Everybody is probably aware of what is going on around the world and in New York City. A protest or movement, called Occupy Wall Street is taking place. Who is Occupy Wall Street and what do they want?
Who are the people of Occupy Wall Street
Many people and people in the media say that the people of Occupy Wall Street are many things. The protesters of Occupy Wall Street are painted by the media to be many things, such as young college aged kids who do not have jobs. This is false because Occupy Wall Street is made up of people of all ages, race, sex and religion. They are a group of people who feel they have been done wrong by their government and bankers.
What Does Occupy Wall Street stand for and want
Seems like a lot of people point out and say that Occupy Wall Street does not even know what they are protesting against. People say that the protesters are people who want handouts and have no clue what they want. So what does Occupy Wall Street want? It is not 100% clear what exactly they want but some of the things they want are as clear as day. One of the things that they want is corporate and government corruption to be dealt with and to go away. This seems to be one of the biggest things they want.
It seems that they are not asking for free education but they just want access to affordable education, as well as affordable healthcare. It does not seem like they want this stuff for free but they want it to be affordable.
Of course Occupy Wall Street wants bankers to take responsibility for the economic collapse. Occupy Wall Street also wants the 1% (the elite wealthy) to pay their fair share in taxes. Depending on who is asked, people will be told different things, such as the 1% pay more taxes than anybody else, or they do not pay enough.
Occupy Wall Street and The Arab Spring
One of the things that are often thrown out there is the similarities between the Occupy Wall Street protests and the Arab Spring. These are two different things. Most of the protesters involved in the Arab Spring wanted to be freed from their dictators and they wanted basic stuff that western countries have access too, such as food and clean water. Another big difference is that a lot of the protesters involved in the Arab Spring were getting shot at, while the protesters involved in Occupy Wall Street have not suffered the same things. Sure they have been peppered sprayed but they have not been subjected to a lot of the things the protesters involved in the Arab Spring experienced.
How to improve Occupy Wall Street
It seems that Occupy Wall Street protesters stand as one, which is working for now, but sooner or later they will need a leader or a few leaders to be the voice of the people. Occupy Wall Street is described by many as a movement, and with all movements in the past, a leader or leaders have to come forward.
A lot of Occupy Wall Street protesters complain that they do not get enough media coverage. Well the Good Morning America show airs in NYC, so protesters should move their protest to that site. This would give the protesters great visibility and probably more media attention. If hundreds of protesters from Occupy Wall Street showed up to Good Morning America, then it would be hard for Occupy Wall Street to not receive media attention. Doing this could possible improve their exposure, and raise awareness.
If Occupy Wall Street really want to improve, then they should try to get police on their side somehow. Who knows if there is a good way to go about this, but it doesn’t seem like Occupy Wall Street has tried to get police to join their protest. If officers joined the protests, then this would definitely help Occupy Wall Street in some way.
Is anything going to get done as a result of these protests? Nothing major may change but if Occupy Wall Street can maintain the momentum that they are experiencing now, then there could be some significant change in the near future.