[*winter*]

Um, homeless crackheads live on the streets all the time and nobody does anything at all about it. There aren't enough jails...

Point being, they get rounded up and arrested on a regular basis. In Pittsburgh they've been pretty nasty in terms of taking their belongings and raiding their camps during the day when they are empty. And certainly if there were as many of them as there are Occupy protesters, in one big place, making what amounts to a giant mess, they would all be rounded up and carted off to jail. They don't have cell phone cameras or vidoe recording devices. How do we know how the police treat them? We don't. Do these kids care? Doubtful. Bless the ones who are working with the homeless in the area, but they are the exception.

This isn't the complaint. The complaint is that no matter what you or anybody else does, you are completely and totally powerless in determining the future of our country, laws, financial state, etc. Because corporations have all the power. This is NOT a government of the people, by the people or for the people. It is a corrupt hotbed of corporate greed. Is that really ok with you?

Bull. It's the United States, not India. You are NEVER, ever totally powerless- I just refuse to believe that. As a veteran who swore up and down I'd die to defend this country and what it stands for, that statement really offends me. Not every politician is in someone's back pocket- and if there are so many that are that bad, to quote one Union official, "the only thing you need to be occupying is a voting booth."

It's not okay with me, but it's not been okay with me and my family basically since we got off the boat. Look at how factories treated workers in the 20th century, and when they didn't get their way in the US anymore, they packed up and moved the whole operation overseas, thus basically killing off the towns left behind. Not to mention the tens of thousands of orphaned dump sites they still have yet to clean up. Not to mention drafting our kids to fight in their wars (a roundabout version still occurring with the wars and the population most likely to "volunteer" for them) So, yeah...corporations being selfish and not thinking about the workers- this is NOT breaking news. It's only an "issue" since Middle America feels put out by the whole thing. If it was just the lower class, as its been for the entirety of the country's history, it would be business as usual.

The bolded part is exactly what they are protesting!

But their protesting is only making it worse for cities. There are only so many resources to go around. That's why I agree with the police Captain telling them they are on their own. For most of them, it's not THEIR city, it's not their tax dollars funding the police department, so too bad- quit hogging resources from the rest of the 99%.

God forbid someone like my mother/sister (62 with osteoperosis, and mother of a toddler, respectively) would be calling 911 for a true emergency, and the lines would be clogged, or the police/fire/EMS dispatched elsewhere over this nonsense. If that was your family, living in a city, dependent on already limited resources, how would you feel? People living in high-crime areas in cities need to know with 100% certainty that if they call 911 for a life-threatening emergency, that there will be officers available to answer. I'm sorry, but protesting is just NOT that important in the grand scheme of things.

Maybe it needs to be. What would you do to change the world?

I'm already doing it. Just because I'm not a protester doesn't mean I'm not changing the world. What I'm doing in individual lives and individual communities will have exponentially more of an impact than what these people are doing. Because, at the end of the day, do you really think the 1% cares? Fight them one on one when there's injustice in your own community, inequalities in your own school district, get out there and meet the people who are dealing with them and their gas wells, or their coal mines, that's what I'm doing. And I'm incredibly proud of my work, and what is yet to come.

How would you get media attention from all over the world to look at real problems in our societal structure?

Who cares about social media attention? The last time I turned on my TV, it told me Kim K's wedding was the biggest event in the news. Point proven.

Whether I agree with all of their ideas and methods or not, they have a right to be heard and a right to protest. We have the First Amendment for a reason.

Great, speak- there's freedom of speech. But don't use your cause to drain resources and throw your dirty underwear and human excrement around. Other people in the area have rights too- why are their rights to free speech "more important" than everyone else's basic rights to live in a clean and safe community?

The 1% is clearly getting uncomfortable with this movement and orchestrated raids on Occupy camps all in the same night all over the country. The old saying is, First they ignore you, then they fight back, then you win. As they often change "The whole world is watching." This says to me that they are winning.

Again, most of the world watches the Jersey Shore, so just because the world is watching does not mean it is going to bring positive change.

The 1% does not give an F. Walk into Goldman Sachs. I bet it's business as usual. They know they are untouchable, and they've already gotten bailed out.

The ones I deal with feel untouchable- they are in a situation where they have lied, cheated and stole to get where they are (all things we have proof of- in due time, it will all come to light) and when asked politely to come to the table and bargain with the community, they snub their noses! Because they know they can!!! They have top-notch lawyers, they have always gotten over on the people, so they think this time will be no different. Their arrogance is absolutely astounding. Based on this dealing, I would not exect much from the 1% no matter how many places people "Occupy."

But that does not make them untouchable. The truth is untouchable. Justice is untouchable. Once there is an arena to be held accountable in a court of law, hopefully justice will prevail, and thus prove my point- this country has a lot of flaws, but the rich and powerful don't always win.

And then the inevitable, "Well that's what they are protesting!" One, I don't completely agree that that is what they are protesting (more on that below). Two, I don't think protesting will change things, but I do know that fighting for our communities every day WILL. Maybe not on a global level, but one on one, and that's important, too. That's where I choose to concentrate my energy. It is frustrating when you are volunteering with a skeleton crew on feral cat management, or with Big Brothers Big Sisters, Salvation Army, or any other organization that can't find enough volunteers, but there are 1000 people sitting in a park. To me, that's maddening.

This does not apply for ALL protesters, but for many of them...I can't help think if their lives had worked out the way they "thought" they would (i.e. graduate college, get a great job, in 5 years marry and buy a brand-new overpriced house in a development, buy a giant SUV, move up in the corporate world) they wouldn't be protesting. They'd be exactly where they thought they'd always be: off in the suburbs, living lives ignorant of the struggles of the rest of the country.

Not only do they want a piece of the pie, their problem is they've felt ENTITLED to the pie, as a virtue of their social class and standing, for their entires lives. When that doesn't automatically happen at 22 years old, they can't handle it. The "pie" is not your birthright. The ability to succeed still exists in this country. It is not dead. Fight for what is yours and eventually success will come.