Fireside Chats? Try Facebook Chats on #Occupy

Some people don't like to use Facebook to stir the sticky pot of politics. They feel political discourse tends to be too nuanced to be held over the web and the anonymity can create antagonistic yelling matches instead of rational discussions. One of my friends posted this:

I normally don't think that it is appropriate to post political things on Facebook, but this message is for Occupy Wall Street-- If you had been actually engaged and involved in the political process before two months ago, maybe the government would have voted the way you wanted and you wouldn't have sit in intersections to get your point across. The American public's complacency, not Wall Street or Congress, is the problem.

And why isn't Facebook the place for politics when we're talking about a lack of civic engagement? I hope it doesn't have anything to do with straw men arguments against hippies and hypocrites ;)

Here were some of the responses she received:

i have no idea what this whole thing means.

I dont get how their answer to closing the gap between the wealthy and poor is to be unemployed and sleep on the street. And what I really don't understand is how they've managed to attract anyone else in the country with any form of an agenda. If they had actually asked their grandparents how to properly hold form a protest, they'd realize that their methods are relatively useless. Damn hippies.

In Dallas they are just smoking pot, raping underage teens, drinking and littering!

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"occupy ucla" is a disgrace. there are literally signs up saying that the "super rich" and banks should pay for their rent and tuition.

And that's when my own personal rant began.

The Feds need more oversight, congress needs to be more than just a place to make a pay check, white collar crimes needs to be prosecuted seriously, and crony capitalism is a revolving door which corrupts our system of checks and balances. What does #Occupy mean? It means civic engagement and democracy at a horizontal and not a vertical hierarchy. It meeans empowering the people to have a voice and to stand up for their rights. It means asking the tough questions, it means building relationships, and it is a serious attempt to end the complacency of the people.

Is it an efficient, well-oiled political machine that has a comprehensive platform and mission? No, it seems like #occupy is more of a forum for debate than a platform for  immediate social change. While I don't deny that this sort of thing can create an echo chamber, its giving people the opportunity to try and start a truly grass roots movement that gets into the weeds of policy and cultural issues which plague our country.

And while I haven't been to Dallas, I know a lot of people would be disheartened by allegations that a civic movement was nothing more than a stir-fry of rape and other vices, kind of like how tea party sympathizers were tired of being called racists bigots who wanted "government hands off medicare."

Sure the differences between the two movements are important (and I wouldn't want to make any false equivalencies, but they are certainly comparable), but so often we let the margins be an excuse to polarize us instead of acknowledging the common ground that unites us. Americans are tired of a crappy economy, and would love to get back to work, but there are things outside of their control which have forced a lot of people to be unemployed or underemployed. Whether they blame an incompetent government or corporate greed (or the links between the two), the members of the Tea Party and those who call themselves the 99% believe that the American Dream is in jeopardy, and want to make sure that if they are willing to work hard, that they will be able to support a family and have an opportunity at earning a good wage.

I realized that on Facebook, most people probably stopped reading out of laziness, disinterest, or any number of reasons, but I wanted to thank those who stuck it out. While I doubt this will change many minds, I hope it will open up some minds to the problems our country faces.

While I was at a recent rally against the Keystone XL Pipeline, I was amazing that the median age of the 5000+ attendees was probably 35 (no way to know for sure with so many people, but it was definitely not just a group of kids). One person I linked arms with was a Vietnam Vet who was astounded by the level of organization and engagement at the event. He said in the '60s when they tried to have this sort of rally, that yeah, they were too stoned to handle the logistics, but that there was something different about this, something real, and something that is more than just a passing fad. And while this wasn't technically an #Occupy event, there was certainly overlap with the attendees, and it wasn't a wild, selfish mob, but a group of people looking to make a difference, looking to share ideas, and looking for the means of making this country that they love a safer and better place both now and for the future.

I think Barack's Keynote Speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention really crystalizes the sentiments of what this is all about.

Now even as we speak, there are those who are preparing to divide us, the spin masters, the negative ad peddlers who embrace the politics of anything goes. Well, I say to them tonight, there is not a liberal America and a conservative America - there is the United States of America. There is not a Black America and a White America and Latino America and Asian America - there's the United States of America.
The pundits, the pundits like to slice-and-dice our country into Red States and Blue States; Red States for Republicans, Blue States for Democrats. But I've got news for them, too. We worship an awesome God in the Blue States, and we don't like federal agents poking around in our libraries in the Red States. We coach Little League in the Blue States and yes, we've got some gay friends in the Red States. There are patriots who opposed the war in Iraq and there are patriots who supported the war in Iraq.
We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all of us defending the United States of America. In the end, that's what this election is about. Do we participate in a politics of cynicism or do we participate in a politics of hope?
I'm not talking about blind optimism here - the almost willful ignorance that thinks unemployment will go away if we just don't think about it, or the health care crisis will solve itself if we just ignore it. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about something more substantial. It's the hope of slaves sitting around a fire singing freedom songs. The hope of immigrants setting out for distant shores. The hope of a young naval lieutenant bravely patrolling the Mekong Delta. The hope of a millworker's son who dares to defy the odds. The hope of a skinny kid with a funny name who believes that America has a place for him, too.
Hope in the face of difficulty. Hope in the face of uncertainty. The audacity of hope! In the end, that is God's greatest gift to us, the bedrock of this nation. A belief in things not seen. A belief that there are better days ahead.
I believe that we can give our middle class relief and provide working families with a road to opportunity. I believe we can provide jobs to the jobless, homes to the homeless, and reclaim young people in cities across America from violence and despair. I believe that we have a righteous wind at our backs and that as we stand on the crossroads of history, we can make the right choices, and meet the challenges that face us.
America! Tonight, if you feel the same energy that I do, if you feel the same urgency that I do, if you feel the same passion I do, if you feel the same hopefulness that I do - if we do what we must do, then I have no doubts that all across the country, from Florida to Oregon, from Washington to Maine, the people will rise up...

If you haven't watched the whole thing, I strongly encourage you to check out the moment that Barack Obama became a serious player in National Politics. This timeless speech rings truer today than ever before, and its moments like this which earned Barack the support he needed to win in 2008. Its no surprise that he couldn't live up to the lofty expectations, and there has been plenty of disappointment surrounding broken campaign promises, corporate pandering, and sacrificed principles to alienate the entire political spectrum. However, I do believe that Obama has faced nearly insurmountable challenges and is desperately trying to play Washington's games in good faith to achieve the most optimal outcomes for the most people. Barack not only stood for hope, but was a symbol of hope, and is now a testament to the immense challenge of overseeing the free world.

Alas, we are the 100% who make up the United States of America, and this implies a duty and a responsibility to stick to both the convictions of our forefathers and principles of the present. We have a right to freedom and the expression of our liberties and values, and we have an obligation to work together as Americans to make this social experiment work. It requires independent accountability, a tolerance of ideas but an intolerance for injustice, and a willingness to work together to create a better nation now and a more sustainable country for tomorrow.