Many Americans are appalled but not shocked at the police’s brutal treatment of supporters of the Occupy Wall Street movement in cities across in the U.S., from Oakland and San Diego to Denver and Austin. Those old enough to remember the protests of the Sixties and the Seventies are feeling a dreadful sense of déjà vu.

American citizens have not voted away any of their rights as guaranteed by the Founding Fathers in the Bill of Rights. We do have the right to protest.

Let’s remind ourselves of Amendment I of the Bill of Rights:

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

I have been to Liberty Park and been an eyewitness to the Occupy Wall Street movement. I have talked with people young and old about why they were there. They are Americans who are concerned about the present as well as their future. They are fighting back against a system that is now stacked against them and worry that the American Dream has become a figment of their imagination.

I can verify that it was peaceful at Liberty Park and it was quiet on the day that I visited, because the City of New York has demanded that the protesters not use megaphones or any devices to amplified voices. Since this is a business area near Ground Zero, and far from residential neighborhoods, it seems very odd and anti-American to try to squelch popular dissent.

A middle-aged man, eyeing the three NYPD officers watching nearby, asked a poignant question: Did the nearly 3,000 people who perished during the 9/11 terrorist attack die in vain? That now-sacred site where the World Trade Center once stood, the place that attracts thousands of daily visitors from around the world who come to pay solemn tribute to its victims and shed a few tears, is within view of Liberty Park and the Occupy protesters.

In Oakland, Marine Lance Cpl. Scott Olsen was hit in the head with a police-fired tear-gas canister as police broke up an encampment. Occupy supporters don’t believe for one minute that this brave Marine fought for his country to support a police state like in Syria, where thousands of people have been killed, injured, maimed and tortured as they fight for their freedom. Olsen, who still lies in a hospital and is severely injured, has become a rallying cry for Occupy supporters.

Has Olsen become America’s version of Mohammed Bouazizi of Tunisia and Khalid Said of Egypt, two young men from northern Africa who helped trigger the Arab Spring?

The circumstances for all three men are certainly very different, but the frustration they share is common to many people not only in the U.S. but across the world: Governments that are corrupted by politics, Big Business and partisan political differences that paralyze legislation. The sense that the future is not bright, that opportunities to a good-paying job and the pursuit of happiness are farfetched, that greed of the One Percent who control the bulk of the wealth in America has drowned out compassion and concern for Everyman.

Occupy protesters say it is our right and our duty as American citizens to speak out on our grievances with our government. A common question that I hear is “What do they want?”

Like the Tea Party before it, the Occupy movement is fluid and changing. It is a collection of many diverse points of view, including unbridled support for LGBT issues, all coalesced around the idea that the American Dream has been hijacked by the super-rich One Percent. On Oct. 4, the following statement was approved by the general assembly of protesters at Liberty Square:

Declaration of the Occupation of New York City As we gather together in solidarity to express a feeling of mass injustice, we must not lose sight of what brought us together. We write so that all people who feel wronged by the corporate forces of the world can know that we are your allies. As one people, united, we acknowledge the reality: that the future of the human race requires the cooperation of its members; that our system must protect our rights, and upon corruption of that system, it is up to the individuals to protect their own rights, and those of their neighbors; that a democratic government derives its just power from the people, but corporations do not seek consent to extract wealth from the people and the Earth; and that no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power. We come to you at a time when corporations, which place profit over people, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality, run our governments. We have peaceably assembled here, as is our right, to let these facts be known. They have taken our houses through an illegal foreclosure process, despite not having the original mortgage. They have taken bailouts from taxpayers with impunity, and continue to give Executives exorbitant bonuses. They have perpetuated inequality and discrimination in the workplace based on age, the color of one's skin, sex, gender identity and sexual

orientation. They have poisoned the food supply through negligence, and undermined the farming system through monopolization. They have profited off of the torture, confinement, and cruel treatment of countless nonhuman animals, and actively hide these practices. They have continuously sought to strip employees of the right to negotiate for better pay and safer working conditions. They have held students hostage with tens of thousands of dollars of debt on education, which is itself a human right. They have consistently outsourced labor and used that outsourcing as leverage to cut workers' healthcare and pay. They have influenced the courts to achieve the same rights as people, with none of the culpability or responsibility. They have spent millions of dollars on legal teams that look for ways to get them out of contracts in regards to health insurance. They have sold our privacy as a commodity. They have used the military and police force to prevent freedom of the press. They have deliberately declined to recall faulty products endangering lives in pursuit of profit. They determine economic policy, despite the catastrophic failures their policies have produced and continue to produce. They have donated large sums of money to politicians supposed to be regulating them. They continue to block alternate forms of energy to keep us dependent on oil. They continue to block generic forms of medicine that could save people's lives in order to protect investments that have already turned a substantive profit. They have purposely covered up oil spills, accidents, faulty bookkeeping, and inactive ingredients in pursuit of profit. They purposefully keep people misinformed and fearful through their control of the media. They have accepted private contracts to murder prisoners even when presented with serious doubts about their guilt. They have perpetuated colonialism at home and abroad. They have participated in the torture and murder of innocent civilians overseas. They continue to create weapons of mass destruction in order to receive government contracts. To the people of the world, We, the New York City General Assembly occupying Wall Street in Liberty Square, urge you to assert your power. Exercise your right to peaceably assemble; occupy public space; create a process to address the problems we face, and generate solutions accessible to everyone. To all communities that take action and form groups in the spirit of direct democracy, we offer support, documentation, and all of the

resources at our disposal. Join us and make your voices heard!

Despite the weather getting colder and the seasons changing, the Occupy movement only keeps growing bigger. It hopes to become a force in fostering political change for the better.

Plans are underway for Occupy supporters to head to Iowa just ahead of the Jan. 3 presidential caucuses.

Organizers are also planning a national general assembly in Philadelphia on July 4, 2012, according to a pamphlet titled “The 99% Declaration from Occupy Wall Street.” One woman and one man chosen at general assemblies from each of the existing 435 congressional districts would convene in Pennsylvania to debate.

“At the national general assembly, the 870 delegates shall set forth, consider and vote upon a petition of grievances to be submitted to all members of Congress, the Supreme Court and President, and each of the political candidates running in the nationwide congressional and presidential election in November 2012,” the declaration says.