Cranial Discharge

OWS – Occupy Wall Street

Occupy Wall Street has been going for just over a month now. I went in to NYC a couple of days in weeks 2 and 3, and talked to people, checked things out and took pictures.

Even though the protest is entering its second month, there is still a lot of misinformation out there. Some of it is clearly purposeful, while much is simply a lack of facts. Funny how many people are willing to express an opinion with only the flimsiest of actual information to back it up.

A couple of things surprised me: First, the group is amazingly organized for such a loose knit gathering. Schedules, teams, people working together, and people helping each other. That was great to see. I also hadn’t expected the range of people that I found. I expected younger people and students, but there are a lot of older people, and people with a wide variety of backgrounds. Some I spoke to were very knowledgable about specific areas of concern, such as banking and the finance industry, corporate influence on political campaigns and our government, monetary systems and the fed, and a host of other topics.

I certainly do not agree with everyone I saw or spoke with, but I can say that everyone was great to talk to and very reasonable. Almost all of the people I’ve heard or read bashing the protesters as deadbeats, hippies, dirtbags, socialists, communists, anti-capitalists, etc., have not actually ventured inside the park to speak at length with people, and worse, some have cherry picked individuals that represent (imo) the worst of the pack. No different from picking out a racist with a grammatically horrible sign at a Tea Party event. Does that represent all Tea Partiers? I don’t think so.

One of the points that is missed most often, and I think purposely so in many cases, is the idea of Occupy as a “liberal” event, sponsored, staged, and directed by some group out there. From what I saw that couldn’t be further from the truth. Although I agree that most attendees I met were on the left side of the spectrum, there is definitely not a “left-right” bent to the messages coming out. The primary messages are much bigger than left-right – they are concerned with a variety of fundamental problems currently driving our system.

The interesting, and disappointing, thing to me so far is that the outcomes the OWS protesters want would help the vast majority of Americans, regardless of political leanings. The overall result would be a greater voice for the individual people of this nation, and a better opportunity to achieve the “Amercan Dream.”  Nearly everyone I spoke with is very much pro-capitalism, and pro-individual freedoms, yet somehow that seems to be lost on the majority. I’ve seen many of the “53%” responses, and it’s clear that a very high percentage of those posting actually support the argument of the 99% – they’re working more hours, more weeks, more jobs, and have less to show for it than they should. The perception of the 53% group is that the OWS protesters are whiners who want something for nothing. Some do I’m sure, but nearly all I spoke to just want to do good work, get paid what they’re worth and have a real say on how things are run. Pretty universal and not too much to ask for, really.

Justice for Marissa site and video

There’s nothing more frightening than receiving an email from a friend with the subject “HELP! My Daughter has been Kidnapped!”

I should have posted about this earlier, but neglected to. A long-time friend from Boulder, Colorado has been going through an incredibly difficult time. Her adopted daughter was taken away and her ex-husband – who has a history of abuse against both the daughter and mother – was given full custody. The courts justified the action by claiming the mother was guilty of something called “parental alienation.”  Up until that time I had never heard of parental alienation (PA), and I assumed that the courts would always do what is in the best interest of the child. I did a little research because I really didn’t understand the situation at all. There is a lot of information on both sides of the issue, and it took a while for me to sort it out and to understand how it was being applied in my friend’s case.

Essentially, PA is one parent trying to program or brainwash the child against the other parent. I am certain that parental alienation takes place – that would surprise nobody who has ever experienced, heard or read about terrible custody battles that often take place. The problem is that PA seems to have become a weapon in the custody lawyer’s arsenal, and has clearly been misused within the court system in order to help vilify one parent, and give the other parent the upper hand in child custody cases.

In the case of my friend there was real fear involved. She and her kids went through some terrifying times before the divorce was finalized and the ex-husband moved out of the house. I know that for certain because I heard about many of the episodes in near real time. Given the level of fear and real danger that was involved, is it possible that the mother told the child some things that are “against” the father?  Of course! Should that be allowed as part of a charge of parental alienation against the mother? Obviously not.

As is often the case, the bottom line is money. The father has it, the mother does not. So despite support and documentation from child services and the daughter’s therapist, the mother lost the custody battle. She’s trying to mount an appeal, but can’t afford lawyers, so that’s where a group of her friends jumped in to try to help. For my part, I set up a web site and created a short video that tells an overview of the events.

Here are the links:

justiceformarissa.org

2011 NYC Five Boro Tour

Post a time lapse video of this year’s Five Boro Tour. Other than getting stuck on the BQE for a near eternity, it was a fun time. Be sure to get started early. Last year we got a much earlier start and it worked out much better overall. Seems the BQE traffic was unique to this year though.