No Problem

We hear people on the right saying that if the Occupy Wall Street people can't tell you solutions to the problems they're pointing at, then they're just complainers and nobody wants to listen to a bunch of complainers. But the fact is that a person who identifies a problem is often not the one who solves it.

If somebody tells you your house is on fire, you don't tell them to put it out or else it's not a problem. If a scientist spends his whole life proving that there's global warming, you don't say you don't believe him because he can't tell you how to reverse global warming. When Paul Revere tells you the British are coming, you don't call him a complainer and not listen to him because he can't tell you what to do about the problem or solve it himself.

The first civil rights protesters were pointing out a problem and so were the first Vietnam war protesters. Gradually more and more people came to agree that these were important problems that needed solving and then the government that we elect to solve such large problems figured out how to solve them and did so.

There's nothing wrong with the discoverer of a problem offering a solution. However, we often agree on the problem and don't agree on the solution. But to discount the problem because its discoverer couldn't solve it is foolish as well as ridiculous. Yet that's what the right wing Fox News people would have us do. It's their way of avoiding any discussion of the actual issues.

What do all these Occupiers want? They want us all to see the problems they are pointing out. They want enough people to see that the problems really are serious. And they want us all to then figure out how to solve the problems. If you listen to them and don't think they're pointing out valid or significant problems, that may be fine. But don't succumb to the false logic that because you don't understand or agree with their solutions you should ignore them and the problems they point out.

The rich 1% are the ones telling you it's really no problem that they have all the money. When you hear: "If those protesters can't come up with the solutions, then just call them complainers and ignore them," that's Mr. 1% himself, billionaire Rupert Murdoch talking to you through his Fox TV station.

Greg Schindler