Message to Occupiers: Stay Strong -- They Can't Beat Down Hopes

AlterNet / By Don Hazen ,
November 15, 2011  |

 Message to Occupiers: Stay Strong -- They Can't Beat Down Hopes, Dreams and the Fight for a More Humane World

There is a long road ahead, but every obstacle overcome leads to a better tomorrow. We just have to refuse to take no for an answer.


Who knew, or could even imagine, that in such a short time, the Occupy Wall Street movement would inspire a striking transformation of public consciousness, capturing the imagination of the country and the globe, and fundamentally changing the public discourse? And it's just the beginning.
Zuccotti Park/Liberty Plaza was recoccupied last night by hundreds of protestors, after a brutal display by the NYPD the night before. Police snuck in under the cover of darkness in the early morning hours Tuesday, and violently cleared the park, destroying everything that had been creatively built over the past two months. It was a sad and infuriating moment; an action that spoke volumes about the fears and pettiness of a mayor and a city that can't seem to help but be immature and brutal, arbitrary and capricious, and totally lacking in any of the imagination the protestors have in bundles.
This is an opportunity for a transcendent moment. But the billionaire mayor and his advisers and minders have responded in petty ways, cowed perhaps by the ridiculous crap spewed by the idiots who edit the New York Post and the Daily News.
If the New York City powers-that-be would stop for a moment and reflect, separate themselves from their mind-numbing predictability and police-state mentality, they might see a different picture. If they paused and looked into their conscience, they might realize they are fighting a losing battle. You can't fight hopes and dreams, or the need for jobs and a decent life, with pepper spray and police batons. Maybe in the short-term, but not for long. The determination and the fury of many thousands of New Yorkers who see a country overwhelmed by political and economic corruption is fierce.
We are a society that deserves and will in the end achieve something much better, more humane and more sane than what we have now.
There is no putting this genie back in the bottle. So New Yorkers and protesters and their allies and friends across the country and globe: Take a deep breath. There is a long road ahead, but every day and every obstacle overcome leads to a better tomorrow. We just have to stay strong and refuse to take no for an answer.

Don Hazen is the executive editor of AlterNet.