Phoenix
I’m here to support the Occupy Movement and to help affect change through all the communities in the nation. I want to see the world be a better place. I want to see corporate society be less corporate and I want to see more community businesses, whether it be for a city or a state. I want to see money moving around with people as opposed through corporations. And I don’t want the 1% to have 60% of the wealth.
Odeebo
I’m here so that these people can understand that we’re in a new period and that we need to find out some new politics that goes beyond simple political parties and I’m here to work with anybody that wants to work with direct democracy as opposed to representative democracy, which is not democratic. That’s simple. That’s all I want.
And I would like to see forums continue so people can continue to talk one on one so they can understand what they’re seeing. Because all these people have something to say. All of them. And I wish you could interview as many of these people as you can because all of them, you know, they got something to say.
Richard
I’m a Marine Corps veteran, disabled. I was in Desert Storm and I’m out here because people are finally waking up to what’s going on in this country. This country’s being run and exploited by corporations, by the moneyed class. The working man, more and more is being taken away from them and the economic inequality and disparity between the highest and lowest economic areas in this country is just growing exponentially and it’s gotta stop.
My #1 issue would be to take money out of politics. I think Occupy Wall Street and the subsequent gatherings like this one, Occupy Savannah, have a lot of similar interests, a lot of which have to do with corporations and money and the exploitation of the working class. I think we can’t solve any issue that’s out there right now until we remove the financial influence of corporations and of the moneyed interests on our political process. We need to find a way to get the voters to matter again because right now the candidates are only interested in what they’re donors have to say and not what the voters have to say. Constituents don’t have a voice anymore and that’s gotta change. So I think we need to get the money out of the political process.
I would like us to find some way to transform the elective process right now so that the working man’s vote matters. And the majority of people in this country are working folks, they’re ordinary folks, they just try to support themselves and their family. They’re not trying to make money or gain power for the sake of having money and of gaining power. We need a voice. We need a legitimate voice in Congress, in Washington, in the presidency, and that’s only going to happy if we reform the electoral system and take the money out of it.
Let’s say for instance, we make a cap on donations at $500 or $1,000. Something attainable for your average person. At that point, it would give individuals a voice and take the voice away from the corporations. Don’t let the corporations contribute at all. And the Citizens United ruling that the Supreme Court did last year that gives corporations the rights of an individual and considers money free speech has got to go away. That was an unbelievable political movement on the part of the conservative Supreme Court.