The Occupy Wall Street movement was initially famous for being unknown. Huh? In its first few weeks, most of the news coverage about OWS was about the lack of news coverage. "Why isn't anyone covering this?" was the question many kept asking. While it's difficult to ascertain why someone doesn't do something, I suspect that most major media outlets were waiting to see if the movement "had legs," and would last more than a couple of weeks.
Now that it's over a month old, and spreading to dozens (if not hundreds) of other cities and countries, Occupy Wall Street and the various other Occupy protests are mainstream news. Despite criticism of them for having many disparate messages and no specific suggestions for improving the system they decry, the movement is resonating with the disenfranchised and those upset with the concentration of power in the hands of the very few who control the world's purse-strings.
This blog will cover some of the movements, share interesting developments, and offer solutions to correct the institutionalized inequities of our current economic and political system. Because I believe that real change won't happen until we reform campaign financing, and remove big money's influence over this country's elections, that will be my primary theme. I really hope we can get voters in every state to create ballot initiatives that change how political campaigns are financed. As long as the wealthy can choose the candidates and influence elections, the elected officials will keep making laws to benefit the wealthy. We need to return power to the voters and the public, and that's my message.
