As someone whose marched and protested for tangible things, such as the preservation of the City University System in New York, a proper memorial for fallen law enforcement officers; I think that the lack of focus for the entire occupy movement serves to alienate those of us in the 99% who are busting their ass to succeed in society and create legitimate change by making a valid, salient argument. If you speak to 5 occupiers (as I’ve done in NY, DC, and Philly) and ask them what they are protesting for, you’ll get ...5 different answers. More disturbing is that the occupiers have no direct set of demands…as you can’t just “End Greed”. You have to demand conditions, policies, regulations, or concessions that will bring your demonstration to an end. As with our wars, you can’t demonstrate without an exit strategy.
Occupiers have none and should therefore stop being a drain on our nonexistent municipal resources. Often you hear the occupiers compared to hippies. The "hippies" that they are often compared to were protesting for civil rights, equal rights for women, and to end the war in Vietnam. They had clear messages as to what they were asking for. Furthermore, the hippies grew up to participate in the society they were protesting in, often becoming success stories (Ben and Jerry, et al). The occupiers do not have a clear voice - and seem to be increasingly synonymous with the Anarchists arrested annually at WTO/IMF and Global Trade meetings worldwide. They clearly have no respect for the law, property, or the thousands of working-class Americans that have had to live with them over the last couple of months.
In my opinion, it's time to go. I work too hard to pay my increasing taxes to a municipality that can't afford to properly manage public safety or schools; so pardon me for having a problem with my tax dollars going to police overtime in the babysitting of folks who obviously don't have jobs or classes to attend.
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