Joyce L. Arnold, Liberally Independent, Queer Talk, equality activist, writer. “One of the scariest things I ever did,” a long retired public school teacher (who was Caucasian) told me years ago, “was to name what I saw every single day in my classroom: racism. And once I said it, there was no turning back.” And [...]
Tag Archives | Occupy Wall Street
Brewing Beer or Manufacturing Molotov Cocktails?: Welcome to ‘Preemptive Policing’
Joyce L. Arnold, Liberally Independent, Queer Talk, equality activist, writer. Can you tell the difference between beer brewing equipment and Molotov cocktail building equipment? A middle of the night raid by the Chicago PD raises that question. The raid was one piece of the several days of actions immediately before and during the NATO Summit, [...]
Voting for Lesser Evilism And Expecting Good Results
Joyce L. Arnold, Liberally Independent, Queer Talk, equality activist, writer. If you choose the lesser of two evils voting path, then what’s next? Pushing the lesser evil to do better? Or not pushing the lesser evil for fear the greater evil might win next time? If our lesser evil guy / gal says he or [...]
Occupy Arrests Over 7200, But The Banks Are ‘Too Big to Jail’
Joyce L. Arnold, Liberally Independent, Queer Talk, equality activist, writer. A comparison is one way to get some perspective. There’s certainly something of an “apples to oranges” dynamic going on here. But that there is a different treatment for “white collar” and “street” crimes is surely not in question. And when the comparison is between [...]
Why Occupy Should / Shouldn’t Be the Left’s Tea Party
Joyce L. Arnold, Liberally Independent, Queer Talk, equality activist, writer. It’s surely no surprise that my response to whether Occupy should or shouldn’t “be the left’s tea party” is the latter. That’s my Two Party Front for the Oligarchy perspective. The status quo-ed corporate Duopoly system is working just fine for those for whom it’s [...]
Chipping Away at the Wall of Money
Joyce L. Arnold, Liberally Independent, Queer Talk, equality activist, writer. This is probably one of the busiest months in a long while, for advocacy / activist groups, Occupy and others. It’s extremely difficult to break through the Wall of Money, and the incessant electoral politics “news” it funds. Depending on MSM, you’d likely miss most [...]
When Party Loyalty Rules the Ballot Box
Joyce L. Arnold, Liberally Independent, Queer Talk, equality activist, writer. Voting party over policy is a major dynamic in our electoral system, present in both Republican and Democratic sides of the Duopoly. Making loyalty to a party, or person, the basis for voting (and then for governing) is one of the most significant factors in [...]
May Day: ‘The Whole World is Waking,’ ‘Which Side Are You On?’
Joyce L. Arnold, Liberally Independent, Queer Talk, equality activist, writer. “The Whole World is Waking” headlines at OWS. Florence Reece wrote the song “Which Side Are You On?” in 1931. The question is as relevant today as then. Her husband was a union organizer with United Mine Workers of Harlam County, Kentucky, and the efforts [...]
May Day: From Haymarket Square to Public Spaces Around the World
Joyce L. Arnold, Liberally Independent, Queer Talk, equality activist, writer. Tomorrow, May 1, is the General Strike, the “Day Without the 99%”, planned by Occupy, immigrant and labor organizations, and more. Much of what’s being discussed includes a realization that tomorrow’s General Strike isn’t going to “shut down” whole cities, much less the nation. May [...]
May Day: Can the ‘Day Without the 99%’ Include a Day Without Presidential Politics?
Joyce L. Arnold, Liberally Independent, Queer Talk, equality advocate, writer. Next Tuesday Occupy, and movements around the world, will mark May Day. As was said early on about OWS, “This is not a protest, it’s a process.” The latest phase of that process, the Spring Offensive, moves into a General Strike on May Day, the [...]
Foreclosures, Student Debt and Act Up: Occupying Where People Live
Joyce L. Arnold, Liberally Independent, Queer Talk, equality activist, writer. If you want to be taken seriously, Occupiers are told, you have to identify specific issues. Equally as important, you have to frame all your arguments within accepted Duopoly either / or language. And since it’s a presidential election year, it’s crucial that you be [...]
Humor in the Face of State Sanctioned Superiority for the 1%
Joyce L. Arnold, Liberally Independent, Queer Talk, equality activist, writer. Finding the humor, or creating it, is crucial in advocacy, not to mention in life in general. It’s not ignoring, avoiding or minimizing the deluge of serious stuff dumped on us daily. Rather, humor can be a way to focus on “issues,” take an energy-building [...]
Progressives as the ‘Old Left’?
Joyce L. Arnold, Liberally Independent, Queer Talk, equality activist, writer. From Adbusters: Battle for the Soul of Occupy … First they silenced our uprising with a media blackout… then they smashed our encampments with midnight paramilitary raids… and now they’re threatening to neutralize our insurgency with an insidious campaign of donor money and co-optation. … [...]
Non-Snarky Questions About Predictable Politics vs. People Power
Joyce L. Arnold, Liberally Independent, Queer Talk, equality activist, writer. With generalizations acknowledged, along with my own frequently expressed liberally independent position, a few serious, non-snarky question: Why do We the People routinely accept predictable politics for months, years, decades on end, one more political campaign season after another, but demand social / political movements [...]
Occupy Mancos, CO, Has Two Members
Joyce L. Arnold, Liberally Independent, Queer Talk, equality activist, writer. Humor, wisdom / common sense, and some encouragement. That’s what I hear in the first-person account from one of the two people Occupying Mancos, Colorado. Read Occupy Mancos, CO: The Importance of Small Occupies, by Wendy Davis. Below are some excerpts. I hope they get [...]
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