After last week’s blog, someone asked me about my “take on Occupy Wall Street which seems highly focused on money; who has it and who doesn’t”. It certainly has been fascinating to see how this small grass roots effort has spread across the nation and caught everyone’s attention. It’s the focus of the current Doonesbury cartoon, first choice for an “occ” internet search, and is already in Wikepedia.
On my recent New York weekend, our tour bus drove by the park (with the statue of the bull) where it all started. It didn’t look like too big a crowd yet their message is causing everyone to stop and think. The gap between the “classes” is growing and something we need to pay attention to. Here is what I had to say about this issue back in my September 1st, 2009 blog, Reaching Across The Great Divide:
“It got me to thinking of how our money beliefs and values have caused an ever widening gap between those who have and those who have not. That gap has grown so that at times it seems impossible to bridge the gap. The two sides believe the opposite of each other and can’t even begin to understand those on the other side…..this gap between the “haves” and “have-nots” gets bigger and bigger based on baseless “truths” and unexamined beliefs.”
At the end of the day, the Occupy Wall Street movement is giving us an opportunity to examine this gap and to start the conversation as to whether or not this what we, as American’s, want for our great society. Is this what our forefather’s envisioned? Is this the freedom we fought for? Or, have our unexamined money beliefs taken us down a road we never intended travel?
What do you think? Let’s talk.
