Many in the media try to portray the occupy wall street movement as a bunch of hippies who would rather take the money from the rich then work themselves. This kind of thinking is prevalent with many of my own friends and family. This could not be further from reality.
Everyone would like to be successful, and there are not protests happening across America because some became wealthy. There are protests because those that have done well, or in many cases inherited huge amounts of money, are using their money and influence to change the rules to make sure they gain more wealth on the backs of the poor and middle class in this country.
An example of how corrupting the power and influence has become happened just yesterday. Congress outlined their new Agriculture bill and in it was something that is very disturbing. The bill classifies one tablespoon of tomato sauce as a full serving of vegetables. Why is this important? Well, it will allow schools to count a slice of pizza as a vegetable. The Department of Agriculture along with the Obama administration has been trying to make school lunches healthier since there is a huge problem with child obesity in the US. So why would Congress propose such a bill? How about 6 million dollars spent by the corporations that make the frozen pizza to lobby congress. It is what most people would call bribery. Another clear example of this is when I travelled to the Dominican Republic and Canada, I looked on the back of the Heinz Ketchup and noticed the ingredient of sugar. When I returned home I looked at the ketchup bottle to notice the ingredient of high fructose corn syrup replacing sugar. You have the agribusiness lobby spending millions lobbying congress and in return they receive over 30 billion dollars in federal subsidies. There are examples like this going on in every industry, every day. I only looked at this issue because it was in the news yesterday. How much do you think oil companies lobby congress to make sure that they not only pay no taxes on their billions in income, but also get a federal handout on top of that?
This leads to my bigger point. While there is good reason to protest Wall Street. The problem is much bigger then that building in New York. Sadly in most instances corporations bribing elected officials to benefit themselves while screwing the majority is legal. The people in this country need to start occupying congress and the supreme court. These are two institutions who set the rules that allow this to happen.
The people of the Occupy Wall Street group need to start a political movement that will work hard to vote the crooks out of congress. They need to get out the message of how congress really works, and needs to fight against pay for play. It goes across both parties, and legalized bribery needs to stop. If the people of the Occupy movement want to create a public occupation, it should happen on the steps of the United States Supreme Court. The court has become the arm of corporate America. A few years ago the court ruled that limiting corporate money in campaigns is illegal because that would violate the corporations right to free speech. They ruled that money equals speech and that a corporation is a person. How can the people of this country making $50,000 a year get their voices heard when companies like Koch Industries are spending a billion dollars in this election year alone? In case you were not convinced that the Supreme Court is the problem, they are now set to rule on the Obama health care plan. On the night it was announced that the court would hear the case, Justices Thomas and Scalia were at a dinner hosted by the law firm fighting against the Obama plan.
This is why the people of the occupy movement need to move down to Washington D.C. and occupy the court. You can’t fix the problem until you cut off the head. Right now the head of that snake is the United States Supreme Court.
#OccupyCourt
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