Editor:
I drove by the once-occupied Occupy Eureka camp in front of the Humboldt County court house today (“Blog Jammin’ ” Nov. 17), and wondered what the final cost of the camp will be to our cash-strapped city and county. The additional police time to investigate acts of defecation, spotlights atop the courthouse, fencing to keep the campers at bay, and landscaping repair will be, in effect, incurred by the 99 percent. It is my sincere hope that those who felt passionately enough about various injustices to camp out in downtown Eureka will actively work on behalf of the candidates of their choice in the upcoming year and volunteer for the many local nonprofits that serve those in need.
Also, not that I am advocating this sort of thing, but can anyone tell me why the courthouse was occupied and not Security National, the “home” of what I presume is Humboldt’s only 1 percenter?
August Deshais, Eureka
This article appears in Occupy.
August, I think you’ve missed the point. Though “Occupy” is a bit messy and a bit disorganized, one thing it has succeeded at doing it to trumpet from the rooftops that the system is broken. You said you hoped these protesters would “…actively work on behalf of the candidates of their choice in the upcoming year…” Are you serious? It’s these very candidates that are the problem. They don’t listen to their constituents. They are an aristocratic group not unlike those unseated during the French Revolution. We’ve voted these people in and out of office for decades and nothing has changed…it’s gotten worse. Why? Because the system is broken. It’s flawed…it needs to be revamped. Though “Occupy” hasn’t been good at articulating how this is supposed to happen, at least they did something. Goddammit…at least they did that. The Declaration of Independence clearly states when government becomes destructive to the rights of the governed, it is the very right of the governed to abolish that government and institute a new government. This isn’t about voting in another set of politically corrupt and gridlocked lawyers. That, my dear August is insanity and insanity is the idea that by doing the same things over and over you’ll get a different result.
OWS isn’t a political party, it’s not even an activist group. It is a movement.
The fact that you suggest that OWS work within the confines of politics itself, while working with non-profit organizations demonstrates your lack of understanding of how the current world operates. These are institutions of the past. And don’t get me wrong, non-profits are great, ,but these institutions were most likely intended to draw attention to specific issues as needed. They were never intended to try to mend a system that has left the vast majority of its participants to fend for themselves.
My point is simple. We have reached a critial level of systemic dysfunction and nothing less than complete moral outrage and resistance amongst the disenfranchised will engender any positive change. The fact that you are more concerned about damage to a lawn (an ugly suburban monoculture that essentially supports little life) than your own neighbors demonstrates your complete lack of empathy for those who suffer at the hands of an exploitative system.
Join us.
Also, defecation on public/private property is nothing new in Humboldt County and is a result of simpletons who deny biological imperatives, refusing to put in ample public restrooms. Ya hear that Humboldt? Everybody poops.
Maybe August is correct?
Citizen’s Constitutional right to protest is just to expensive.
It’s high time he paid back his GI Bill, send his children to the textile mills all day, and start working weekends without health, safety or minimum wage controls.
Idiot.
Very intelligent responses to this very lame editorial. Blaming the victim is worse than doing nothing.