From the first mentions of it on Reddit, I have been following Occupy Wall Street and since that time have taken part in an occupation within my hometown. Included in that participation is the creation of a website to facilitate the local Occupy Wall Street voice.

For those that might ask what it was about Occupy Wall Street that gained my attention, let me echo the sentiments of the gentleman that kickstarted our local occupation since I feel he and I have had a very congruent stance on the movement (hopefully beyond the writing of this article).

Occupy Wall Street is a people-powered movement that began on September 17, 2011 in Liberty Square in Manhattan’s Financial District, and has spread to over 100 cities in the United States and actions in over 1,500 cities globally. #ows is fighting back against the corrosive power of major banks and multinational corporations over the democratic process, and the role of Wall Street in creating an economic collapse that has caused the greatest recession in generations.

Basically OWS is against corporations donating huge sums of campaign money to the officials that will regulate them. This is a conflict of interest. We are also against the bailouts of big banks and failing corporations. After they were given our tax dollars, they spent it on huge bonuses, conferences at expensive resorts, and unreasonable severance packages. After that, banks like Wells Fargo, participated in illegal foreclosure tactics. Wells Fargo was fined $85,000,000.00 for their illegal practices. Take the for-profit company, WellCare, that is under investigation of illegally taking 400-600 million dollars from programs like Medicaid and Medicare. Or you can look at the corporations like GE, Bank of America, and ExxonMobil that paid NO TAXES in 2009 and 2010. They even received refunds ranging from $156,000,000 to over 3 billion dollars. All this while receiving trillions in bailouts and cutting up to 20% of their workforce. Can’t forget that the top 20% of earners received almost 50% of all income generated in the US while the bottom 20% received a mere 3%.

We are backed by military, veterans, old and young alike. We come from all different backgrounds, races, creeds, and religions.

I am a gainfully employed late 20′s Union member. You might ask why I would be concerned with this movement if I have a job. Let me first take another step to confuse you. I am also registered as a Republican. Don’t let that speak too much to you though, please.

So the question is, why have I bought in? Most importantly, if a big bank is considered “Too big to fail”, my friends, that is a monopoly. Maybe not in the purest sense, but it has the same volatile nature of a true monopoly. That has got to go. One of the greatest yields of OWS already has been the increased participation in local credit unions and a change in the national news media dialogue from being about debt ceilings and congressional stalemates to the viability of our financial system and the credibility of the big banks.

As the father of a four year old, I’m not going to sit idly by while the culture changes from a nation “By the people and for the people” to a nation that facilitates banks that refer to our nation, the UK, and Canada as plutocracies. It may resemble a plutocracy to you, Citigroup, but it will not remain as such, especially once you abuse that resemblance. In 15 years, my son will be of voting age, and I expect his voice to be heard as clearly as any other voter.

This plutocratic highlighter is starting to mark up our nation, especially through the coopting of the Tea Party from what it once orginally was. Your average citizen of the United States, regardless of party or ideology, should be alarmed. This has to stop.

It is at this point that my angle changes, however. Occupy Wall Street has taken it upon themselves to be certain not to be coopted by any organization or party. I think that is wise. The trouble is like that of any organic growth. I’ve taken a few double takes on OWS lately, wondering what exactly it is that this movement is growing to be.

While listening to Dave Ramsey fielding calls from OWS members for their rebuttals to his article on the movement, and watching Stephen Colbert interview two delegates sent by consensus, I hear more talk about the environment, wealth redistribution, and gripes about unemployment than anything of significant relevance to the financial corruption of our representatives and our financial institutions.

So I have a question. Is the original intent, to Occupy Wall Street, a throwback to a month ago? What’s going on here? Are we occupying unemployment now? That’s a symptom, fellas. You don’t ask for some Sudafed when your nation has come down with a potentially terminal illness. “But my nose is running.” Strike at the heart of it. In your personal life, perhaps unemployment is the crux of all of your hardships. But on a national level, that unemployment is a symptom among many that is caused by lobbying, integration of our nation and gambling, a debt addicted culture, I could go on and on. All of it comes back to monetary influence on legislation.

And in reference to the environment, yes we do have a multitude of problems. Yes, infinite growth economics is a huge part of it and a cultural change needs to take place there. Once again we can track that problem back to corporations and banks. Strike at the heart of it.

In closing, this message is intended for the 99%. Remember that you are the 99% in voice and power. You’ve come to claim that voice for all time, not this year’s wages. A result of that may be that over time, wealth in this nation or hopefully the world will stop pooling up at the top, but don’t expect the government to do that for you. You’ve come to claim the voice that will do that of your own volition. Start emphasizing. And make that emphasis about voice, about power, about the promise of this nation. The media intends to polarize OWS, especially as though they desire handouts. Be mindful of what you say, what signs you hold up, and stop giving them fodder. The thing I fear more than OWS fading is OWS proving the media right.

A last note for the unfamliar: Here is Occupy Wall Street’s chief site. If you want to know about it, always start here.

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Much as I enjoy podcasting, I think I’ve found another niche that will scratch my itch for broadcasting fun. That’s the “Procaster” software from Livestream. So I’ve created a channel and even did a little foray into Champions Online. Expect a lot of stuff on this channel, more than just games too.

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I’ve seen a good amount of misfortune this week. The greatest misfortune is one that cannot be changed. But there’s another that’s had stemmed growth and this one is not set in stone. So what I’m doing here is taking a heartfelt try at trying to divert the flow. A heartfelt try at putting it right. I’m hoping that as I write this, these following thoughts can do what I remember of my friend some justice.
As a young boy I spent many summers primarily with a young man that may as well have been a brother. We talked philosophy, the nature of humor, and left no subject taboo (teenage boys). He taught me the benefit of having my bluff called and the benefit of a smile in all situations. He knew how to smile and laugh, no matter what. But curiously, he wasn’t trying to fool anyone. If he was sad, he proved that there was a way to laugh despite but in the midst of the sorrow, not betraying it. That was a personality trait I am still learning to adopt.

In the end, I see his philosophy as something accidentally grown, not structured and never using any one idea as a crutch. If anything, you could only say he was purely and entirely driven by love, and all the rest was residual. The sincerity was there as an outcome of the overall composition of his heart, same with the honesty and contagious facial expressions. It was a life by example. It was a catalyst. A catalyst that spread quick and with permanence. It is a guarantee that my son will be quoting and repeating things that this influential soul left behind, despite having never met him face to face. That’s how strong it was.

His humor was something, I can guarantee, you’ve never seen duplicated. I’d call it a special flavor of random. It wasn’t so much for shock as much as to get you with something you didn’t expect. Soft shock, you might say. Insisting that stucco belonged on furniture or that stucco was self aware, naming his cat “Smoke a Dog”, or saying his feet smelled like peaches and then proving it. This was always the first thing you loved about him. His sense of humor, and his foundation in that.

I write all of this because one of his other unique traits was reckless abandon on an unruly order. The only thing that he would weigh, in the effort to lift spirits, was the safety of others. His own safety be damned. Whether it was getting himself to pass out or eating a hapless winged arthropod that he snatched from midair, very little was off limits. A lifestyle like this, he and all of us knew, had a good chance of being the death of him. And it turns out, it was. Of all of the hair brained, bizarre ideas he’d had, things that nobody else would even think to do, he was taken in by one of the more mild and more oft participated in risks. Rail sliding. Something I’ve had others admit to me that they’d done at the same place.

To quote Robert: “Sometimes, I feel like a little ‘Who’, floating around on a speck and screaming ‘I’m here!’”

Family. I don't know what else to say, you had to see him around family.

Now as he leaves us, his presence is being noticed. The reason is because he fell at Coors Field during a Rockies game. As it always was with Robert, you had to know him to understand why he did what he did. Most of us, his closest friends and family, know that he shouldn’t have done this. But that was how it was. Story of his life. You could look at his entire life and say “You shouldn’t have done that,” but this was the only time we could say that without a smile to match his.
It’s easy to comment on a statistic, or a faceless name. But today I’m here to speak for a heart that was so real and permeating, that even in his passing, it still beats. Figuratively and literally. We carry his memories, his phrases, his smile. And as an organ donor, his heart (along with other organs), saved a life. And what I’m writing here today is something that I hope to see outlive every article announcing his death so pragmatically, so objectively. This sentiment, and this proclamation of true love for an old and great friend, this will outlive everything except the memories that are carried by those of us that loved and cherished Robert Seamans II so much.

More than cousins. More than brothers.

I know, with absolute certainty, that I will never stop missing you, “Cowboy?”. But your smile, your loyalty, and your love have inspired me on this Memorial Day. I will mind your virtues and give them new fertile soil to grow in again. You have my word.

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What is the value of taking offense? Consider most human emotions. Most have a value of some sort. Whether or not that value comes in pertinent to modern society (see: stress response), you can still make at least some semblance of sense out of them.  With the constant presence that offense is taking in our culture today, however, I found myself pondering that one specifically. First, I can’t really say that I’ve found a value for it. Then again, my inability to do so may be directly tied to the fact that I’ve never felt that emotion myself.

What?

Well now, I’ve felt strongly opposed to something before. And some might say “Well that is being offended.” In that scenario, it’s a bit different. For now, I’m speaking to those that would outwardly state their feelings on something, and then settle for that alone as though it will have any sort of impact at all.

When taking offense, what does that do? It’s like threatening a corporation with self mutilation if they don’t change. They won’t change, and you’ll suffer for it even more. It’s never seemed like good practice to me to make a to do about my own feelings on a matter when my feelings are the least important of supportive points. The importance is upon what’s actually right. Beyond my own perception.

Let’s say a specific religious organization teaches something that you do not agree with. Well, if you tell them that you’re offended, will they just change for you? No, they won’t. Not usually, and not quickly. They don’t need your support, and that’s all that you barter with when “taking offense”. Have some engaging reactions. Feel something that will make a change. Feel opposed, get motivated, that’s fine. In this case, go learn about them, become part of their community and be a catalyst. Or if you’re a sadist, you can try engaging in debate with them. For once, I can say debating with a religious organization has more merit than something else, which is crying about  your feelings to the ether.

Nobody changed anything in history by saying “I take offense to that”. Martin Luther King Jr. didn’t talk about feeling offended. He spoke of a greater day and a greater vision, and the same can be said for anyone that’s brought change to the world.

So get over it, buck up, and either take action about what you think is right or support a cause that already does.

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