Occupy Tug Creek

 

      At the now worldwide Occupy Movement's core is a belief that the 1% of wealthiest people in America and in the world have far more power and political benefits than the other 99% of middle-class and poorer families. And…more importantly, is the further belief that our political systems and global financial system strongly favors the 1% in unfair taxation, unequal political representation, and unfair access to influence the mass media and with that popular opinion.

        Just as the Arab Spring has ripped through the middle east toppling dictators and bringing civil rights and democracy to the masses the Occupy movement seek to shift the control of power and influence out of the hands of corporations, banks, and the elite superrich and into the hands of the common man.

    

       

     The two party system doesn't offer any relief to the huddled masses as the rich keep getting richer and the poor keep getting poorer.

"The only difference between the Republican and Democratic parties is the velocities with which their knees hit the floor when corporations knock on their door. That's the only difference."

- Ralph Nader

    You don’t have to be in the urban centers across the nation that are holding highly publicized protests. The true grassroots of any protest has to be out in the country , out among the working people. In this spirit, I am advertising my farm's own protest and invite my neighbors and friends to join in.

       What can you do? It is pretty simple. Every ad you see on TV, every song on the radio, every politician spouting lies and misinformation, and every corporation you support - question where does the money go and who ultimately gains.

Some examples :

 Friends of Coal - Who benefits from all these businesses and people sporting propaganda that says they are a "friend of coal". This is a marketing scheme - why, who in West Virginia wouldn’t want to be a friend of coal.  It is a cheap power source that thousands of hard working families make a living in the production of.    Still who makes the real money, its not the miners, its not the companies that make and service the mining equipment. It is not the railroaders that truck it out to power plants and plants all over the country. Ultimately two groups of people get the lions share of the proceeds, the operators, stockholders and owners of the mines and the Politicians they choose to promote.  Who pays the costs, miners, the environment, and anyone who has the audacity to call the accountable parties to task.  Something as popular as coal should have no end of financial support throughout ehe common people all over the state but the marketting is paid for by corporate interests.  Coal is a rock that is mined and burnt for energy. It is dead. I burn coal but I am not its friend I am a friend of coal miners and of butterflies and of lizards and of topsoil all living things- but not of coal. Why aren't people sporting bumper stickers that says friend of ethanol or friend of Wal-Mart (it is a major employer in wv). I guess they don’t have as good of a lobby or marketing team.  

Marriage = one man + one woman.

Who gains from keeping homosexuals from entering marriages, I'll tell you who profits ---health insurance companies do. If the one out of every eleven  adults in the United States who are  homosexuals were allowed to marry and get the same rights as their heterosexual counterparts that would represent a significant change in the balance sheets of health insurance companies all over the country. Instead of two homosexuals out of every couple each paying the higher self only coverage they would be able to include each other as spouses and drop to lower family rates.

 Food stamps are for poor people to help purchase food.

This is an outright mistruth, food stamps actually do more to help grocery stores and agricultural companies than they do to help poor people. They initially -back in the 60's- were a neat idea where a family could buy stamps, say $50worth. These $50 in stamps could be spent for more groceries than that amount of money could purchase -say $75 worth of groceries. Food stamps are now a tool now that the government can use to create demand for agricultural commodities and bump up their prices. This is why despite the snappy title of the SNAP  (Supplimental Nutrition Assistance Program) the governemnt does not control how the funds are used. They can be spent on soda pop and candy bars, ketchup and corn chips. These less nutritional foods are never going to be regualted because most of the corparate farms all over the country grow...corn a major componant of these foods. Lobbiests are present to prevent  restricting the purchase of corn and cornbased products.

So if you want to join this movement and become a more vocal member of the cheated 99% start by thinking and questioning where does the money go - then do what you can to keep more in the local economy. Buy as much locally produced foodstuffs as you can, don’t waste resources or buy into the hype, any hype without asking where the money goes. Turn corporate and political greed on its ear. Do all you can to support the poorest in the community. Because its been said "a rising tide rises all ships, from the mightiest yacht to the smallest dinghy" - Hinton is full of dinghies.