think I would have been with Burke. And yet, the Revolution was good, yes?
