"Anger does not move countries, but it moves movements—and movements, in turn, can move countries." Todd Gitlin, "The Left Declares its Independence," New York Times, October 9, 2011.

In an effort to undercut the message coming from Occupy Wall Street, various folks portray the protestors as malcontents or deluded hippies with no clear message, no agenda, and no leadership. They are wrong. And they are missing the point.

Public opinion polls have been telling us over and over again that Americans are angry at the loss of the American Dream, the growing inequality in the nation, the rising unemployment rate, the manifest absence of citizenship and regard for the social contract by the corporate rich, and the hierarchy of power and money, now supported and sustained particularly by decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court that treat corporations as people and restrict efforts to limit their impact on, among other things, the financing of election campaigns.



The 99 percent are angry because they know that some corporations and individuals pay little or no taxes, and, in some cases, despite record profits and incomes, even receive tax credits. Add the outrage over Wall Street rolling in cash and CEO bonuses going through the roof at the same time a considerable portion of the American people are suffocating--by the recession, by the poverty rate (at 14%, it's higher than it has been since 1994), by staggering levels of unemployment, well, you get the picture. In fact, 90 percent of Americans lost ground over the past decade, while the richest 1 percent earned an average of $250,000 more each year.

The top 1 percent of Americans earn a fifth of the income and control a third of the wealth.

I stated in a blog some months ago that if we if haven't reached a point where we need to have an intense look at what is happening in America, I didn't know what would prompt us. I know now. We have reached that point. Occupy Wall Street protestors are telling us just that. It's about time.

The message the protestors are delivering, and which the powerful and economically and politically well-positioned are so anxious to dismiss, is that the solutions are obvious. The protestors don’t have to be united on every single issue. They don’t have to have all the answers. And, they don’t have to propose legislation either.

The New York Times editorial yesterday provides passionate support for the protests and reinforces the message Occupy Wall Street is delivering:



"Research shows that extreme inequality correlates to a host of ills, including lower levels of educational attainment, poorer health and less public investment. It also skews political power, because policy almost invariably reflects the views of upper-income Americans versus those of lower-income Americans."

Occupy Wall Street has become a magnet for discontent, serving to confirm what public opinion polls and surveys have been shouting to the crowd in Washington: Pay attention, grow the economy, make the tax structure more fair, more progressive, stop running interference for the banks, regulate financial institutions in the public interest, provide relief from foreclosure, protect workers’ rights, and shift the focus of public policy discussions from debt reduction and social spending cuts to fostering full employment, including public spending for job creation.

Even if you can't make it to Wall Street, Washington Square or Zuccotti Park in New York, or Memphis, or Clarksville, or Knoxville, or Trenton, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, Seattle, St. Louis, or San Francisco, or Oregon, Texas, Florida, or, Washington, D.C., you have a voice. Meetup.com organizes events; WeArethe99Percent on Tumblr posts blogs, @Occupy-WallStNYC manages the movement's main Twitter accounts. New sites are piping up every day on Facebook, Tumblr, YouTube and Trendsmap. And, according to the New York Times, "The Occupied Wall Street Journal," a four-page broadsheet, was published on Saturday.

I've blogged relentlessly on variations on the inequality, unemployment, progressive, equitable taxes theme:

And now I am joining Occupy Wall Street, online, to protest the unfair advantages extended to the nation’s one percent, and, to demand that policy-makers and legislators, the nation’s leaders, pay attention, now, to the nation’s 99 percent.