On October 15h over 1,000 gathered at the Torch of Friendship in Bayside Park in Miami, Florida. The call was for a rally, to be followed by the third General Assembly in Southern Florida.
Over 1,000 gathered at the Torch of Friendship in Bayside Park in Miami, Florida. (photo: Scott Galindez/RSN)
Smell of Protest Spreads to Miami
16 October 11
�I Love the Smell of Protest in the Morning� - Isis Miller
n October 15th over 1,000 gathered at the Torch of Friendship in Bayside Park in Miami, Florida. The call was for a rally, to be followed by the third General Assembly in Southern Florida.
During the first General Assembly on October 1st plans were made for an occupation of Miami�s Government Center. During that meeting attended by 100 South Floridians, small groups were formed to discuss the issues that Occupy Miami should focus on. One of the report backs was by a young immigrant named Juan.
Following the meeting I interviewed Isis Miller who also gave an impassioned report back from her small group.
Those attending the first General Assembly left with a mission, they needed to grow the occupy movement, and grow it they did.
Fast forward to October 15th �The one hundred who attended the first meeting was now more than a thousand, with the momentum it was time to take the next step. Over a thousand strong, they marched to Government Center.
Once there they held their third General Assembly, this time there would be no bull horn, this time they would use the people's mic. This time on the agenda was an important question, Do we Occupy this space?
So the Occupation of Miami had begun.
Food Not Bombs arrived with food.
Tents began to appear.
Despite several rain showers spirits were high. The crowd was diverse�young and old, brown, black and white. Parents holding their babies, children playing. Some were meditating others were drumming and dancing. Everyone was sending a message that enough is enough.
It remains to be seen how long the occupation will last but one can't ignore the momentum. Even the harshest right wing critic has to admit, the occupy movement around the country has the wind at their backs. In Miami it�s a warm ocean breeze.
Scott Galindez attended Syracuse University, where he first became politically active. The writings of El Salvador's slain archbishop Oscar Romero and the on-campus South Africa divestment movement converted him from a Reagan supporter to an activist for Peace and Justice. Over the years he has been influenced by the likes of Philip Berrigan, William Thomas, Mitch Snyder, Don White, Lisa Fithian, and Paul Wellstone. Scott met Marc Ash while organizing counterinaugural events after George W. Bush's first stolen election. Scott will be spending a year covering the presidential election from Iowa.
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btw, who actually is the architect of this grand betrayal, mr. reich?
before the election it was vote for obama or the country will go to hell; now will it be "accept the grand betrayal or the country will go to hell" can anyone use reason instead of fear-based sophistry any more?
I vote for the cliff. And I certainly don't want people like reich "saving" us from it.
why do you blame robert reich as well, he has been dead on in everything he has said, and his suggestions are backed up with facts, history and a lot of famous economists, like Joe Stiglitz for example.
i don't think you really get it. if you want to understand how objective reich is read "the future of success" by him that talks about how all these factors have acted together to get us to this point, a situation he understands better than most and can articulate very well.
We can and should push back against misinformation in the form of political ads to counter the deception. I just saw a dark, ominous anti-Obama ad, and this was after the election! Once every 4 years is not enough to keep the truth out there.
Wow,you really hit on all the points that make people keep returning the "R"s to office. There are a lot of people that paid very little attention to politics most of their lives. That was until they either lost their job or home, or some of their friends lost their jobs and/or homes back starting in late 2008.
So they decided to pay attention, since politics now made a difference in their life, up close and personal. Unfortunately, since they started paying attention late in the game it was very easy for them to accept that it's all Obama's fault. The TV News makes it all easy to understand and that Fox network is the most popular. So they got duped. And since they never paid hard attention in the past, there is very little for them to reference back to.
Most of the Republicans I know are good people. Many fall into the category I just described, and if it wasn't for the systemic dismantling of our economic infrastructure over the past 30+ years they would continue to not pay much attention. Others, are embarrassed by the insanity in the Republican Party; but that's their party and in many but not all cases they continue to vote for the R's.
At the end of thew day, I have found that they tend to hear things differently and the walls in many cases are too thick to break down overnight. We have to keep plugging away, and be ready to learn their language so we can translate Liberal ideas into something they will understand.
Check it out, if you like it, spread the word. Remind your Congress persons about it.
cpc.grijalva.house.gov/budget-for-all/
BTW, The Commonwealth of Massachusetts passed a state referendum endorsing this plan.
Does money make a difference in governance....Y ou betcha, always has, always will, in any and every country. It's human nature....So I guess is whining.
If no compromise let the tax cuts for everyone expire. Then let Obama have a bill for a tax cut for those only making under $250,000. If the Republicans don't vote for it, then the people will hold them accountable.
But we don't delay this decision after Jan. No way.
The goofs in Washington DC, keep talking about it costing too much money to pay out people intitlements. It seems to me these are earned benefits and the goofs who collect $80,000.00 for kicking the can, think they deserve a continued paycheck, even though We The People have Fired Them are the ones who are depleating the money.
Can't there be a movement of Citizens to cut this as well as congressional members paying taxes on their health insurance which we pay for as well?
Shar
Don't believe what hear on the tv box, their first agenda is to get you go out and but that car or deodorant that they are always telling you about. Stay tuned for more details after this message!
Lawrence O'Donnell on MSNBC has given it a new name - the 'Fiscal Curb' which describes it much better. As he pointed out, nothing is going to happen immediately if ALL the tax cuts expire - just a bunch of Repuglicans standing there with goo on their faces because they didn't follow orders and scare enough people into supporting another rich-man's tax giveaway.
If you have not seen it yet, check out the Moveon.org and CREDO campaigns to send emails and phone calls to the President, and the members of the House who want to pull this B.S. on us. Let them know that just because the election is over and a horrible fate is averted, we are not going to let up on them. That's the only response that will keep them honest.
And let's all work on getting the s***heads out of office!!
Obama did NOT get re-elected to cave to the Republican agenda. Let the cliff come, as it should, as it was expected to. Think of creative solutions for funding human services affected by the "cliff" - perhaps take what's left over of campaign contributions to the Obama campaign and split it up among affected programs to make up some of the cuts and encourage others, like Bernie Sanders and Pat Leahy and other Dems with big campaign pots to do so also, along with George Soros and Bill Gates, etc. etc. etc. But NO DEAL with the intransigent Republicans. They LOST!!! We can better cope with the cliff than having a spineless president.
Tha Amarican people are the ones who have no backbone, why don't we call, write or go as a crowd to the members who are not doing their job. Thats what needs to be done. Obama is not the father of grown men. Shar
Maybe begin with following Senator Warren's lead... :)
and view it at your chance to 'Refresh' yourselves with the American People.
You might be surprised at to just what kind of strong and much larger following you gather to yourselves/your 'base'...
Steve
Bmiluski, thank you for the Library of Congress citation, however, as Milton Friedman said,"I can explain it for you, but I can't understand it for you".