99 Percenters -- Writers' / Leaders' Site

So here we are, it's May 2012, and while there is much white noise coming from all the various organizations and movements busy doing their own thing, in their own way, much of it will be heard only by the activist crowd all ready engaged in the political process. What is yet to be determined is whether this will be another average year not only for voter turnout, but for voter knowledge, and passion on the great issues before us all this November. In some form everyone of the 99% has skin in the issues and consequences of this election cycle, at the local, state, and federal level.

While we have so many organizations and movements trying to capture and manage potential voters, and the issues we face as a country, maybe we should step back and take a look at the scale of the battlefield in front of us all. We might then realize that no single group, or several groups have the critical mass to bring about the necessary change for the 99%, if that is the goal, or have too many movements and organizations succumbed to a "corporate sustainability" model, and grown comfortably numb ? To those who invoke the name of the 99%, where are you now ? In small numbers we are a drop in the ocean that causes transient ripples, but combined, with the 99% at our back we are a force of nature and we can, "crash upon the halls of government like a rogue wave", submerging and engulfing it, leaving it gasping to the point where it submits, and listens to the voice and will of the peoples democracy. It will not happen if you move alone.

This is the gravity of the 99% right now,  50% of Americans living at or below the poverty line, an unemployment rate that defines tens of millions of American workers out of its calculation, lost in limbo, 50% of homeowner mortgages are underwater, the majority are under insured or have no health insurance, and the leading cause of bankruptcy is catastrophic healthcare claims. Where primary and secondary education funding is cut, social safety nets are in danger, human and civil rights are being infringed upon, austerity is being considered, (as we give tax cuts to the wealthy, and subsidize corporations), despite it's proven failures, and contribution to two recessions in Europe, and peaceful, freedom loving people's lives, and scarce resources are condemned to elective corporate wars.

It's a streaming state of desperation for someone, and it touches everyone in one form or another eventually, and the trend is not changing. It will not change. We create the change we seek, or the American Dream will be a term found in history books and dictionaries.  A quick look at the history of social change in America will show you this, everything that has benefited the 99%, has started with the 99%, from the grass roots up, with mobilized, massive, collaborative movements over time.
The time for accumulating a critical mass, and collaborating for the social wellbeing of the 99%, and our democracy is NOW. The infrastructure and people are in place, we just need to start talking, and walking together.
Every day that individuals and groups place greater importance, and resources on their separate agendas, it becomes more likely that nothing will change for the 99%, except for the probability of continued struggle, suffering, and decline.

We must unite because we have to out of love for family, friends, and country,
We must unite out of respect and preservation for inclusion, tolerance, and self-determinism,
We must unite to defend the American way of Life, American Dream, U.S. Constitution, and the Republic.

We must share our resources, and let our common issues bind us into an Army of Everyone using the tools of the First Amendment, otherwise we will be lost in delusion, and the 99% will not find social justice, or relief from inequities.

A single man can't do it, a single movement can't do it, a single party can't do it.  We all must be a part of it. Let's not start too late.
 
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” _ Margaret Mead
 
“There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.”_ Elie Wiesel
 
I'm for truth, no matter who tells it. I'm for justice, no matter who it is for or against. I'm a human being, first and foremost, and as such I'm for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.”_ Malcolm X
 
“Dripping water hollows out stone, not through force but through persistence.”_ Ovid
 
“As my sufferings mounted I soon realized that there were two ways in which I could respond to my situation -- either to react with bitterness or seek to transform the suffering into a creative force. I decided to follow the latter course.”_ Martin Luther King Jr.