OCCUPY MICHIGAN-LANSING

FAQ

Please check this document often as updates/changes are made

Like our brothers and sisters in Egypt, Greece, Spain, and Iceland, we plan to use the revolutionary Arab Spring tactic of mass occupation to restore democracy in America. We also encourage the use of nonviolence to achieve our ends and maximize the safety of all participants.

Like Occupy Wall Street, Occupy Michigan is a leaderless resistance movement with people of many colors, genders and political persuasions. The one thing we all have in common is that We Are The 99% that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1%.

To take part in this, please see the Facebook group!

Occupy Michigan- Lansing

You can find the event information here:

Occupy Lansing Event

EVENT INFO AND INTRO FROM ADMIN:

http://www.facebook.com/...

Join us in Lansing Oct. 15th from 10am to 2pm on the North side of the Building

Who: (all on FB) Richard. T. Rapscallion Jr. of Michigan Stands for Democracy,

US Michigan Uncut, and Occupy Michigan --to participate nationally in October with Dr. Margaret Flowers http://october2011.org/... (she will not be in Lansing that day)

What: A Rally in Support of Occupy Wall Street and Michigan Grassroots Efforts and beyond. This is not an occupation. It is a rally. History has shown at “Storm the Capitol” in March that overnight camping is not allowed by local law. Anyone who chooses to stay past curfew, etc. and do Civil Disobedience is subject to the risk of arrest.

Where: Michigan Capitol Building on the North side.

Why: An opportunity for like groups to meet face-to-face and form coalitions. To express our views as individuals, offer problems and solutions. To speak and listen and to move forward as activists.

How: We as a group have agreed to be peaceable. We will have guest speakers and unscheduled speakers are welcome to speak. We ask that you keep it to about three minutes. The speeches altogether will be limited to one hour. We hope to have entertainment. For the sake of simplicity we ask that you just meet us at the podium. Same applies to other volunteer efforts. This is a public venue. Anyone is welcome to do their own thing. Just attend. We’ll see you there.

What we are not: We are not the group “Anonymous”. There will be a General Assembly after the speeches and entertainment. All welcome to attend. We will need a facilitator.

Thank You, Richard T. Rapscallion Jr. Contact occupymichigan@gmail.com

Stump Speech: My personal take on Michigan NOT A GROUP STATEMENT:

I am here today to demand Democracy! Here in Michigan there has been overt action to subvert our Democracy and our system of Representative Government. The Emergency Financial Manager Law is a direct mechanism to disenfranchise the People and deprive the People of their right to be represented. This is a cancer on the body politic and we are in the slow process of cutting it out through Citizen Initiated Referendum. There are tireless Petition People and the People are signing! We are beating back the cancer.

There has been legislation passes that infringes on Michigan Teachers Rights to form a Union and even speak to each other on school grounds. Speech has been made illegal, illegal I say, in Michigan. This shall not stand! They even have a provision for jailing people for talking in the Teacher’s Lounge about the Union. We are attempting to Recall The Governor Rick Snyder, The Attorney General , and many Representatives. We will show them the door!

There has been Austerity and attempts to punish poor people and the unemployed simply for being poor and unemployed. They have wickedly and viciously cut the safety net. They have diverted Federal funds that are meant to be distributed by the State to Michigan’s most neediest. We shall vote them out!

Snyder & Cohorts have given Carte Blanche to Corporatists and to ALEC (The American Legislation and Exchange Council) and have actually gone so far as to pass prewritten legislation, almost verbatim, written by the minions of The Koch Brothers. They have attempted to completely under fund and subvert Environmental Regulation and replace it with fracking and oil wells… and water that is poisoned for a million years. Imagine pipelines all over State Lands and Private property just so a few Billionaires can even more money? No I say! We shall fight this with People Power, with Petition Power. Petitions that have the force of law! It IS what is right and we shall prevail!

Studies suggest that for every dollar spent on Green energy five jobs are created to one for fossil fuel. With increased efficiencies there are simply not enough jobs to go around. No jobs and no money are NOT the answer.

We live in a beautiful place full of richness and beauty. A place full of good and wonderful people. This is the Heartland! This is Michigan! We have the most productive workers in the world. We have silos filled with grain and store shelves stuffed with merchandise. We have unlimited resources, it’s the distribution that is the problem.

All the money Koch money in the world cannot stop Michigan from becoming a blue state… except for computer-glitch-trickery. We must insist on paper ballots! Out with Emergency Managers! Out with Snyder and ALEC! Out with Union Busting and In with Democracy! And if they can’t get it right, we’ll get it right and write our own Referendum! We will make our own laws. We are the People and we have the Power!

And end this damned WAR! There is hope folks! It’s never, ever, too late to get it right.

Richard T. Rapscallion Jr.