Reply #15: Going into the election year... [View All]

I'm prepared to call it the "DU NoBama crowd".

I recall how sickened I was seeing friends in '08 with their "Democrat For McCain" signs in their yards. I lost a couple long time friendships over that election, and I'm not going to pull any punches here among my DU friends.

You want your constitutional rights protected? Do it through the courts, that's why they're there. The president should have better things to do than comment on whether or not you can build a permanent tent city on public property. It doesn't even matter what his opinion is.

I've held my tongue out of respect for months on the Occupy Movement. While everyone cries about the great conspiracy between the big city mayors and Obama to do the bidding of Wall Street, there's one scenario that's always overlooked: Maybe the city mayors (and president) fear a permanent protest settlement in the center of their town.

Tent cities turn into shanty towns. Shanty towns turn into slums. Slums turn into public eyesores named after the mayor or president in charge (see Hooverville).

I'm behind the inequity movement as much as anyone and know things have to change, but perhaps the protest needs direction beyond what they're doing. I can go to downtown Youngstown with a sign and march around the square all day long. I can do it all month long, but once I and others set up a shack and announce "We're never leaving" I'll have a problem with the Democratic mayor and eventually the police.

Not everything has a complicated conspiracy theory behind it.