This has been an exciting week in the good old United States of America. For one thing, Bank of America announced its plan to charge their customers $5.00 per month for using their debit card. Thank you Bank of America!
The outrage was quick and overall anger was pointed at Wall Street in New York City, and from that anger a body of people rose up and the phrase “OccupyWallSt.” was born. What soon followed was a massive rising of voices from many walks of life that its total impact has not yet been felt.
Charging service fees is nothing new; from credit card purchases to finance charges it happens in almost all consumer actions from the east coast to the west, in all corners of America and we grumble and complain but it mostly falls on deaf ears. Well guess what? Things are changing and Wall Street, Corporate America and all of our elected officials had better start paying attention. One of the tools available in this rising army of Americans is the power of “No” I won’t pay that fee, so I’ll take my business elsewhere, I’ll use a credit card that will not nickel and dime me into the ground and if a politician does not listen to my needs, he or she will hear my voice, loud and clear in the voting booth.
Lawrence Lessig said today on the Huffington Post that OccupyWallSt. could just be the beginning and repercussions could be felt from the financials thrones in New York City to the hallowed halls of congress. Lessig suggests that there needs to be a new dialogue in Washington between Republicans and Democrats about finding a common path, not of party politics, but a mutual voice in meeting the needs of Americans, because the combined voices of a nation totally dissatisfied with how our elected officials worry more about how they will finance their next campaign by seeking support from special interest groups, than meeting the needs of those that sent them to Washington.
It’s interesting, those voices involved in the ‘Occupy’ process, because it is not just one single voice crying in the wilderness, the voices being raised are asking; where is my American job? How am I supposed to feed my family? Why is the fight for equality taking so long? These are just a few of the voices being broadcast across America and we want an answer.
The issue should not be focused on pointing fingers, but opening the ears of those, who for too many years have become accustomed to accumulating wealth and prestige on the backs of a struggling and diminishing middle class. If they, politicians, remain preoccupied with serving their own self interest, if CEO’s of Corporate America continue being preoccupied with collecting obscene bonuses and windfalls while driving their companies into the ground and Wall Street money mongers continue their preoccupied appetite for wealth and do not listen to the cries of those venting their collective frustrations, I’m afraid it will be too late, lights out, time to go home, because the march will not be OccupyWallSt. or Washington D.C, Houston or Portland, it will be Occupy America and someone should be listening.
