The “Occupy Wall Street” protests have taken me somewhat by surprise, although it really shouldn”t.
Millions of Americans are tired of what has been happening, especially with the stimulus money that wasn”t channeled to help Americans, but found its way into the pockets of high level bankers and other corporate-types as bonuses.
The very people who helped drive us into financial meltdown profited from the bailout.
We have found that when Americans have gotten fed up in the past, with Vietnam, for instance, they became vocal.
“Occupy Wall Street” states that its demonstrations represent “the 99 percent that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1 percent.”
Well, I know I fall into the 99 percent group and I am frustrated by many of the problems that have been foisted upon us by high-level corporate and government leaders who fall into the 1 percent group, so I suppose I should be happy that there are those who are taking their time and energy to protest what they feel is wrong.
I am just not certain that the people who are doing the protesting are representing me the way I want to be represented.
First and foremost, I have always thought it is wrong to throw a blanket of blame onto the wealthy.
Sure, there are some greedy, wealthy individuals who wouldn”t mind if the rest of us had nothing, as long as they kept their wealth. But, there are many well-to-do people in America who know that much of their wealth accumulation was not all due their own efforts, but to a hard-working middle-class from which they recruited employees who helped them build a business into a Colossus, like the late Steve Jobs of Apple and Bill Gates of Microsoft. Without the people who take a company from nothing to massive in a lifetime, where would many of us work?
There are a number of actions the “Occupy Wall Street” folks have taken while protesting for us 99ers that I infringed upon the rights of other Americans and were in violation of numerous laws.
Just the fact that they have taken over Zuccotti Park, the 33,000-square-foot privately owned park in Lower Manhattan, for its encampment is a violation of the rights of the private landowner who owns the property.
News videos show that the protesters have trashed the park to the degree that it will have to be totally re-landscaped when the protest ends.
It has been frequently reported that protesters are defecating all over the park and openly having sex in full view of the public. No, I don”t think these are the people I want representing my best interests.
Another problem the protesters are causing is a loss to small business owners who own shops in that area.
Stacey Tzortzatos, owner of Panini & Co. Breads said, “Usually, there are hundreds and hundreds of people in this area,” which sits adjacent to Zuccotti Park. “People do not want to have to pass through the crowd or walk through the park to come to my business ? so they go elsewhere.”
Many other area small-business owners have been complaining about the loss of traffic, graffiti and other building damage and long lines of people wanting to use restrooms but not purchase a thing.
There are those who will say that these issues are just minor inconveniences and trivial in comparison of the national problem caused by the wealthy.
To me, infringing on the rights of Americans to protest for the sake of Americans doesn”t make sense.
The “Occupy Wall Street” group wants President Obama to create a commission to address its concerns.
There are better ways to get the President to act than by getting a group of people to occupy a piece of property close to Wall Street until they extort what they want from him.
Gary Dickson is the publisher of the Record-Bee. Call him at 263-5636, ext. 24. Email him at gdickson@record-bee.com.
