jumpingfish

I looked over at him sitting at the table next to me as he opened his laptop. It wasn’t his usual black monstrosity. It was silver and sleek and had a white bitten-out Apple on the cover.

“You have a Mac!”

He turned slowly and said, “That’s what you said three weeks ago.”

Right. Credit for being consistent?

It must be said that you don’t see these folks toting guns. And you don’t see race-baiting or talk about Jews and ovens or faces of Obama superimposed on fascist uniforms. There are no screaming claims of sodomy or socialism or jokes about Obama rhyming with Osama or pokes at having Hussein as a middle name. There was a sign that read “Not So Fast You Greedy Bastards” which I suppose has an air of meanness about it. Still, this isn’t a movement rooted in hatred.

It’s a movement built of people who are just tired of the way the game is rigged for those at the top, and they are trying to say they’ve had enough.

I confess, I’m an engineer, and I see the world in terms of well defined problems to be solved by specific solutions. And so my instinct is to wonder where the problem definitions are. Where are the proposed solutions? What are their demands?

But to ask those questions is to get ahead of where we really need to be. The first step is admitting you have a problem. And this is my take on what to make of all of this. We have a very big problem, and we have to admit it before we can do anything about it.

This, as I see it, is why the Occupy movement is important. Before we argue about specific demands, before we craft specific legislation, before we call for specific regulations, before all that, we need to see into the heart of this broken wreck.

occupyaustin frames the problem like this:

1. Our democracy is broken. Corporate influence in the guise of corporate personhood and the role of lobbying and money our political process is stifling the voice of the people. This movement is about democracy.

2. Our economy is broken. Four words: too big to fail. This movement is about economic security.

3. There are no consequences for financial recklessness. There need to be repercussions for corporations and financial institutions who bring this nation to its knees. This movement is about corporate responsibility.

4. The rich get richer while the gilded age returns. Corporations and the wealthy do not pay their fair share of taxes. This movement is about financial fairness.

occupygeorge frames the problem like this:

These are broad terms that can pull together many people. The 99%. With a critical mass of people behind an acknowledgment like this of the problems our system faces, perhaps then the elite and powerful can turn their attention to steering a system that runs consistently with the principles our republic was founded on.

Clearly if they don’t get slapped in the face with the farce that is the current game, they don’t plan to do anything other than what they have been doing all along.

Occupy is that slap.

I sat in the chair with my arms over my head and my legs on the footrest. In just minutes I fell asleep, hastened by the full-body soreness of a day of lifting rocks.

It was a deep sleep that lasted only a few minutes but left me feeling like a new person (although the soreness persisted). And as I woke, I opened my eyes and saw you across the room in the yellow glow of the lamp reading something on your laptop.

I saw you reading and smiling as you sat that golden light, and I thanked the world for this life at this moment in this place with you.

In front of city hall along Cesar Chavez Street, the sky was blue, the sun was warm, faces were smiling, and cars were honking as they drove by signs held in the air.

I said something about John Brown. I said it with an air of excitement so as to make others sit up.

Later, I got a note that asked, “Who is John Brown?”

My reply was terse: “Google him.”

In an instant, my response was on its way. I’d had a long, bad day, and what I said amounted to, “Look it up yourself.” Except…

Except after that quip was on its way, and perhaps even before it arrived at its destination, it occurred to me that perhaps (and this is not an unlikely explanation) perhaps they didn’t know what “Google him” means. Perhaps, I thought, my answer might be nothing more than gibberish.

It sent a shiver down my spine.

I imagined myself sitting in a comfy chair years hence struggling to keep up with all those new-fangled toys that everyone seems to use. I imagined myself comfortable in my chair, satisfied with the old toys I have, needing no new ones. I imagined feeling as if the cool kids were all talking about stuff I didn’t understand and yet everytime I asked for help they replied in tongues. I imagined myself asking that very question, “Who is John Brown?” and having the reply sent back to me that said … “Farfinargle him.”

And so it will happen. One day I will pay dearly for this snippiness. It will all be served back at me just the way I served it out. And with that frightful vision staring at me from the future, I am forced to confess belatedly, “I am sorry.”