 About This Blog Thanks for stopping by the blog of singer/songwriter Dan Coyle; I'll keep this little gem up to date while on the road, writing, recording, and meeting my fans at shows. This may give you some insight into just how weird I can be - and all of the weird things I enjoy. There will be stories, poems, rants, musings, and other forms of writing that my feeble vocabulary cannot contend with. Hope you enjoy! Main Blog Page | October 11, 2011 Occupy Wall Street: Not To Get Political Or Anything As it says in my “about this blog” section, I reserve the right to rant in my posts, so here we go. For as long as I can remember, I have had the inclination to stick up for the underdog. In 2006, this began when I joined thousands of people protesting in Washington DC against abuses of power, a dwindling Bill of Rights, and unjustified wars. In the past years I’ve supported the Tea Party, not for their political beliefs, but for their right to protest and be heard. Now that torch has been passed to the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations. Growing up, I was taught certain things about America, things that I have seen erode piece by piece within my (short) lifetime. I was taught that in America, we had the moral high ground. We were a country that stood for liberty and personal freedom. We were the ones that saved Europe from oppressive dictators and ended the killing of millions of innocent people. That in America anyone can become anything he or she wants to be, including the President, and hundreds of other reasons why we were the brightest beacon in the world. Since my education brought me to (what I thought was) an understanding of these indisputable facts, I’ve noticed a few things; a few things that boil down to one simple truth: we don’t practice what we preach. From the point of protest, for citizens of a country to stand up, assemble, and have their voice heard, our government, police, and media don’t protect or champion that right. To me it is sad to see how, every day, the media reports news of the “Arab Spring” demonstrators as heroes, but protesters in the U.S. (be they Tea Party, Occupy Wall Street, etc) as extremists, communists, deadbeats, hippies, and so on. Nearly everyday I can look at the news and see peaceful protesters being beaten and arrested, in a land where the Bill of Rights is supposed to protect them from such treatment. (Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.) When I look at these protests I see honest people, distrusting of a system that promises one thing and delivers another. I see people peaceably assembling, petitioning their Government for a redress of grievances, and speaking freely. These are the people I see beaten and arrested. I see a country that endorses torture, indefinite detention, free speech zones, “collateral damage” of millions of innocent civilians abroad, a financial structure that collapsed the global economy, a deficit that will have our grandchildren and great-grandchildren oppressed for decades, and an overall system that is corrupt and ineffective for the people it supposedly represents. This is not an “I hate America” post, this is an “I fear for America” post. If we don’t change course, start protecting the rights of our citizens, and reform the system that has led us so far from where we should be, it will only get worse. Thank you to everyone who is participating in their democracy. These are not freedoms that need to be expected only in America, but human rights that need to be demanded and exercised openly in public; for the protection and well-being of all citizens, elected representatives of the people, and for generations to come. |