Occupy Royal Oak is a group of local people (from Royal Oak and nearby communities) who support the "Occupy Wall Street" movement. We've called face-to-face meetings using http://www.meetup.com/occupytogether/Royal-Oak-MI/. We are using this blog to extend those discussions.
We see that our government has spent trillions bailing out large corporations and financial institutions (the 1%) while expecting the rest of us (the 99%) to accept cuts in employment, real wages, pensions, public education, Social Security, Medicare and more to pay for it.
We do not accept any part of this deal. We do not accept the details or the overall direction. We do not accept the values of the 1% who benefit from these policies. We do not accept the legitimacy of institutions imposing these policies from the top down and destroying the democratic elements of our government along the way.
We see the rights and living standards of ordinary people being sacrificed by politics as usual to preserve business as usual. This is terribly wrong - the opposite of what should be happening. The legitimate role of government is to protect the general welfare in times of prosperity and in economic downturns.
The Great Recession continues in spite of statistics supposedly showing a feeble recovery. Unsolved problems with resource depletion, climate change and population indicate that economics as usual is not working. Even if a shrinking economy persists indefinitely, the government should protect our individual rights and the general welfare instead of sacrificing them in attempts - so far, failed attempts - to restore economic growth.
We have been looking for an effective way to oppose a broad bi-partisan agreement that government of the corporations, by the corporations, for the corporations, shall be how the business of politics is conducted. The Occupy movement may not prove to be the best way to do this, but, along with similar opposition movements across the globe, it has certainly revived public interest. We support the movements, including the encampment in Grand Circus Park in Detroit.
See http://www.occupy-detroit.us/ to follow local developments.
