OCCUPY SUGGESTIONS!

DEAR EDITOR: Ann wasn’t flipping the bird at Occupy protesters [One Day at a Time, Oct 13], but rather chiding those gathered to increase their effectiveness. This is a reasonable challenge not to be confused with run-of-the-mill mustache/hipster insults.

It’s great people want to instigate change. Ann responded by asking for specific suggestions of “positive action for busy wage-earners who want to affect change in ways other than camping in the rain.” Here’s one: A letter to elected officials stating a personal viewpoint and call to action not only receives the weight of 2,000 citizen voices, but it also creates a paper trail by which the system can direct and justify change, based on the wishes of We the People (usa.gov/contact).

-Jadene Mayla

OCCUPY MY PETITION!

TO THE MERCURY: Okay, we get it that the occupiers want people to know how the 99 percent are getting screwed and that there are a lot of ways that happens. I am sure it is enormously satisfying to think that people are paying attention to you sound off about whatever pisses you off the most, but wouldn’t it be even more satisfying if while you had their attention you presented an idea that could lead to justice for the ninety-niners?

I spent a week down at the occupation trying to get people to simply sign a petition calling on Senator [Jeff] Merkley to introduce a constitutional amendment to abolish corporate personhood. I got 500 signatures, but I also got a lot of blank stares and dismissive responses from those who think that you can win a revolution without getting involved in politics. Perhaps Ann Romano was just trying to say that we are not ready for pure democracy when we have such difficulty developing a political strategy for getting there as a nation [One Day at a Time, Oct 13].

For now, we have to work through our representatives. If in the end, the majority want anarchy then that is what we will get, for better or worse.

-Rick Staggenborg, MD, Alliance for Democracy

OCCUPY HYBRID LANGUAGES!

TO THE MERCURY: I was horrified and devastated upon reading Ann Romano’s recent treatment of Ashton Kutcher [One Day at a Time, Oct 13], wherein she declares her distaste for those who end their sentences with prepositions. As Ms. Romano should know, the belief that such usage is always wrong is a vestige of the ill-fated effort to impose Latin grammatical rules upon a Germanic-Latin-Norse hybrid language. Is the Wu-Tang Clan nothing with which to fuck? Yes and no. While the disrobed Mr. Kutcher’s particular usage was indeed improper, I still offer Ms. Romano a hearty “fuck you.” How you allow this and call yourself a respectful publication is beyond me.

-Aaron

FRENCH GUILLOTINES!

TO THE MERCURY: I understand that these occupiers of the streets of Portland are mad, and they think they’re doing good. And perhaps they are, but as far as I can see, their goals go no further than to let the men and women of the upper class who have so righteously raped the rest of us know that what they did was WRONG WRONG WRONG, and somebody needs to be held accountable for it. That’s all fine and dandy, except for this: The upper class who have so righteously raped the rest of us KNOW it was WRONG WRONG WRONG AND THEY DON’T GIVE A FUCK! Good luck holding anyone accountable and seeing any change for this is AMERICA. Until you all decide to take this French Revolution style and bring out the guillotines, I see no hope for your ventures.

-Jocelyn Kazebier

OCCUPY ECHIDNAS!

TO NED LANNAMANN: Okay, I’ll bite [“Notes of a Dirty Old Man,” Film, Oct 13, in which Ned calls Blowfly’s manager (and the author of this letter) a “sleazebag”]. What, in your douchey estimation was “sleazebag” about me dedicating seven years of my life taking a national treasure from complete career stasis to a global touring machine that headlined a stage on the world’s biggest festival last year, enabling a movie being made worthy of your D- psych 101 analysis? Go fuck an echidna.

-Tom Bowker

FUN FACT! Echidnas are spiny anteaters native to Australia and New Guinea, and belong to the family Tachyglossidae in the monotreme order of egg-laying mammals. And for hipping us to this knowledge, Tom wins the Mercury letter of the week, and two tickets to the Laurelhurst Theater, where sexual relations with echidnas are generally frowned upon. For a variety of reasons.

 

7 replies on “LETTERS TO THE EDITOR”

  3. Rick – only 500 signitures here in Portland? Hmm, that says something in itself really.
    I’m kinda against the recent Supreme Court ruling as well, but then again, if Unions can use their money money to influence politics….
    Wait, you’re a DOCTOR? Wow! Maybe I should agree with you then, eh?

  4. Dr. Staggenborn, I’d be honored to sign the petition to abolish corporate personhood.
    Some of you progressives/radicals might want to brush up on the disastrous (to the 99%) consequences of “corporate personhood” being legally enshrined alongside your own constitutional rights. It’s the irrational and destructive (to the 99%) twin of equating “political contribution money” with free “speech”. Constitutional protections equal to those for individuals have been around for a long time –primarily since the giant railroad powers of the late 1800s wrote their own laws. (Sound familiar?) These laws are integral to the abuse of the US Constitution to keep you outside the power structure, while keeping the very rich inside. READ.

  6. Here they are, the 1 percent: http://www.forbes.com/forbes-400/gallery
    These are the people we hate so much. These are the people we’re protesting. They have names, they have addresses, their smug mug shots are published, their fortunes are listed for us 99 percenters to see. So why are we protesting them by squatting in our own front yard? Why are we confronting our police? Yes, the police are ours. We pay them to work for us. They are even somewhat accountable to us. The politicians are ours too, we elect them, we can fire them, and they really do answer to us. And if they are too weak and corrupt and helpless to stand up for us, well, they’re up against an immensely powerful and well established enemy: This 1 percent. So stop harassing the people who would rather be on our side anyway. You know their names, you know what they look like, you know how much money they have, you can figure out where they live, where they go, what they do. Protest them. Confront them. Tell them to their faces how much you hate them. Follow them, stalk them, ambush them, harangue them, camp out on their lawns, crash their parties, block their streets, flip them off, scowl in their general direction. Show them that all the money they’ve stolen from us won’t buy them happiness in a continuous onslaught of animosity. Force them into exile, make them unwelcome in our communities, make them move to a place where they have to pay people to like them. Now THAT might be an effective and worthwhile protest.

  7. @onrsramsay – 400 people out of the US’s 307 million population is 0.0000013%. The “1%” isn’t some secret, far-off group – it covers people who are your neighbors, too. Normal people who just didn’t make the shame shitty life decisions that you did. You’re actually talking about 3 MILLION people. That’s how many people you think are secretly colluding against you. I wonder where they hold their meetings?

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